How to make misregister a thing from the past

In flexographic printing, "misregister" describes a printing defect in which the separate colors of the print image are not correctly positioned, resulting in a blurred image because the dots did not print in the position they were intended to. For high-quality prints, all separately printed colors need to be aligned perfectly and today's multi-color and demanding print designs call for special attention to the topic of print register.

Misregistration by the tiniest fraction will result in waste, machine downtimes, re-prints of jobs, and delays in delivering the orders to the end customer. Here are some possible root causes: 

• Printing plates: not mounted in register or have imprecise repeat length
• Machine settings: inaccurate web tension or temperature, impression, settings of a variety of rollers
• Condition of cylinders / plates / sleeves

Another reason while separate colors do not print in register can be that the outer circumference of the sleeve + adhesive tape + plate buildup is inaccurate. This can easily happen because all these components are delivered with specific thickness or diameter tolerances and these can add up. And if the circumference of the complete buildup is inaccurate, this of course directly shows in the print repeat length. If this happens for just one color in the print, the printed colors are not aligned perfectly to each other any longer.