Flexographic printing review
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First, introduction
At the end of the 19th century, the British used a rotary rubber plate printing machine to print simple trademarks, paper bags and print on packaging paper. Because of the use of aniline dyes for ink production, it was called flexographic printing. Soon, it spread to Europe and spread to the United States in the early 20th century. Through the improvement of inks, printing machines and dryers, printing of simple patterns and characters on cellophane began to be recognized by the society. Around 1940, the United States invented an anilox roller, which greatly improved the quality of printing.
In 1952, at the printing conference held in Stockholm, Sweden, the name of flexographic printing was completely denied, and participants agreed to change to Flexography. The meaning of the discussion at that time was that because the photosensitive resin had sprouted, the appearance of polyethylene and polyester, and the carrier for the substrate increased greatly, the application of Flexography was flexible and could be suitable for printing for various purposes. For this reason, the domestic translator literally translates into flexographic printing without knowing its background. It has been passed down and is still in use today. In the first half of the twentieth century, after the application of transparent non-absorbent packaging material cellophane, its application expanded rapidly, involving polyethylene and various synthetic resin films, as a printing method for packaging materials, laid the foundation in Europe and the United States.
Second, the status quo of flexible printing in Europe and America
The US water-based printing market share accounts for about 65%. The proportion in Europe is about 36%. Japan is only 3%. Although Japan does not have as many flexible printing equipment as Europe and the United States, why is there such a big gap? The first is because the values of the packaging are different. The so-called flexo printing is one type of letterpress printing, and a soft version is used. Simply put, it is a stamp of a roll. This is inferior to the accuracy of gravure printing, but it is inexpensive and easy to operate. But in Japan, what people are asking for is not a little stain and color difference, quite beautiful packaging prints. In Europe and the United States, it is not a problem, and it is still a good idea to take out the exhibition. It is this difference in values that has led to the very different status of flexible printing in the two places.
Secondly, the use of chemicals in Europe and the United States is quite strict, and the method of controlling the total amount of the industry is implemented. The total amount of restrictions does not refer to a single company, but to the entire industry. For printing, not only gravure printing, but all types of printing companies are included. For example, after a new printing company is built, it cannot be started without the right to use it. It must be transferred or purchased from other companies that have the right to use before it can be produced. This has led to the emergence of a large number of environmentally friendly flexible printing companies in Europe and the United States. In addition, since Japanese printers have not adopted the autonomic restrictions on the use of chemicals such as toluene and MEK, it is difficult to enter the regulated European and American markets.
Third, the development of Japanese flexible printing
Japan introduced this technology from the early twentieth century to print corrugated paper, paper bags, etc., unlike Europe and the United States, it has not been used in soft packaging materials and cartons at first, because it is not satisfied with the quality of flexographic printing. Gravure and offset printing technology has met domestic demand, and flexible printing has not been well popularized in Japan, and has almost stagnated in the past 20 years. With the continuous improvement of flexographic printing technology, gravure and offset printing have been caught up in environmental protection and printing quality, which has attracted more and more attention from the Japanese printing industry. Therefore, in recent years, flexographic printing has developed by leaps and bounds.
In the past 10 years, flexible printing has become the mainstream printing method in Europe and America. In the flexo market in Europe, the printing of cardboard boxes is growing at a rapid rate of 4 to 8% per year. At the same time, in the field of flexible packaging printing, there is also a clear tendency to shift from gravure printing to flexible printing. Japan has also gradually recognized the advantages of flexible printing in terms of environmental protection and production efficiency, but its enthusiasm for use is far less than that of Europe. Especially for those who pay attention to the printing reduction effect, many people still think that the effect of flexible printing is not as good as offset printing and gravure printing. But in fact, with the advancing of flexible printing CTP and the emergence of a flexible printing machine with a toothless transmission structure, substantial progress has been made in improving the precision. With the arrival of a new round of printing equipment update cycle, a large number of newly introduced flexible printing equipment provides hardware protection for the future development of flexible printing technology in Japan.
Fourth, the scope of application of flexible printing
More and more companies are trying to differentiate their products through the colors of the packaging, so that people are increasingly demanding the degree of printing. Whether it is uneven, flexible, and thick printed carrier, flexible printing can exert its advantages in color reproduction.
The flexible printing is directly printed on a printing carrier by an anilox roller to a water-based ink or UV ink on a high elastic resin relief having a certain thickness. Therefore, the flexible printing is highly adaptable to materials having poor surface smoothness (such as corrugated paper) and to films, cloths, and nonwoven fabrics. And the multi-color (such as 8-color) printing of the stretchable film and film has a good performance in terms of color reproduction. At the same time, flexible printing is very suitable for thin and uniform coating printing, and it is possible to further improve the precision by overlapping coating various resins and medicines. In recent years, with the advancement of materials used in flexible printing and printing processes, fine color printing products can be manufactured by high-line printing. Needless to say, the stable display of small characters, even the level of expressiveness has also been significantly improved. For example, the number of printed lines of 150 lines can represent a level of 2 to 98%.
Fifth, what kind of material can be printed on flexible printing?
The most suitable print for flexible printing should still be corrugated cardboard. It is generally believed that about 80% of the corrugated board on the market is printed by flexibility. A major feature of flexible printing is that it uses a soft plate. Up to now, the 7 mm thick rubber (resin) plate is generally used for flexible printing, so that the influence of the uneven surface of the material like corrugated cardboard on printing can be avoided. In addition to corrugated cardboard, it can be said that flexible printing is most suitable for materials with poor smoothness such as non-woven fabrics and paper napkins.
Due to the above-mentioned prints, the printing accuracy requirements are mostly only about 65 lines, so many people have the feeling that flexible printed products can be seen as long as they can be seen, and there is no requirement for printing quality. However, recently, flexible printing is not limited to those printing materials that are difficult to print. As with offset and gravure, this new printing method is increasingly accepted by traditional printed materials.
At present, it is not only packaging materials such as corrugated paper, paper bags, shopping bags, wrapping papers, but also paper containers such as cosmetics and snack boxes, and liquid beverage paper containers such as milk bags. Flexible packaging materials such as snack noodles and snacks, diapers and rice bags are all used for flexographic printing. Packaging materials, paper bags, and labels that have been used for a long time in the commercial and medical fields, paper napkins, non-woven fabrics, magnetic tapes, bellows, etc., are also used for flexible printing. In fact, not only is the corrugated board aspect, the flexible printing method is gradually becoming optimistic in the field of flexible packaging.
Flexible printing For printing materials with high smoothness (printing materials that do not require high softness of the plate), a relatively thin plate can be used, for example, 1.14 mm to 1.70 mm, and 150 lines or more can be printed. Some can even achieve 200 lines of printing accuracy.
Sixth, flexible printing is "mother's choice"
From destroying and polluting the environment to caring for "people" and "earth", as people's awareness of environmental protection increases, flexible printing can fully comply with the requirements of laws and regulations in this regard.
Although flexible printing can use a variety of printing inks such as water-based inks, UV inks, solvent inks, etc., flexible printing in Europe and the United States is highly recognized because of the use of environmentally friendly water-based inks. In some direct human-contact prints, especially food and pharmaceutical packaging, flexible printing has gained an overwhelming market share. At the same time, because the amount of ink used is small, the amount of residual solvent is also small, and it is also particularly suitable for the printing requirements of food packaging. In addition, since aqueous inks use alcohol-based solvents, there is no problem in terms of product safety.
In 2002, Saitama Prefecture of Japan promulgated environmental regulations, and various printing plates were the subject of regulation. Chiba Prefecture, Tokyo and other places are also preparing to introduce corresponding regulations. With the recent increase in national environmental awareness, the environmentally friendly flexo method is more worthy of our expectations.
Seventh, unparalleled high productivity
Another advantage of flexible printing is its high productivity. The flexible press can complete the integration from roll paper to post-processing at an unprecedented speed. With this, the flexible printing press can achieve continuous processing without interruption, including post-printing processing, thereby greatly improving production efficiency. Recently, multi-variety and small-volume printing has gradually become a trend, and flexible printing is in line with this trend. At the same time, because it is produced in an integrated way, it is more advantageous in terms of quality control.
When we see the finished product, we often hear such a sigh. "Is this really a soft-printed product?"
In recent years, the thickness of corrugated cardboard has also become thinner and thinner. There was a fine corrugated paper slightly thicker than plain paper. The direct printing on corrugated board makes the advantage of flexible printing more and more attention. For those who are engaged in food-related cartons (folding boxes) and flexible packaging, and those who try to differentiate their products through the color of the outer packaging, be sure to try flexible printing.