The present invention relates generally to printing rollers, and more particularly, is directed to an apparatus and method for balancing printing rollers.
Printing rollers in printing presses, particularly in flexographic printing presses, which have a printing plate mounted thereon, often become unbalanced. Specifically, even if the cylindrical roller on which the printing plate is mounted, is balanced, the plate may be positioned to one side of the printing roller, resulting in the printing roller becoming unbalanced. Further, after a printing plate is positioned on a printing roller, material is removed therefrom to create the image for a printing operation. However, this material removal is rarely uniform, that is, parts of the printing plate containing the image have more mass than other parts thereof. This offset of mass causes an out of balance situation.
Balance is important in a flexographic printing process. If the printing roller is out of balance, the printing roller will wobble. This, in turn, will result in a poorer quality and grade of the printed image. Further, this may result in skips in the printed image at higher speeds. To overcome this, it is often necessary to provide greater force or over impression during the printing operation, resulting in a poorer quality and grade of the printed image.