The development trend of printing

Development status

With the development of commodity economy and science and technology, printing processes such as flat, convex, concave, and special printing processes will also develop. Different printing processes have different characteristics and suitable printing ranges, and they will coexist and complement each other for a long time, occupying a place in packaging printing.

1. Flat printing will continue to maintain its position as the main force. Flat printing has the advantages of simple plate making, lightweight plate materials, and fast plate loading. It can quickly produce high-quality and accurate large format color printed products, especially suitable for printing products with rich graphics and text. In recent years, flat printing technology has continuously integrated high, precise, and cutting-edge new technologies such as optics, chemistry, and electronic computer technology, reflecting contemporary high-tech levels.

Packaging printing

2. There will be a breakthrough in letterpress printing technology. Relief printing is a traditional printing process in China, which has a good technical foundation, low investment, and is suitable for packaging printing in small batches, small formats, and special specifications; The requirements for paper and ink materials are not strict, and the printing pressure and ink volume can be adjusted for a larger format to achieve ideal printing quality, with a wide range of applications.

3. Gravure printing will continue to steadily develop. The advantages of gravure printing have always been high speed, wide width, low consumption, and low downtime, which can achieve priority effects on various printing materials.

4. Screen printing will become more active. As a representative of hole printing, screen printing has always been mainly produced in workshops in China, and is considered to only produce products with lines and large color blocks, which cannot reach the pinnacle of elegance. In today's era of technological revolution, modern screen printing equipment, materials, and processes have injected new vitality into the screen printing process.

With the rapid development of science and technology, packaging printing technology continues to combine with emerging technologies and edge disciplines, innovating and breaking through in strategic high-tech fields, and many new technologies have emerged, such as electrostatic printing, inkjet printing, and digital printing technology. From the current trend of printing technology development, China's printing machine manufacturing technology is rapidly moving towards high automation, linkage, intelligence, digitization, networking, and multi color and multifunctional directions.

Modern cutting-edge technologies have been widely applied in new printing equipment, including computer remote control, automatic plate loading, digital control of automatic alignment, automatic fault monitoring and display, axis free technology, servo technology, ion spraying technology, fiber optic transmission technology, etc. The application of harmonic transmission technology in printing machines has the advantages of multi tooth coupling, large transmission ratio, small volume, light weight, large bearing capacity, high transmission efficiency, and stable transmission rate, which is conducive to improving the speed and working accuracy of printing machines, and achieving a good balance between printing production efficiency and product printing quality.

Development trends

1. The Development Direction of Flat Printing Technology

The main flat printing topics in the world today include direct plate making technology, direct printing technology, horizontal printing technology, and frequency modulation and screening technology. Most foreign single sheet multi-color offset printing machines use ink remote control, automatic plate loading, and automatic registration devices to control and diagnose faults throughout the production process. The domestic market started relatively late, and there is still a need to increase efforts in the research and development of the new generation of integrated multi-color offset printing machines. In addition, the quality of domestically produced printing equipment (paper, ink, photosensitive materials, rubber cloth) also needs to be improved.

2. The Development Trends of Flexible Plate Technology

After the signing of the Montreal Convention in 1995, the emission control of CFCs became increasingly strict, and solvents such as trichloroethane and tetrafluoroethylene were also restricted from use. There are two development paths to make flexible printing meet environmental requirements. One is the development of new environmentally friendly plate washing solvents, and the other is the development, manufacturing, and practicality of water developed flexible plates. At the same time, thinning of plate materials will also be the development direction of flexographic printing.

3. The development trend of gravure printing technology.

Gravure printing equipment has high investment and plate making costs, making it only suitable for long-term products. Due to the presence of toxic substances in gravure ink, its application is limited. If these shortcomings can be addressed, gravure printing will have some development. In recent years, the development of gravure printing technology has greatly shortened the preparation time for gravure printing and improved its competitiveness in the medium and short plate live market. It is expected that the future development of gravure printing will mainly focus on: full body automatic gravure printing drum electroplating processing; The application of non film electronic engraving technology; The development of photopolymer thin roll gravure technology and surround gravure wrapped on the drum; Digital rapid prototyping; Gravure printing machines will develop towards multi-purpose, multi-color, high-speed, automation, linkage, and environmental protection; Realize water-based gravure printing and effectively control the solvent residue of solvent ink.