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Flexographic printing is a common printing method used for perfume paper bag, jewelry paper bag, cosmetic paper bag, candy wrapping paper, chocolate wrapper, gift paper bags, sandwich wrappers, thank you sticker label, cake cups and other products. With its good printing quality, adaptable to a wide range of printing materials, high productivity, convenient operation and maintenance, low investment, high income, in line with environmental requirements and a series of advantages, the flexographic printing has become a variety of packaging products on the choice of printing solutions. This article will introduce the principle, characteristics, application areas, unique advantages of the flexographic printing.

MJUT Series Inline Type Label Printing Machine for Perfume Bottle Labels

Principles of Flexographic Printing

During flexo printing, ink is supplied to the surface of the anilox rollers by the ink tank or the doctor blade. Excess ink is scraped off by the doctor blade and remains only in the anilox cells. The printing plate transfers the ink of the graphic onto the surface of the substrate material such as paper, plastic film, non-woven, self-adhesive paper, etc. under pressure, thus obtaining a clear graphic.

MJCI Series CI Flexo Printing Machine for Non-Woven Shopping Bag

Characteristics of Flexographic Printing

Flexographic printing has a variety of excellent characteristics such as environmentally friendly, high productivity, low loss, diversification and speed of plate making, high printing quality, wide range of substrate materials, color consistency and so on.

Environmentally Friendly

Flexographic printing is an environmentally friendly way of printing with water-based inks, UV inks, and LED UV inks. Acetylenic diol-based surfactants are widely used in water-based ink formulations due to their excellent dynamic wetting properties and effective foam suppression.      

High Productivity and Low Loss

With the widespread application of servo technology and intelligent control technology in flexographic printing machine, as well as the popularization of petal-type flexo printing units, the setup time and loss costs of flexo press are greatly reduced.

MJYT Series Stack Type Flexo Printing Machinery for Book Cover

Diversification and Speed of Plate Making

With the application of laser digital plate making technology, film-based plate making has gradually withdrawn from the stage of history. The plate making speed of professional plate making company is increased and the cost of plate making is reduced. At the same time, with the quality of water-washable plate continues to improve, professional laser plate-making machine sales expenses have also been significantly reduced. More and more label printing enterprises began to equip themselves with plate making equipment, making the time and cost of plate making greatly reduced (close to the letterpress plate making cost), suitable for small and medium volume orders.

Printing Plate in the Flexographic Label Printing Machine for Trademark Labels

High Printing Quality

The application of digital technology, flat-top dot technology, the use of rubber plates, the popularity of petal-type flexo units and the use of high line-count anilox rollers have made the quality of flexo printing greatly improved. High LPI printing with 175LPI/200LPI has become the standard of flexographic printing.

Anilox Roller of Stack Type Flexographic Press for Popcorn Paper Cup

Wide Range of Printing Materials

Paper (whether smooth or rough), cardboard, corrugated cardboard, film, aluminum foil, and other composite materials can be printed by flexographic printing press. The range of printing materials is much wider than that of offset printing, gravure printing, letterpress printing and other printing methods.

Color Consistency

As flexographic printing adopts short ink path ink transfer, the whole printing process only contains ink transfer roller, anilox roller, plate roller and impression roller. The use of anilox rollers to transfer ink ensures color consistency from the same batch and from different batches of prints.

Printing Unit of Stacked Flexographic Printer for Tissue

Application Areas of Flexographic Printing

By application areas, flexo presses can be applied to the printing of products such as labels, flexible packaging, paper containers, and pre-printed cartons.

Labels

Flexo printing machine can be applied to the printing of bottle labels, multi-layer labels, QR code labels, promotional labels and other self-adhesive label products. Flexo label printing machine is full-featured and can be optionally equipped with delam-relam unit, turn bar, stamping unit, laminating unit, varnishing unit, die-cutting unit, slitting unit and so on.

MJUT Series Inline Type Flexo Label Printing Machine for Beer Bottle Label

Flexible Packaging 

Flexo printing press can be applied to the printing of flexible packaging, such as book covers, medical sterilization pouches, tea wrapping paper, hamburger wrapping paper, baking paper, bed sheets, surgical gowns and so on. If equipped with corona treatment system, it can also print BOPP, PET and other plastic films for making potato chip bags, yogurt bottle caps and other products.

MJCI Series Central Drum Flexography Printing Machine for Baby Diaper

Paper Containers

Flexographic Printers can be used in cardboard, single and double PE paper printing, such as coffee paper cups, popcorn paper cups, ice cream paper bowls, shopping paper bags, takeaway boxes, medical packaging boxes, etc.

Pre-Printed Cartons

Flexographic printing equipment can be applied to pre-printing of large batch packaging cartons, such as milk cartons, fruit cartons, express cartons, etc.

Unique Advantages of Flexographic Printing

Flexographic printing has several unique advantages, including the use of soft photopolymer plates and anilox rollers, zero impression printing, and configuration of post-press process units.

Utilizing Soft Photopolymer Plates

Compared with gravure printing, flexographic printing significantly reduces plate-making costs and shortens the plate production cycle. With advancements in plate materials and imaging technologies, modern flexo plates now fully meet the requirements of general packaging printing.

Anilox Roll for Ink Metering and Transfer

The anilox roll serves both as an ink transfer roller and an ink metering roller. It enables a short ink path similar to that of gravure printing and delivers ink precisely according to process specifications. This ensures accurate ink density and consistent ink film thickness.

Zero Impression Printing

Zero-pressure (or low-pressure) printing minimizes mechanical vibration, reduces wear on the plate and press components, and broadens the range of printable substrates—especially beneficial for flexible materials.

MJRY Series Stacking Type Flexo Printer for Snack Film Pouch

Configuration of Post-Press Process Units

Modern narrow web flexographic printing presses integrate multiple finishing processes beyond printing. These machines have evolved into fully functional production lines that combine printing with post-press operations such as laminating, die-cutting, varnishing, slitting, and more.

In summary, flexographic printing has become the first choice for printing solutions for many packaging products such as nut packaging bags, lazy wipes, diapers, sanitary napkins, paper towels, jewelry paper bags, etc. due to its excellent printing quality, wide applicability, high efficiency and environmental friendliness. With the continuous progress of technology and the continuous growth of market demand, flexographic printing will certainly show greater potential and value in the future development.