We've all had that moment when we're painting, tracing, or gluing something and in our intense concentration, our hand slips, marring our precious work. 

That's what print misregistration is like. To get the best possible print, the alignment of your ink combinations on the substrate must be precise. Misregistration by the tiniest fraction of an inch can completely skew your print.

It impacts everything from color patterns to design accuracy. It also means downtime for troubleshooting. For your printing process, that means:

• Wasted time
• Wasted substrate and ink
• Unnecessary wear and tear on machinery
• Delays in delivering prints

Assessing your flexo print registration for these common causes can help your operation save money and undue hassle.

10 Common Causes of Print Misregistration

If you're experiencing any amount of flexo misregistration, one of the following circumstances is probably occurring: 

1. Inaccurate plate mounting / centering 
2. Impression cylinder concentricity
3. Cylinder/ plate/ sleeve condition
4. Gear condition
5. Idle rollers drag or rotate irregularly
6. Malfunctioning web guide
7. Web growth or fanning out
8. Wandering web
9. Substrate surface tension
10. Incorrect tolerances 

Here's how to troubleshoot and fix these issues: