With flexographic printing being a niche portion of the printing industry, finding technical support when a printing defect arises can be challenging. Should you reach out to the press manufacturer, image carrier service, or maybe even a former press operator? 

Depending on the nature of your issue, state-of-the-art image carrier services can help diagnose defects in your prints and identify whether the image carrier is to blame. 

Image Carrier Technical Support Services 

From dot gain to mottled prints, printing defects can arise in a variety of different forms and be caused by a variety of different issues. For press operators, the challenge is identifying where the defect is occurring, and why. 

That’s why working with image carrier provers with a proven track record of success is important for the longevity and success of your print runs. While Image carrier services typically include the manufacturing of sleeves, cylinders, and plates, top-of-the-line manufacturers also offer support to the press operators when defects and challenges arise. 

Diagnosing the Defect

One of the most challenging aspects of a press operator's job is identifying where a printing defect is occurring. While recognizing the type of defect may be as simple as looking at your prints, figuring out where the defect is occurring, and why can be challenging. 

Using the years of skills and experience, most state-of-the-art image carrier services have a team of experts ready to help a press operator identify which of the following 12 most common flexo printing defects are plaguing their prints:

1. Dot gain
2. Gear marks
3. Halo
4. Feathering
5. Doughnuts
6. Skip out
7. Misregistration
8. Mottled image
9. Filling in
10. Bridging
11. Pinholing
12. Dirty print

However, identifying what defect you’re experiencing is only half the battle though. Finding the root cause of the flexo printing defect is where the expertise from the image carrier service will come into play. 

Printing defects can arise from any number of causes, however, in our experience, most are caused by one of these 10 common causes: 

• Pressure
• Press mechanics
• Anilox
• Cell volume
• Ink transfer
• Ink viscosity
• Ink pH level
• Contamination
• Plate swelling
• Drying speed

In order to limit press downtime while troubleshooting defects, our team of experts has created this Flexo Printing Defects Diagnostic Chart & Troubleshooting guide to help press-operators quickly identify their defect and any potential causation. 

Once the defect is identified and the cause determined, image carrier services can further support a press operator if they find their cylinder, plates, or sleeves are damaged, bent, or otherwise deformed, or if there’s a misregistration or feathering issue with the image carrier. 

Consult the Image Carrier Experts: 

Experiencing a printing defect you can’t put your finger on? Our team of experts are well versed in all different types of printing defects and created this downloadable ebook guide to Diagnosing Your Printing Problems: