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What is a Servo motor and how does it benefit your printing operation?
March 22, 2019 | Daywey Chen
When choosing a Servo motor there are a few specifications to select from. An AC current type or a DC current type servo motor. Is the motor brushed or brushless, and is the motor synchronous our asynchronous. 



How to Choose Your Digital Printhead?
January 18, 2019 | Daywey Chen

Nozzles, picoliter, thermal printhead, piezo-electric printhead, drop-on-demand(DoD), continuous inkjet, binary, greyscale are specification describing the digital printhead. Understanding the meaning of these terms will help you understand how the printer operates and will help you to select the right digital printhead for the right job. However, it is rare that for the supplier to stop and explain them. So here is where we stop and explain it to you.

Offering variety Solutions for 100% Inspection and Web Monitoring
November 2, 2018 | BST Eltromat
BST eltromat International offers various solutions for 100% inspection and web monitoring for quality assurance in narrow, mid and wide web applications such as label and package printing. The inspection systems from the BST eltromat cooperation partner Nyquist Systems complement this offer.
Wide Web V.S Narrow Web Flexo Printing
November 23, 2018 | Daywey Chen
In today’s competitive environment, printers need to be as competitive as possible. To be competitive, one needs to choose the right tool for the right job. Wide web flexo press and narrow web flexo press both has its advantages and disadvantages. At the end of the day, it comes down to what your main goal is. For instance, is your main goal to be as environmentally friendly as possible to save cost from pollution emission and to build up a good eco- friendly company image? Is your main goal speed since most of your job orders are very long runs? Is your main goal for printing labels at small quantity?
Eliminate the Dangers of Steel with TruPoint® Doctor Blades
October 19, 2018 | Christine Duggan

This week KYMC invited Flexo Concepts to share about press room improvement from a doctor blade standpoint. Every industry has its challenges, and for the flexo printing industry, they include anilox scoring and pressroom injuries related to the use of steel doctor blades. Fortunately, due to advancements in polymer materials and tip designs, press operators no longer have to trade the safety benefits of plastic doctor blades for the effectiveness of steel... 

Water Based Ink V.S Solvent Based Ink
September 28, 2018 | Daywey Chen
Typically speaking water-based ink could be considered if your application is to run at slower printing speed and on an absorbent substrate. The water-based ink that consists of much less organic solvent could provide printers with less VOC emission issues to worry about. At KYMC we had a customer that ran solely on water-based ink as VOC emission permits are required in the region. As the sales orders fluctuate from month to month, the VOC emission permit may be insufficient or excessive depending on the order quantity of that month. To avoid this issue...
AM Screening V.S FM Screening
August 30, 2018 | Daywey Chen

Must Know Screening Concepts to Succeed in Flexo Printing

AM screening and FM screening both has its advantages and disadvantages. In general FM screening are more suitable for details images, highlights, and shadows. AM screening performs better in mid-tones. FM are more consistent in its ink delivery, therefore, some say that it is able to produce a very stable appearance. This could be good things unless your print doesn’t match your proof. When the mismatch occurs, it will be difficult for press operators to tweak the appearance on the press. As Technologies advances, the newer XM screening takes advantage of AM & FM screening to produce to better print quality.

Rotogravure Vs. Flexographic – Cost Analysis
July 20, 2018 | Daywey Chen
As the flexible packaging industry evolves and as environmental awareness surges, the printing methodologies change. In the flexible packaging industry, the flexographic process is widely adopted in the west and are starting to spread in the east. Below we compare the cost of the two processes from a few perspectives: printing operation, equipment investment, printing plate storage investment and printing plate cost, lifespan and lead time.
Flexographic Plate – Photopolymer or Elastomer?
April 20, 2018 | Daywey Chen
At KYMC, we have observed the integration of the elastomer plate and photopolymer plate usage. Taking advantage of each strength. The more durable and seamless attributes of the elastomer plate are used for printing repeated background designs. The fragmented designs and designs that require many versions are printed using photopolymer plates.
Print Defect: Ghosting Troubleshooting 101
April 6, 2018 | Daywey Chen
Ghosting describes the faint image produced and is most noticeably on in large solid areas. Ghosting is most commonly caused by the failure of the anilox to consistently supply sufficient ink throughout the printing process. Therefore, looking into your anilox is always a good way to start.
Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail!
March 23, 2018 | Finn Hinze
Any man-made synthetic material contains long homogeneous molecule chains that form a strong and uniform product. These chains join other long chains, leaving only a few open chain ends, and therefore only a small number of surface bonding points, and this is where the problem of low adhesion and what is known as ‘wettability’ occurs. Wettability is the ratio between the surface energies of the liquid ink and the solid substrate. In general, a material can be wetted if its surface energy, measured in dyne/cm, is greater than the surface energy of the liquid. If it’s the other way around, there will be adhesion problems.
New Breakthroughs in Electron Beam Ink Technology for Flexible Packaging
March 9, 2018 | ToyoInk Co., Ltd.
Toyo Ink research labs in Japan solved the technical challenge of non-evaporative wet trapping in flexo with the development of an EB-curable ink system for CI flexo printing: The Elex-one™ FL series. Since other contemporary, conventional EB flexo inks contain a small percentage of volatiles (solvents and water), a small trace of such ink components may evaporate during printing. This necessitates the continuous addition of lost components to retain print quality and often leads to discrepancies in ink stability and quality during printing. Elex-one is a completely non-volatile ink so there is no concern for the evaporation of volatile materials...