Anilox Engraving

Pluses and minuses

Rolls and sleeves both have their places in flexographic printing, and there are advantages and disadvantages to each. Sleeves, on the whole, remain more expensive and have storage issues. With rolls, the larger the roll, the longer the makeready. Dreger states that the big advantage in using sleeves is that roll changing time is cut from hours to minutes, so downtime is a lot shorter. Conversely, rolls are steadier and a more stable system for delivering inks, but the changeover time can be long.