Recent studies have shown that 60% of consumers tend to purchase products from businesses that take care of the environment. Therefore, there is a need to ensure your business operations are environmentally friendly. Sustainability is now part of every business and for your business to succeed, it needs to be at the frontline in protecting the environment. Other than reduced costs, increased productivity, and competitiveness, you have to make decisions that are environmentally friendly. That is also necessary if you use flexo printing processes. There is a need to know various ways that can help you go green.
Use Chlorine Free Paper
As you know, chlorine and its compounds like chlorine dioxide are quite harmful to aquatic life; you should consider using chlorine-free papers. In this way, you will have supported aquatic life. With chlorine-free papers, you can be assured that your flexo printing does not leave a carcinogenic footprint. Moreover, flexography machines that use chlorine-free paper provide high-quality prints. Thus, you can grow your business without destroying the environment.
Use Duplex Printing
Duplex printing is a technique of printing both sides of the substrate. In this way, you help reduce the number of materials used in your company. You may be surprised to learn that most businesses do not commit to duplex printing. As a result, they waste a lot of money and substrates. It is advisable to encourage your operators to use flexography machines well and embrace duplex printing.
Use Review Functionality
If you have been committing a lot of errors during flexographic printing, you need to find out how you can correct them. In this case, you can use stop and review functionality. By using this function, you can easily prevent wastage of substrate. Nearly every flexo printing machine has this function. Ideally, you can preview the print and then continue the process. This helps you minimize printout errors.
Choose Right Font
As you know, certain fonts need more ink than other fonts. Therefore, you need to select your font wisely. In this way, you can minimize the number of chemicals that get produced. That is the case when you utilize solvent-based inks.
Buy Energy-Efficient Printers
You should consider purchasing energy-efficient flexographic printing machines. Also, you should check the quality’s settings to ensure you achieve high resolution. Ensure you change the settings when you do not want high-quality prints. You should monitor how the machine consumes the ink and replace the colors to avoid wasting the ink. Another option is to access the print remotely. This means the flexographic printing machine can be operated by many people.
Improve Substrate Surface Tension
Sometimes print miss-registration can occur due to improper distribution of the resulting pressure from the plate. As a result, you can improve the surface tension and keep the flexographic printing in contact with the substrate. As you know, wastage of substrate results in a reduction of profits, and the waste can get to the environment.
The above are proven ways of making your flexographic printing business environmentally friendly. Any adjustment you make to the process must help reduce waste and energy consumed by the machine.
