Who's ready for some technical talk?! I hope you have your flexo dictionary handy... As photopolymer plate formulators, manufacturers and suppliers, we often get asked about emerging technologies and their impact on flexographic printing plate development. Sustainability, printed electronics, 3D Printing are just a few “buzzwords” we hear a lot about, BUT… UV LED technology may be the most “emerged” technology that we come across today. We’d like to take a few minutes to discuss how we, from the plate development and supply side of the fence, see this technology playing out and where we see ourselves standing in this growing field. UV LED Technology in Flexo Platemaking While the most common application of UV LED in flexographic printing today is often seen as the “on press” or print application area, the use of UV LED for curing flexographic plates has been around for longer than one may think. The use of UV LEDs has been most successfully applied via Esko in their “Inli...

Let’s face it printing on corrugated media has been plagued by fluting problems from the very beginning. What is fluting you ask? Fluting is an area of print having higher gain along the tops of the flutes versus in the valleys between them. This print density differential gives the appearance of the printed piece of corduroy striping running along the flutes of the board. For those visual learners (we love visual learners!), the photo below shows heavy fluting on the left and minimal fluting on the right. The Change to Digital For years, analog printing plates performed acceptably with minimal fluting; however, in the early 2000’s the print industry’s workflow started changing…enter DIGITAL PREPRESS . This workflow lead to an increase in the use of digital flexo printing plates. Unfortunately, digital printing plates tend to flute worse than their analog counterparts due to the geometry of the rounded printing plate dot and the edges of type and solids. This...

Flexographic (aka Flexo) printing quality rivals the quality of both offset and gravure. Is this the first time you heard this? Probably not! If you are reading this blog you are likely aware flexo is the #1 print method for flexible packaging in both the United States and Europe. The evolution of flexo from a somewhat viable option to the #1 choice is multifaceted with advancements across the entire printing process. One major factor is that flexo printers are optimizing their processes with flat-top dot photopolymer printing plate solutions. It’s been said, to do a job correctly, first you must have the right tools. In today’s flexo printing market, having the right plate (the tool) can make the job easier, more consistent, and ultimately more profitable. Flat-Top Dots The packaging market consists of four major market segments: flexible, tag & label, folding carton, and corrugated. MacDermid Graphics Solutions (MGS) has an out of the box, flat-top dot solution for all markets...