Flexography

Flexography is a printing process in which flexible relief plates are fed with ink to then print images or text on a substrate.

Flexography is usually described as a modern version of the letterpress technique. However, unlike the traditional letterpress method, flexography is a highly automated printing process where printing is carried out at high speed with extremely fast-drying inks.

The mechanical structure used in flexography consists of several rollers.

A first roller (usually called fontain or inking roller) feeds a second roller (called anilox roller) with ink. The anilox roller then transfers the ink to a plate cylinder equipped with a flexible printing plate. Last, an impression cylinder is placed next to the plate cylinder. The substrate on which the printing is going to be made is then placed between these two cylinders, allowing the printing.

Flexography can be used to print on many different substrates, including:

• Paper.
• Fabric.
• Corrugated cardboard.
• Plastic film.
• Substrates with a metallic surface.

As a printing process, flexography offers many advantages. These including the following:

• Flexography is a highly automated printing process where the rollers do the printing without any human interaction.
• Flexography is a very cost-efficient printing process. Compared to other printing methods, flexography uses low-cost materials, making the printing process a lot cheaper.
• Flexography allows high speed printing. Hundreds of meters of printing can be done in only one meter.
• Flexography is a printing process that requires little maintenance.

However, flexography also has some disadvantages:

• Flexography is not a good printing solution for small orders.
• Although highly automated, the setup of a flexographic printing unit can be very time consuming.

Because of its many advantages, flexography is used for a wide variety of tasks, including labeling. Thousands of labels can be easily printed in a very short amount of time, which makes flexography an ideal solution for large orders.