Flexographic Printing Process

Flexography is a versatile process that can print on a variety of materials of varying sizes. Flexography prints items that we are in contact with daily including cereal boxes, bottle labels, potato chip bags, frozen food bags, corrugated boxes, newspapers and grocery bags.

The flexographic printing process is similar to a rubber stamp and ink pad, but more sophisticated and on a larger scale. Flexography uses a soft, flexible printing plate with a three-dimensional (3D) raised mirror image of the design. Flexible Printing Plates are mounted on a cylinder located on a press equipped with anywhere from one to twelve color stations. Ink is placed on the anilox roll, transferred to the plate and from the plate to the substrate.

While there are significant variations in flexography printing, this module attempts to simplify the overall operation into three broad categories: prepress, press, and postpress. First, the prepress section includes everything needed to develop an image, from the idea stage to a plate that can be used on a printing press. The Flexography printing press section includes both web- and sheet-fed processes and incorporates tasks from loading raw substrate into the printing press, to loading plates, filling inks and removing the finished product from the printing press. Finally, the postpress section includes activities used to further process the printed material into a finished item.