What Is A CI Flexo Press?

CI flexographic printing press (central impression flexographic printing press) is a flexographic printing equipment designed with a central imprint roller at the core. Its printing apparatus revolves around a regular impression cylinder. printing materials (such as film, photographic paper, etc.) is rounded around the surface of the die cylinder, and multi-color overprinting is completed in turn. This kind of structure highlights the high accuracy, efficiency and stability of printing requirements, especially for flexible packaging, labelling and other areas of long-term printing.
Core features and strengths
High-precision overprinting
The central impression cylinder is driven directly by gears to ensure that each printing unit runs in sync. Even without a special control devices, the an overprint accuracy is ±0.1mm, suitable for printing fine patterns and color products.
Printing material is tightly affixed to the surface of the impression cylinder, reducing stretching deformation and further improving overprint accuracy.
Efficient production
Printing speeds of up to 800m/min (such as the BOBST MASTER CI model) are much higher than traditional flexographic printing presses and are suitable for large orders.
Short ink path system (direct transfer of ink from anilox roller) reduces ink waste, supports rapid color change, and shortens downtime.
Materials are adaptable;
Printable from 0.02mm film to 10mm corrugated paper, covering food packaging, drug packaging, daily chemical product labels, corrugated preprint, etc.
Support water-based ink, UV ink and solvent ink to meet different environmental requirements.
Intelligence and automation
Integration of auto-mounting systems (such as smartGPS), online quality inspection, and digital color management (oneECG technology) to reduce manual intervention and improve color consistency and productivity.
Modular design, can quickly install auxiliary equipment (such as glass, die-cutting, hot stamping, etc.) to achieve one-stop production.
Energy-efficient
Short ink path system reduces ink consumption, UV curing technology reduces solvent emissions, in line with the trend of sustainable development.
Some models,such as VISION CI, are equipped with heat recovery systems to reduce energy consumption.
Typical application scenarios
Flexible packaging printing: food bags, beverage bottle labels, drug packaging, etc., requires high precision, high printing durability color printing.
Label printing: Daily chemical product labels, logistics labels, etc., support small batch, multi-variety fast switching.
Corrugated paper printing: Printing patterns directly on corrugated paper, replacing traditional post-printing process, reducing costs and improving design quality.
Special printing: can be expanded to metal foil, self-adhesive, woven bags and other materials printing.
... the difference between ordinary flexographic printing machines
Comparison dimensions CI flexographic printing machine Ordinary flexographic printing machine (e.g. stacks, units)
Central impression cylinder of structure with elements arranged horizontally around Stacked type up and down / element arrangement
Overprint accuracy is ±0.1mm (gear transmission) ±0.15-0.3mm (tension control required)
Printing speed is up to 800m/min 150-400m/min.
Applicable scenarios Long version, high-precision colour printing, short-form, multi-color overprint or double-sided printing
Equipment investment is high, but long-term efficiency advantage is obvious, equipment investment is low, suitable for small batch production