Industry News

Flexographic printing has made great progress in the past 10 years. Compared with traditional rotogravure printing and offset printing, flexographic printing has the advantages of being more environmentally friendly and having lower costs for making printing plates. Today, flexographic printing is widely used in many fields, such as label sticker printing, various types of hamburger and sandwich wrapper packaging paper printing, three-side-sealed food flexible packaging film printing, medical crepe paper printing, sterilized medical non-woven fabric printing, and more. This article will introduce you to the three most popular types of flexo press machines.

Stack Type Flexo Printing Machine

This machine is also called a stacking-type flexo printing machine. In this type of machine, the printing decks are stacked one on top of the other. Top-quality manufacturers are mainly located in Europe, such as BOBST (a Swiss company with more than 100 years of history). You can also find good-quality stacking-type flexo press machines in mainland China and Taiwan.

Manufacturers of V-bottom food paper bags, paper cups, food wrapper paper, and plastic T-shirt grocery shopping bags favor this type of flexo printing machine. This is because they do not require very high overprint precision and need an economical model machine for their production.

The printing unit of this type of machine has two transmission modes: synchronous belt drive and gear drive. The gear-driven flexo printing machine has a faster printing speed and is more suitable for paper product processing plants with relatively large output, such as low-gram-weight paper for packaging shoes, clothes, and fruits. The maximum operating speed of the synchronous belt-driven printing machine does not exceed 150 meters per minute, making it popular for non-woven bag printing factories and PVC shrink film printing factories with low capacity requirements.

CI Type Flexo Printing Machine

The CI (Central Impression) type flexo printing machine represents the next era of the printing industry. More than 10 companies showcased their advanced CI printing machines at Drupa 2024, including W&H, Koenig & Bauer, and Uteco. In the future, CI-type flexo printing machines may even replace offset printing machines.

With a shorter material pathway and better tension control, CI flexo printing machines have become increasingly popular in industries such as coffee paper cups, salad paper bowls, sterilization pouches, baby diapers, bed sheets, and more. Compared to stacking-type printing machines, CI flexo printing machines use a single central drum as the pressing cylinder. During operation, the substrate wraps around the outside of the central drum. This special structure enables the machine to achieve higher printing speeds and more stable tension control.

Mengji Industry has developed various CI central drum flexo printing machines to meet the printing requirements of paper, film, non-woven fabrics, and special materials in industries such as food packaging, beverage packaging, medical packaging, luxury packaging, and cosmetic packaging. Our gearless, full-servo motor-controlled CI flexo printing machine will be launched later this year.

Inline Type Flexo Printing Machine

Wide inline-type flexo printing machines are widely used in the high-capacity corrugated carton box industry, such as for fruit boxes, wine shipping packaging paper boxes, and more. Additionally, they are favored by paper cup manufacturers producing milk tea paper cups, juice paper cups, ice cream paper cups, popcorn paper cups, and similar products. The machine adopts a petal-type printing unit design, making it easy to change printing plate cylinders. Another advantage of inline flexo printing machines is their ability to accommodate longer printing repeat lengths.

Narrow-width inline flexo printing machines are primarily used for printing label stickers and sleeve film labels, such as multi-layer labels, bottle labels, QR code stickers, promotional price stickers, and express delivery labels. Label stickers are made of self-adhesive materials that are pressure-sensitive. The narrow structure of the machine ensures better control during the printing process.

In summary, the three most popular types of flexographic printing presses: stacked, CI, and inline, each have unique advantages to meet specific industry needs. The stacked type is economical and practical, suitable for manufacturers with low requirements for overprint accuracy; CI type has a shorter material path and better tension control, and is increasingly becoming the first choice for industries that require high-speed and stable printing; inline type can handle longer printing repeat lengths and is easy to change the plate cylinder, making it an ideal choice for high-volume industries and label printing applications. In short, flexographic printing will play a leading role in the future printing industry, gradually replacing rotogravuer printing machines.