Plastic Folding Cartons are very common objects we get to see almost every day. From egg cartons to pizza boxes, these amazing items get specially designed to pack food, hardware, pharmaceuticals, and many different types of products. Since the beginning of the millennium, the Packaging & Printing industry has experienced some revolutionary changes. Flexographic printing has proved to be the focal point of this renaissance being the fastest growing printing technology. Flexographic printing has affected every segment of the packaging world. Folded carton manufacturing which used to be ruled by offset printing has undergone a paradigm shift towards Flexography. The reason behind this shift is quiet simple; Flexo offers more cost effective and time saving solutions in carton making as compared to offset. Several stages in off-line printing like stripping, cutting, laminating, printing and die cutting can be replaced by a single in-line process of Flexographic printing. Moreover, the labor requirement gives Flexo an upper edge over offset printing. A printing job which requires five people in an offset process can be completed with 30% less people using Flexo.

Besides being an in-line process, Flexo offers other important advantages. U.V. (ultra violet) inks are used mostly to print folded cartons. U.V. inks are environmentally compatible and provide brilliant colors and repeatability as compared to paste inks used in offset. Flexo U.V. inks provide high scuff resistance/supporting product integrity. Another reason behind the popularity of U.V. inks is that they enhance color density and image quality while improving printing efficiency. Solvent based inks are used more with rotary speeds and must be treated as hazardous materials.

Flexo carton machines use either rotary or flat cutting tools to form the carton shape. Both dies have applications according to the number of required cartons. The Rotary die system is useful for longer runs i.e. one or more million carton production or for frequently repeated cycles. Whereas, a flat die system is more suitable due to the slower speed for shorter runs of 5,000 to 1 million cartons. There are two significant differences between these die cutting systems. First, rotary dies are far more expensive than flat dies and the setup time greatly favors the flat die system. Moreover, a flat die lends itself to quick job changes as compared to a press equipped with a rotary station.

The overall reward of producing plastic folding cartons by the Flexo process is increased efficiency resulting in lower carton costs to the end user.

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