New Axcyl Carbon BS Bridge Sleeve Allows More Effective Printing

The unique construction of the new Axcyl® Carbon BS bridge from Trelleborg, provides exceptional stiffness in flexion, and combined with its innovative damping mounting layer, allows more efficient printing of the most difficult designs on the highest productivity presses, with no offset of printing speeds. It can easily be mounted via an air cushion on the press shaft, onto which plate mounting sleeves can then be mounted via direct air supply or separate ventilation.

Damien Leterrier, Axcyl Sales & Development Manager for Trelleborg’s printing solutions , says: “Through design engineering, the bridge has been made lighter than conventional composite bridges. In addition, the Carbon BS can be used on existing presses, to maximize the productivity of installed assets. This product is another step in helping secure our customers’ improved performance.”

Background information on printing bridges:

During flexographic printing processes, the contacts between the printing plate leading edges with anilox and substrate often create vibrations, known as flexion resonance phenomena, which affect the quality of the printed image. This is particularly true when combining hard plates with solids and screens on the same media while printing at high speeds. One direct consequence is the loss of productivity due to speed limitations. With wider presses, this impact is even greater.

To overcome this, high-end materials have been endorsed by wide-web OEMs for over a decade, in particular through the use of carbon fiber (CFK) for anilox and plate mounting mandrels. To cover a wide repeat range on the same press shafts, bridges (or carriers) are commonly used in the printing industry, on which plate mounting sleeves are used to print the final repeat length.