There are two methods for sticker printing internationally: Europe and the United States represented by the United States mostly use flexographic printing; most of the Asia-Pacific region uses letterpress printing, especially in Asia, where letterpress printing accounts for more than 90% Share. The main reasons for this difference are the following.
1. Printing cost
We all know that it is nothing more than plate-making costs, consumables, and scrap rate that have a direct impact on printing costs. Because the flexographic plate-making process is very complicated, no matter it is the compression deformation processing of the film, the arrangement of the film separation angle, and the control of the height and hardness of the printing plate production, there is a high technical content, so you must go to a professional flexo plate Production company to make. As for the film, plate materials and plate-washing media involved in plate-making, domestic products are not enough, and most of them have to rely on imports, so that the plate-making costs remain high.
In addition to ink, other consumables such as anilox rolls, double-sided tape and plate materials also depend on imports and are expensive. Only A4 format flexible plates require 70 yuan, double-sided tape costs 10 yuan, and A4 relief printing As long as the edition material is only ten yuan.
Flexographic printing transfers ink directly to the plate cylinder through the anilox roller, and printing different patterns requires an anilox roller corresponding to it. The anilox roller is actually an ink metering roller. The technical parameters are fixed, that is, the amount of ink transfer is fixed. Only the anilox roller with different parameters can change the amount of ink transfer. Restricted by printing principles, flexographic printing can only perform overall ink adjustment, not local ink adjustment. In addition, due to the long paper path of the narrow-width flexo printing machine, the self-adhesive label patterns are generally small, so overprint control is difficult. And different substrates have different thicknesses and different hardness plates corresponding to it, which is more difficult to operate, resulting in an increase in scrap rate. Self-adhesive paper is relatively expensive, which greatly increases printing costs.
Second, the plate making cycle
Because the flexographic plate-making process is very complicated, and after exposure and processing, the drying time is different due to the different media used. Usually the drying time of letterpress is from a few minutes to more than ten minutes, while the drying of flexo plate takes at most ten hours. Self-adhesive printing is mainly based on short- and medium-term work, so the plate-making process is particularly important.
3. Printing effect
When printing on the ground, the relief printing ink layer is uniform. If you use water-based ink for flexographic printing, there will be traces of water marks on the graphics; if you use UV ink, careful observation will also find that the solid surface has a uniform net phenomenon.
When printing color, the pigment solid content of flexographic ink is significantly lower than that of letterpress ink, so the color density of letterpress printed matter is obviously greater than that of flexographic printed matter, and the printed matter has bright colors. This is also the main reason for the prosperity of letterpress printing in Europe and Asia.
Four, compatibility
If you use flexographic printing stickers, then printing other substrates is very uneconomical and difficult to do. Because each type of substrate changed in flexographic printing, there must be corresponding supporting facilities, such as plate cylinders, anilox rollers, drying ovens (UV, infrared, hot air), and plates of different thicknesses. expensive. There are many examples of failures in this regard. At the beginning, all wanted one machine with multiple functions. Finally, the equipment was idle due to the imperfection of the configuration facilities and the uncontrollable printing quality.
In summary, it is inevitable to adopt letterpress printing stickers in China!
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