Looking forward to the 21st century packaging printing in China

First, the larger trend of packaging printing

Since the reform and opening up, various industries in China have made brilliant achievements. With the spring breeze of reform and opening up, China's packaging and printing industry has also made considerable progress. At present, there are more than 6,000 packaging and printing enterprises at or above the county level in the country, employing more than 740,000 people. In 1995, China's packaging and printing industry achieved an output value of more than 20 billion yuan, and it increased at a rate of about 15% per year. Now, China's packaging industry has basically changed the backward situation of "first-class products, second-class packaging and third-class prices".

In addition to the function of protecting products, packaging can also increase the added value of products and play a role in promotion and communication of product information. With the improvement of people’s living standards and the ever-accelerating pace of modern life, the role of packaging in various industries will become increasingly important. Today's society has developed to the extent that every commodity must be packaged, and the packaging must be printed. With the continuous development of the social economy, people’s consumption concepts have undergone drastic changes. People pay more and more attention to the packaging of goods while paying attention to the quality, performance, and price of the goods. People's demand for commodities has gradually changed from a single, practical concept in the past to a new concept that is aesthetically pleasing, practical, and forward-thinking; fierce market competition also requires that products must have a strong visual impact on the market.

In the 21st century, China will become a strong country in socialist modernization. With the rapid development of the national economy, the packaging and printing industry will surely have a brilliant future.

  、 包装 、 、, packaging and printing technology tend

The 21st century is an era of diversification. China's packaging and printing technology also tends to be diversified. With the development of commodity economy and science and technology, printing processes such as flat, convex and concave, and special printing processes will develop, and the characteristics of different printing processes and the scope of printing will be different. They will coexist for a long time, complement each other, and be printed in packages. There is a place in it.

The 1st lithographic printing will still maintain its position as the main force.

Since lithography is simple in plate making, the plate is light and the edition is rapid, it can quickly produce large-format color prints with good quality and overprinting, and is especially suitable for printing products with pictures and texts. In recent years, the printing technology has been continuously integrated into high-tech, sophisticated, and cutting-edge technologies such as optics, chemistry, and computer technology, reflecting contemporary high-tech levels.

 Modern packaging printing uses a large number of color photo originals, color separation, screening and printing through lithographic printing processes, and the reproduction of products is true and beautiful, with high levels of color and gradation.

In the past 20 years, the use of lithographic printing in packaging and printing has grown by leaps and bounds, from about 10% of the original printing output to about 50%, which replaced the dominant position of letterpress printing in packaging and printing. For a long period of time in the future, it will still maintain its position as the main force.

  2  Toppan Printing Technology will have a breakthrough.

 Toppan Printing is a traditional printing process in China. It has a good technical foundation, low investment, and fast implementation. It is suitable for packaging and printing of small batches, small format, and special specifications. It does not require strict requirements for paper and ink materials, and can be adjusted in large format. The pressure and the control of the ink volume make the printing quality reach a more ideal level and a wide range of application.

In the past 20 years, due to the development of lithographic printing and other new printing technologies, the proportion of letterpress printing in total printing output has dropped from about 70% to less than 40%. Traditional text lead platooning technology has been gradually phased out. The main application of packaging and printing is the copper-zinc plate process (for bronzing, embossing, etc.), and the flexographic process is representative of the new generation of relief printing process.

Flexo printing uses photosensitive rubber plate as printing plate, which is simple in plate making, low in cost, soft and flexible, and has good transferability to ink and has good printing quality. As the use of alcohol as the main solvent volatile drying ink, light pressure printing methods, so its wide range of printing materials, especially suitable for packaging and printing. Flexographic printing equipment usually uses reel-type materials, which can achieve continuous printing operations from single and double sided printing to coating, laminating, bronzing, die cutting, waste recycling, winding or slitting, and greatly shorten the printing cycle. , Reduced costs.

The printable range of  flexo printing is equivalent to gravure printing, but the investment amount is only about 30% of gravure printing. Since the 1980s, flexo printing has gradually developed into a mature printing process, which is currently very developed in Europe and the United States (especially the United States). In the United States printing industry, the proportion of flexo printing has been increasing, and it has become the second largest printing method after the plain printing. The development of flexo printing in the United States is mainly concentrated in the packaging field, accounting for about 70% of packaging printing. The flexographic printing in European countries also has great development. The application of flexo printing in China is still in its infancy, but the trend is very good. It is predicted that by entering the 21st century, there will be a major breakthrough in the application of flexographic printing in China's packaging and printing, which may account for 10% to 20% of the printed output value.

3 gravure printing will continue to develop steadily.

The advantages of gravure printing have always been high-speed, wide-format, low-power and low-downtime prints that can achieve the best results on various substrates.

 Gravure quality is good, and supporting equipment is perfect. It has a wide market for mass printing. In China, gravure printing has not formed scale production, and simple products accounted for the main position. In recent years, with the introduction of foreign advanced multi-color gravure printing machines and electronic engraving and platemaking equipment, the traditional gravure process has fundamentally changed, and it has begun to be used in a large number of plastic film and cigarette package packaging printing, forming a certain scale. The gravure output value accounts for about 10% of the national total print output.

Screen printing will be more active.

As a representative of stencil printing, screen printing has always been dominated by the production of workshops in our country, and it is believed that it can only produce lines and large-colored products, which is not acceptable. Today, with the revolution in technology, modern screen printing equipment, materials and processes have injected new vitality into the screen printing process.

 Although there are many deficiencies in the screen printing process (such as screen printing resistance and limited tone expression), it is also active in all walks of life because it has some advantages that other printing methods do not have. As the field of application continues to expand, screen printing has become more and more important for people. It is known as a universal printing method capable of printing anything except air and water.

漏 The printing method of screen printing determines the ink layer thickness, bright color, and strong hiding power. The ink thickness of screen printing can reach (30 ~ 100) μm (the thickest of all printing methods), and embossed decorative effect is strong. Due to the use of elastic flexible screens, screen printing can be applied to the surface of substrates of various materials and shapes.

 Screen printing can use coarser, different solvent inks and coatings to adapt to the printing of different types of substrates, such as screen printing decorative materials used only for paper packaging: glazing coatings, UV imitation gold etched inks , foaming inks, fragrance inks, pearlescent inks, liquid crystal inks, phosphorescent and fluorescent inks, crystalline glossy inks, and UV “ice flower” inks.

 Screen printing and electrolysis processes, bronzing processes, calcining processes, and plastic molding processes can produce different types of artwork. Screen printing is widely used in the printing of large-scale advertisements and posters, printing and dyeing of textiles, printing of decorative patterns on ceramics and glassware, and printing of various plastic products, signs, printed circuit boards and various handicrafts.

The packaging industry is the main service target of the screen printing industry. More and more goods are packaged and screen printed. Some people even believe that silk screen printing will compete with flexo printing and gravure printing in the field of printing and decorating.

According to reports, the sales volume of US silk screen printers increased at a rate of 12% per year in the 1970s. Some authoritative sources predict that the proportion of screen printing in the world in print production will increase from 5% in the 1980s to 10%. In China, at present, the output value of screen printing accounts for less than 2% of the total printing output value. There is still great potential to be tapped and the development prospect is broad.

Third, the development trend of packaging and printing technology

  1    技术 技术 技术 。

 The main current international printing topics include direct platemaking technology, direct printing technology, non-horizontal printing technology, and FM screening technology.

 Most foreign multi-color offset presses use the ink remote control, automatic version, automatic register device, and control and fault diagnosis of the entire production process. The domestic start is relatively late, and more efforts are needed in the research and development of a new generation of integrated multicolor offset presses. In addition, the quality of domestic printing equipment (paper, ink, photosensitive materials, blankets) also needs to be improved.

   2      。 。 。 。

签订 Following the signing of the 1995 Montero Convention, the control of the emission of CFC chlorofluorocarbons has become increasingly strict, and solvents such as trichloroethane and tetrafluoroethylene have been limited.