Nilpeter Says Buyers’ Demand for Quality Boosts Interest in Offset

Top-end highly automated UV-offset and UV-flexo presses share similar design attributes, but not when transferring inks to paper or filmic substrates. Flexo’s direct printing principal makes it ideal for applying uniform coatings and printing consistent solid areas. With UV-flexo, the specially-formulated inks can be applied in varying thicknesses, allowing the printing of clearly-defined bar codes and opaque white backgrounds when producing clear-on-clear filmic labels. By contrast, all offset presses require more complex inking trains to transfer less fluid and more paste-like inks to the offset blanket as part of the general ink/dampening process. However, the combination of UV-curable offset inks and a suitable printing plate allows pin-sharp halftone effects with minimal dot gain that retains highlight detail and prints fine fleshtones and vignettes. This level of quality is much harder to achieve with flexo. Even experienced press operators will still only achieve near-offset results, despite recent advances in UV-inks and flexo platemaking.