How to establish the status of the world packaging

How to establish the status of "world packaging and printing center" (III)

how big is the flexible packaging market

due to the rapid development of China's commodity economy, China's packaging and printing industry is developing at an average annual growth rate of 12% in recent years. Among the top 100 printing enterprises in China, 75 enterprises include packaging and decoration printing in their businesses. After the State Council issued the revised "printing industry management regulations" to relax the restrictions on the opening of packaging and printing to the outside world, the development of packaging and printing is even more powerful

paper, plastic, glass and metal are the four pillars of the modern packaging industry, of which paper and plastic are the most widely used and the consumption growth is the fastest. In the following fields, plastic flexible packaging plays an increasingly important role

(1) food packaging: such as instant noodles, milk powder, tea, snacks (snack food, etc.), beverages, candy, cooking bags, pickled vegetables and meat products, frozen fish and shrimp, condiments, etc

(2) packaging of cosmetics and washing supplies: such as shampoo, moisturizer, washing powder, etc

(3) pharmaceutical packaging: PTP aluminum foil, SP composite film, aluminum foil blister, traditional Chinese medicine tablets, capsules, pills, powders, etc

(4) seed packaging: various crop seeds, vegetables, flower seeds, etc

(5) packaging of industrial products: such as clothing, knitted underwear, packaging of women's and children's products, New Year pictures, wall calendars, posters, etc

plastic flexible packaging consumes less raw materials, has low cost, and has the advantages of convenient carrying and use, so it has strong market competitiveness, especially in the use of plastic bags instead of hollow packaging containers

process characteristics of gravure printing in flexible packaging printing

bopp film (in order to achieve this point, polypropylene biaxial tensile film) is one of the indispensable printing materials in packaging and printing when plastic flexible packaging sensors should be in the off load state. Offset printing is the most important and familiar printing method for the general public. It is mainly used for printing paper-based materials. Printing on plastic film has many limitations. There are two main printing methods of flexible packaging printing at home and abroad, gravure printing and flexographic printing

gravure printing has a thick ink film and a large amount of ink. The printing process of RMB is mainly gravure printing. Gravure ink is full and three-dimensional. Among various printing methods, the quality of gravure printing will be the best by 2030. The number of additional lines can be very high, and the quality is very stable. The quality control of gravure printing is relatively simple. From the perspective of printing stability, gravure printing is better. Gravure printing can print extremely thin materials, such as plastic film

gravure has a long service life and is suitable for mass printing. For flexographic printing, once the printing volume exceeds 100000, the stability is difficult to guarantee, but gravure printing can still print well, and the quality is very consistent. Gravure cylinder can be used many times, while flexo printing plate can only be used once or twice, and then it must be remade. The same gravure cylinder can print both line version and color version. In flexographic printing machine to print eight color live parts, if gravure printing is used, generally only six printing units are needed

the preparation time for machine adjustment is also related to the prepress cost. Gravure printing is a relatively simple printing method with short preparation time for machine adjustment. If you don't change the color ink, you can complete the machine adjustment preparation of each printing unit in minutes. It takes 15 minutes for each printing unit to change ink, wash ink and prepare for machine adjustment. Flexographic printing requires high operation technology and plate loading accuracy, and there are many printing units that need to be adjusted, so the downtime is long and the cost is high. The adjustment preparation time of narrow width gravure printing machine is much shorter than that of flexographic printing machine

gravure printing uses a metal drum, and flexo printing uses a flexible plate, which produces differences in printing tension, printing plate resistance, point transfer performance, original types and many other aspects. At present, gravure printing is mostly used in the printing of plastic flexible packaging in China, and flexographic printing accounts for a small proportion. At present, only a few manufacturers in China use flexographic printing machines to print plastic films, such as Dalian Danuo, Shanghai Ziquan, Shanghai tiger, etc. the printing products are mainly concentrated on plastic packaging of food, cosmetics, sanitary products and so on

process characteristics of flexo printing in flexible packaging printing

the main advantages of flexo printing are:

1. The equipment structure is simple and easy to form a production line. In offset printing, gravure printing, flexo printing and other printing equipment, flexo printing machine is the simplest structure. Therefore, the price of flexographic press is relatively low, and the equipment investment of printing enterprises is small. At present, the vast majority of flexo printing machines are drum rotary printing, which are combined with bronzing, glazing, cutting, slitting, die cutting, indentation, bag making, punching, windowing and other processing processes to form a production line, which greatly improves labor productivity. Of course, gravure printing also has such a function, while flexographic printing has a relatively low cost and is easier to produce multiple varieties and small batches

2. Wide range of applications and substrates. Flexographic printing can print almost all printed matter and use all substrates

3. Water based inks are widely used. Among the three printing methods of offset printing, gravure printing and flexo printing, only flexo printing is widely used at present. Non toxic and pollution-free, its small size is beneficial to environmental protection, and is especially suitable for packaging and printing. From the perspective of food hygiene, flexographic printing is the most suitable packaging and printing process, and it is also the natural choice of drug packaging. In some developed countries, regulations have even been formulated that flexible printing must be used to make drug packaging. Therefore, we should call on the whole society to care about the development of flexographic printing, which benefits mankind, and hope that all food and drug manufacturers will actively promote and use flexographic printing

4, fast. At present, the speed of domestic satellite flexo printing machine is generally 250 ~ 300 m/min, while that of gravure printing is generally 150 ~ 200 m/min. the speed of the two printing methods is different, which has a great impact on the production efficiency. From this point of view, flexo printing is more dominant

flexographic printing integrates the characteristics of flat, concave and convex printing processes in the aspects of prepress negative production, ink supply mode and printing method. Softness of printing plate - similar to the contact between offset blanket and substrate during printing, with good ink transfer performance; Flexo is a relief plate, which has the characteristics of embossing, water free, direct printing; The ink layer is separated only once; Flexographic printing machines all adopt circular multi-color rotary printing, and the machine equipment and printing speed are basically the same as those of gravure printing. Flexographic printing combines the advantages of the three and rises rapidly, so it has become a new printing process with a rapid growth rate. Printing 150 lines, 6 ~ 8 colors or more high brilliant color prints is very suitable. The ink layer thickness of printed matter makes the product have the characteristics of rich layers and bright colors, which is especially suitable for the requirements of packaging and printing

under the same conditions, the quality of gravure printing is the best, but due to the complexity, long cycle and high price of gravure plate making, its benzene containing ink pollutes the environment, these two problems affect the development of gravure printing. In particular, the reduction of large quantities of prints and the large increase of prints requiring low prices for short editions have continuously lost the market for gravure printing. Experts at home and abroad believe that the proportion of gravure printing in the printing field will decline year by year, even in the field of packaging printing

the low cost of flexo printing has formed a broad consensus abroad, but there is still debate in China, mainly because most of the flexo printing machines, flexo plates and flexo inks used in domestic flexo printing rely on imports, resulting in higher costs. The cost of offset printing and gravure printing in this regard is relatively low. With the localized production of flexo printing equipment, plates and raw and auxiliary materials in China, the cost will be gradually reduced