Who is the last winner in flexo and gravure printing in plastic flexible packaging

In recent years, the domestic market for plastic flexible packaging has developed particularly rapidly. Diversification of packaging forms has affected the growth of the packaging market from the end of the market. In the past, some non-flexible packaging products began to turn to plastic flexible packaging, detergents, chemical products, and their packaging has undergone great changes. Enterprises pay more attention to the reuse of environmental protection and resources. Maximizing environmental protection and recycling has become the starting point for technological transformation of printing and packaging companies. The development of plastic flexible packaging just meets this demand.

At present, the first characteristic of the development of the plastic flexible packaging market is the development of products to high-end packaging. The second feature is that the market for plastic flexible packaging expands from south to north. Taking the development of the Pearl River Delta as a symbol, the transition to the pattern of simultaneous development with the Yangtze River Delta is now taking place in the Bohai Rim. At present, the development situation of the plastic flexible packaging market in the north is very good, and the development of the plastic flexible packaging market in Henan, Hebei, Tianjin, and Northeast China is all beyond imagination. The third feature is the rise of private plastic flexible packaging processing companies, which is growing rapidly and mainly based on domestically produced equipment.

Compared with the flexible packaging market in developed countries, especially in the field of plastic flexible packaging, there are differences both in terms of consumption level and packaging level in China. China's per capita possession of flexible packaging is relatively low; the printing quality exceeds that of Europe and the United States. At present, gravure printing dominates the field of China's flexible packaging and printing. Although flexographic printing cannot be compared with gravure printing in terms of total volume, it has made considerable progress in some areas.

The metal rollers used for gravure printing are flexible flexo plates. As a result, there are many differences in printing tension, printing plate resistance, dot transfer performance, and manuscript type. At present, the domestic printing of plastic flexible packaging uses gravure printing, and the proportion of flexo printing is relatively small. At present, only a few manufacturers in China use flexographic printing machines to print plastic films, such as: Dalian Danuo, Shanghai Ziquan, Shanghai Tiger, and so on. The printed products are mainly concentrated on plastic packaging such as food, cosmetics and sanitary products. Due to the use of wide-format flexo printers for plastic flexible packaging printing, the price is relatively high. With the localization of flexo consumables, the cost is even closer to gravure and may even be lower.

In gravure printing, developed countries such as France, Italy, South Korea and Japan have higher requirements for packaging grades. The gravure printing in these countries has done better. The gravure printing in China has been greatly affected by Japan. Compared with Europe and the United States, the development of domestic flexo printing lags behind, and the supply of flexo printing equipment, plates, and inks are congenitally deficient, delaying the promotion and use of flexo printing in China.

The printing quality of plastic flexible packaging, gravure printing is better, the number of screens can be very high, and very stable, and the quality control of gravure printing is relatively simple. Considering the stability of printing, the gravure printing is even better. For flexo printing, if the printing volume exceeds 100,000 impressions, the stability is difficult to guarantee, but the gravure printing can still be printed well and the quality is very consistent. At present, the speed of domestic satellite-type flexo presses is generally 250 to 300 meters per minute, while the gravure printing is generally 150 to 200 meters per minute. The two printing methods have different speeds, which has a great impact on production efficiency. From this point, Said that flexo printing is even more dominant.

From the perspective of plate-making cost, if the cost of a simple set of printing is much lower than that of gravure printing, the plate-making cost of gravure printing has a competitive advantage for the products to be reprinted. When the print reaches the critical point, the plate-making cost of gravure printing and the cost of making a unit of product are lower than flexo printing.

In order to develop the flexo printing technology, we must first improve the deficiencies, solve the localized production problems of flexographic printing plates and other accessories, and solve the problem of flexo printing's standardization and dataization as soon as possible; while gravure printing, we must improve the lightness of the plate cylinder. Reducing the cost of platemaking, if we can do this, in the field of plastic flexible packaging printing in the future, whether it is gravure or flexo, there will be a very broad market space.