Offset and flexographic printing can also be used for label production, but the specific method is different. Although the use of flexographic printing is more common in narrow format printers, offset printing has its own advantages and disadvantages.

One of the advantages of offset printing is that quality generally outperforms flexographic printing, but offset printing must use UV curing, and flexographic printing can be used regardless of hot air or UV curing.

Ink flow rate is another aspect of flexographic printing and offset printing. The flow rate of the ink in the flexographic printing is controlled by the ink volume of the anilox roller. This factor is determined based on the surface of the paper and the printed image. In offset printing, the ink flow is controlled by screws (also called buttons) in the ink reservoir, and the amount of ink is adjusted by the button.

Competition

offset printing

(1) High printing quality

The most commonly mentioned advantage of offset printing is better print quality. Compared with flexographic printing, offset printing has more dots on the unit print and more uniform optical density. The highest precision of flexographic printing is 170-180 dpi, while offset printing can reach 200-350 dpi.

(2) Low cost

In the start-up cost of a new project, offset printing has an advantage. Compared with a flexographic or gravure cylinder, the cost of an offset printing plate is very low. At the same time, the average production time of the offset printing plate is only 10 minutes, which is surprisingly short compared with the flexographic printing. All of this means that you can start a new project immediately without long preparation time.

(3) Easy to operate

According to Jakob Landberg, Sales and Marketing Director at Narrowsport, a manufacturer of narrow-format printers, “Even a sloppy printer can print excellent quality on offset presses, but care must be taken in flexo and UV flexo printing. , 100% effort, slight loss of light, quality may be a lot worse. Not only that, offset printing is more suitable for printing larger, more long-term printing jobs."

Flexo printing

In the competition with flexo printing, offset printing is not impeccable.

Challenge 1: How can a printer better control the press?

Although a sloppy printer can also print excellent quality on an offset press, the premise is that he must be very familiar with the press. Offset operations must be fully and professionally trained by the printer, and gradually become skilled after a certain period of time. In contrast, operators of flexographic printing presses are easier to get started with, and the training cycle is relatively short.

Challenge 2: How to deal with a wide variety of substrates?

Flexographic printing can be used to advantage on non-absorbent substrates (such as plastics, polyolefins, stickers, etc.), but offset printing is not. At the same time, in the face of wide substrates, offset printing can only be deterred. Usually, the web size of rotary offset printing is fixed, although it can be solved using a variable-size web offset press, but it is more expensive.

Cost comparison

Equipment investment

Overall, the capital cost of offset printing equipment is 30% to 40% higher than that of the equivalent flexographic printing equipment. This is mainly due to the complex design of the ink and dampening unit.

2. Printing material costs

Compared with flexo printing, offset printing supplies are much cheaper. The cost of making a flexo is more than 10 times that of the same offset print. In addition, along with the improvement of the quality of flexographic printing, the printing cost is also rising, but the cost of offset printing is basically the same.

3. Ink costs

In Europe, flexo printers generally use solvent-based inks, which is a significant cost advantage over offset inks.

4. Printing costs

Landberg believes that the cost of printing varies from job to job. He said: "Although the cost of the flexographic version is higher, the overall investment in flexographic printing is lower, and the running cost of offset printing is lower than that of flexographic printing. For flexographic printing, it is more cost-effective to use flexographic printing."

5. Operational training

The need to remind printers is that training operators to learn how to use offset presses is also a cost. In this process, offset press operators need to constantly adapt to new technologies and new processes, which is a big challenge compared to flexographic printing.

Offset Wind

Looking at the busy presses in the global market and looking at the marketing process of offset printing equipment manufacturers, it is not difficult to see that offset printing has secured the status of the king in the printing market. This is an indisputable fact.

Digital prospects

With the development of digital information, digital printing and offset printing share the same workflow. The same data can be used for both digital printing and offset printing. Both technologies share the same prepress file management environment, so that they can obtain the same Print quality, sharing the same printing standard.

Quality is king

To achieve the desired quality, you need a better way of printing. Today's customers demand higher quality and flexibility of the press. Printer manufacturers are interested in offset printing in large part because of their unparalleled advantages in print quality.

Enter the label

Landberg said: "The label market is a typical end-customer driven market led by world-renowned brands. In addition to more suppliers looking to high-end areas, Nilpeter also introduced offset printing to the label industry in 1994."

Because the offset printing quality is higher than the flexographic printing, it is generally used in the label printing that needs to maintain the quality for a long time, especially for well-known brands such as health care, beauty and wine, which require high product packaging, and they value the product very much. The opportunity to distinguish other products on the shelf, so its product label design, generally have a higher number of lines and finer dots. Integrating various requirements, the use of offset printed labels is most appropriate. In addition, for medicines with large labels, the quality of the packaging text is far more prominent and important than appealing to consumers because the text must be easily identifiable.

Flexographic printing is dominant in the pressure-sensitive label market, especially in North America. At the same time, the market share of offset printing is also growing rapidly. Many label printers today have begun to use offset printing. At present, at least 30% to 40% of the business use offset printing, flexo printing, and gravure printing each year, and the number will increase. Landberg believes that offset printing will become more and more common. He said: “Customers' increasing demands for quality and value-added have also led to further subdivision of printing processes. Offset labels have started to grow rapidly in the area of ​​red wine labels, and many other fine labels will follow. ”

Undoubtedly, taking into account various factors such as technology and cost, the market share of offset printing labels will further increase. Along with its extensive application, the label offset printing process will become more mature, and the offset printing market will be unlimited.