To no ones surprise, and like many specialized industries, terminology in the flexographic printing industry is far different than our every day language. This was brought to my attention recently when a group of Printing Industry of Maryland students in an Intro to Graphics Art Class toured ROI last month. Simple terms to flexographic printers, such as anilox rolls, tint rollers, photopolymer plates, and dot gains, were all foreign to these students. This gave me the idea that it very well could be possible that others, our customers and even our supplier, are also not familiar with the basic terminology, hence the writing of this AdVisory.
Since the two-page document called “The Submission of Electronic Files to ROI” has been mentioned in a previous President’s Letter I will not discuss artwork in this issue. If you would like info on artwork files, please e-mail me at timd@roitechnologies.com.
Once you have submitted the correct artwork file, now you need to determine what proofs you are going to need. Do you need a Thermal proof that is used for copy position, layout, and spell check, but not color? Or do you need a Heaford proof that is a very close replication of what your product will look like on our press? Technology has given our graphics houses the ability to replicate through proofs what ROI produces on press, even on the substrate on which your product will be printed. They have fingerprinted (carefully looked at) our presses and use the same plates, anilox rolls and inks to produce the image on a smaller press at their facility. Please be careful when working with other color proofs or previously printed samples. Every printing process has its advantages and disadvantages, and be sure let ROI know what you are expecting up front in order for us to achieve your desired results. To put it in perspective, the human eye can detect over 16.8 million different colors, but we can “only” print 500,000 of those colors!
So your proofs are signed and you are ready to go to press. Most of you are familiar with the printing plate, but are you aware of the difference between digitally imaged photopolymer plates and liquid photopolymer plates? Digital plates have been available for many years, but have only recently become popular because of the technology associated with the creation of these plates. Instead of the traditional films and UV exposure to create plates, digital plates use infrared lasers to create the images to be printed. These advancements have allowed ROI to use plates with smaller dots (all images are made up of very tiny dots) resulting in less dot gain at higher line screens. Got it? Plain and simple, this process allows us to print clearer images with more detail than ever before!
One plate will be made for every color and delivered to ROI in sheets. Each plate then needs to be wrapped around cylinders using stickyback (double-sided tape). The cylinders are then placed in the press in their own ink stations. Ink is pumped from a container on the floor to an ink pan on press, absorbed into cells on an anilox roll, transferred to the plate, and finally printed on your substrate. Piece of cake, right? Let’s back up. An anilox roll is made-up of very tiny microscopic cells that fill up and transfer the ink from the pan to the raised images on the printing plate. Different size cells (smaller cells for detailed 4-color process artwork and larger cells for heavier laydown of ink for opacity) are used depending on the detail of your artwork. ROI has anilox rolls that range from 200 – 1000 lines per inch to print your most detailed artwork.
This Flexo 101 AdVisory is designed to inform you, our customers, suppliers, and friends, about our business in order to improve communications. I ask that you call any of us here at ROI or contact me directly at 410-576-1111 ext. 103 if you have any questions or would like additional information on any of the topics discussed above. Also, keep an eye out for future AdVisory’s that will go into more detail on pre-press, color, and our printing process.
Have a safe and happy holiday.
