Industry News

Nonwoven fabric is an eco-friendly, durable, and cost-effective packaging material. It comes in various types, including spunbond, spunmelt, SMMS, SMS, and spunlace nonwoven fabrics. These materials are widely used in consumer packaging, industrial packaging, and medical applications. Medium-thickness SMS/SMMS nonwoven fabrics are commonly used in medical fields for items like corewrap, dusting layer, front and back flaps, and dermal cushioning of surgical gowns, face masks, sterilization wraps, wound dressings, wound placards, sanitary napkin, masks and hospital disposables. They are also applied in industrial protective gear and services, such as dermal abrasion resistance of dusk masks, industrial glove linings, protective shoe covers, protective aprons, anti-static work clothes, protective hoods, protective earmuffs linings, welder protective clothing, welding masks, etc..

Surgical Gowns Printed by Central Impression (CI) Flexo Presses

As nonwoven production technology continues to improve, enhancing printing efficiency has become a key topic in the industry. In China, some nonwoven production lines now reach widths of up to 3500mm. To meet these evolving market demands, our company has been developing wider central impression (CI) flexographic printing presses. However, wide-width CI flexo presses face several technical challenges:

1. Mechanical Frame Strength and Processing Technology

Traditional flexographic printing presses are usually under 1600mm in width—ideal for printing on paper bags, paper cups, plastic bags, and flexible packaging films. However, CI flexo presses exceeding 3000mm require specially reinforced mechanical frames and advanced processing techniques.

To support such widths, we use one-time cast iron side frames, which are precisely machined using high-accuracy CNC centers. This ensures the plate cylinder, anilox roller, and impression cylinder remain stable at high speeds. Without this structural integrity, printing registration and accuracy would suffer significantly.

Side Frames of Our MJCI Series Wide CI Type Flexo Press

2. Processing Accuracy of Wide Anilox Rollers

The anilox roller is a core component of a flexographic printing press, responsible for evenly transferring ink to the face of plate roller. Producing an anilox roller over 3000mm wide poses significant challenges. First, an ultra-wide ceramic anilox roller laser engraving machine is required. Second, each anilox roller must undergo dynamic balancing to prevent vibration, runout, or deformation during high-speed rotation. These steps are essential to maintain stable ink transfer and high print quality.

Wide Anilox Roller of Central Drum Flexo Press for Sterilization Wraps Printing

3. Central Impression Printing Is Ideal for Ultra-Wide Nonwoven Fabrics

Conventional stack-type flexo presses use separate impression rollers for each printing unit. However, their small diameter limits their ability to handle ultra-wide nonwoven rolls used for producing bed sheet, clothes, curtain and so on, often resulting in unprinted areas in the center of the web.

In contrast, CI flexo presses utilize a large central impression cylinder, which offers better support across the entire web width. This design shortens the material path, maintains even tension between printing units, and significantly improves registration accuracy—making it the preferred method for ultra-wide nonwoven fabric printing.

Central Impression Cylinder of CI Flexo Press

4. Replacing and Cleaning Huge Anilox Rollers and Plate Rollers

Sleeve-type plate rollers are not feasible for ultra-wide CI flexographic printing presses. So how can operators manage such large rollers? To solve this, we designed a crane for easy installation and removal of both plate and anilox rollers. However, cleaning remains a challenge. Currently, the widest ultrasonic anilox roller cleaning machine available on the market is 2500mm. For rollers exceeding this width, we still rely on manual cleaning methods.

Ultrasonic Anilox Roller Cleaning Machine

Over the past three years, we have successfully delivered over 15 CI flexo printing machines with widths greater than 3000mm for non-woven fabrics. These CI flexo presses are used in hygiene and medical fields for printing on sanitary pads, baby diapers, adult incontinence pants, sanitary napkins, bed sheets, and nonwoven shopping bags. Moreover, they also be used in printing drapes, upholstery, mattress paddings, table covers, chair covers, carpets, household goods, covering crops, weed control fabrics, crop protecting fabric for crops, root covers, etc.

With growing experience and ongoing innovation, our large-width flexo presses have become increasingly stable, now achieving speeds of up to 150 meters per minute. This reflects our commitment to meeting the demands of high-volume nonwoven fabric printing with high precision and efficiency.