The current situation and development trend of fle

The current situation and development trend of flexographic printing technology in China

the times are developing and the society is progressing. With the development of social informatization and economic globalization, printing is also undergoing great changes. Among the four major printing processes of "flat, convex, concave and soft", flexographic printing, which is derived from relief printing, has experienced a tortuous process for decades and finally dawned. The trend of flexographic printing market from small to large, from weak to strong, has attracted widespread attention in the market

according to the statistics of Japan's "printing information" magazine: in the late 1990s, global flexo printing increased at an alarming rate of 70% every year, and in 2000, flexo printing accounted for 18-19% of the global printing market. Experts predict that by 2005, flexographic printing is expected to rank second among the "four major" printing formats. However, at the same time, the growth of gravure printing in the world was flat, while offset printing showed a slight decline. So why can flexo printing change from the "ugly duckling" of "aniline printing" to a beautiful "white swan"? The main reason for the analysis is that in recent years, flexo printing has greatly improved its printing quality due to the application of a large number of new technologies (such as ceramic grain roller, sleeve plate roller, water-based ink, UV ink, laser engraving technology and computer technology). In addition, the environmental protection advantages of water-based ink have been greatly developed in the European and American markets

development status of flexographic printing technology in China

in the mid-1990s, there was a hot introduction of flexographic printing equipment in China, forming a strong "flexographic wind". By the end of 2003, China had introduced more than 270 flexo printing equipment, 90% of which were narrow width unit flexo printing machines and laminated flexo printing machines, and about 10% were wide width satellite flexo printing machines. It is estimated that the number of domestic flexographic printing machines is increasing by about 30 every year. At present, there are more than 350 flexographic printing machine production lines in China, including about 80 narrow width flexographic printing machine production lines developed and produced by China

in 2002, Shanghai International Paper Co., Ltd. introduced two 8-color, 820mm wide satellite flexo printing production lines from German BHS printing machinery company, with a speed of 250mm/min. Now it is produced in three shifts to provide packaging products for roof packs, beverages and fruit juices for large dairy enterprises such as "Mengniu", "Yili", "Guangming" and so on

in addition, in 2003, Guangxi Guilin aoqun Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Jinjia Color Printing Co., Ltd. and Lanzhou new century color packaging and Printing Co., Ltd. successively introduced a number of jieras em4108 color, 9-color, and 10 color flexographic printing machines in order to meet the needs of cigarette packaging, medicine, cosmetics packaging, and ticket printing, such as environmental protection, new anti-counterfeiting, new printing materials

due to the rapid development of flexographic printing technology in China, it has effectively promoted the development and production of domestic flexographic printing machines, corrugated rollers, plates, inks and plate making technology. More than 10 manufacturers (such as Xi'an Heiniu, Shaanxi printing, beiren Fuji, Shanghai Ziguang, Qingzhou yigaofa, Wenzhou shenta added, etc.) have successfully developed wide and narrow width unit flexographic presses of various specifications. Zhejiang Ruian machinery factory also produces a laminated four-color trademark flexo printing machine. The printing quality of domestic flexographic press can fully meet the requirements of packaging and printing, and on the whole, it is equivalent to the medium and upper level of imported products. The general price of domestic 8-color unit flexographic press is about more than 1 million yuan, while imported equipment of the same specification requires more than 500000 US dollars, which is several times higher than domestic equipment. Therefore, due to the improvement of the processing and manufacturing level of domestic flexo printing machines and the price advantage, beiren Fuji and Qingzhou yigaofa Packaging Machinery Co., Ltd. also export to Japan and Vietnam

the key component of flexographic press is the corrugation roller. Shanghai Institute of printing technology took the lead in developing the electronic engraving metal corrugation roller. Subsequently, ceramic corrugated rollers, laser engraved rubber seamless rollers, rubber seamless sleeves, etc. also came out one after another. In terms of flexographic plate making, due to the introduction of a full set of flexographic plate making equipment, technology and technical software from the United States, the Netherlands and other foreign countries, such as Dalian Fulai flexographic plate making Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Renshi computer plate making jinshijia company, the domestic flexographic plate making technology soon reached the same level with the international level. In addition, the ink used in flexographic printing also needed to be imported from abroad. Later, Shanghai Institute of printing technology, Shaanxi new century printing materials research institute and other units worked together to successfully develop water-based ink, water-based varnish, water-based additives and UV ink, UV varnish, UV additives, etc., which laid a solid foundation for flexographic printing to become "green printing"

after nearly a decade of production practice, flexographic printing has initially formed a scale in China's packaging and printing market. The range and variety of prints are expanding, and the market share of flexo printing is also gradually increasing. However, compared with foreign advanced countries, we are still far behind. For example, in countries and regions with relatively mature packaging and printing markets such as North America and Europe, the market share of flexographic printing has accounted for 70% of the packaging and printing market, while the situation in China is unsatisfactory, much less than 10%, and most of them belong to medium and low-grade printing products

at present, China's flexo printing can fully meet the requirements of cigarette packs, pharmaceutical packaging, food packaging, trademark labels, self-adhesive printing and other packaging printing products, and can complete various processing such as printing, gluing, die cutting and hot stamping online, which can improve work efficiency, reduce costs and improve production efficiency. According to statistics, 30% of the domestic flexo printing machines are used for cigarette packet printing; 15% are used for label printing; 35% are used for self-adhesive printing; Other printing accounts for only 22%

in addition, 80% of tableware, paper cups and beverage packaging produced in China now adopt flexographic printing. Flexographic printing is also gradually adopted in the printing of packaging paper and packaging boxes in the food industry. For example, hamburger packaging paper, McDonald's food packaging box, Yili ice cream box, etc. all use flexographic printing. Longqi is that at present, the best application of flexographic printing in the land platform elevation adjustment and leveling project is launched in China, and the largest proportion is the printing of corrugated boxes. About 70% of the annual sales of flexographic plates are in the carton industry. In addition, some international multinational companies in Shanghai and Beijing based in domestic enterprises, out of the consideration of "flexographic printing is green printing", think that flexographic printing uses water-based ink, printing products are not polluted, which is conducive to health and environmental protection, and the "green packaging" of products will greatly win the recognition of customers. Therefore, the product packaging of these famous brand enterprises adopts flexographic printing. From this point of view, flexographic printing has increasingly shown its advantages in the packaging printing industry. It is not only suitable for a wide range of printing carriers, but also the quality of printing products has gradually been close to offset printing and gravure printing, which has broad application prospects

the development trend of flexographic printing technology in China

China's packaging printing industry is gradually transitioning from the original situation of two strong rivals of offset printing and lead printing to the pattern of three pillars of offset printing, gravure printing and flexographic printing. And in the next few years, the market share of the three will further tend to balance. Now its development trend is briefly summarized as follows:

1. From the current situation and process of the development of flexo printing in China, great progress and development have indeed been made in the past decade. On the one hand, domestic Rou 1 is focusing on building a world-class industrial event in the new material industry. The research and development of printing machines and their supporting equipment has been firmly rooted in the field of printing manufacturing in China, and is now marching towards medium and high-end products; On the other hand, flexographic printing has initially formed a positioning stage in China's packaging printing market. The range and types of prints have been expanding, the market share of flexographic printing has increased rapidly, and the quality of flexographic printing products has been significantly improved. Trademark labels, plastic flexible packaging and folding cartons are the three "highlights" of flexographic production in the packaging and printing market at present. To be sure, printing high-precision products is definitely a trend of flexographic printing in the future

2. At present, there are three types of flexo printing machines introduced and self-developed in China: organic group type, cascade type and satellite type. Unit type and satellite type are the two most important types. Compared with the unit type, the satellite flexo printing machine has higher overprint accuracy. Because the material belt is tightly wrapped on the central imprinting drum, the tension is very stable; In addition, the machine has simple structure, good rigidity, short distance between imprinting points, easy registration control, and more stable performance. In the European and American markets, satellite flexo printing machines account for about 70% of the total flexo printing machine market, and most of them are used in flexible packaging fine printing, trademark labels and corrugated paper pre printing. The technology of satellite flexo printing machine is quite mature abroad, but it is only in its infancy in China, but it shows strong vitality. It can be expected that with the increasing attention to the development of flexo printing technology in the domestic market and the improvement of flexo printing supporting equipment, ink, plate materials, plate making and other technologies, satellite flexo printing machine will occupy a very important market share in the field of packaging and printing. In the next few years, the satellite flexo printing machine will be the "top priority" in the development and production of flexo printing machines in China

3. Flexographic plate making is also a very important problem. Its plate making cost is not only much higher than offset printing, but also its printing durability is low. In particular, as a medium and high-end product, the line version is more prominent, the point is easy to expand, and the phenomenon of paste and ink piling often occurs. Compared with 175 lines/inch or higher, the normal batch production cannot be realized at all. If the number of lines is not close, it is difficult to reflect the fineness and delicacy of medium and high-end products. At present, several domestic companies have adopted the new technology of laser engraving flexography, which has significantly improved the number of high-speed wires and durability. Therefore, many professionals predict that there will be new breakthroughs in the near future. Printing high-precision products on flexographic machines and using laser engraving plates will be an inevitable development trend

4. Shaftless transmission technology is the most advanced printing machine transmission system in the world today. It uses electronic gears to replace traditional mechanical gears and removes the transmission shaft. That is, in each printing unit, AC vector variable-frequency motor is used to drive independently, and the controller is used for variable-frequency speed regulation to ensure the synchronous operation of each printing unit. At present, more than 50% of the advanced high-speed gravure printing machines in Europe adopt shaftless transmission system; Instead of liquid additive manufacturing, only 30% of Japan's high-end products that use syringes to deposit materials at room temperature adopt shaftless transmission systems. China has just started to use shaftless high-end gravure printing machines. In 2003, Zhongshan Songde Packaging Machinery Co., Ltd. and Shaanxi Beiren Printing Machinery Co., Ltd. successfully developed shaftless high-speed gravure printing machines

in addition, Valmet Processing Machinery Co., Ltd. entered the shaftless development field of flexo printing two years ago, and has developed several 8-color shaftless rotomec flexo printing machines. Now the company has extended the development of shaftless flexographic press