The choice facing the packaging industry

Drupa is known as the resort of the printing industry. This drupa not only hosts the units, but also exhibitors and spectators have reached ambitious goals.
If the traditional printing method so far - the offset printing that preceded it - dominates drupa's eye-catching highlights, drupa 2000 gives flexo printing an opportunity in packaging printing. Of particular interest is the fact that Heidelberg, the largest manufacturer of offset presses, is also involved in the new development of flexo printing.
Since the short-term viewers could not read the 18 exhibition halls of the new things related to package flexo printing within two to three days, the “German Printer” reported on the important new development of flexo printing in three parts.
1 Before flexographic printing, not only zero-stock production, but also bulk printing has to reduce packaging costs. For this reason, the packaging industry needs to change its thinking to change the new value-creating links. This will soon be more integrated in the prepress stage, or even remove the various intermediate stages in order to meet the requirements of packaging materials users. In the past, in order to enable the flexo printing method to print 60 lines/cm of 1% dots and set up more traditional work steps, no prepress company would do so in the future. The new all-embracing prescription is a digital workflow, and more and more such workflows are implemented before printing, and it will soon become the standard for flexo printing.
If the drupa 95 has been exhibited by the Barco, DuPont, Schepers and BASF nine companies flexo CTP plate making, then this time in the drupa 2000 some new suppliers such as Hell, Global Graphics and Cartomac and other companies Extend some new flexo printing machines. Well-known system suppliers such as Barco, Schepers-Ohio, Creo Scitex and F lexol Laser have introduced optimized systems that improve productivity and complement different sizes. Therefore, from the equipment supply industry perspective, the focus continues to be on the flexo-printing of the photopolymer plate laser, although the electronic direct engraving of the new flexible plate (elastomer) will be expanded in the future.
BASF as one of the large photopolymer plate supplier in this year drupa exhibited an experimental system, which is a clear sign, it indicates that the third or fourth quarter of this year will be a Beta model Put into the market. Direct engraving or computer-to-plate eliminates the solvents needed for traditional flexo platemaking and offers a series of advantages:
â– In terms of thickness uniformity, the quality of the flexographic plate is improved (elimination of printing plate expansion due to solvents)
■ Speed ​​up the plate making process (washout, drying and post-processing cancelled)
â–  Lowering plate costs â–  The advantages of direct platemaking have been improved in terms of the environment and very low investment costs.
2 Although many manufacturers have previously announced the plate system and platemaking, none of the large photopolymer plates suppliers have introduced a complete solution for the jointless photopolymer sleeve version. The method of display is limited to the use of the bonding method. This method is only used by 6 to 8 companies worldwide. They still pack the planar photopolymer plate on the sleeve or the printing roller in a costly manner. Join together to form a continuous plate. The reason for the slow development of this technology is that a continuous photopolymer plate sleeve will further raise the cost of printing plates that have been strongly criticized. This is undoubtedly unfavorable to the development of flexo printing. Furthermore, if people want to cut a large piece of offset printing on a flexo plate, this development cannot be done.
Although on the one hand disappointment with the continuous development of computer technology for packaging and printing machines directly on the sleeve, but on the other hand are also pleased to see that the large plate-making factory's criticism of the high cost of the plate material has been understood, and in Germany Ruba 2000 demonstrates the complete solution for the round version of the technology.
Photopolymer plates in practical trials show the advantage that they are mounted on a sleeve in the original state, imaged by a laser exposure on a plate exposure machine, and then remain on the sleeve. Others All of the Department's offices are based on the CID e rm id system.
In addition, the installation of printing plates on the press after cancellation and the best registration are also major advantages. DuPont introduced the Cyrel-FAST system as a method for quickly making flexographic plates. The new Cyrel flexible version works according to the principle of thermal sensitivity. After exposure, the flexo plate process (without solvent) is performed in a processor designed for this purpose. The system is designed primarily for embossed depths of 1mm and small to medium-sized plates. According to DuPont, the first system outside Drupa was installed exclusively for label printing users and went through an external trial phase.
3 Packaging and label printing machines All well-known flexographic press manufacturers are represented at Drupa. Most manufacturers have demonstrated high-quality flexo prints from 8- to 10-color machines on site. The highlights of the presentation are: a short time for changing fashions, a high-speed smooth transfer, and on-line processing for folding carton production (eg, Windmiller & Holscher). The toothless direct drive, which has so far been mastered by only a few manufacturers, has been advertised or demonstrated by almost all suppliers. This toothless transmission guarantees high overlay precision and print size variability.
Heidelberger Printers was surprised by the Speed-master CD102-6+LYYL(X) 6-color offset press. In fact, it is not a new technology for Heidelberg to have two coating units on a six-color machine. However, for the first time on the CD102 Speedmaster machine, two glazing units with a closed chamber squeegee system were used for flexographic printing, making them suitable for use as a complete flexo printing machine. The two coating units can be used for two purposes. The chamber type squeegee system is used for flexo printing. The two-roll system is used for pure glazing. The conversion between the two is very convenient. The supporting equipment for coating or flexo printing units includes ink viscosity measuring and adjusting devices, chamber scraper cleaning devices and automatic cleaning plate devices.
This Speedmaster CD102 machine flexo prints a water-based metallic ink on a label or folding carton to achieve a higher quality (size 70 x 100 cm).
This possibility will be of interest in the future: the use of a flexo printing method to print thick ink on the ground, high-quality 4-color dot printing with low-cost offset printing. After printing, post-press processing such as die cutting, groove pressing, and cutting can be performed without any problems.
Using a hybrid press, you can see a logical post-printing process in the 70 x 100 cm size range, just as we have long seen in the narrow-width label printing.
Where does optimism for this trend come from? It is obvious that there is still a high cost of flexo printing and a decrease in the number of prints. A combination of soft and soft is a good strategy. Offset printing costs only account for a small part of the flexographic printing plate, and they are no longer stored after printing. Reprinting costs is not expensive when reprinting. On the contrary, the cost of flexographic printing and the cost of deposits are also included. Moreover, this situation has repeatedly occurred. When the flexo printing plate is installed on the printing press when it is reused, it is found that the printing plate cannot be used. Therefore, another cost is caused due to the downtime.