Flexo Printing

Flexography is the most common process used to print packaging. The corrugated is pulled through a series of stations, or print units. Each print unit is printing a single color. The various tones and shading are achieved by overlaying basic shades of ink.

This technology employs plates with raised images (relief) and only the raised images come in contact with the corrugated during printing.

Our flexo presses accommodate sheets up to 66”x170”, have high-end printing up to 360 line screen, and shorten production time by slotting, scoring, folding and gluing.

Our onsite ink kitchen saves time and ensures consistency.

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Litho Offset Printing

As an alternative to printing directly on corrugated, the lithographic process offers crisper images and enhanced color flexibility by printing onto large or small labels that are then mounted onto corrugated.

The basic principle of offset printing is that oil and water do not mix. A litho printing plate has non-image areas which absorb water. The plate is kept moist throughout so that ink only adheres to image areas.

During every cycle of the press the ink image is first transferred to a rubber surfaced offset cylinder and from there to the paper.

The offset cylinder’s flexibility preserves the delicate plates and conforms to the surface of textured papers.

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Digital Printing

Digital printing is ideal for short run needs as well as prototyping and proofing.

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Screen Printing

Screen printing is a process of forcing ink through a tight screen which is mounted on a frame. The screen carries a stencil which defines the image area and is made of porous material which allows for full ink coverage on corrugated board. The board is generally screen printed prior to its conversion into a box or display. This method is ideal for those who desire a higher resolution image than flexo-printing provides. Full color graphics are available using screen printing.

We work with sheet sizes of up to 60” x 120.” Utilizing up to 6 colors.

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Art Preparation Guidelines

Please consider the following when setting up art files for cartons and displays:

How will your artwork be printed?
Will it be printed as a lithographic label, printed directly on a flexographic press or silk screened?  Each process involves different design specifications.

Lithographic Label Files:
All files with photographic elements should be supported by high resolution (300dpi) images. Please outline text whenever possible, or provide all fonts associated with the documents.

Flexographic/Direct Print Files:
All flexographic designs must be vector based (i.e., Adobe Illustrator) images. 
Touching colors will be trapped (overlapped about 1/16”) to allow for press movement during printing.  Text in direct print art files should be no smaller than 8 points, if possible.
Line weight minimum is 1 point.

Dielines or Templates:
To prepare your artwork, dielines will be needed to assure the proper size and placement of art.  Your sales representative will arrange to have dieline files created for your use.  Dielines are available in EPS, PDF, TIFF, JPEG, DDS, and DXF formats.

Bleeds:
Direct print art files in which the graphics overlap the dieline need at least 1/2” bleed. 
Label print art files require at least 1/2” additional bleed to allow for label trim.

File transfers:
Files can be received and sent via CD, email, your FTP site or our FTP site.
If using your FTP site, please provide your site address, login ID and password.

Our ftp site:  ftp://ftp.tilsner-carton.com
Talk to your sales rep about obtaining a user name and password before attempting to use this site.

Current Application/Versions:
The art department is Macintosh-based - Mac OS X Version 10.4.9 Tiger.
Available programs include Adobe CS3 Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign) and QuarkXPress.

Please Supply the following:

• Complete, workable files.
• A color printout of the file (when sending art by mail).
• All supporting files: High resolution (300dpi) files and fonts.
• Appropriate PMS Colors (if applicable) and indicate whether they’re coated or uncoated.  If you need a specific custom color, please provide a sample so we can color match it.
• Name of company, project and contact person for any questions related to the project.

Any questions?
Contact your sales representative.

Heather Bruesehoff
Art Director
651-223-0539
Fax: 651-227-6861

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