Machine category

Flexo Printing Machines

CI flexographic printing presses from Windmöller & Hölscher, in-line flexo for paper bags and woven sacks, and the anilox rollers, sleeves, doctor blades, ink systems and pressroom cleaning that keep them printing. K Group is the authorized agent in Pakistan.

6 presses5 consumable partnersAuthorized agent in Pakistan
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Overview

What flexo printing is, and who uses it

Windmöller & Hölscher NOVOFLEX II CI flexo printing press

Flexography prints from a raised image on a flexible plate. Ink is metered by an engraved anilox roller, wiped level by a doctor blade, transferred to the plate and then onto the web. Because the plate is soft and the ink is thin and fast-drying, flexo handles substrates that other processes struggle with — polyethylene film, laminates, kraft paper, woven polypropylene — at speed and on a roll.

The buyers are converters and printers. Flexible packaging converters printing film for food and consumer goods, usually on a central-impression press where every colour registers against one large drum. Label printers working narrow web. Bag and sack producers printing paper or woven polypropylene, often in line with the machine that forms the bag. What unites them is roll-to-roll production and a need for consistent colour across long runs.

The press is only part of the decision. Print quality in flexo is set as much by the consumables as the machine: the anilox engraving that meters the ink, the sleeve or plate carrying the image, the doctor blade wiping the roller, and how clean all of it is kept. A press bought without a plan for those will not hold its quality.

Selection

Which flexo press is right for you?

Six questions decide the press, and we ask all six before quoting.

What substrate? Thin polyethylene film, laminates, paper and woven polypropylene each behave differently under tension and take ink differently. The substrate sets the web handling, the drying and often the press architecture.

What web width? Width follows from the product you are printing and the extrusion or converting equipment either side of the press. It is the single decision that most constrains everything downstream.

What repeat range? The range of print repeats you need determines sleeve and cylinder inventory, and whether a sleeve-based press is worth it. Being realistic about your actual job mix here saves a great deal later.

How many colours? Colour count sets the number of print decks. Buying more decks than your work needs is expensive; buying fewer than it needs is worse, because you cannot add them later without rebuilding the press.

Run lengths and changeover frequency? Long runs reward print quality and speed. Short runs reward fast job changes — automatic washing, sleeve handling, pre-register. Which of those matters is a question about your order book, not the machine.

What drying do you need? Solvent, water-based or UV inks each demand different drying capacity and extraction, and that has consequences for the building as much as the press.

Cost

What determines the price

We do not publish prices, because a press is not a catalogue item — two converters asking for “a flexo printing machine” can be quoted very differently. What we can do is be clear about what moves the number, so you can size a budget before asking.

Web width and colour stations dominate. A wider press means a larger central impression drum and more of every subsystem, and each additional colour deck adds an inking system, a drying stage and register control. These two together usually set the order of magnitude.

Automation and register control come next. Automatic pre-register and impression setting, closed-loop colour, automatic wash-up and sleeve handling each add cost, and each buys back time and waste at every job change. Whether they pay depends on how many changeovers you run.

Drying capacity is set by your ink system and speed, not chosen freely. Solvent, water-based and UV all imply different dryers, extraction and — in the solvent case — solvent recovery, which is a plant decision rather than a press option.

Ancillaries are routinely underestimated and they are what quality actually rides on: the anilox roller set, sleeves and adapters, doctor blades, plate-making, ink dispensing and the wash-up equipment to keep it all clean. A press quoted without them is not a working pressroom.

Installation, commissioning and training are real line items — foundations, power, extraction, shipping, and the engineers who bring the press into production and teach your printers to run it.

Tell us what you need to print and we will come back with a specification and a price for it.

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Principals

The brands behind these machines

Windmöller & Hölscher — German manufacturers who invented the modern CI flexo press and remain one of the reference names in flexible packaging printing. MIRAFLEX, VISTAFLEX, NOVOFLEX and ALPHAFLEX cover the range from entry level to fully automated wide web. K Group is the authorized agent for W&H in Pakistan.

Garant — paper bag and sack machinery, including the LINAFLEX in-line flexo press for printing bags as they are produced. K Group is the authorized agent for Garant in Pakistan.

Botheven — Taiwanese builders of PP woven sack machinery, including flexographic and reel-to-reel printing presses for woven polypropylene. K Group is the authorized agent for Botheven in Pakistan.

Consumables and pressroomZecher anilox rollers, Tech Sleeves printing sleeves, PrimeBlade doctor blades, Flexo Wash cleaning systems and GSE Dispensing ink rooms. K Group is the authorized agent for each in Pakistan.

Related: extruder machines for plastics & film make the substrate this prints on, and shredder machines for plastics handle the waste it generates.

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Interested in a flexo press?

Speak to our machinery specialists in Pakistan for a tailored quotation.

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