What Is Flexo Printing?

Flexo printing is a letterpress printing method that uses rubber or synthetic resin as plate material. An anilox roll (made of metal) is used for ink supply, and it is widely used for printing on cardboard, packaging, clothes, and more. Image quality can be easily adjusted by replacing the anilox roll.

Furthermore, solvent ink, water-based ink and UV ink may also be used. There is a wide range of ink choices, among which environmentally friendly water-based inks are considered optimal. In Europe, where environmental issue awareness is high, there has been an active transition to flexographic printing, particularly in the soft packaging sector. In Japan, emphasis is on print reproducibility and, although system environment maintenance is delayed, quality has been dramatically improved through recent improvement in printing technology.

In the printing industry, where environmental considerations will be increasingly required going forward, this technology is drawing attention as an effort in that direction.

Flexo Plate(Generic name for elastic plates = A type of letterpress)

Plate cylinder

Plate making process

Example of flexo plate making process (water wash): Digital plate

AquaGreen:Solventless plate-making process

"Solvent Wash → Water Wash" can be switched simply by changing the development equipment