Corrugated Box Color Printing and Thin-Film Technology Application Tips for Precision Web and Color Printing

The era of high quality is approaching As more and more work is done on the use of dot-levels as a pattern, the corrugated box printing needs to be of high quality, and the heavy thin version technology is also becoming more important. The established quality standards have also been continuously improved. Photoresponsive films are required to be more improved in terms of reducing network expansion, clearer anti-white characters, and exquisite dot performance. The BASF company in Germany also continues to improve the plate material in this direction.
Thin stencil technology vs. traditional thick plate In general, direct printing of corrugated boxes can use various thicknesses of the media system. The more traditional approach is to determine the plate thickness based on the undercut of the press, typically between 5.0 and 7.0 mm (0.197 - 0.276 inch). However, thin plate technology is used in corrugated box printing. We recommend thicknesses of 2.54mm, 2.84mm and 3.18mm plates plus appropriate gaskets, such as nyloflex FA II 254, although its image relief depth is only With a 1.0mm (0.039"") mating liner, you can also get the best print quality; including tiny dot gains, good contrast, and sharp images. Traditional corrugated box printing, using the commonly known thick plate, the thickness of the photosensitive resin plate from 3.94mm to 7.00mm (0.155 - 0.276"), such as nyloflex FAC 394, FAC 470, FAC 500, FAC 550, FAC 600 of Germany BASF company , FAC 635, FAC 700. Take the nyloflex FAC II 394 as an example. It must be fitted with a gasket (thickness greater than 2mm). The nyloflex FAC plate is combined with double-sided adhesive tape, plate-printing film, and elastic gasket to achieve the required thickness of the undercut of the printing press. For maximum print quality reproducibility, emboss depth plays an important role. It is recommended that the emboss depth be chosen between 1.5mm - 1.8mm; but for lines or full prints on uneven rough surfaces When used, plates with a depth of 3.0mm can be used.
Traditional Thick Plate System Traditional corrugated box printing uses an elastic photosensitive resin plate with a thickness of 3.94mm or 4.70mm to 7.00mm (0.155"" or 0.185" to 0.276"), but no elastomeric gasket is used. The way to fix the plate is to use a double-sided tape with a thickness of 0.1mm or 0.3mm to attach the plate to a piece of transparent plastic film with a base thickness of 0.25mm to 0.3mm. This paste is just to make the plate more fixed and print more accurate.
Prior to this, some people were using thinner plastic sheets, but when the plate was hung on a plate cylinder, there was always the problem of stretching and deformation. The most effective and stable fixing method is Matthews and Fix. The Matthews system fixes the upper transparent bar of the plastic transparent film on the plate cylinder, and then clamps the lower horizontal bar tightly on the plate cylinder. The Fix system directly clamps the transparent plastic sheet at both ends of the cartridge to the cartridge. Of course, the cartridge must have a clamping device.
The thicker version can also be cushioned. In order to obtain better printing quality, better dot effect, and reduce the appearance of cardboard impressions (washboards) in corrugated boxes, thicker overlays are also used in corrugated box printing. General thick version can use nyloflex FAC II 394 and FAC II 432, in addition the printing of heavy woven bags can use nyloflex FAC II 394 S, FAC II 470 S, FAC II 550 S, these plates can be added with different liners.
The R/Bak liner material is composed of Micro-cell Urethane and a plastic base. The paste is applied by attaching the blue face to the plate cylinder or fixing it under the transparencies. Here we can see that the thicker lined padding and dot quality are much better than the traditional thick platen printing. Different media, different stickers, the thickness of the selected media are also different and with the appropriate thickness of the liner).
The affixing method of heavy woven bags is different from traditional affixing methods. Usually, it is directly attached to the gantry without the use of film. Generally, corrugated carton affixing plates is first affixed to the thick film, and then the whole is affixed with printing. On the cylinder of the machine, the undercut of the printing press cylinder is 7.0mm (0.276""). Therefore, the heavy woven bag liners are more appropriate than the thin-planned technologies. Plate / gasket dot swell 5.50mm / without approx 36 - 48% 4.70mm / without approx 32 - 45% 3.94mm / approx. 22 - 30% This data is the cable 65/inch, resulting in about 40% network expansion.
Introducing the nyloflex FAC and FAC II S plates The nyloflex FAC plate has a hardness of 32 - 34 (shA ). It is designed for dot-spot color printing. The color of the plate helps in register registration. For rough surface printing, good transfer of ink and reproducibility of line dots can be achieved. Nyloflex FAC II plates are suitable for printing on corrugated boxes, heavy woven bags and cardboard. The number of printing screens can reach 90/inch (36 / cm), and the reproducibility of the dots is 3 - 90%. The printing is a bit more careful and can be used in a wide range.


Nyloflex FAC II S Plate This series differs from nyloflex FAC II in that it has a hardness of 42 - 44 shA in ISO R868 and is slightly stiffer. Nyloflex FAC II S is suitable for printing thick cardboard and heavy weaving. It has high abrasion resistance, enough resistance to rough materials and excellent ink transferability. The depth of relief of this plate can reach 2.0mm to 3.0mm, relying on its wide exposure latitude. Therefore, with a relief depth of 2.5mm, the screen cable can reach 60/inch (24/cm), and the thin line width can exhibit excellent printing quality at 300mm or 3%.
Thin-stencil technology with nyloflex FAR II and FA II media In corrugated box printing, the relevant thin versions were first introduced at 2.54mm, 2.84mm, and 3.18mm, all with R/bak SF liners. The special thin version of the technology, the plates used are nyloflex FAR II and nyloflex FA II.

Nyloflex FAR II Plates In nyloflex plates, the nyloflex FAR II is versatile, suitable for high-quality dot printing, and suitable for a wide range of materials. In the thin plate technology, it is applied to corrugated box printing, even if the depth of the plate is 1.0mm, and the cable is 150/inch, it is also possible to do it. With this new state-of-the-art printing, the performance of the nyloflex FAR II version can be as low as 2% - 95%, the stand-alone point can be as small as 55mm, and the hardness of the version is approximately 49 - 52 degrees A in ISO R868.

Nyloflex FA II Plate This plate is softer than nyloflex FAR II and has a hardness of about 44 - 46 degrees for shore A in ISO R868; however, it is harder than the nyloflex FAC II, and its plate control depth is also 1.0mm. On the whole, the thin plate technology in the corrugated box printing refers to the plates nyloflex FAR II, FA II it provides a very good image sharpness, regardless of fine lines or anti-white are delicate and delicate, but also very suitable for long-printing . At the same time, it has a very good ink transferability, a very small degree of network expansion, can make the tone level performance better.
Thin plate technology press and elastic liner In the past Flexo printing, usually set more than the normal press pressure required to facilitate the transfer of the ink; the resulting dot swell is also more serious. In particular, the resin plate is deformed due to excessive press pressure, which causes the network to swell. In order to reduce the deformation caused by the excessive press pressure and make the dot swell, the thin plate technology was born. The use of elastic gaskets to absorb multiple pressures is the best way for thin-layer technology to improve quality in corrugated box printing. Because of the way it is pasted on a thick film base, it is different from ordinary label printing or packaging printing, so its sticker is a thin version directly attached to the film base, and then hangs on the liner. The relative position of the roller is different from other thin plate stickers. Traditional thick printing curve thin printing technology printing curve In the thin printing technology, compared with the traditional plate, the curve (shown above) expressed by nyloflex plate material clearly shows that dot swell has improved much, and then the printing With the comparison table of dot swells, we can clearly see that the quality of the 85 line/inch network has improved a lot.
Elastic cushion A special reinforced synthetic resin is used as a thin elastic pad. It can also be directly applied to the plate as an elastic support. According to the different thickness of the plate, the pad thickness must be different according to the thickness of the pad. Undercut make proper adjustments.
Double-sided tape The thickness of the tape should be taken into account. In the corrugated box printing, 0.25mm or 0.30mm is usually used. The characteristics of the tape must be easily wrapped on the cylinder. For example, tesa has a wrinkle-coated tape that prevents air bubbles when it is applied to a large area of ​​the roll and is easy to affix or re-align, until it is accurate, and then completely flattened, allowing the plate to fit snugly around for four weeks; The tape can also adapt to high-speed and long-run printing. There are many label tapes on the market, but printers know what kind of tape to use, and the thickness and adaptability are appropriate. If the thickness of the tape is unsuitable or unsuitable, misalignment or even page separation may occur, the plate material may be pushed to the edge of the plate, or the printing may be uneven. In short, precision dot printing, high quality tape is very important, experience tells us tesa's tape is very suitable.
The advantages of nyloflex thin version