The printing process is roughly like this - first make the design documents, and then produce the film. Once the film is produced, it is posted on the lamp stand for inspection. If there are no problems, it is handed over to the printing room for printing and the PS is done. The version will be delivered to the printing workshop for printing! What happens after printing is a back-end process. If you are making corrugated boxes, you still have to cut the corrugated boxes, mount the corrugated boxes on rolling mills, then glue the boxes, pack them, and deliver them!

This is a process flow for general conventional operations, but there are also some special printing processes and technologies that are also provided to you. I hope it will be helpful to you.

Special printing process technology

1. Inkjet printing

Inkjet printing is an efficient special printing method that can be applied to packaging industrial production lines to quickly print production dates, batch numbers, barcodes and other content. Since inkjet printing is pressureless printing and uses a variety of inks, its substrate range is very wide and can be a variety of packaging products. This undoubtedly provides a great degree of freedom for the packaging production line. At present, there are still many application fields of inkjet printing that are not well known. How to make good use of inkjet printing technology is undoubtedly a hot technical issue. As long as we use it well, I believe it can bring us unexpected results.

Digital technology continues to advance, inkjet printing has also developed rapidly, and some technical problems have been perfectly solved, which has made a qualitative leap in the quality of inkjet printing products. At present, some high-end inkjet printing products are close to the level of traditional printing in terms of tone level, clarity, and color saturation. Some of its inherent advantages have also been further developed, with faster printing speed and improved printing accuracy. After being combined with the database, inkjet printing is fully capable of variable data printing, which brings good news to the differentiated and personalized production of packaging prints. If the latest JDF production standards are adopted, inkjet printing equipment can easily be integrated into the digital production process of the entire printing factory, thereby achieving better equipment control and higher production efficiency. The two main features of inkjet printing are "printing on demand" and "personalization". These two features can meet the emerging new needs of the packaging market. Today, narrow-format label packaging printing production lines equipped with digital printing units are common, and digital printing presses can be produced in-line with die-cutting equipment and post-press processing lines to achieve higher quality and faster turnaround speeds.

2. Anti-counterfeiting printing

It can be said that in the field of packaging and printing, anti-counterfeiting printing plays a vital role. If ordinary products require a prominent product logo, then many high-end products have to require a complete anti-counterfeiting system. This is the need of manufacturers and consumers. Therefore, anti-counterfeiting printing is widely used in the printing of packaging and decoration products. With the continuous improvement of people's brand awareness and the strengthening of intellectual property protection, it is believed that anti-counterfeiting printing will have a great impact. market prospects. The current common situation is that many ordinary printing manufacturers do not have the capability of anti-counterfeiting printing, so they have to outsource orders. In many cases, this order is more profitable than a simple printing order.

Common anti-counterfeiting methods include: laser holographic anti-counterfeiting, special ink anti-counterfeiting, plate making and printing process anti-counterfeiting, and special paper anti-counterfeiting. The first three anti-counterfeiting methods currently commonly used in packaging, decoration and printing are the first three. Using laser holographic anti-counterfeiting technology, packaging products not only have an intuitive anti-counterfeiting effect, but also the exquisite printed patterns shine in the sun and are as colorful as a rainbow, attracting consumers' attention. Therefore, this technology is very suitable for packaging printing. . Using special ink anti-counterfeiting technology is a lower-cost method. Because generally, it does not require the addition of additional equipment, and the transformation of the existing printing process is not very large. There are currently many products using this anti-counterfeiting technology. This technology is a good way to increase the added value of printing products because it requires less investment and produces quick results. The application of anti-counterfeiting technology in plate making and printing processes is a comprehensive anti-counterfeiting method. This technology is also born in response to people's demand for high-quality packaging products. This kind of anti-counterfeiting technology uses a variety of printing equipment to combine, multiple printing processes penetrate each other, and multiple processes are combined with each other, especially the introduction of some unique special printing methods.

All this makes the final product have a strong anti-counterfeiting function. But at the same time, it also increases production costs and production complexity. Larger printing plants are more comfortable in applying this technology. Of course, using this technology will pose challenges to the production level of the printing factory, which requires the printing factory to have high-stability and high-precision printing equipment, a complete quality control and management system, and experienced and skilled technical personnel. These are strong guarantees for increasing the added value of products.

In some places, special traditional printing techniques have not been lost. Since there are fewer people who master the technology, these special printing techniques have gradually become one of the production methods of anti-counterfeiting printing, such as woodcut printing. Because of its antiquity and rarity, it has also become a personalized high value-added printing product with national characteristics.

3. Label printing

Adhesive labels are commonly used materials in the packaging and decoration industry. In our country, currently, trademark printing is mainly based on self-adhesive embossed printing. With the diversification and upgrading of trademarks, other printing methods are gradually added. In this field, the emergence of advanced technology provides advanced solutions for printing systems. Narrow web printing presses with modular design structures and gearless transmission methods have been put into use. All leading equipment manufacturers offer hybrid lines for label and packaging printing. This hybrid line can be equipped with offset, letterpress, flexo, silk screen, gravure, digital printing units and hot and cold foil units, making the hybrid line ideal for single-pass production of packaging, cartons and labels . This combined printing method also provides anti-counterfeiting features to the label. Printing houses with label printing capabilities can develop label products with composite functions by improving printing materials, deepening printing processes, and innovating printing methods, thereby winning more profits.

4. Metal product printing

Metal printing is a special printing method for printing materials. Due to its higher cost, it is generally used for packaging luxury goods, so its profits are also higher. At present, the number of metal printing materials is gradually increasing, and new materials are constantly emerging. No matter which material is used, the printing process is different from paper printing. In China, offset printing, transfer printing, screen printing and flexographic printing are mainly used. Some customers even require follow-up work such as molding after printing. This requires the printing factory to promptly adjust the printing process according to different printing materials, introduce simple mechanical processing equipment, and formulate a reasonable production process. Only in this way can the requirements of customer satisfaction be met.

5. Paper packaging printing

This field accounts for the majority of packaging and decoration printing. It is also an area where special printing technology is rarely used, but we can also use innovation in this field. ideas create more value. Due to its earlier development, carton printing and cardboard printing technology has become relatively mature, and most printing plants have the production capacity of this product. This field is the world of flexo printing. At All in Print Shanghai, some manufacturers pointed out that flexographic printing is the future of packaging printing. We don’t care whether this statement is accurate or not, but the trend is very obvious, although the current domestic situation is not like this.

An important factor affecting packaging printing is the trend of reduced printing volume. Short-run jobs are increasingly becoming the mainstream of orders. In this special field, the flexographic printing process is also developing rapidly, thanks to the emergence of new photosensitive resin printing plates that support higher screen line counts, CI printers that can achieve perfect registration and advanced digital flexo printing system. These factors make the tone reproduction quality of flexo printing better and the dot amplification rate also reduced. The development of flexographic printing has undergone tremendous changes in the past 40 years. Once considered a simple process suitable only for printing plastic bags, it is now comparable to offset printing, gravure printing, letterpress printing and screen printing in the field of packaging and label printing. Comparable and competitive. It is predicted that in the next few years, flexographic printing will occupy 38% of the European packaging printing market share and 76% of the North American packaging printing market share. By then, the application ratio of flexographic printing in packaging printing will reach 39, while offset printing and gravure printing will drop to 36 and 15 respectively.