Offset combination printing technology creates charm packaging

The dominance of offset printing in the fields of publishing, printing and commercial printing is still difficult for other printing methods to be shaken. This is not only due to the fact that offset printing technology has a long history, it has developed relatively maturely, production specifications and quality are guaranteed, and workers’ The operating level has also reached a higher average value; more importantly, offset printing products are of high quality and can satisfy the duplication of most products, and the offset printing technology has high flexibility, with medium, long and short editions. Parts are suitable. It is these advantages of offset printing that make offset printing in the field of packaging and printing can fully display their talents.

Offset printing remains popular in the packaging and printing market. Another important factor is the flexible combination of offset printing and other printing methods - offset printing + sheetfed gravure printing, offset printing + screen printing, offset printing, and gold sweeping. By avoiding weaknesses and complementing each other's strengths, even people who love offset printing find more reasons to love it, and they also provide more means for individuals to express their individuality for packers who are keen to pursue new differences.

With the acceleration of people's pace of life and the improvement of living standards, the requirements for the packaging of goods are constantly increasing, new products are emerging in large numbers, and the pace of product renewal is also greatly accelerated. This means that people will have higher and higher requirements for the packaging's exquisiteness and packaging printing quality. The variety of packaging will greatly increase, while the volume will change little or even decrease.

This trend of change requires flexible high-quality printing methods to be adapted. In other words, there is a need in the market for a printing process that has a short production cycle and can print fine color images. For this, offset printing is not only a good choice, but also an inevitable choice on many occasions. Especially in China, offset printing has become very popular. Offset quality has become the default standard for many packaging users and consumers; and offset printing machines have a large amount of possession, and have a very good hardware environment (equipment, consumables, spare parts supply...) And software conditions (technical talent, maintenance, ...). It can be said that whether it is from the use of the seller's resources, or from the buyer's needs, the development of China's packaging and printing market can not be separated from offset. The large number of imported multi-color offset presses in recent years has also confirmed this. According to several large offset press suppliers in the world, most of the multi-colored offset presses introduced in China in recent years are used for packaging printing. Especially in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions, although many large and medium-sized packaging and printing companies have introduced gravure gravure presses and flexo presses, they still use offset printing as one of their main projects or for printing small and medium-sized batches. Products, or combined with other printing and finishing processes, are used to print quality packaging.

The ability of offsets to reproduce subtle levels of imagery is impressive, especially as the gradient transitions are very soft and smooth, which is unmatched by any other printing method. However, the offset printing ink layer is relatively thin, and there are ink ink balance and ink emulsification problems. Therefore, even if it is printed on two occasions, the ink color is full, uniform, and consistent. In the packaging design, the application of solid color patches and spot colors is very common. Many packaging users usually use four-color printing and spot color printing in order to make their products unique. At the same time, they need to print gold ink and silver ink. Pearlescent or glossy. For such packaging, if pure offset printing is used, the effect of spot colors and printing or printing silver will be greatly reduced. This undoubtedly gave the offset a problem.

In order to make up for the lack of offset printing, in recent years, the combined printing process of single-page gravure printing and offset printing has been highly respected. This combination printing process utilizes the advantages of thick gravure ink layer and stable ink, printing large areas of spot and spot colors, gold and silver, pearl color blocks, and even producing a variety of imitation metal etching effects; the use of offset printing layers with smooth and smooth features Print halftone images and gradient patterns. The two printing methods have complementary advantages and complement each other.

Compared to offset presses, the advantages of the sheet-fed gravure press are:

1. Transfer pigments 4 times more than offset printing, printing ink layers are thick, ink is bright and full.

2. Non-wet press printing, there is no risk of ghosting, there is no problem with ink balance and ink emulsification.
3. When printing a large area of ​​color patches, there will be no problem of ink color change and no "ghosting" will appear.

4. The ink layer dries quickly, and subsequent processing can be performed immediately after printing, which can greatly shorten the production cycle.
5. Do not need to spray, there is no accumulation of ink, there is almost no ink fluctuations.

6. Printing materials that are difficult to print on offset presses, such as vacuum aluminized paper (gold cardboard, silver cardboard), metal foil, etc., can be successfully printed with a single concave machine.

7. Gold and silver ink, fluorescent ink, pearl ink printing effect is good.

8. Can print imitation metal etching effect.

Compared with the web gravure printing machine, the sheet-fed gravure printing machine is very suitable for printing medium and small batches of high quality prints. Its main advantages are:

1. The printing job is very flexible, and the pre-press preparation time and the replacement time are short.

2. Accurate overprinting, its overlay accuracy and sheetfed offset press exactly the same.

3. Little waste. Under normal circumstances, after the adjustment of one or two prints, it can be printed normally, with almost no waste.

4. Flexible equipment configuration and low investment.

According to statistics from suppliers of sheet-fed gravure printers, the current installed capacity of domestic sheet-fed gravure printing presses has reached about 200 units, and most manufacturers have a sheet-fed offset press. Their purpose in choosing a sheet-fed gravure press is to cooperate with existing offset presses to achieve a glue-and-concave combination for high-quality, low-cost printing. At present, more than 90% of the plastic and concave bonding processes are used for high-grade cigarette pack printing.

Screen printing is thick and ink full and praised. In particular, the development and application of various imitation metal etching inks have made silk screen printing an important position in the high-end paper packaging market in China. However, screen printing is difficult to reproduce fine images, and the production efficiency is low, and the rejection rate is also high.

The combination of offset printing and screen printing is the preferred process for many high-end packagings, especially fine packs. One of the most successful practitioners of this process is Zhejiang Meinong Screen Printing Co., Ltd.

Zhejiang Meinong Screen Printing Co., Ltd. is a modern large-scale joint-venture packaging and printing company, mainly engaged in the packaging design and printing of mid-to-high-end boutique cigarettes, medicines and other products, with screen printing as the main feature, and the main focus of boutique cigarette packs. Object. In addition to multiple automatic screen printing machines and semi-automatic screen printing machines, the company is also equipped with Heidelberg four-color offset printing presses and Chen Henry sheet-fed gravure printing presses.
Prior to the configuration of the sheet-fed gravure press, Zhejiang Meinong used offset printing and screen printing. Part of field printing relies on screen printing, and some are printed twice with an offset press. Pearlescent ink and spot color inks are mainly printed by screen printing. At the same time, special finishing effects such as frosting, ice flower, crystal, etc. rely on silk. Web printing to achieve. The use of screen printers for large-area on-site printing and pearlescent printing is aimed at obtaining the thick ink color required for fine packs and ensuring that the ink is uniform and uniform.

With the expansion of production scale, taking into account the efficiency and efficiency issues, after comparing various printing methods, they think that gravure printing is inferior to screen printing in terms of color effect, but it is better than offset printing and consistent in ink color. Sexuality is also easier to control, especially when printing spot colors. As a result, they also purchased a sheet-fed gravure press, mainly for field printing and pearl printing.

Because the cigarette packs they print are generally high-end and above-grade products, the price is relatively high, and of course, the quality requirements are relatively high. Therefore, the special finishing effects such as frosting, ice flower, and crystal are still realized by screen printing.

In addition to professional screen printing companies such as Zhejiang Meinong, many domestic packaging and printing companies that have offset presses are equipped with screen printing equipment. However, due to different business volumes and different process requirements, the number of screen printing equipment may be different. To be less, the configuration is lower, and some are even equipped with some simple screen printing tools. However, there is no doubt that the marriage of offset printing and screen printing can create high profits for enterprises, and it is therefore very popular and rapidly popularized.

Because of the preference for metal texture, people are unconsciously using gold and silver when they are pursuing packaging grades. Therefore, a series of metal production effects such as anodized aluminum hot stamping, gold printing, silver printing, and gold sweeping are born. Printing and postpress processing.

Compared with printing gold and printing silver, the metal texture of the gold-sweeping printing product is much stronger, and the glossiness is high, and the finishing effect is good. Moreover, due to the relatively small installed capacity of the gold sweeper, the sweep gold prints still have better anti-counterfeiting effects.

Compared with electro-aluminum hot stamping, although the metallic luster of the gold scan product is slightly inferior, the gold-sweeping machine can be connected behind the offset printing machine and the gold-sweeping process can be completed online after printing. The production efficiency is high and the reject rate is low. The delicateness of offset printing images and the fullness of sweeping gold patterns give prints a noble and elegant style. The combination of offset printing and gold scouring has also given offset printing a new vitality.

In addition to the above-mentioned several kinds of combined printing processes, depending on the needs of packaging printing products and the company's own equipment configuration, offset printing can also be combined with various printing methods to form a variety of process solutions, bringing more highlights to the packaging and printing market.