Packaging carton printing process development

Printing is an important process in the post-processing of corrugated cartons. For a long time, corrugated cartons have been widely used as the primary method of transporting and packaging, which has led to the printing process remaining at the stage of simple line and text printing, and has not been able to achieve rapid development.

However, with the continuous development of the packaging market, the single delivery function of the carton is gradually changing to the sales function, and the consumers’ purchasing mentality and aesthetic concepts are also changing; the continuous growth of exported products is also forcing the domestic carton production to internationalisation, which requires higher and higher requirements for post-printing processing on the one hand, and environmental protection performance of the products on the other hand. Tile carton is responsible for product delivery, product display and promotion of the two missions. Their colours are becoming more and more brilliant, and the printing of pictures is becoming more and more sophisticated, so that they can attract customers’ interest and influence their purchasing desire. This requires the corrugated carton to satisfy the strength of the excellent appearance of the printing quality, multi-colour colour printing gradually become the direction of the development of the carton printing in the future.

Introduction of Carton Printing Process

At present, China’s corrugated carton printing methods are diverse, the primary offset printing, flexo direct printing, flexo or gravure pre-printing, screen printing, and in recent years has just risen in the digital printing methods. Ink flexo printing for corrugated cartons occupies the primary shopping mall of carton printing with its advantages in plate material, ink, printing pressure, printing power, etc. Each printing method has its own advantages. Each printing method has its own advantages and disadvantages and suitable scale of printing, according to the actual situation and the characteristics of the carton products to select the appropriate printing process.

Carton offset printing process

Offset printing has a simple plate making process, low cost, fast speed advantage, is now the most widely used direct printing skills, in the printing of books, newspapers and magazines, paper packaging printing has always occupied a dominant position. The graphic part of the printing plate and the blank part are almost on the same plane. When printing, the printing plate is first supplied with water to dampen the blank part of the printing plate, and then coated with ink, and the principle of oil and water repulsion is used to transfer the ink to the rubber blanket, and then to the substrate to complete a printing process.

Offset corrugated box printing is divided into two methods: offset direct printing and direct printing. The direct printing method is to print the corrugated box face paper first, and then use a single machine to re-laminate the corrugated. Offset printing products plus the number of lines up to 200 lines / inch, the picture is exquisite, stable quality, high quality. ps version of the plate is simple, but also can be laminating, varnishing and other appearance finishing process, in the current advanced sale of packaging carton printing accounted for a considerable portion of the share.

Offset printing skills, although more sophisticated, fast printing speed, but the method is not suitable for cardboard linkage production line, product production power is low, the process is messy, long cycle. Because the offset printing process to fountain solution, will increase the moisture content of the original paper, improper control is also prone to overprinting forbidden faults. Coupled with offset printing pressure, printing format is limited and other factors, can not satisfy the needs of high-volume carton production.

From the point of view of the cardboard processing technology, offset printing after the process of laminating, but also due to pressure and colloid left too much moisture, so that the carton of flat compression strength, adhesive strength and other skills indicators are difficult to meet the requirements of senior products on packaging. In addition, there is no relatively environmentally friendly ink used in offset printing, which is another obstacle to its use and implementation.

The development and use of micro-corrugated products is the development trend of the carton industry in the future, and offset printing is the best method for its printing and processing. The direct offset printing process for corrugated cartons is now more sophisticated abroad, and the corrugated cardboard can be put directly into the special offset printing machine for printing. The process can ensure the formability of the carton, but also to complete the delicate surface paper printing, but the printing machine requirements are higher, and more expensive, for a longer period of time will not be in the domestic small and medium-sized enterprises to promote the use of.

Carton flexo printing process

Flexographic printing skills using flexible photopolymer plate material, the graphic part of the protrusion, the blank part of the concave, the choice of scraper, anilox roller ink transfer short ink printing method, belonging to a letterpress printing process.

Flexographic carton production process is also divided into flexographic direct printing and pre-printing two methods. Direct printing is the use of water-based ink directly on the corrugated cardboard for printing, now widely used in China’s carton printing.

Flexo printing has the advantages of large format, many colours and high quality. The maximum width of wide-format flexo printing machine can reach 2.5m ~ 2.8m, satellite flexo printing unit can print 6 colours together. Flexographic selection of different screen printing embodiment of the picture, can make the dot delicate, colourful, strong consistency. In addition, the flexo printing method is light pressure printing, and is less destructive to the strength of corrugated board. The use of water-based ink printing, lower prices and green, suitable for export products as the use of packaging. The method can be linked production, printing, slotting, creasing and other processes can be completed at a time, with the first offset printing after the lamination of the