Application of flexo printing in folding cartons

Folding cartons are usually formed by folding and combining using thinner cardboard after die cutting and creasing. Before loading the goods, the carton can generally be folded into a flat plate for stacking, transportation and storage, thereby saving storage space and transportation costs. The folded carton that serves as the outer packaging of the product must not only have sufficient strength, excellent design of the pattern decoration, but also should have excellent surface printing quality. Only in this way can we ensure the safety of the transport of goods, but also play a role in beautifying the goods, increasing the added value of goods, and promoting the sale of goods. At present, folding cartons are one of the most widely used and most structurally changed commodity packaging containers. It has been widely used in packaging fields such as food, medicine, electronic products and cosmetics.

At present, folding carton printing is a hot spot for flexo and offset printing to gain market share. In the past, because the print quality of flexo printing could not be compared with offset printing, it was generally only suitable for the fields of flexible packaging and corrugated box printing. For example: paper or plastic flexible packaging, trademark label printing. Flexo printing is often excluded from the folding carton printing market. However, with the improvement of equipment and advancement of technology, the quality of flexo printing has improved greatly. In early 1998, European and American printing companies tried to introduce the flexographic printing technology into the folding carton printing market. As a result, it was found that the high-grade surface decoration effect created by flexo printing gave it unlimited room for development in the field of folding carton printing. The market share of flexo printing in the field of folding cartons continues to rise. In the folding carton printing market, flexo printing has the following obvious advantages:

Flexo can allow multiple processes to operate online. Can be printed, die-cutting, slitting, laminating, molding and other processes together, so as to achieve the front input roll material, the output of the finished product box.

Flexo printing requires very low surface smoothness of printing materials. People can use low-cost recycled paper or paperboard to print folding cartons, which can save about 20% to 40% of raw material costs.

The water-based inks used for flexo printing are non-toxic and non-polluting, and are conducive to environmental protection. Therefore, flexo printing is a green printing method that meets the current needs of environmental protection.

Reduced the chance of bad prints. Some people have done statistics and found that the probability of bad prints in flexo printing folding cartons is 8% lower than other printing processes.

The general folding carton production process is generally followed by printing, followed by post-press processing such as bronzing, glazing, and finally die-cutting. A large number of semi-finished products will appear after each production process. And these semi-finished products need to spend a lot of time and energy to transport and process before entering the next production process, and provide ample space for storing these semi-finished products. This means that there will be a lot of time and effort and a lot of space is occupied. At the same time, the previous process often becomes the source of failure or error in the next process. Whether it is in the printing process or whether there are errors or errors in the post-press processing will result in the rejection of the finished product. The on-line system of flexographic printing presses makes the production process of folding cartons as one, which involves printing, coating, die cutting, creasing and baling, shortening the production process and reducing the chance of factory errors. , Reduced production costs.

In Europe, there is a folding carton manufacturer that provides folding cartons and instructions for pharmaceutical companies. When a kit is provided at the dosing plant, the instructions for the drug are usually placed in the kit. Flexographic printing presses usually consist of an inline system of filling machines. This on-line system can directly print a large number of folding cartons and product instructions, which are then filled. The adoption of such a system not only saves production raw materials, but also saves 80% of the entire production process (including the number of operators and the number of quality inspectors). At the same time, people do not have to worry about whether the package matches the content. In the past, when medicines were packaged, people had to equip the folder-gluer with a machine identification system that allowed it to automatically identify the identification bar code on the sticker sheet of the box to ensure that the package matches the contents. Now if you use an online system, you can completely eliminate this mismatch.

The traditional printing process takes into account the semi-finished product loss that may be caused by the printing process, and it will be printed in a moderate amount when printed. This will cause great material and time waste. If an online system is used, the printing process is only decided on the basis of need, thereby reducing waste.

The proportion of flexographic printing in the field of packaging and printing is increasing year by year. According to statistics, in 2000, the market share of various printing processes in the packaging printing industry in the United States was approximately: offset printing 40%, flexo printing 32%, gravure printing 18%, and other 10%; this year, various printing processes accounted for The market share is approximately as follows: Offset 36%, Flexo 39%, Gravure 15%, Other 10%. In the United States, the share of flexo printing in the field of folding carton printing was 34% in 2000, and this year it has risen to about 50%. China's flexo printing industry is in its infancy, and the market share is still low (about 3% to 5%). However, we can believe that: With the rapid development of packaging and printing technology, China's flexographic printing technology will surely become an important member in packaging printing like Europe and the United States. Flexographic printing folding cartons will have more room for development in China.

Folding carton manufacturer concerns

More and more packaging companies internationally use highly mechanized, highly automated, online equipment for folding cartons. It can be said that so far, no industry has a high concentration of production capacity such as folding carton printing industry, and this trend is still inestimable.

According to statistics: At the time of Drupa 2000, there were approximately 700 folding carton manufacturers in the US market, with an annual processing capacity of 5 million tons of cardboard. In the European market, there are approximately 1,500 folding carton manufacturers with annual processing capacity. 4 million tons of cardboard. From these two sets of data, it can be seen that for folding carton manufacturers in Europe, there is scope for expanding the production scale and increasing the production capacity.

It is said that at the beginning, the largest three folding carton manufacturers in Europe were able to process paperboard between 200,000 and 240,000 tons per year, and their actual production capacity exceeded 300,000 tons per year. After Drupa2000, European entrepreneurs discovered the gap between them and their American counterparts. As a result, they are looking for a cheaper production method for folding carton printing while expanding the scale of production and increasing production capacity, thereby reducing the cost of the entire production process. Flexographic online system printing is the ideal choice.

In fact, there are many successful examples of flexo printing of folding cartons online. For example, in the United States, Australia, France and the United Kingdom, they use online systems to make beverage packaging, toiletries packaging, chocolate packaging and cigarette boxes. The on-line materials for these online systems are also extremely broad, such as cardboard, paper, plastics, and aluminum foil. Since Drupa2000, China has introduced multiple sets of online systems and achieved great success. However, this is incompatible with such a large packaging market in the country. Moreover, these online systems have not been promoted and applied in the real sense in China. Therefore, all printers need to redouble their efforts.

According to statistics, at the time of Drupa 2000, about 150 high-end multi-color flexographic printing presses were put into use in the United States, and about 30 to 50 such flexographic presses were put into use in European countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and Denmark. Most of these flexo presses use on-line systems and mostly use UV inks. People can not help but ask: Where is the profit space of the flexographic printing machine online system? Printing products with large printing numbers are printed on the flexo printing machine online system. The advantages of the online system are obvious. Otherwise, the advantages of the flexo online system are difficult to show. Some people have done statistics: The number of prints with a print size of less than 50,000 prints on open format will have a huge profit margin when offset printing is used. However, with a huge flexible online system, the profits will be minimal or even unprofitable; 50 000-1000 m prints are also small businesses for flexo printing systems, but the profit is still considerable; prints with print lengths greater than 100,000 meters are ideal for printing on flexographic systems. select.

As far as the current packaging printing market is concerned, the prices of packaging products are getting lower and lower, and the profit margin of packaging printing is getting smaller and smaller. This is a golden opportunity for flexo printing. Because flexographic printing is particularly suitable for occasions where the printing precision is not very high and the price requirement is relatively low. All packaging companies that use flexo printing must be reminded that all prepress processes must be inspected carefully before printing. All production factors must be matched with each other. For example: flexo printing plates, sleeves, anilox rollers, and soft fabrics. Printing inks and printed materials used. Only in this way can we ensure the quality of printing and effectively prevent the appearance of waste products.

The vitality of new technologies

For the traditional offset printing carton printing process, the development of new technologies is a useful supplement rather than a challenge. The production of folding cartons by using flexo printing machines on-line production lines brings unlimited business opportunities and market opportunities to carton manufacturers. These new technologies include the direct plate making technology (CTP technology), the application of the new generation of anilox roll technology and sleeve technology, the use of new flexographic ink systems, and independent transmission technologies, which were highlighted at the DRUPA95 print show.

Direct platemaking technology is a very important front-end technology for narrow-web flexographic printing presses used in folding carton production. It can ensure that the plate making technology develops in a simpler and faster direction. The entire plate making operation time is shortened, the reproduction effect of subtle adjustments on scales is more competitive, and the quality of printing plate Internet sites is greatly improved. Due to the use of direct plate making technology, the quality of the printing plate has been greatly improved. Since flexographic printing inks are generally fluid, the use of a flexographic process will produce a thick, solid ink layer and gloss layer on the print surface.

The printing format of the narrow-width rotary flexographic printing press is generally between 150-600mm. This flexo printing machine can be mixed and assembled with other types of printers as needed in the form of a single unit. It can also be mixed and assembled with other post-press processing devices such as: glazing, paste windows, laminating, bronzing, and coding devices. In this way, people can flexo printers in the form of modules combined with other equipment to form an on-line production line, reducing semi-finished product transportation and storage between printing and post-press processing, thereby reducing production costs.

The printing format of the medium-width rotary flexographic printing press is generally between 600 and 800 mm. This type of printing press is generally a unit type that can reach up to 10 units and is equipped with a large drying unit. Of course, the drying device can also be a UV drying device. This type of printer can realize double-sided printing, and can also be combined with other post-press processing equipment to form an on-line production line.

The printing format of the wide web flexo printing press is generally between 800 and 1700mm. The press has a satellite structure and is very flexible. People can also make improvements to their online systems as needed. The ideal combination is to combine the wide web flexo printing press with the round press rotary die cutting machine to form an online system. The system is highly automated and mechanized, and its production capacity is astonishing. The printing speed can reach up to 450m/min. However, using this online system requires a long enough live, otherwise it will be difficult to display its advantages.

Source: Shenzhen Printing Network