Flexography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Flexography - Essay Example The reason behind the wide acceptance and adoption of this technology is that it caters to a massive market of printing packaging materials. Conventional form of printing could not suffice for such tasks effectively since the packaging materials are made in different types and sizes. The level of precision, quality and pace that can be achieved with the flexography technology cannot be matched with the old methods of printing and other competitive technologies in the modern markets. 2. Overview of Flexography Flexography is defined as a type of ‘rotary web letterpress’ that amalgamates the aspects of letterpress and rotogravure printing (â€Å"Print Process Descriptions: Printing Industry Overview: Flexography†). The material that is used for printing tends to dry faster as it is consists of a low viscosity solvent. There are three types of inks that are used in this form of printing; solvent-based, water-based and ultraviolet-cured. Each one of these inks is drie d off in different ways (â€Å"Overview of Flexographic Printing†). The inks are very thin that makes this form of printing even preferable for four color printing jobs (CMYK). Ink possesses much relevance in any printing process. Since flexography printing produces fine finish printing, the ink has several characteristics; The ink should be able to create a visual effect or color. The ink must be compatible with the material on which it is being printed. Production packaging tends to suffer different environmental conditions due to its frequent displacement, therefore the printing needs to survive the presence of chemicals, scratching and fluctuation of temperature in the surroundings. 3. Applications of Flexography Flexography is considered to be the simplest and cheapest mode of printing packaging materials. There are several applications of flexography; some of them are mentioned below (â€Å"Printers - Flexographic Printing†): Ridged containers Folding cartons Mul tiwall sacks Paper sacks and plastic bags Milk and beverage cartons Disposable cups and containers Labels Wrappers of food items The quality of the printing is commendable and irrespective of the irregular or complex shape of the object. Another form of flexography printing exists that is designed to be used for publications, for example newspapers, comics, booklets, promotional catalogues etc. Food and candy wrappers are usually required to be printed with bright colors; flexography achieves this with factor with ease. Organizations tend to prefer this technology due to the lowering of the cost of the packaging which is coupled with competitive results. 4. Relevance of Flexography in the Graphic Information Technology Industry Flexography technology has improved to a great extent over the years due to which it has brought about greater level of precision, efficiency and quality in the graphic information technology industry (Polischuk). The improvement of this technology from satis factory image definition and effective management of shorter runs of printing to excellent finish over massive printing activities has given the consumer an appealing alternate in the printing industry. The monopoly of the competitor technologies (like gravure and offset technologies) has been broken by the improvement of flexography (Polischuk). The designs that were traditionally considered to be impossible without the usage of gravure and offset technologies, have been proven to be achieved by flexography printing. Flexography is able to cater to the innovative design features of the modern age, as well as the contemporary one with details and precision. The processes and quality of flexography printing is able to meet the rapidly changing requirements of the modern markets since there is increasing demand of better quality and endeavors to