Clothing Tag Printing Process Experience Sharing

1 In the apparel industry, the color difference will appear after the trimming of hang tags. As for the cost, generally more professional printing tag (signage design and the relationship between the key elements) manufacturers are more mature on the spot color process, so the relative cost of four colors will not increase significantly, but in terms of quality and color gamut There is a good improvement. Of course, if you choose four colors or spot colors, you have to deal with specific issues. It is best to explain and communicate with customers and get the understanding of the customers.

2. The relationship between colors. Black, gold, silver, and other dark colors or high hiding power colors are generally imprinted, but caution should be taken if the color area is large. Because hangtag printing generally requires a full color patch, resulting in a thicker ink layer, but the area of ​​the print is too large will increase the risk of dirtiness. For other colors, it is also possible to decide whether or not to apply embossing after analyzing the depth relationship. From the point of view of printing and registering, the chief of the printing press likes imprinting between colors. Because the finished product is small in size, the number of typesets on the printed sheet is larger, and the registration requirements for each version (in various positions on the sheet) are the same, some of which are relatively high. There is a 0.1mm leak in the deep spot color that feels very obvious. When signing the sample, our factory generally requires that the entire printed sheet cannot be leaked. Even if it is there, it must be extremely slight and acceptable. In short, the principle is to be able to withstand pressure, taking into account changes in hue and risk of smearing.

3. Fill trapping. Due to the high requirements for registration, trapping must be performed for colors that cannot be imprinted. It is usually satisfied with the Stroke Imprint function or Trapping command in Illustrator. Set the stroke imprint in the Attribute palette to achieve the purpose of trapping (Figure 2). The width is set according to the actual process level of the factory. It is recommended not to be too large. Note that the width of the stroke is applied in the middle of the line. Therefore, the width of the stroke should be set to twice the required width. If the object is extended to the background, the object color can be stroked with the object color. If the object is reduced to the background, the object can be stroked with the background color. You can also use the Trap command in the Patherfinder palette pop-up menu.

4. The same spot color has both the actual color and the light color of the color. It is recommended to determine the amount of ink needed in the field. It is best to output the spot and outlets in two versions. This facilitates the control of the amount of ink during printing, otherwise it is prone to situations where the density in the field is reached and it is difficult for the dots to be printed transparently, the dots are required and the density in the field is not sufficient. This method is also applicable to the case where both the large ink level solid field and the same-color fine lines or text are present.

5. Barcode printing. Pay attention to the selection of bar code color and background color and the amplitude of barcode scaling to ensure the recognition. Many customers require a bar code recognition rate of A.

6. The number of typesetting or the size of the machine paper. Due to the high registration requirements, it is not suitable for large paper opening. At the same time, the size of the tag is small and the number of typesetting is large. Therefore, it is generally a short version of production.

Too large paper can cause waste and layout color is not easily leveled. The author's experience is usually 16 to 8 open.

Because of the small size of the upper machine, printing is suitable for printing on small-format machines. Our factory is used for printing hangtags with 52cm×36cm format machines. In terms of machine color groups, because the tag is dominated by spot colors, multiple color groups can provide higher efficiency. Heidelberg Speedmaster 52-4 has high efficiency. Generally, the number of single-sided tags on a single side is less than eight, so a maximum of two passes can be used to complete one side of printing.

1. Spot color deployment. From the information given by the customer, most customers give the color of pantone spot color chromatography. Since the tag usually has the color of the customer's logo on behalf of the brand image, the matching requirements of customers on the color are quite demanding (even higher than the requirements of high-end customers in the packaging industry). Therefore, there is a high demand for the accuracy of the special tone matching. It is advisable to purchase pantone-certified spot color inks as the base color and to blend them according to the formula given in the chromatogram and the conditions of the factory, generally meeting the requirements of the customer. When the color is deployed, it is best to standardize the operation, record the color formula, set up a color formula library in the factory, and make it easy to make a single deployment. Conditional factories can use the ink color system. This system is very mature and can reduce the requirements for colorists and improve the color mixing efficiency. Color matching can be combined with instrument data and subjective analysis. Different customers may have different requirements.

2. Precautions when printing. You can set a slightly larger pressure than the standard, so that the color will be more plain and beautiful. The amount of water used is also as small as possible in the absence of dirt, to avoid problems such as over-emulsification causing smudging. In order to print full color patches, the ink layer thickness is generally greater than the thickness of the conventional four-color printing ink layer. In particular, it is necessary to pay attention to the control of the amount of powder sprayed. If the quality of the post-processing is exceeded, the risk of smearing will be too small. While controlling the amount of dusting, it is also necessary to strictly limit the height of the delivery. According to the area of ​​the spot color and the thickness of the ink layer, it is necessary to replace the paperboard in time after the paper has reached a certain height. After receiving a certain height of paper, our factory stands upright on the shelf, so that it can be more effective in avoiding smearing, and at the same time facilitates air entry and accelerates ink drying. Many tag backgrounds are full or almost full. In this case, the background color is light, but if it is dark, such as dark blue, black, etc. The amount of ink is also difficult to meet the density requirements of the field, at the same time as the paper powder and paper surface particles fall off, there will be a lot of white spots, so it is best to print the two versions at the same time, can effectively avoid the white point, you can also go twice Paper, but it should be avoided when strict registration is needed. One of the difficulties in tag printing is the high demand for ink release. Due to the large number of typesets, a large number of prints on a sheet, when printing, not only to control the color consistency between the printed sheets, but also pay special attention to the difference in the color of different positions on a sheet. Sometimes the color of a printed sheet looks very even before it is cut, but after cutting it is found that there is a color difference, which is caused by different ink layer thickness in different ink areas. If there is a colorimetric instrument that can be easily checked out, if you do not have the ability to cut contrast to adjust the amount of ink. In general, as long as one notices the existence of this problem, it can be improved. The effect of the improvement depends on the judgment and adjustment of the captain.

3. Grease and polish. In most cases, customers seldom explicitly request that the tag be over-grown or glazing, but we generally recommend that customers increase this process, mainly because of the use of the tag and production conditions. Since the tag is usually hung directly on the clothes, friction will occur directly on the fabric surface. As mentioned above, most of the tag printing content is the actual amount of ink. In terms of the ink film after the offset printing ink is dried, the dark color rubbing will generally have a certain degree of discoloration, which will vary with the surface properties of the paper and the ink thickness and other factors. If the clothes are light-colored, then the risk of discoloration of the dark field tag will increase significantly, so it is very necessary to do preventive work.

Most customers can accept the effect of varnish or matt oil (film coating can also completely avoid the problem of discoloration, discussed later), and can be selected according to customer's design requirements. One of the experiences is that the improvement of the color fastness of the ink film is not as good as the offline coating. In-line coating does not dry the ink (UV ink exception), Varnish or matte oil on the surface of the ink layer with the ink to a certain degree of mutual penetration, resulting in the situation after drying is not covered with a coating of ink on the coating, and It is a mixed film of ink and varnish that does not protect the ink film. It is advisable to dry the ink thoroughly before painting with a varnish. This can form a protective film on the surface of the ink, which effectively improves the discoloration. For some papers, such as kraft paper, white cardboard, etc., even if the coating of lacquer oil after printing, there will be a fade situation, which can be improved by adding one or two coats as needed and increasing the coating thickness.

In the absence of large blocks, coating treatment is also recommended. Because the size of the tag is small, the entire finished product is cut under the paper cutter press plate at the time of cutting. This pressure should be at least 500 kilograms (actual production is about 1 ton, otherwise easy to walk). Such pressure will generally lead to the occurrence of bottoming. Lines and words are no exception. There will not be much improvement in the extension of drying time. When the factory produced a tag, it believed that there would be no problem with the small text. As a result, it appeared at the end of the cutting process, especially at the knife edge, and there was no obvious improvement after one week of natural drying. After that, it was completely solved by coating with dumb oil. When coating, pay attention to the influence of the residual printing powder. Since the amount of powder to be sprayed during the large-scale printing is large, the coated surface may have obvious graininess and affect the effect. The powder may be removed before coating according to the situation. .

There are many types of post-press finishing that can be applied to the clothing tag, and almost all of the post-finishing finishing techniques can be used to add product effects to the tag. Several conventional post-printing processes are discussed here.

1. Cover film. Mentioned earlier, the film to avoid the problem of color. In the case of poor application of varnish, it is recommended to improve the color fastness by laminating. What should be noted is the choice of coating type. Water-based film is not as fast as oily.

In general, the water-based film can meet the requirements, but for the full version of the dark-colored field and the paper is thicker (250g or more), after the film is to be indented and folded, we must be cautious.

Although the coating can avoid the problem of discoloration, some customers may not agree to adopt environmental protection considerations.

2. Finished cuts and indentations. It should be noted that for the full version of the landing tag, it is best to cut the double knife position, otherwise the edge of the incision on the incline side of the paper cutter is prone to white edges. In particular, the double powdered paper on the full-size version is even more severe, and there has been no significant improvement in the use of new tools and changing the cutting pressure.

When indenting, note that the folded paper will not crack. Because the paper used for the tag is generally thick and printed in the field, if the color is dark, the paper will have some cracking, and the feeling will be obvious.

The above is mainly based on offset printing as an example to discuss some of the experience of the clothing tag production. Many times the printing of the clothing tag also involves other printing methods such as screen printing, flexo printing, and so on. With the development of the tag market, a hangtag may be combined with several printing methods to complete, and even combined with the printing outside the process, such as car lines, etc., the selection of materials is also very extensive. This is a field that is more creative than design and inspiration. Designers of clothing labels and print producers need to work together to enhance the brand image and value of customers with a small tag.