March 12, 2026
Innovations and advancements are keeping this proven approach on the cutting edge
Flexographic printing has been the proven workhorse of corrugated packaging for decades, consistently delivering speed, reliability, and cost efficiency. At the same time, innovations in flexo continue to ensure its ongoing relevance. Advances in anilox designs, plate technology, inks, and automation are offering higher print quality while better serving the industry’s changing needs.
On a Roll
Anilox rolls are at the heart of today’s flexo machines—laser-engraved with a matrix of cells designed to hold and transfer ink to the printing plate. They are an essential part of the printing process, making them prime candidates for innovation.
One key innovation, which continues to evolve, is extended cells.
A typical anilox engraving consists of honeycomb-shaped cells for holding and then transferring ink. Extended cells, on the other hand, are long circumferentially—about twice as long as they are wide—and more shallow, enabling manufacturers to increase the number of cells per linear inch. “That means you can increase the fidelity of the print while holding the ink volume at traditional levels,” explains John Burgess, president of Pamarco.
“A classic [anilox] engraving for a standard brown box plant would be a 280-line screen, with 7.5 volume—the volume dictating the ink-film thickness that you’re laying down onto the plate, which then gets transferred to the substrate. With extended-cell technology, we can go up to a 360-line screen but carry the same volume.”
Pamarco’s extended-cell technology is called EFlo. “With this, you end up with a much shallower, flatter engraving, which means ink releases extremely well, the increased line count produces better fidelity, and the rolls are significantly easier to clean,” Burgess says.
Burgess is quick to point out that Pamarco is not alone in developing improvements to anilox cell architecture. “A lot of them, like MaxFlo+”—produced by UK-based Cheshire Anilox Technology—“are proprietary variations on extended cells,” he says. “Apex are doing something different, though, with their GTT product. Instead of having either a four- or six-sided engraved cell, the GTT is a two-sided cell, like a constant groove running around the roll in a wavy pattern, like a sine curve. It seems to be well-suited for a variety of applications.”
This LP-like groove releases ink very well and is easier to clean, since it’s more difficult for ink to build up in a groove than in a cell.
Anilox innovations aren’t limited to cell engraving, however. Pamarco and others are exploring ways to improve the rolls themselves.
Rolls and Plates
Anilox rolls are, essentially, steel rolls covered with a ceramic layer that is then laser engraved. A vital ingredient of that ceramic layer is chromium oxide, a potentially hazardous substance. “When we spray chromium oxide onto the surface of a cylinder—it’s like a fine, powdered graphite—typically only 50% of it will actually stick to the roll,” Burgess explains.
That means the other 50% is being collected to be hauled away, treated as either hazardous waste or recyclable material.
In 2023, Pamarco purchased German company TLS Anilox, which has developed a technique that replaces chromium with a metal alloy. While that may eventually point the way for future development, it comes with a cost. “The metal alloy is extremely expensive,” Burgess says, “and engraving metal with a laser is a lot more time-consuming than engraving ceramic. For those reasons, we have to increase our selling price two to three times, because it takes two to three times more to engrave a cylinder that way.”
The upside, in addition to being more environmentally friendly, is that the resulting metal alloy clad rolls are even more durable. “People are using [them] where you’ve got a base of inks like whites and blacks, which can cause wear on anilox rolls very quickly,” Burgess says. “They’re not equipping an entire press with this new material, but they may be equipping one or two print stations where they more often run an abrasive ink.”
He believes, though, that the cost will, for some time, be prohibitive for most boxmakers, due to the size of the anilox rolls typically employed for corrugated.
While metal alloys may eventually replace ceramics, changes also may be coming in terms of the cylinder material itself. “We are beginning to see carbon fiber becoming a more accepted material for the anilox cylinder, in place of steel,” Burgess says. “It’s lighter, it’s stronger, and there’s less deflection,” the term for sagging under their own weight that some big, wide rolls experience.
“Carbon fiber rolls, if built correctly, don’t do that. Again, expense is an issue, with carbon fiber being more expensive than steel. But for extremely high throughput, high production, carbon fiber is already being used successfully.”
Anilox rolls are only part of the printing-process partnership. A new approach to plate technology also is gaining ground among U.S. manufacturers.
Pacificolor is the North American partner for VORTEX, an innovative plate technology developed by Reproflex3, a European-based flexo printing supplier. While not a new technology per se, VORTEX has been used only for flexible packing until recently. Pacificolor is now introducing it to flexo print converters seeking ultra-high-definition results for corrugated applications.
“VORTEX doesn’t replace anilox rolls; it enhances what they can do on press,” says Pacificolor Vice President and Flexo Print Consultant Kenneth Brooks. “Your typical lam plates produced today are smooth-surfaced photopolymer plates that carry the ink to the substrate. The new technology adds a patented vortex pattern onto the surface of that plate, along with a surface-pattern screening that acts like an anilox roll, allowing us to manipulate the surface of the plate to carry either more or less ink.
“For example, let’s say you had an anilox-roll configuration on press that is only capable of printing 85-line screen. With VORTEX technology—and without having to go through the expense of changing the anilox roll—we can now increase that line-screen capability by 20%, bringing it up to 100 to 120 lines.”
Brooks notes that because the VORTEX plate and anilox roll work together, the anilox roll has to have a cell count of 300 or higher before the technology will actually provide a benefit.
“Because there is a variety of cell structures and configurations on anilox rolls, we also have a variety of VORTEX plate patterns,” he continues. “There are about eight surface-pattern screenings, and then about 10 VORTEX surface patterns that get added on top of that. So when we’re working with a customer, we will run tests on a specific press and a specific anilox roll that shows where we can optimize the press for that print station. We’ll pick the one that’s given the best print quality, and then we’ll go back and make live production runs with that data to ensure a consistent and high-quality result for the customer.”
Water, Oil, and Coffee
As breakthroughs continue with anilox rolls and plates, so do advances in the inks they carry.
“There is a constant push-pull between hardware manufacturers and ink innovation as we work to get the best out of the equipment being used,” says President Rob Callif of BCM Inks. “We are constantly in contact with—and are working with—the anilox-roll companies, press manufacturers, dryer manufacturers, paper manufacturers, etc. When they’re developing something, we’re also developing something with them in mind. Ink relies on other companies’ equipment.”
In addition, ink developers also must respond to a changing global regulatory environment. For instance, the push for improved sustainability has been driving a number of recent ink innovations, spurred in part by the Swiss Ordinance on Materials and Articles (OMA) and other European initiatives. “We recently upgraded our most sustainable line of inks, the Eekoflex inks, and created an Eekoflex 2 line of inks that is Swiss-ordinance compliant,” Callif says. “Also, we’re constantly exploring ways to improve the gloss level of water-based inks and overprint varnishes, so UV can be eliminated.”
Journalist Terry Knowles, writing in Ink World magazine, highlighted a joint project between German equipment manufacturer Olbrich and Japan’s Ricoh to develop a more sustainable wide-format printer ink suitable for corrugated. “The new ink is entirely derived from vegetable oils,” Knowles writes. “Its quick-drying nature translates into energy savings, and the volume of ink required for comparable petrochemical performance is down by 50% because the achievable optical density of the colors is accomplished in half as much ink.”
Vegetable oil-based inks have nothing on a new range of sustainable inks, developed in Finland, made from roasted coffee bean waste. “Working with major coffee roaster Meira Oy, partners Natural Indigo Finland, Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Paptic Ltd., and Cabassi Oy have created a water-based ink that contains a bio-colorant found in coffee waste,” Knowles reports.
“The resulting ink emerges as a renewable, natural alternative to those based on synthetic pigments that are traditionally employed in packaging printing,” Knowles adds. “This renewable ink has already been used for flexo print applications on fiber-based substrates. The companies are now seeking a consortium and funding that can take the product global.”
Machine Learning
When it comes to machine innovations in 2026, Steve Biller, director of product management for global finishing at BWPapersystems, believes that most advances are going to revolve around the needs for simplicity and reliability.
Operational simplicity is a common need among the industry representatives we spoke to. “It’s no secret that the associates available today may not have the experience—or the desire—to work in the corrugated-box business and build a career,” Biller acknowledges. “Because of that situation, we’ve had to get more creative about how we help people operate our equipment.”
That has led to a more user-friendly human-machine interface (HMI) that Biller describes as “essentially a big iPad, because that’s what today’s new workforce is accustomed to using.”
The company is also focused on making everything as intuitive as possible, from the operation to the diagnostics to the maintenance.
Of course, whenever ease of use and the need to fill gaps in user expertise are discussed, AI is never far behind. “I absolutely expect to see innovations coming—sooner rather than later—based on AI,” Biller says. “For example, it may be as an aid to problem-solving or configuration for a particular job. You might ask the AI, ‘I’ve got a multicolor job based on this. How would you best run that?’”
Burgess is on the same page, believing AI will be increasingly integrated into the anilox manufacturing process. “I think it will optimize the [anilox] engraving to be absolutely spot-on,” he says.
But it may go even further, helping to transform acceptable printing into much-improved printing. “In my opinion, a good printer can take most anilox rolls and produce a good print job,” Burgess says. “The problem is that, these days, there are very few true printers. There are a lot of machine operators who know how to push buttons. But they’re not printers. That’s simply the world we live in, due to labor shortages and this constant merry-go-round of people in, people out.
“I don’t have any doubt that AI will be able to get into the process and help to fill in some of the gaps to produce good print jobs,” Burgess adds, “because it’s not all about the anilox. You’ve got to have the right ink, the right plate, the right sheet to print to. Everything has to be in sync. AI will impact everybody’s business in some way, shape, or form.”
Finally, Callif points to the potential for user-facing AI for training as well as color management. “We want to offer more training opportunities for the box printers out there, so when they have new hires, they can put them through the training courses to ensure they have a strong foundation,” he says.
That training could be supported by AI. “Later, if someone has an issue or concern—maybe a job comes up that requires expertise about something they don’t typically do—they can get an on-demand AI tutorial or even go through the course again,” he adds.
Callif believes AI integration with the company’s color management software also will be a big help. “In the past, if a printed color failed to match the target color, someone with knowledge and experience would need to know how to adjust the colors to get it to pass,” he says. “Even with that experience, the color might require multiple adjustments, which leads to longer press downtime and added cost. AI will improve the press uptime and reduce cost as the software will tell you exactly how to adjust the color to get a perfect match the first time.”
An Ever-Improving Workhorse
Taken together, recent advances within the flexo space make the case for why flexographic printing remains such a strong fit for AICC members, delivering real improvements in quality and efficiency. As customer expectations rise and labor challenges persist, the ongoing attention to flexographic innovation suggests that this proven workhorse will continue to deliver well into the future.
Robert Bittner is a Michigan-based freelance journalist and frequent BoxScore contributor.
