According to statistics, more than 150 flexo printing production lines have been introduced in China, and more than 7 domestic printer manufacturing plants have begun to produce narrow-width unit type flexographic printing presses. Flexo printing has been accepted by more and more domestic packaging and printing industry.
Flexographic printing was originally referred to as flexographic printing and originated in the United States in the early 1920s because the use of aniline dye inks was toxic and not developed.
Since the mid-1970s, due to the advancement of the material industry, especially the introduction of polymer resin plates and cermet anilox rollers, the development of flexographic printing has made a qualitative leap, and it has become the fastest growing worldwide. The printing methods, especially in the United States, have been fully developed. Both the printing press manufacturing technology and flexo printing application technology represent the highest level of flexographic printing.
Most of the merchandise packages seen in the US domestic market are almost all flexographic products. According to statistics, in the United States, the market share of flexographic printing has accounted for 70% of the flexible packaging printing field; 85% in the label printing field; 98% in the corrugated box printing field; and 25% in the carton printing field. In Europe, the market share of flexographic printing in the above-mentioned packaging sector also accounts for 60%, 35%, 85% and 3%, respectively.
In the United States, even 20% of newspapers are printed in flexo. This is enough to prove the vitality of flexographic printing.
Flexographic printing can achieve high precision, but due to the embossing method and the reason of anilox roller transfer, the high-precision screening image quality still cannot be compared with offset printing. In the field of high-grade pictures and books and periodicals printing, the glue method is undoubtedly superior to flexo printing, but in the field of packaging and printing, flexographic printing has advantages that are not comparable to offset printing.
First of all, ink consistency is the most basic requirement for packaging printing. Offset printing ink ink balance and ink emulsification problems, therefore, ink consistency has become a major problem of offset printing, and this is the strength of flexo printing. Secondly, the packaging design has a large number of color blocks and icons. In addition to the ghosting problem, the ink layer is not thick enough. When it comes to a large-area spot color block, it has to be printed twice or even three times. The flexographic printing ink The thickness of the layer far exceeds offset printing.
In addition, if there are few positive opening products in the packaged products, the first printing will be more or less scrapped by the offset or four-platform offset press, and the edge printing may be achieved by the flexographic printing method. Precisely reserved for the millimeter, so as to save a lot of paper.
In addition, the use of offset printing of packaging products, printing after the need for glazing, die-cutting and other post-press processing, both the need for equipment and labor, and the use of printing, post-press processing integrated flexography machine, you can complete all at once The technology not only saves equipment investment, but also reduces the consumption caused by the turnover between processes, shortens the production cycle, and its efficiency cannot be compared with offset printing.
The flexographic printing plate can usually reach 1 million to 3 million times the printing force, and the offset printing plate can only be printed with hundreds of thousands of printings. Therefore, although the flexographic plate making cost is higher, the printing plate is also resistant to the printing force. For long-lived jobs, the average plate-making cost of a single product is also flat.
Finally, in addition to paper, other printing media should not use offset printing, even if the paper also has a certain range of thickness limitations. In the flexo printing machine, plastic films and metal foils can be printed, and the thickness of paper printing is also relatively large.
Flexographic printing has been widely used in various types of packaging and printing products. In the United States, stickers are the main product of flexographic printing presses. Flexographic printing presses can perform almost all label printing processes, such as die cutting, embossing, waste disposal, glazing, laminating, unwinding and then flip printing and re-adhesion. In addition, the printing of packaging cartons is another major source of business for flexographic printing presses.
In addition to labels, products suitable for narrow-format flexographic printing presses include paper packaging, folding cartons, stationery, paper bags, paper cups, paper cutlery, and wallpapers for various types of products. Products suitable for wide format flexo presses include: all kinds of plastic film, vacuum aluminized film, pure aluminum foil packaging products.