Flexographic printing system providing controlled feature characteristics

A flexographic printing system including a print module comprising:

• a plate cylinder on which is mounted a flexographic printing plate having raised features defining a pattern including one or more features to be printed on a substrate;
• an impression cylinder that is configured to force the substrate into contact with the flexographic printing plate;
• an ink reservoir containing an ink and including one or more ink recirculation ports;
• an anilox roller having a patterned surface for transferring a controlled amount of the ink from the ink reservoir to the flexographic printing plate;
• an imaging system for capturing an image of the pattern printed on the substrate;
• and
• an ink recirculation system including:
• an ink recirculation line that is connected to the ink recirculation ports of the ink reservoir;
• a solvent replenishment chamber containing solvent;
• a metering pump for pumping a controlled flow rate of solvent from the solvent replenishment chamber into the ink recirculation line thereby providing replenished ink;
• a control system for controlling the flow rate of solvent provided by metering pump;
• and
• a recirculation pump for moving ink through the ink recirculation line and returning the replenished ink to the ink reservoir;
• wherein an image captured by the imaging system is analyzed to determine a feature characteristic of the one or more features of the printed pattern, and wherein the control system controls the flow rate of the solvent provided by the metering pump responsive to the determined feature characteristic, wherein the feature characteristic is a line width.