What do fleas have to do with flexo?

One of the shortest poems ever written is titled *Fleas*:

"Adam had 'em."

I find it incredibly elegant. Fleas, like the poem, are tiny. They’ve been around a long time, and “had them” is contracted down to “had ‘em,” making the poem itself even smaller. Yet, the poem is complete. Impressive.

Another document that impresses me is *Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications and Tolerances*, or FIRST. It’s filled to the brim with everything we need to “produce high-quality and consistent print results, pressrun after pressrun”—to quote its description. For a relatively small publication, it’s packed with detail. It can be overwhelming, especially for anyone new to the world of diligent flexo process control. I know I spent years lost in that forest. All I could see were trees.

Now, I’d like to invite you to climb aboard my hot air balloon and rise above the forest for a change. Let’s look down on the process from a quieter, elevated spot where the trees shrink to the size of fleas, and we can finally see the forest’s outline. From that perspective, five main things come into view that we standardize and control: the ink, the substrate, the plates, the mounting tape, and the press.

The Ink 
We control the pigment, resin, additives, temperature, viscosity, pH, and ink film thickness applied to the substrate. Some of these are managed by our suppliers; others, we control in-house.

The Substrate
We standardize composition, coating, treatment, absorbency, color, and gloss. Consistency here often relies on what our suppliers deliver.

The Plates
We standardize the composition, durometer, surface energy, relief, and processing of the plates.
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The Mounting Tape
We control thickness, resilience, durometer, density, and adhesion.

The Press
We standardize the press, speed, color sequence, aniloxes, dryer temperatures, and the press room environment.

I can already hear some of you saying, “But Frank, there’s more to it than just that.” I’ll agree! The point of this post is to look at the process from a distance, to pull back from the details and hold on to a framework we can come back to when we find ourselves lost. Indeed, every element here has its specifications, which can be measured and has tolerances. There are ISO, ANSI, TAGA, BSI, CEN, PIA, and FIRST standards we and our suppliers can adopt. Tools like micrometers, viscometers, thermometers, spectrodensitometers, echo topography instruments, tape measures, scales, and gloss meters help us measure and monitor these specifications to stay within tolerances. And we rely, too, on our human perception of quality, color, and feel.

So, next time you feel lost in the forest, remember to take a ride in that hot air balloon. See the process from a distance, then go back and deal with the fleas with a bit more confidence.

And that, my friends, is what fleas have to do with flexo!

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