Combination Rotary Screen Printing

Rotary screen inks typically have silicone additives to aid in adhesion. When used to underprint flexo process inks, however, the silicone can cause beading and rivering—an issue already inherent in flexo printing on film substrates. Take the silicone out, though, and you get issues with ink adhesion. Davis says the field results for RSF inks have nonetheless been promising for a range of thin, clear, and metallized films and UV flexo inks—without the orange peel mottling or poor gloss performance that have plagued earlier attempts at eliminating silicone.