Application of the hottest flexographic printing i

The application of flexographic printing in folding cartons

folding cartons are usually formed by folding and combining thin cardboard after die cutting and indentation. Before loading goods, this kind of carton can generally be folded into a flat plate for stacking, transportation and storage, which can save storage space and transportation costs. The folding carton used as the outer packaging of goods should not only have sufficient strength and excellent pattern decoration design, but also have excellent surface printing quality. Only in this way can we ensure the transportation safety of commodities, beautify commodities, improve the added value of commodities and promote the sales of commodities. At present, folding carton is a kind of commodity sales packaging container with the widest range of applications and the most structural changes. It has been widely used in food, medicine, electronic products, cosmetics and other packaging fields

at present, folding carton printing is a hot spot for flexo printing and offset printing to compete for market share. In the past, because the printing quality of flexo printing could not be compared with offset printing, it was generally only suitable for the field of flexible packaging and corrugated box printing. For example: paper or plastic flexible packaging, trademark label printing, etc. Flexographic printing is often excluded from the folding carton printing market. However, with the improvement of equipment and technology, the quality of flexo printing has greatly improved. At the beginning of 1998, European and American printing enterprises tried to introduce flexographic printing technology into the folding carton printing market, and found that the high-end surface decoration effect created by flexographic printing brought infinite development space in the field of folding carton printing. The market share of flexographic printing in the field of folding cartons is rising. In the folding carton printing market, flexographic printing has the following obvious advantages:

flexographic printing allows multiple processes to be operated online. Printing, die cutting, slitting, laminating, molding and other processes can be combined together, so as to realize the front desk input of reel materials and the back desk output of finished product packaging boxes

flexo printing does not require high surface smoothness of printing materials. People can use cheap recycled paper or paper plate to print folding cartons, which can save about 20% to 40% of the cost of raw materials

the water-based ink used in flexo printing is non-toxic and pollution-free, which is conducive to environmental protection. Therefore, flexographic printing is a green printing method, which meets the current needs of environmental protection

reduces the probability of bad printing. Someone once made statistics and found that the probability of broken pieces in flexo printing folding cartons was 8% lower than that of other printing processes

generally, the production process of folding carton is to print first, then process after printing, such as bronzing, polishing, and finally die-cutting. A large number of semi-finished products will appear after each production process. Before entering the next production process, these semi-finished products need to spend a lot of time and energy to transport and deal with, and provide spacious space to store these semi-finished products. This means that a lot of time, energy and space will be occupied. At the same time, the previous process usually becomes the root cause of the fault or error of the next process. If there are errors or errors in the printing process or in the post press processing process, the finished products will be scrapped. The online system of flexographic printing machine integrates the production process of folding carton, which involves printing, polishing, die cutting, indentation and packaging, shortening the production process, reducing the probability of factory errors and reducing the production cost

in Europe, there are folding carton manufacturers that provide folding cartons and instructions to pharmaceutical companies. When providing a drug kit to a pharmaceutical factory, the drug instructions are usually placed in the kit. Flexographic printing machine usually consists of packaging filling machine and online system. This online system can directly print a considerable number of folding cartons and product manuals, and then fill them. Using this system can not only save raw materials, but also save 80% of the labor force in the whole production process (including the number of operators and quality inspectors). At the same time, people don't have to worry about whether the packaging matches the content. In the past, when packaging drugs, people usually equipped the machine identification system on the box pasting machine to automatically identify the identification bar code on the pasted paper of the box, so as to ensure that the package matches the content. Now, if the online system is adopted, this mismatch can be completely eliminated

in the traditional printing process, due to the possible loss of semi-finished products caused by the printing process, an appropriate amount of large-scale printing will be carried out during printing. This will cause a great waste of materials and time. If the online system is adopted, the printing process is only determined according to the needs, thus reducing waste

the proportion of flexographic printing in the field of packaging printing is increasing year by year. According to statistics, the market share of various printing processes in the field of packaging and printing in the United States in 2000 was about: offset printing 40%, flexo printing 32%, gravure printing 18%, and others 10%; This year, the market share of various printing processes is as follows: offset printing 36%, flexo printing 39%, gravure printing 15%, and others 10%. In the United States, the share of flexographic printing in the field of folding carton printing was 34% in 2000, rising to about 50% this year. In China, flexo printing is in its infancy, and the market share is still very low (about 3% ~ 5%). However, we can believe that with the rapid development of packaging and printing technology, flexographic printing technology in China will certainly become an important member in packaging and printing as in Europe and the United States. Flexographic folding cartons will have a broader development space in China

concerns of folding carton manufacturers

more and more packaging manufacturers in the world use highly mechanized, highly automated and online equipment for folding carton printing operations. It can be said that so far, there is no industry with such a high concentration of production capacity as the folding carton printing industry, and this development trend is inestimable

according to statistics, at drupa 2000, there were about 700 folding carton manufacturers in the U.S. market, with an annual processing capacity of 5million tons of paperboard; There are about 1500 folding carton manufacturers in the European market, with an annual processing capacity of 4million tons of paperboard. From these two sets of data, we can see that there is still room for European folding carton manufacturers to expand production scale and improve production capacity

it is said that at the beginning, the annual processing capacity of the three largest folding carton manufacturers in Europe was between 200000 tons and 240000 tons, and their actual production capacity could exceed the annual processing capacity of 300000 tons. After Drupa2000, European entrepreneurs found the gap between them and their American counterparts. Therefore, while expanding the production scale and improving the production capacity, they are looking for a cheaper production method for folding carton printing, so as to reduce the cost of the whole production process. Flexo online printing system is the ideal choice

in fact, there are many successful cases of flexo online printing folding cartons. For example, in metong, Australia, France and Britain, they use online systems to make beverage packaging, bathing supplies packaging, chocolate packaging and cigarette boxes. The printing materials of these online systems are also extremely extensive, such as cardboard, paper, plastic and aluminum foil. Since Drupa2000, China has introduced many online systems and achieved great success. However, this is not suitable for such a large domestic packaging market. Moreover, these on-line systems have not been really promoted in China, but their long-term use will affect the application life of the internal electrical parts and transmission parts of the equipment. They are widely used, so all printers need to redouble their efforts

according to statistics, in drupa 2000, about 150 high-end multi-color flexographic printing machines were put into use in the United States, and about 30-50 such flexographic printing machines were put into use in Britain, France, Denmark and other European countries. Most of these flexo printing machines use online systems, and most of them use UV ink. People can't help asking: where is the profit margin of the flexographic machine online system? The printing pieces with a large number of prints are printed by the online system of flexographic press, which has obvious advantages. Otherwise, the advantages of flexographic machine online system are difficult to show. Someone has made statistics: for prints with a print volume of less than 50000, offset printing will have a lot of profit space, while using the flexible online system with huge equipment will have little or no profit; For the flexographic machine online system, the printing pieces with a printing number of 50000 ~ 1000 meters are still a small business, but the profit is still considerable; Flexographic printing machine online system will be an ideal choice for printing pieces with a printing number of more than 100000 meters

in terms of the current packaging and printing market, the prices of packaging products are getting lower and lower, and the profit margin of packaging and printing is also getting smaller and smaller. This is a golden opportunity for flexographic printing. Because flexographic printing is especially suitable for occasions with low printing accuracy and low price requirements. It is necessary to remind all packaging enterprises using flexographic printing that all prepress processes must be carefully checked before printing, and all production factors must match each other, such as flexographic printing plate, sleeve, embossing roller, flexographic ink and the printing materials used. Only in this way can we ensure the printing quality, create a cost-effective product volume to meet the needs of users, and effectively prevent the emergence of waste products

vitality brought by new technology

for the traditional offset folding carton printing process, the development of new technology is a useful supplement rather than a challenge. Using flexographic machine online production line to print and produce folding cartons has brought unlimited business opportunities and markets to carton manufacturers. These new technologies include the direct plate making technology (CTP Technology), the application of the new generation of roller technology and sleeve technology, the use of new flexographic ink system and independent transmission technology, which were mainly introduced at drupa95 printing exhibition

direct plate making technology is a very important front-end technology for narrow width rotary flexographic press used in folding carton production. It can ensure the development of plate making technology in a simpler and faster direction, shorten the whole plate making operation time, make the replication effect of gradient range and fine level more competitive, and greatly improve the quality of printing plates. Due to the direct plate making technology, the printing plate quality is greatly improved. Because flexographic printing ink is generally fluid, the use of flexographic printing technology will produce a thick and solid ink layer and glazing layer on the surface of the print

the printing format of narrow width rotary flexographic printing machine is generally between 150-60 mm. The computer receives the data, processes it, and draws the curve. This flexographic printing machine can be assembled in the form of a single unit as needed with a printing machine that covers other ways of product design. It can also be mixed and assembled with other post press processing devices, such as glazing, window pasting, film coating, bronzing and coding devices. In this way, people can combine the flexographic press with other equipment in the form of modules to form an online production line according to their needs, so as to reduce the transportation and storage of semi-finished products between printing and post press processing, so as to reduce production costs

the printing format of medium width rotary flexographic printing machine is generally between 600 ~ 800mm. This kind of printing machine is generally unit type, up to 10 units, and is equipped with a large drying device