Introduction of three platemaking systems for flexographic printing plates

After the flexographic printing market went through an era of only one platemaking system, we now have three choices: the traditional platemaking system, the single-light source platemaking system, and the digital platemaking system. The choice of these systems depends on the end user's quality requirements.

The traditional platemaking system uses a row of light sources to expose the photosensitive resin plate through the negative film. This is the most widely used platemaking process since the molded rubber plate. Careful operation can produce high-quality printing plates, but due to the printer settings and the wear of the printing plates, the dot structure tends to produce more serious dot gains, and it is also difficult to ensure that the tiny high light spots get the desired printing time. Printing quality.

The single light source plate making system is a further development based on the traditional plate making system. As its name implies, it uses a single light source to expose the photosensitive resin plate through the negative film. A single light source allows the plate to obtain a better dot structure, making the dots finer and having more side walls at different angles. As a result, the dot gain during printing decreases and the useful life of the printing plate increases. One of the biggest advantages of this system is that all current negatives can still be used.

Digital imaging is the latest invention of the plate making process. This process is the direct imaging of plate making by irradiating laser light onto a thin mask layer on a photosensitive resin plate. The advantages of this direct platemaking process are twofold. First, it is no longer possible to use negative film exposure imaging to obtain finer dots; secondly, the plate height of the image part can be reduced to obtain a more solid imprint of the field printing. Without affecting the printing of halftone images on the combined plates.

Printing ink

We have been using Pantone color system for many years and have achieved great success. At one stage, some people tried to use a combination of different color inks to increase the printing effect, but they were not widely used. Now we have begun to put the seven-color printing into practical applications. The printing process is firstly a traditional four-color printing, and then another three colors are printed to make the whole image appear brighter. In some printing processes, it has been found that all colors, including spot colors, can be copied from this seven colors, which means that there is no need to fully clean the printer for color change. This application depends mainly on the substrate and the printed image design, but there are numerous examples to prove the practicality of this printing process.

Color management

Due to the use of improved quality plates and selectable ink systems, the monitoring and control of color is becoming more and more important. A series of published articles on this topic reflect that the final print color performance is extremely important. of.

There are many ways to measure density and spectral values. Some of them have been independently used as auxiliary tools for the printing press, and some are combined on the printing press. It can detect the printing on the printing press from the printing press to the plate making, assisting in printing. Control the entire process of printing. Which method you use depends on how much you want to control the entire printing process. Now it has been possible to transfer the tone value to the printing point in Togo, which guarantees the consistency of the color of the printed matter in the spectral analysis even if there is no sample available for inspection.

The above points are to draw everyone's attention. In other words, many new technologies are now available that make the company more powerful, but on the other hand, it is important to note that investing in new technologies requires a lot of money and the risks involved are enormous. Therefore, it is very urgent to carefully evaluate new technologies before they can make the right choices and keep up with the level of technological development that may be achieved. Obviously, not investing in new technologies will mean lagging behind, and investing in new technologies will bring risks to companies. Therefore, what new technologies are suitable for which types of enterprises will ultimately have to be determined by the companies themselves, because risks and opportunities always coexist.