Influence of the Polymer Plate Thickness on the Plate Distortion Factor in Flexography

Abstract

Flexographic printing plate is used for the transfer of image onto a printing substrate. The surface of printing plate is stretched lengthwise when the plate is mounted on plate cylinder. As a result, the print length on the impression is always longer than the actual length of the plate. Prepress must compensate for this difference in length. The result of wrong plate distortion is different print length in flexography compared to the processes that follow printing. The aim of this paper is to research the influence of repeat length in printing and polymer plate thickness on the factor distortion. The distortion factor values were calculated using the derived formulas. Regardless of the repeat length in printing, the value of the thickness factor for a particular printing plate is constant. However, the values of the distortion factor decrease with the increasing thickness of the polymer plate and the decreasing of the total plate cylinder circumference.