ABSTRACT
Elastomer image carriers are widely used in the printing industry and they are associated with most of the high speed volume printing processes such as offset lithography, flexographic and with lower speed pad printing. One of the key requirements for high quality printing is understanding the deformation of the image carrier during ink transfer. This chapter investigates the validity of a general first-invariant model, adapted to one loading case and describing deformation during other loading cases. A constitutive law for silicone rubber is required as an input concerning material behaviour in finite element analysis simulations. The constitutive model will exactly reproduce the test data and will give a reasonable approximation in other modes of deformation. ABAQUS have implemented the general first invariant material model, called the Marlow model, in their general purpose finite element code. The model is not as accurate as the Ogden model but it is much easier to use.
