Translate the result expressions and use them in the sentences of your own.

6. Fill in the gaps with the expressions of the essential vocabulary:

1. Letterpress is -------- printing in which the printing areas are on the plane surface and the non-printing areas are below the surface.

1. Printing is done by means of ------ printing elements.
2. The letterpress printing plates were made from alloy of ----, ---, and --------.
3. The letterpress ink is required to be ------ ------- and -----.
4. ----- presses are the oldest type of machines used for letterpress.
5. ------- presses feature a cylinder with attached paper, that rolls over the bed of inked type.

7. In ------ --- presses a continuous roll of paper is fed between the plate cylinder and the impression cylinder.

1. The ---- press is used for continuous inline operations.
2. The most prevalent printing plate is the ------- printing plate.

10. The design of sheetfed flatbed presses overcome the problem of ------ ---------- on the paper surface.

 

 

7. Translate from Russian into English:

В основе высокой печати лежит принцип рельефной, выпуклой печати, т.е. создание возвышающей поверхности, которую покрывают краской и прижимают к бумаге. Высокая печать использует набор, составленный вручную из отдельных свинцовых брусков – литер. До начала 20 века все буквы в словах набирались вручную. От этой операции ручного набора берут начало все способы выполнения наборного процесса.

Появившись в середине 1800-х годов, тигельная машина быстро завоевала популярность, а США, где до сих пор ещё работают эти простые и долговечные печатные прессы, отлитые из чугуна. В стандартной тигельной машине форма устанавливается в вертикальном положении. Бумага закрепляется напротив формы, причем эти две половинки соединяются у основания подобно букве V. Когда створ замыкается, половинки соединяются, как две створки раковины моллюска.

В плоскопечатных машинах форма обычно располагается в горизонтальной плоскости. После нанесения на форму краски на неё укладывают бумагу, сверху прокатывают большой цилиндр, который создает давление, способствующее переносу краски на бумагу,- так получается оттиск.

Ротационные печатные машины были разработаны для печатания больших объемов продукции, в первую очередь, газет и журналов. В них использовались печатные формы в виде стереотипа – пластины в виде части цилиндрической поверхности, на которой все отдельные части печатной формы собраны воедино для печати на очень высокой скорости.

 

 

8. Combine the definition with the term:

1) A press that carries the paper and the type form on flat surface, which opens and closes like a clamshell	a) belt
2) A press with a mounting flatbed that holds the inked form, having a fixed rotating impression cylinder on which the paper is attached	b) rotary
3) A press in which the roll of paper is fed between the plate and the impression cylinder	c)flatbed
4) A press used for continuous inline operations	d) platen

 

9. Complete the sentences with the correct forms of the verbs:

1. Letterpress printing (to be) the oldest printing technology.
2. For centuries letterpress printing (to be) the predominant printing technology.
3. Letterpress, the first printing process (to start) with a converted wine-press.
4. Originally type (to be cast) piece by piece, in small hand-held casters.
5. The design of flatbed presses (to overcome) the problem of uneven impression.
6. When a roll of paper is fed, it (to run) in contact with the first belt which (to print) all the pages for one side.
7. A few newspaper rotaries (to be used) still both for direct and indirect printing.
8. Printing on early presses (to be) a slow process, since the paper (to have, to be fed) one sheet at a time into the press.
9. Improvements (to make) in the 1830-1840s (to feature) automatic inking and mechanic power, which (to increase) printing speed.
10. The rotary webfed machines (to be responsible) for the enormous growth of newspapers during the 19^th century.

 

 

10. Prefixes can sometimes be added to words to change their meaning. Match the following prefixes with their corresponding definitions. Find the examples of the words with prefixes in the text. Make the examples of your own:

 1 inter- 2 post- 3 bi- 4 pre- 5 multi- 6 ex- 7 un-

 

1.  more than one; many

2.  later than; after

3.  before; in preparation

4. former and still living

5.  between; among a group

6. two; twice; double

7.  contrary action

 

Write down 10 sentences of your own using words with prefixes.

TEXT 2

 

FLEXOGRAPHY

In the last several decades, a modified letterpress printing method, flexography, has become increasingly more prevalent, especially in the packaging industry, for printing on the most varied materials. The term “flexography” was introduced at the beginning of the 1950s (it was previously known as “aniline printing”). Unlike letterpress printing, flexography uses low viscosity inks and resilient or soft, flexible printing plates, and the pressure applied between plate cylinder and substrate is low (“kiss printing”). Because of the flexible printing plates, which were formerly made solely from rubber and are now made mostly from photopolymeric plastic, printing can be done on materials with very rough surfaces and even on fabrics. Flexography is the only printing technology by means of which printing can be done on very thin, flexible, and solid films, virtually all papers, thick cardboard and rough-surfaced packaging materials.

The print quality that can be achieved in flexography is lower compared to offset printing. The resolution is usually lower with flexography than with offset printing which has a standard of 60 up to 120 lines/cm (150 up to 300 lpi). However, modern printing plates, especially those produced using computer-to-plate imaging systems, have improved printing quality markedly. The use of new types of printing plates with adapted inks and technical printing press developments, especially with respect to inking (inking units), have tremendously improved the printing quality offered by flexography.

The resilience of the flexographic printing plate in conjunction with low viscosity ink makes it possible, in particular, to print on the non-absorbent and rough substrate surfaces that are often typical of packing. Moreover, flexography is particularly suitable for printing on flexible materials such as plastic film. The printing plates are made from rubber or photopolymers. Their hardness and thickness are adapted to the particular substrate and motif. Since, on the one hand, the types of substrate to be printed range from corrugated board via paper, plastic film, and metal foil to composite materials and on the other, extremely varied requirements (different requirements apply for the packaging of industrial products than those for the packaging of foodstuffs) have to be met, numerous types of ink are used for flexography – water-based inks, inks containing alcohol or benzene, ester inks, UV curing inks, and so forth. The printing plate material must be selected so that it will not be swollen, etched, or embrittled by the inks.

Printing plates are either flat and fastened onto the plate cylinder with adhesive or double-sided adhesive film, or they are produced in cylindrical form (e. g., sleeve technology).

Mounting the Printing Plate. The flat plates are fastened in accurate register onto the plate cylinder with double-sided adhesive film. When doing this, the plate must be brought into the shape of a cylinder shell. The image dimensions have to be reduced in prepress in the direction of printing to compensate for the longitudinal increase in size.

Sleeve Technology. The principle of sleeve technology consists of a thin-walled metal sleeve, the inside diameter of which is dimensioned so that the sleeve can be expanded under compressed air and pushed axially onto the plate cylinder. Once the compressed air has been turned off, the sleeve sits firmly on the plate cylinder by force fit. Before being pushed onto the plate cylinder, the entire outer surface of this sleeve is covered with plate base material. The cylindrical plate is directly imaged using lasers in a round imagesetter.

Printing units usually consist of an inking unit, a plate cylinder and an impression cylinder. There are two different types of inking unit in current use:

• Fountain roller system where ink metering is effected by squeezing off the ink supply in the roller nip between anilox roller and fountain roller.

• Doctor blade inking unit with anilox roller and blade, notably the chambered doctor blade.

 

Рис.4

 

Flexographic presses are predominantly designed as web presses in the three configurations:

• central impression cylinder system;

• in-line (unit) design;

• stack-type design.

Central impression cylinder presses (satellite printing units) have advantages over stack type presses in the precision of the longitudinal register, above all for printing flexible materials (plastic film), due to their large wrap angle.

       In-line presses are flexible and expandable with respect to the number of printing units and the usable printing processes (combination of different processes).

The stack type and central cylinder system, on the other hand, are restricted to a specified choice of printing and inking units.

It is usual practice for the sheet-fed flexographicprocess to be applied in the coating units of sheet-fed offset presses. Multicolor sheet-fed flexographic presses are also used for special applications (e. g., high-quality printing of metallic inks on packaging material, or printing on plastic material).

The low-viscosity ink is transferred to the printing plate via a roller that is evenly screened with cells, the so-called anilox roller (screen width 200–600 lines/cm, ceramic or hardchromed metal surface). The rubber or plastic plate is attached to the printing plate cylinder. Ink is transferred to the printing substrate by the pressure of the impression cylinder. The use of a blade (together with the ink supply system) on the anilox roller has a stabilizing effect on the printing process resulting from even filling of the cells on the anilox roller.

The importance of flexographic printinghas increased noticeably world-wide thanks to the many new developments and enhancements in this field and the good results achieved in the packaging industry. Depending on the substrate and the motif, the quality of products printed in flexography is improved and the gap to the high quality of offset and gravure printing is reduced. Flexography has turned out to be a qualitatively good printing technology suitable for industrial printing. At a rate of around 3% p. a., its market share has risen above average in recent years, especially in the packaging industry, and noteworthy growth rates are predicted in many markets for the coming years. On the other hand, flexography will play a subordinate role in the newspaper sectorin the future.

 

 

ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY

 

Words and Word Combinations

1. flexography

2 packaging industry

3. aniline printing

4. low viscosity inks

5. resilient

6. flexible printing plate

7. photopolymeric plastic

8. rough surface

9. fabrics

10. thick cardboard

11.computer-to-plate

12. non-absorbent

13. corrugated board

14. metal foil

15. composite materials

16. foodstuff

17.benzene

18. ester inks

19. UV curing inks

20. sleeve technology

21. double – sided

22. dimension

23. longitudinal

24. compressed air

25. outer surface

26. fountain roller

27. anilox roller

28. doctor blade

29. central impression cylinder

30. in-line design

31. stack-type design 

 

 

ACTIVITIES