(12) Development Status of International Flexo Printing Technology

In the United States, water-based inks complying with the VOC regulations must be used in an ink composition in which the volatile matter content is below 25% and the moisture content is above 75%. In the case of inks with less moisture, the non-volatile components are above 60%. Two standards. In the United States, 95% of flexographic prints and 80% of gravure prints use ink.

The proportion of flexographic printing in the printing field, especially packaging printing, will gradually increase. It is estimated that by 2010, flexographic printing will reach about 15% in the printing field, and annual demand will be over 100,000 tons of water-based ink.

The main reasons for the rapid rise of flexo printing in flexible packaging are: First, the technical progress of multilayer film structures with different barrier properties, and the improvement of the quality of flexographic images and their economy. Especially in small batches, it is more economical than gravure, which is conducive to flexo printing to its advantage. Second, from the perspective of consumers' desires, they also tend to reduce the consumption of resources, and at the same time are not willing to bear excessive costs for packaging. Therefore, vertical packaging is considered to be the most dynamic soft pack variety in the next two or three years. China's flexo printing products are also developing in the above three main areas. Currently, the field of flexo printing is expanding, such as roof cartons (for milk, beverage packaging), toothpaste tubes (PE materials), playing cards, woven bags, Corrugated boxes for printing, diaper bags, various bags (pepper bags, tea bags, salt bags), in addition, also provides technology and equipment for security printing, such as Hainan Oriental International Center for Anti-counterfeit requirements for web flexographic printing However, high-speed resolution camera recording has become a major technical problem. Xi'an Black Niu Company is brave enough to accept many connection problems in flexographic printing. To adapt to a horizontal line camera with a 400mm range of 2048 points, it is 0.15mm apart. Continuous high-speed video recording was completed by the guidance of researchers from Xi'an Jiaotong University and Northwestern Polytechnical University. Satisfy customer requirements.

(13) Development Status of Domestic Flexographic Printing Machinery

Flexographic printing is still in its infancy in China and currently accounts for only about 3% of the printing industry. In the flexo package printing, the vast majority of domestic and foreign water-based ink printing. From 1995 to the end of 1998 in China, we introduced more than 130 combined flexographic printing production lines in more than 20 provinces and cities in a short period of several years. There are nearly 200 narrow-web flexographic printing production lines in China. More than 10 million tons of ink.

Since 1995, there have been more than 150 narrow-width flexo-type printing presses that have entered the country, almost all major provinces and cities in the country. Imported equipment suppliers, in addition to McAndy, United, Pioneer, there are Jakarta, Yidi, Esso, Kang and other manufacturers. In addition to a small amount of imported equipment for printing stickers and labels, the other are mainly printed cigarettes and wine labels, and less involved in other products.

Concentration of import suppliers and weak after-sales service: Imported machines enter the Chinese market at an average annual rate of more than 30 units, and are concentrated on two or three suppliers. Each year, the number of flexo presses sold by individual suppliers reaches more than 20 units. The after-sales service is often not in place or in a timely manner, causing the flexo printing machines introduced by some printing plants to fail to operate normally and the printing quality is not up to the required level. About one-third of the existing imported equipment belongs to the above situation. This also has a negative impact on the use of flexo printing in China.

Domestic machine-type flexographic printing presses have made rapid progress: The rapid introduction of imported machine-type flexographic printing presses has not only brought information to the domestic printing press manufacturing industry to the attention of the relevant national authorities. A meeting was specially convened to study countermeasures and to guide and support domestic printers to develop and develop narrow-width unit-type multi-function flexographic printers. Seven companies have started to produce narrow-width multi-function flexo presses: Shanxi Taihang Printing Machinery (Taihang), Shaanxi Printing Machinery, Beiren Fuji, Shanghai Ziguang, and Xi'an Heiniu Plant ; Wuxi Baonan Printing Factory; Wenzhou Shenli Printing Factory.

From the domestic potential market speculation, it is entirely possible to sell 150 unit flexo presses in the next five years. Moreover, the selling price of domestic machines is about 2 million, only about one-half to one-third of imported machines.

In terms of after-sales service, we must maintain the continuous development of the unit type flexo press in China. The printer factory must first perform the after-sale service work to ensure that the user can quickly put into production and operate normally after purchasing the machine.

Education and training have quickly changed the status quo that no one has hired skilled personnel to form ample talent market. The flexo printing plant has the ability to independently operate and solve difficult problems, and at the same time practically teaches the supporting knowledge and equipment supply channels for flexo printing. Supporting equipment, such as plate, ink, anilox roller and round-circular die-cutting knife, are required for flexo printing. Except high-grade ink, some of them rely on imports. The round-circular die-cutting knife is still blank. Other basic requirements have been met. need. Therefore, the development of round-bore circular die cutters whose development prices can be accepted by users should be included in the agenda. Not only steel knives for large-volume use, but also thin-cutting knives that can be used with magnetic rollers at low prices should be manufactured so that the unit type can be flexible. Printing machines play a greater role in order to gain greater market share.

The development of domestic flexographic printing presses is only five years after the development of narrow-width unit type flexo presses for folding cartons. Although it has begun to be accepted, it is still widely used in the printing of cigarette cases and wine labels. Among them, the traditional gravure has gradually been replaced in the printing of short-cut cigarette packs. In the southwest region where tobacco is again abundantly produced, as well as in Shandong, soft and hard packaging cartons of medium and small cigarette factories have all adopted flexographic printing techniques. Beer has made a huge market for consumption in China. The processing of beer labels with flexo presses has experienced rapid development. In order to further expand the market, it is necessary to develop a market for folding cartons in the fields of food, medicine, household chemicals and hygiene products.