Analysis of three printing process features commonly used in carton printing

Carton products commonly used printing process, mainly offset printing, embossing (flexo) and gravure printing three processes. Each of these three forms of printing has its own advantages. Therefore, according to the actual conditions of the factory and the characteristics of the products, the trade-offs between the advantages and disadvantages, and the selection of suitable processes for printing production can reduce the printing production costs and improve the printing production efficiency. The print quality of the product.

1, offset printing process

Offset printing process includes multi-colored group, multi-functional web and flat paper models. The former has a high production speed and can be applied to pre-printed cartons with large print production volume and relatively fixed product structure. The corrugated board on the production line is directly bonded to the board. The latter can print at speeds of up to 10,000 sheets per hour and is suitable for printing carton products produced in medium and small batches. The printing specifications of the tissues can be flexible.

Flat-panel paper machines can also print thin corrugated cardboard directly. The overprint accuracy is higher than the former, and the quality is relatively stable. Offset Printing Process Printing ink layer is more suitable for overprinting or overprinting of fine line prints and multicolor mesh prints, with high dot resolution, rich layer layout, clear boundaries of tone, soft color tone, and good print reproduction effect. Edition production is convenient and fast, and the production advantages of plate loading, school plate operation, and plate making cost are low, which are widely used in the printing of color preprinted carton face paper.

2, gravure printing process

The gravure printing process also has the separation of web and flatbed printing presses, and there are also many types of color groups and functions. The printing process has the characteristics of higher printing plate printing speed, faster printing speed, and the like.

Due to the thicker ink layer of the gravure printing ink, the printing ink is plump and full of three-dimensional, the layout printing is rich in layers, and the texture is strong. The drying speed of printing ink is faster, so it is more suitable for printing products with large area and thick ink. The gravure printing process can be suitable for printing on-site, spot-colored line versions, and can print fine textured prints. Compared with offset printing, flexo printing, or screen printing, this process is least likely to produce printing color differences. The quality of printing products for carton boxes is Most stable and optimal. Because the gravure printing plate is a steel roller material processed by electroplating, electric carving and other processing processes, the plate making process is relatively complicated, the plate making material and the cost are also relatively expensive, and the plate changing operation is also troublesome. Therefore, it is particularly suitable for batch production. Larger preprinted carton printing production can better reduce production costs.

3, flexographic printing process

The flexographic printing process is also divided into multi-color printing machines for webs and flat-sheets. Among them, the flat-bed printers have a pre-printing machine for printing facial paper, and direct printing of corrugated cardboard can be performed, and slitting can be completed online. Indentation, slotted unit. The flexographic printing process is compatible with the advantages of letterpress, lithographic, and gravure printing processes. Since the printed board is flexible, the printing pressure is much lighter than other processes, the printing pressure is lighter, the printing ink is thicker, the print is clear, and the printing plate is resistant to printing. The main features of high rates.

The process can not only print glossy paperboard with good surface gloss, but also print rough paperboard; it can print non-absorbent materials, and can also print paperboard with strong absorption; it can print thin papers and thick papers. Suitable for printing fine mesh prints, line prints, and line prints or field prints for spot colors. Flexographic printing plates are divided into rubber and resin plates. The main materials of rubber plates are natural rubber and synthetic rubber. The plate has three kinds of hand engraving, laser engraving and casting plate making. When using a rubber plate, attention should be paid to its printability. For example, from the standpoint of the ink receptivity, ink receptivity, covering power, and reproducibility of rubber, water-based inks are used for printing, and natural rubber plates are used in comparison with synthetic rubber plates. Material is better. Butyl rubber plates are better suited for solvent-based inks.

When using nitrile rubber plates, solvent inks should be avoided as much as possible to prevent the plates from being corroded by solvents. The rubber plate also has the drawback of being easily deformed and cracked, so it is not suitable for printing delicate products. The photosensitive resin plate making process is very simple, its plate making speed is much faster than the manual engraving and casting rubber plate, the plate loading operation is convenient, the ink transfer performance of the printing plate is good, and the printing quality is relatively stable. The media has good tolerance, can reproduce finer high-light dot layer, can reproduce more than 2% of the dots and print 150 lines of textured version.

The expansion rate of the solid resin plate is much smaller than that of the rubber plate and the liquid resin plate, and therefore it is more suitable for making a multicolor overprint for an anilox plate and a line plate. However, solid resin plates are relatively expensive and their production costs are relatively high. Therefore, it is more suitable for printing bulk packaging products.