The Flexography Market

The use of flexography is growing in popularity in today’s printing markets, where short run, low-cost, and high-quality are crucial to success.

The flexography market is today on the rise but at the core when you look at the development of flexography, it reveals a printing technology and culture that has been willing and capable of change in response to the needs of the packaging industry. An evolutionary process of improvements in materials and equipment, rather than a single discovery, has led to flexography as it is known today. The first use of soft compressible plates can be traced back to the late 1880s, when letterpress printers needed to find a way to print kraft paper grocery bags and corrugated boxes. The materials were rough in texture, and did not respond well to the ink transfer pressure of hard letterpress plates. To solve the problem, printers began creating plates from rubber, rather than from wood or lead. This quickly became the dominant method for printing corrugated, and also grew steadily in the bag printing industry.

In 1914, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the corrugated box as a shipping container, a decision that began a new growth period for flexography. Clear Packaging In the early-to-mid 1920’s, flexographic printers responded quickly to the introduction of cellophane as a clear packaging material. White inks were developed, drying systems were improved for cellophane’s non-absorbent surface, and press tension systems were refined to handle its caliber and weight. Approximately ten years later, polyethylene was introduced, and went on to become the most commonly used material for clear, flexible packaging.

The use of the flexographic process has continued to grow in all packaging markets, including those that have traditionally used gravure and lithographic methods.

Today the process continues to adapt. As the technology is refined, quality continues to increase, making flexography the leader in packaging graphics applications.