Original scientific paper
Impact of Screen Ruling on the Formation of the Printing Elements on the Flexographic Printing Plate
Tamara Tomašegović
; Faculty of Graphic Arts, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Sanja Mahović Poljaček
; Faculty of Graphic Arts, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Tomislav Cigula
; Faculty of Graphic Arts, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Flexography is a printing technique widely used in the packaging production. The
main feature of flexography is the use of a printing plate elastically deformed during
the reproduction process. The printing plate is made of an elastic material,
rubber or nowadays of mainly different types of photopolymer. The elasticity of the
plate enables the printing on a wide range of printing substrates, which is one of its
advantages compared to other printing techniques. On the other hand, deformations
of the printing plate in the printing process caused by the pressure between
the printing plate and the substrate present a major limitation of flexography. Apart
from the functional properties of the printing plate in the printing process, the
plate making process, including photo polymerization, considerably influences the
value of halftones on the printing plate, and consequently on the final product. The
aim of this paper is to examine the influence of screen ruling on the formation of
printing elements and the adjustment of the printing plate making process in order
to achieve optimal quality of the printing plate and, therefore, the final product.
The results have shown that the use of different screen rulings is of great significance
in the processes of printing plate curve adjustment. It was proven that the
use of different screen ruling has a considerable influence upon relief depth and a
cross-section of the printing elements (3D analysis), which again have a significant
impact on the quality of the final product, but cannot be detected in 2D analysis.
Keywords
Photopolymer; Computer to Plate (CtP); Screen Ruling; Bump up Curve; Compensation curve
Hrčak ID:
102426
URI
Publication date:
1.2.2013.
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