When properly cleaned, an anilox roll—”the heart of the flexo printing process”—directly contributes to higher output on press, resulting in less downtime, material and labor costs.
Properly cleaned aniloxes deliver quality print and a constant output. Today, however, cleaning is often a weak link in production. Too much valuable time is being spent attempting to decontaminate components. They may get visibly clean, but never verifiably spotless.
To begin exploring anilox cleaning solutions, it’s important for converters to know that there are two ways of cleaning aniloxes: liquid anilox cleaners or laser anilox cleaners. Though they are different, liquid and laser anilox cleaning are the two best ways to clean your expensive and delicate rolls. Both give perfect results and will reduce your downtime and expenses from printing with dirty aniloxes.
Photos courtesy of Flexo Wash
Competent guidance on how to select the model to fit the need is available from the original equipment manufacturer, a firm like Flexo Wash. Let the experts weigh in when choosing the best system for your specific needs and keep in mind, equipment is available in a variety of sizes for both narrow web and wide web platforms.
Best Bet?
How do you decide between laser and liquid anilox cleaning? Answering the question requires performing an informal inventory and overview of your pressroom and your cleaning systems. Let’s begin with 10 questions:
- How many aniloxes are in your inventory?
- How many anilox rolls do you clean a day?
- Do you have a tight production schedule?
- How long is your anilox in the press?
- How many changeovers a day do you have?
- Do you use difficult inks or coatings?
- How many employees are dedicated to cleaning?
- Do you have many restrictions for cleaning in your state?
- Do you need access to utilities and drainage?
- Are you concerned with the cost of consumables?
Here are the qualifiers for both the laser and liquid anilox cleaners. Looking at each checklist, will help guide your cleaning focus.
Laser Anilox Cleaning
Guidance collected from experience before being put out by recognized experts, if not some of the best minds in the industry, suggests a laser anilox cleaner is most appropriate when:
- Cleaning less than 30 rolls per day
- Maintaining a large inventory for each type of anilox
- Keeping anilox rolls in press longer with fewer changeovers
- Being concerned with difficult inks, adhesives or coatings
- Lacking location flexibility, meaning: no easy access to utility connections and drainage
- Holding to a corporate focus on waste-free cleaning
- Desiring to eliminate ongoing consumable costs
Companies that would most benefit from the laser cleaner have at least three of the qualifiers mentioned above. First, they clean less than 30 rolls per day. Next, they have a large inventory for each type of anilox. Lastly, they leave their anilox in the press longer, with fewer changeovers.
The advantages of a laser anilox cleaner are numerous. It is a deep cleaning and fully automatic system that does not generate any waste, nor does it require a water source. There is no need for adaptors or gear covers. It is highly effective on difficult inks and coating. Also, there is an option for an automatic sleeve identification (RFID).
Liquid Anilox Cleaning
Companies that would most benefit from liquid anilox cleaners have several of the qualifiers on this list:
- Cleaning 20 rolls or more per day
- Limited inventory for each anilox
- Concerned with cleaning ends on journaled anilox rolls
- Tight production schedule
- Multiple changeovers per day
- Need for daily deep cleaning
- Cleaning of multiple aniloxes in 10-20 minutes
- Lower upfront capital cost
The advantages to liquid anilox cleaners are numerous. They have a fast-cleaning process, taking only 10 to 20 minutes for a full cycle. They are very effective, giving you the ability to do a daily deep cleaning on your anilox rolls. They are safe as well, with no wear and tear on the aniloxes. The fully-automatic machine is easy to operate.
Sustainability
Sustainability is a major focus for Flexo Wash; it is important to our company and to our customers. Businesses across the board are seeing more demands for sustainability. For our industry, we recommend that printers start evaluating their cleaning processes as the first step to a more sustainable workplace.
The objective is to choose the best and most environmentally friendly solution for your operation. In addition to new products and built-in upgrades, environmental solutions can be combined with different cleaning units to reduce the water and/or liquid consumption. Products out there are continuously optimized to ensure better reuse and less consumption of both water and cleaning liquid. Innovative cleaning technology and cleaning solutions help customers print better, with increased quality and efficiency while in a safer, more sustainable working environment.
Anilox cleaning system can lessen wasted ink, substrate and run time during job setups by ensuring that your anilox is well-maintained and always operating at optimal performance.
Maximized Production
With the focus on shorter runs and on-time inventory in our industry, the pressures to get a press turned over to a new job are immense. Anilox cleaning systems are not only thorough, but they are fast. This allows the operators to get meticulously cleaned rolls in a fraction of the time expected.
The post-pandemic printing industry experienced massive surges in demand and production needs all with major labor shortages. As the printing industry modernizes and the production demand increases, the cleaning process needs to modernize as well. There comes a point where so much money is lost by the printer if their cleaning systems are not up to par.
Downtime, ineffective manual cleaning or poor automated cleaning systems all take a heavy toll on a printer. A fully-automatic cleaning system is part and parcel of a successful printing operation. Printers either realize this immediately or it becomes a big pain point in their process.
Ink Technology
Today’s inks and coatings can be difficult to clean, even when they are still wet. The longer an ink or coating has been allowed to dry in the cells, the more difficult the cleaning process can be.
Whether liquid or laser, most cleaning technology is virtually foolproof, no matter the ink technology. For example if using a Flexo Wash system, we can guarantee that you will maintain 100 percent of your cell volume every time.
Cleaning Schedule
Both the liquid and laser anilox cleaners provide optimal time to clean dirty anilox rolls and put them back on press or return them to storage. Using a safe and gentle cleaning method that can both deep clean your rolls and be used for daily maintenance without harming even the most delicate anilox rolls is essential. We recommend a proactive cleaning schedule such as this:
- Clean the rolls after EACH job
- Keep a regular maintenance schedule on the anilox rolls
- Clean the rolls IMMEDIATELY after removal from the press and before storage
- Keep new rolls clean from Day One
Waiting to clean until the anilox is no longer performing on press is not an option. The market is too competitive and dirty anilox rolls cause inconsistent print quality, increased downtime, excessive waste and thereby loss of competitiveness. You must have a clean anilox roll to have a quality print job. Consistent cleaning guarantee predictable print quality, and most importantly, ensures a longer lifetime for the anilox rolls. With fully automatic liquid and laser anilox cleaners, the cleaning process on site is seamless.