Relationships Between the Surface Texture of Flexographic Printing Plates and the Printability of Kraft Paper

This paper explores the solution to a genuine problem - to find an answer on how to obtain the best results of printing on brown kraft paper using flexographic printing. Over the past two decades, the production of flexographic printing plates has evolved rapidly. With the development of digital platemaking, flexographic printing has advanced greatly. The newest technologies in platemaking work with flat top dots where the absence of oxygen at the main exposure is essential for the technology to work. The main aim of our research was to find out the best way of producing flexographic plates to ensure the best quality printing on brown kraft paper. Plates from the largest suppliers were used. Nine raw materials were chosen to carry out the research and to explore which of them would work on this carrier. The plates were processed with the Esko Pixel+ software solution, which is able to alter the surface structure of printing plates through specific microcell structures. For the later steps of the plate production we used the DuPont(tm) Cyrel(r) Digiflow technology. Afterwards, a certified X-Rite spectrophotometer was used to measure the print test samples. Finally we present the best results for printing on brown kraft paper.