How to ensure printing color and clarity？

The answer is Flexographic printing technology.

The Advantanges of Flexographic printing includes, a wide range of printing materials, fast printing speed, high printing durability, easy operation, printing and post-press processing can form a linked production line, short production period and eco-friendly.

China's Flexographic printing technology has developed rapidly and is widely used in the fields of medicines, foods, cartons, soft-pack and plastic etc. But do you know how to improve the quality of Flexographic printing?

• Basic knowledge of printing

  Definition： In the national standard "Printing Technology Terminology", printing is defined as: the process of transferring the graphic information on the original to the substrate using a printing plate or other means. Traditional printing technology based on five elements: original, printing plate, printing ink, substrate, and printing pressure. With the development of science and technology, new technologies have emerged that can transfer ink or other adhesive colorants to substrates without pressure and printing plates, such as electrostatic copying and inkjet printing.

  
  

• Printing Classification：

  Ⅰ. Letterpress printing.

  Ⅱ. Lithographic printing. (also known as lithography or collotype printing)

  Ⅲ. Gravure printing.

  Ⅳ. Stencil printing.

  
  

  

  
  

• Advantages of flexographic printing on corrugated cardboard.

  Corrugated boxes play an important role in product packaging. As paper packaging is pollution-free, meets environmental protection requirements and has low cost, it is increasingly favored by merchants.

  The prosperity of the commodity economy and fierce market competition have also promoted the improvement of product packaging quality. Beautifying packaging has become an important means of marketing and promoting products. The printing quality of corrugated boxes has been increasingly valued by commodity manufacturers and consumers. With the continuous advancement of carton technology and packaging machinery, the scope of corrugated carton packaging is growing. It can not only package mechanical parts and electrical components, but also package motorcycles, washing machines, refrigerators, pianos, etc. As the demand for goods over 50 kilograms will increase significantly, the demand for heavy-duty corrugated packaging boxes such as five-layer and seven-layer corrugated boxes will also increase significantly. With the development of flexo printing technology, the printing of corrugated cartons has basically adopted flexo printing technology. According to records, 98% of corrugated boxes in the United States and 85% of Western Europe are printed using this technology. The printing trend of corrugated boxes is from single-color and two-color to multi-color screen printing, and from outer packaging (transportation packaging) to high-end sales packaging.

  

  Ⅰ. Flexo printing can print both solid and screen versions.

  The international market tends to use E-corrugated paper with white surface paper (coated white cardboard or 80g single-sided coated paper, offset paper) to print high-end corrugated color boxes with 100 p/in. Printing on various types of rough corrugated paper is generally below 80 lines/in, and 40~60 p/in are commonly used. When printing screened versions on kraft paper, it is generally not three-primary color printing, and the screen number should not exceed 60 p/in.

  Ⅱ. Flexo is flexible.

  The flexographic plate is soft and elastic. It can compensate for the thickness error and surface unevenness of the corrugated cardboard by its own compression deformation during the printing process, making the ink layer more uniform, thereby improving the printing quality.

  Ⅲ. Flexographic printing is a light pressure printing.

  Due to the corrugation, the corrugated board is unevenly pressed during the printing process. The high part of the corrugation is under greater pressure, while the low part of the corrugation is under less pressure. Sometimes, the printing plate cannot touch the low part of the corrugation, and the ink cannot be printed. Both offset printing and gravure printing cannot overcome this defect, resulting in serious corrugation marks. Flexographic printing is a light pressure printing. After the printing plate is compressed and deformed, it can better contact the corrugated board. The high part of the corrugation will not produce serious marks due to excessive pressure or even crush the corrugation.

  Ⅳ. Flexographic printing can use water-based inks.

  Flexographic printing uses a metal anilox roller ink transfer system and can use water-based inks. When printing corrugated boxes with water-based inks, the printing plate only needs to lightly touch the corrugated board, and the water-based ink will be almost completely absorbed.

  Ⅴ. The structure of the flexographic printing machine is simple.

  The area of ​​corrugated paper boxes is large, and the length of the paperboard can reach 2~3 meters. If offset printing is used, the equipment is large and difficult to operate and maintain. The flexographic printing machine has a simple structure, with four rollers forming a color group. The increase in the diameter of the roller can also improve the mechanical performance and stability. It is very convenient to install, adjust and clean the plate.

  Ⅵ. Able to form a linkage production line with other processing equipment.

  Due to its simple structure, the flexographic printing machine can be linked with other processes. Now most of the corrugated cardboard printing machines are combined with creasing, slotting, die-cutting, gluing, box making and counting devices to form a printing production line, which can directly print and form corrugated boxes in one go.

  
  

  

In short, the best way to print corrugated boxes is flexographic printing, which has been reached a consensus all over the world.