A flexo press prints a roll from one plate per colour, mounted on a print cylinder. Add one on the Presses tab of Equipment: pick Add press, then the Flexo filter, or set Technology to Flexo on a custom press. Flexo label quotes run on it (see Roll labels: digital and flexo presses), and the Set up your shop wizard adds the flexo presses you pick here too.
A flexo press is always web-fed and prints one side of the web. Flexo presses are their own default group: the first one you add becomes the team's default flexo press.
The web and the stations#
| Setting | What it is |
|---|---|
| Max sheet width (mm) | The widest web the press takes. Min sheet width (mm) is the narrowest. |
| Max print width (mm) | The widest image across the web: labels are laid out across no more than this. |
| Max lanes | The most lanes your slitter cuts. |
| Printing units | The print stations: the most colours one pass prints. |
| Web speed, CMYK (m/min) | Your usual running speed, in metres of web a minute. |
| Makeready web (m) | Web run to set up any job. |
Cylinders#
Under Flexo cylinders:
| Setting | What it is |
|---|---|
| Shortest repeat (mm) | The length one turn of the smallest print cylinder prints. |
| Longest repeat (mm) | The same for the largest. |
| Gear pitch (mm) | The length of one gear tooth. 1/8 in circular pitch, the usual one, is 3.175 mm. |
| Cylinders (teeth) | The print cylinders you own, by teeth, such as 64, 72, 96. Empty: any cylinder in the repeat range. |
| Makeready web per colour (m) | Web run to bring each colour up to colour and register. |
A cylinder's repeat is its teeth × the gear pitch: 96 teeth at 1/8 in is 304.8 mm (12 in). A label goes round the cylinder a whole number of times with an even gap between labels, so the cylinder decides the gap. See Roll labels: digital and flexo presses for how a quote picks the cylinder.
Setup and costs#
- Makeready per pass (min) is the setup of a job.
- Makeready per plate (min) is the time to mount one plate, ink the station and register it. Every colour adds it, and each version adds it again for every colour.
- Plate cost is the price of one plate bought in. Your platemaker or the rate card for bought plates (see Tools and dies) prices a quote's plates first; the press's plate cost is used when neither does.
- Ink cost per m², CMYK is the ink of one printed m² at your usual coverage, and Ink cost per m², each special what each white or special colour adds.
- Hourly cost, Hourly rate and Minimum charge work as on any press (see Presses: offset, digital and label presses).
How a flexo run is estimated#
For a run of so many cylinder turns (repeats), each colour printing from its own plate:
- Plates = colours × versions.
- Makeready = the job setup + plates × the makeready per plate.
- Web = repeats × the repeat + the makeready web + plates × the makeready web per colour.
- Running = web ÷ the web speed.
- Ink = the printed width × the web × (ink per m² + specials × special ink per m²).
- Cost = hours × hourly cost + plates + ink. Price = the larger of the minimum charge and hours × hourly rate + plates + ink.
Example: a 4-colour job, 2,000 turns of a 51-tooth cylinder (161.925 mm), on a press with a 30 minute setup, 15 minutes and 10 m of web a colour, 30 m makeready web and 100 m/min. The web is 323.85 m + 70 m = 393.85 m, the makeready 90 minutes and the running 3.9 minutes. At $80 an hour, $40 plates and $0.05 of ink a printed m² on a 311 mm print width, the press costs $125.25 + $160 of plates + $6.13 of ink = $291.38.
Test estimate on the press's page runs this with repeats, the repeat length (the shortest repeat by default), colours and white or special colours.
Presets#
Add press on the Flexo filter lists 30 flexo presses: narrow-web label presses (Mark Andy, Nilpeter, Gallus, OMET, MPS, Bobst, Edale), mid-web presses and wide-web CI presses (Bobst, Comexi, W&H, Uteco, SOMA). They fill in the web and print widths, the stations where the maker gives them, and the repeat range, each with its source. The maker's top speed is shown as Rated up to on the preset and is never copied: it is a ceiling, so set your own running speed. Makeready and costs start empty.