The Benefits of Marrying LED Plate Exposure with ITR Sleeves

In the last few years, LED plate exposure has gained greater acceptance in the areas of plate consistency, printing minimum dots, flat top technology and improved screening.Get more news about Flexographic Flat Printer,you can vist our website!

Further, organizations with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that help minimize their environmental impact have embraced LED technology as an effective way to contribute to their objectives.

However, LED technology is not new to the flexographic industry. In fact, it has been around for nearly 10 years, since the early 2010s, when flat top dots were just taking shape and being perfected from multiple manufacturers and many industry experts.

It was 2013 when E.C. Shaw Co took ownership of its first LED exposure unit. Subsequent investments have broadened our portfolio and reaffirmed a commitment to LED plate making. After nearly 10 years of “exposure,” LED is finally gaining recognition as a preferred methodology for plate exposure. When matched with in-the-round (ITR), it becomes yet another game changer for the flexographic printing industry.

Nod to Past
For years, those of us in the flexographic premedia and printing industry have fought for plate consistency. From the days of grinders and rubber plates to the warmup and non-stop measurement of UV banks, flexographic printing has struggled with this variable in our collective systems. It can be argued that for a long period of time, UV bulbs were not even recognized for their contribution to the inconsistencies found on press. In essence, UV was a part of the problem.
As an example, it is widely accepted that early flat top dot technologies had an enormous impact on the flexographic industry. In fact, the flat top dot was one of the most important advances in flexographic printing in recent memory. It forced all of us to up our game. It challenged us to rethink what was possible and reignited passions within the industry. Print quality was substantially improved through flat top and cost reductions were realized in the areas of ink savings—almost eliminating the dreaded “double bump” whites and the increased use of ink extender in formulas (to name a couple).

Overnight, transitioning jobs from offset to a more cost-effective flexographic solution became routine. Flat top dots clearly provided a win-win for printers and premedia shops alike. More importantly, it was a definitive win for flexography, an industry that was being threatened by lithographic printing and some felt would be replaced by digital printing in a relatively short time frame.

During this period, many flat top technologies entered the industry. However, even with the vast improvement that printing with flat top technologies offered, most of the new technologies continued to rely on UV exposure as part of the manufacturing process. Better transitions to zero, enhanced screening and flat top dots were achieved, but the nature of UV bulbs made (and still makes) it difficult to achieve consistency from plate to plate.

Enter the world of LED. It’s like flat top on steroids. Not only are we able to reproduce surface screening patterns 1:1 on solids and halftones, but transitions to zero can also be further improved with minimum dot optimization. Now, with LED, we can eliminate the UV variable. LED allows you to drive plate consistency not just day to day, but year to year. Add a healthy dose of environmentally friendly bulbs to replace the mercury from days of old and the result is another win-win for our industry.