Fluid Movements

Tom Allison, president, Allison Systems, seconds the "process work advantage" line of thinking. "Two-roll inking is mostly extinct in flexo due to the need to produce high-end graphics on packaging, which translates into the need for good control at high and especially low color densities," he comments. "To do this, the doctor blade and blade system must prevent dot gain due to surface ink left on the anilox roll. Regardless of how fine the anilox screen and how small and well controlled the cell volume, the surface ink left by a two-roll system is usually not acceptable."