Flexographic Press Tests to Attain Optimum Print Quality, 1995 Coating Conference Proceedings

Chiranth Nataraj

Graduate Student

Clemson University

A testing procedure which would enable commercial flexo-graphic printers to ascertain the values of the process vari-ables that yield optimum print quality was developed. A sta-tistically designed experiment was used to determine the rela-tionships between print variables and print quality. The rela-tionships derived between the print variables and print quality were further co-optimized to yield the desired print quality. The effect of anilox lines/inch and cell depth/opening ratio on three types of printing plates at three levels of halftone rul-ings (100 lpi, 120 lpi, 150 lpi) was researched on a wide web flexo press using opaque white polyethylene and solvent based inks. Printers use a very diverse combination of plates, inks, sub-strates, and presses. Hence, through the application of the developed procedure each printer can determine the optimum settings of process variables for his individual production configuration to attain the desired print quality.