Horizontal comparison of various methods of self-adhesive label printing
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China's current self-adhesive label printing methods mainly focus on letterpress printing, sheetfed offset printing also accounts for a certain proportion, and the proportion of flexo printing and other printing methods is small.
Depending on the suitability of the film label itself, flexo or gravure is undoubtedly the most traditional method of printing. Therefore, label printers that already have flexographic printing presses can generally print both self-adhesive labels and film labels. Can an enterprise that uses the letterpress printing or offset printing or screen printing as the main printing label realize the conversion of the substrate without replacing the equipment?
1. Embossing
The embossed printing self-adhesive label, the printing plate is a photosensitive resin relief, and the printing label has the advantage of full color of the ink, but now the grades of the letterpress printing equipment are quite different, and some are still using the round flat embossing machine, and some are generally used. Rotary embossing machines, some have adopted professional hatchback, satellite or unit type self-adhesive label printing machines, so they cannot be generalized during the transition.
Professional self-adhesive printing presses based on embossing have the ability to print film labels, but need to contact the supplier to replace some related parts, such as adding tension control system for servo motor control, adding thin film surface treatment unit, high-grade Some machines also add precision registration systems. In addition, the uv light source power should be properly adjusted.
For companies that use circular flattening letterpress printing to print self-adhesive labels, if you print a film label, you can change the photosensitive resin plate to a highly elastic flexo plate, using the water-based ink or uv ink suitable for flexo to change the properties of the ink. Adapt to substrate changes.
2. offset printing
Offset printing is the main way for label printing factories in China to print paper stickers. The characteristics of offset printing are fine graphics and rich layers, suitable for large-volume printing, and printing equipment can be used in one machine, which is suitable for the characteristics of the Chinese label market. However, sheetfed offset printing is not suitable for printing films that are not absorbent on the surface because film labels are mostly roll-to-roll printing and require volatile dry inks. Offset printing can be used to print thicker plastic materials, such as in-mold labels and label hangtags, but uv curing equipment must be added to the machine for a small fee.
3. Flexo
At present, the quality of flexographic prints is no less than offset printing, and even has its own unique place. The printing process has the advantages of simple machine structure, low cost, comparable printing quality to offset printing and gravure printing, and has the advantage of being thicker than the ink layer of the offset printing product. The flexographic printing uses water-based ink and uv ink, and does not pollute the environment.
However, due to the large elasticity of the flexographic plate, the tone reproducibility is different from that of the gravure and the ordinary letterpress. The high-light to mid-tone dot of the flexographic printing is enlarged larger, the printing contrast is small, the high-light layer is prone to fault, and the fine graphic is printed. When labeling, in order to compensate for the layer defects, the highlight part can adopt the FM network point, and the tone adjustment screen is called in the dark tone or the middle to improve the quality. Label printers without a flexo press can introduce a laminated narrow web flexo press dedicated to self-adhesive label printing, which is suitable for film label printing. Since the flexographic printing press adopts circular die-cutting, the die-cutting roller has high price and long production cycle, and is only suitable for the long-running work, and is not suitable for the characteristics of the domestic self-adhesive label short-running demand. However, it is an easy-to-transform label printing device that works in tandem with the film slitting, stitching, and sealing processes.
4. Gravure
Gravure printing uses short ink path inking system for ink supply, roll printing, high degree of automation, solvent-based ink, and rapid drying of the ink layer, which is the first choice for film printing. Generally, the gravure printing machine has a high speed, and the back end of many gravure printing machines is also provided with a drum die-cutting device, which can perform die cutting and indentation, and is suitable for printing various labels. However, due to the long gravure plate making process and expensive plate making, it is only suitable for mass production of labels.
5. Screen printing
Screen printing is the most widely used printing method for substrates. At present, many screen printing factories use low-cost screen printing equipment to undertake self-adhesive label and film label printing business.
The characteristics of the screen printing label are that the ink color is heavy and the three-dimensional feeling is strong, and the uv ink can be used to print the film product. In addition to a handful of rotary screen printing equipments that can handle roll-to-roll label printing, most screen printing equipments are semi-automatic flat screen printers, which can only print a single product. The overprinting accuracy is not high and is not suitable for the production line. Film label production equipment. The post-press processing technology should also pay attention to the corresponding changes in the post-press processing during the business transformation. For example, when printing the self-adhesive label, the post-press processing of the self-adhesive is divided into sheet processing and reel according to the application form of the label. Paper processing.