Special printing technology and materials

At the beginning of special printing, it was closely linked with packaging printing. Through the classification of packaging prints, we can clearly see that most of the production methods of packaging printing belong to special printing. Therefore, both packaging and special printing are blended from each other in terms of concept and practice. In recent years, with the advancement of science and technology and the growth of various types of specialized requirements, special printing technologies have developed unprecedentedly and penetrated into various fields of packaging and printing, thus forming a huge market.

According to 2005 survey data from “It Strategies”, the total value of the global printing industry is US$702 billion, of which the total value of packaging and printing products is US$325 billion, accounting for 46% of the total value of the printing industry. In Asia, the annual output value of the packaging industry is 148 billion U.S. dollars, with an increase rate of 8% to 12%. In China, this trend is even more obvious. According to statistics in 2004, the annual output value of packaging printing is RMB 98.1 billion, which firmly holds the first place in the market structure of the printing industry with a share of 36%. This shows that packaging and decoration printing is an important force that cannot be ignored in the printing industry.

In this era of rapid development of information technology, traditional commercial printing, publishing and printing bear the brunt of the impact of new media represented by the Internet. The gradual emergence of online publishing and e-reading has a certain degree of substitution for people's traditional reading habits. Although this imperceptible influence may not be able to set off big waves in the short term, the trend is still quite obvious.

In contrast, the packaging and printing industry is much less impacted and at the same time can benefit from the technological revolution in the digital age. So it can be said that the future of printing lies in packaging printing. Packaging prints are mainly divided into the following categories: hard packaging, corrugated packaging, flexible packaging, folding cartons, paper bags, labels, metal cans, hygiene product packaging, multilayer kraft paper bags, plastic containers, and glass containers. It is not difficult to see from such a large number of categories that this industry is involved in an extremely wide range and is closely related to our daily lives.

In order to better serve this rapidly growing industry, equipment and equipment manufacturers have invested a lot of money and manpower to develop more valuable technical solutions. Only in this way can we meet the requirements of diversity and individuality in today's society. More importantly, only by constantly developing new technologies can we find new profit growth points for the industry, so as to produce high value-added products.

Application and Development of Special Printing Technology

All along, in the field of packaging and printing, special printing has occupied an unshakable position.

Inkjet printing

Inkjet printing is a highly efficient special printing method that can be applied to the packaging industry production line to quickly print production dates, lot numbers, and bar codes. Since ink jet printing belongs to pressureless printing and uses a wide variety of inks, it has a wide range of substrates and can be a variety of packages. This undoubtedly provides a great deal of freedom for the packaging production line. At present, there are many application areas for inkjet printing that are not known. How to use inkjet printing technology is undoubtedly a hot issue of technology. As long as we use it well, we believe it can bring us unexpected results.

Digital technology continues to advance, and inkjet printing has also developed rapidly. Some technical problems have been solved perfectly. This has made a qualitative leap in the quality of inkjet printing products. At present, some high-end inkjet printing products are approaching the level of traditional printing in terms of tone levels, sharpness, and color saturation. Some of its inherent advantages have also been further enhanced. Its printing speed has been accelerated and printing accuracy has improved. In combination with the database, inkjet printing is fully capable of performing variable data printing, which brings good news for differentiated, personalized production of packaged printing products. If the latest JDF production standards are adopted, inkjet printing equipment can also be easily integrated into the digital production process of the entire printing plant to achieve better equipment control and achieve higher production efficiency. The two main features of inkjet printing are "print on demand" and "personalization." These two characteristics can meet the new demand emerging from the packaging market. Nowadays, narrow-tape packaging printing lines equipped with digital printing units are common, and digital printing machines can be produced in line with die-cutting equipment and finishing lines to achieve higher quality and faster turnaround speeds.

At present, compared with traditional large-scale printing equipment, ink-jet printing equipment has lower cost, more convenient use and maintenance, and can win future production capacity through relatively small investment. It is undoubtedly a powerful weapon for producing high-value-added products. At the same time, the application of a large number of inkjet printing equipment in packaging and printing also provides favorable conditions for the standardized production of packaged printing products.

2. Security printing

It can be said that in the field of packaging and printing, security printing has a vital role. If the general product needs a significant product identification, then many high-end products will have to have a complete anti-counterfeiting system. This is the needs of the manufacturers and the needs of consumers. Therefore, anti-counterfeit printing is widely used in the printing of packaging and decorating products. With the continuous improvement of people’s brand awareness and the increase in the protection of intellectual property rights, it is believed that there will be great Market prospects. The current prevailing situation is that many ordinary printing manufacturers do not have the ability to prevent counterfeit printing, so they have to outsource the orders. In many cases, this order is more profitable than a mere printing order.

Common anti-counterfeit methods include: laser holographic anti-counterfeiting, special ink anti-counterfeiting, plate making and printing process anti-counterfeiting, special paper security. At present, the first three types of anti-counterfeiting methods commonly used in packaging and decoration printing. Using laser holographic anti-counterfeiting technology, packaging products not only have an intuitive anti-counterfeiting effect, but at the same time exquisite printing patterns shine in the sun, such as rainbow color erosion, to attract consumers' attention, therefore, this technology is very suitable for packaging printing . The use of special ink anti-counterfeiting technology is a low cost method. Because in general, it does not require the addition of additional equipment, and the transformation of existing printing processes is not very large. There are also many products using this anti-counterfeiting technology. This technology is a good way to increase the added value of printed products, because it has less investment and it is effective. The use of anti-counterfeiting technology in the plate making and printing process is a comprehensive anti-counterfeiting method. This technology is also born of people's demand for high-quality packaging products. This anti-counterfeiting technology utilizes a variety of printing equipment for integrated use, multiple printing processes infiltrate each other, and various processes are combined with each other, especially the introduction of some unique special printing methods. All this makes the final product has a strong anti-counterfeiting capabilities. But at the same time, it also increases the production cost and the production complexity. The larger-scale printing factories are more handy when applying this technology. Of course, using this technology will challenge the printing plant's production level. This requires the printing plant to have high-stability and high-precision printing equipment, complete quality control and management system, and experienced skilled technicians. These are powerful guarantees to increase the added value of products.

In some places, special traditional printing techniques have not been lost. Because there are few people who have mastered the technology, these special printing technologies have gradually become one of the means of production for security printing. For example, woodcut printing prints, due to its age and scarcity, Become a kind of personalized high value-added printing products with national characteristics.

As a branch of special printing, in the fight against counterfeiting and counterfeiting, anti-counterfeiting printing technologies are changing with each passing day, and some new technologies even surpass traditional printing, such as radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. It is also unrealistic to require the printers to master these core technologies within a short period of time. However, as a printing factory, we must keep up with the development of the times and grasp the technological trend. Only in this way can we win a broader market and have the ability to continue to develop.

3. Label printing

Stickers are commonly used materials in the packaging and decorating industry. In China, the current trademark printing is mainly based on adhesive embossing. With the diversification and gentrification of trademarks, other printing methods are gradually added. In this field, the advent of advanced technologies has provided advanced solutions for printing systems. Narrow web presses with modular design and gearless transmission have been put into use. All leading equipment manufacturers provide hybrid production lines for labels and packaging printing. This hybrid line can be equipped with offset, emboss, flexo, silk screen, gravure, digital printing units and hot and cold foil units, making the hybrid line ideal for single-pass production of packages, cartons and labels. . This combined printing method also provides an anti-counterfeiting feature for the label. With the capability of label printing, printing houses can win more profits by improving the printing materials, deepening the printing process, and innovating printing methods, and developing label products with composite functions.

4. Metal products printing

Metal printing is a special printing method for printing materials. Because of its high cost, it is generally used for packaging of luxury goods, so its profit is also higher. At present, metal printing substrates are gradually increasing and new materials are emerging. No matter which kind of material is used, the printing process is different from that of paper printing. Offset printing, transfer printing, screen printing, and flexographic printing are mainly used in China. Some customers even require follow-up work such as molding after printing. This requires the printing company to adjust the printing process in time according to different printing materials, introduce simple mechanical processing equipment, and formulate a reasonable production process. Only in this way can customer satisfaction be met.

5. Paper packaging and printing

This area accounts for most of the share of packaging and decorating printing, but also the application of special printing technology in less areas, but in this area we can also use innovative ideas to create more value. Due to its earlier development, carton printing and cardboard printing technologies have become more mature. Most printing companies have the production capacity of this product. This area is a world of flexo printing. At the Shanghai All In Print show, some manufacturers pointed out that flexo printing is the future of packaging printing. Whether or not this formulation is accurate is a matter for the time being, but this trend is very obvious, although the current domestic situation is not the case.

An important factor affecting packaging printing is the trend of reduced print. Short-lived work is increasingly becoming the mainstream of orders. In this particular field, the flexographic printing process is also rapidly developing, thanks to the appearance of new photosensitive resin plates that support higher screen lines, enabling perfectly aligned CI printers and advanced digital flexo printing system. These factors make the quality of flexo reproduction better and the dot gain reduced. In the past 40 years, the development of flexographic printing has undergone tremendous changes. It was once considered as a simple process that is only suitable for printing plastic bags. Today, it can be used in offset printing, gravure printing, letterpress printing, and screen printing in the fields of packaging and label printing. Comparing with the United States. It is predicted that in the next few years, flexographic printing will occupy 38% of European packaging printing market share and 76% of North American packaging printing market share. By then, the proportion of flexo printing in packaging printing will reach 39%, while offset and gravure will drop to 36% and 15%, respectively.

In carton production, traditional sheet-fed offset printing is being challenged by flexo printing (on-line milling, finishing and sticking box units). The large-format, high-productivity printing machine, the slot machine, dominates the production of corrugated cartons. It requires the use of white backing paper and high-line screen printing plates to produce cartons, and prints high-quality color images to produce more cost-effective products.

Application and Development of Special Printing Materials

1. Special printing materials

In recent years, new achievements in the field of material research continue. Paper manufacturers are not