The Heart of Flexo printing – anilox cleaning

The anilox roller is the very heart of flexographic printing. If all other prepress conditions are perfect, but the anilox roller is not clean, you cannot produce consistent color and print quality. Keeping your anilox rollers clean after each job, ensures the printer’s ability to produce repeat print jobs with consistent color and print quality in minutes rather than hours. As the lines on the anilox are getting finer and finer, the need for quality cleaning is increasing; otherwise quality printing cannot be obtained. In this context, the new laser technologies especially, present new challenges to flexo printers. The deeper cells can exasperate plugging issues. Plugged anilox rolls cause inadequate ink distribution, poor color densities, difficulties in getting the right color and waste of time, ink and substrate. Smaller cells mean a more delicate cell structure. Delicate cells are more easily susceptible to damage because of improper handling, doctor blade scoring and poor cleaning methods.Pads, abrasive cleaners and brushes are loosing their effectiveness in deep or small cells. Because of the above-mentioned issues, printers cannot…

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