Flexo printing labels

Turn to flexo printing labels

TWParker is one of the largest independent label manufacturers in the UK and won the "Best Label Award" in the packaging school's 2002 award. The award-winning product is a label container innovatively developed by the company. It can be placed in a microwave oven, and the outside of the container can still be kept at room temperature. It is expected that it will be used in food packaging.

Recently, the company also installed IST UV curing systems on a newly purchased seven-color and eight-color Nilpeter FA3300 press to ensure that the company's products meet stringent standards and future food packaging market demand.

The use of thinner and thinner plastic printing materials means that the management of heat is a major issue to consider when buying a printing press. The most important thing to do with a flexo printer is to configure the correct UV curing system. In the past, this company had some problems with its heat control. In particular, the new press had to print some very thin films and foils, and it was particularly concerned about this. In the daily-use packaging market, Parker produces 20 million yogurt cup lids per month, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Therefore, the reliability of printing presses and UV curing systems is very important. The new UV system also needs to be flexible so that it can easily handle different thicknesses of printed materials. When the printing process becomes shorter and shorter, it needs to be adjusted quickly. For Nilpeter printers equipped with IST MBS UV curing systems with water-cooled rollers, they are fully qualified for these tasks.

After testing, the UV curing unit of the water cooling roller was installed and the water temperature was set to 18°C ​​to ensure that the heat load on the surface of the printing material during the curing process was minimized.

Parker has been in business for 52 years and has 15 years of experience in UV printing. It specializes in the production of high quality food and daily packaging for major supermarkets in the UK. Until a few years ago, the company only focused on offset printing. A few years ago, a visit to the Danish company Nilpeter began to transform the UV flexo technology. After seeing the products produced by the Nilpeter press UV flexo technology and their achievements, the company decided to enter the flexo market. In the two years after that visit, the company replaced all the original offset presses with three Nilpeter flexo presses.

The production manager with 20 years of production experience said that he has been completely attracted by the UV flexo technology and is impressed by the quality of UV flexo printing. “With the new system, we had to ask designers to apply higher requirements to UV flexo products because we can now successfully print on the thinnest unsupported film and the latest packaging plastics, not Any overheating or distortion."

He also said that compared to offset printing, the greatest advantage of flexo printing is that it can be printed on unsupported films. If traditional offset printing is used, it would be impossible to avoid registering problems. If flexo printing is used, there is no problem even if it is printed on the thinnest film.

This is becoming more and more important as food packaging labels tend to use thinner films. The application of shrink film provides the company with a broader market. Printing on an unsupported shrink film with a thickness of only 15 microns does not present any problems with registration or overheating. Using the IST UV system on a new press will not have any problems even if printed on a 400 micron thick three-layer thermo paperboard.

According to the development trend of packaging labels, the use of plastic labels in the food packaging label market tends to affect the company's investment strategy. Three years ago, 80% of the company's products were printed on paper and 20% were plastic prints. At that time, the market thought that the market would tend to use plastics, so he focused on researching the technology of printing on plastics. At present, 70% of the company's products are printed on plastic, and only 30% still use paper.

The latest label products are getting thinner and thinner, usually only 36 microns or 45 microns thick, so for food packaging manufacturers, the most important is heat control and management.

In order to meet the future requirements of food packaging, printing companies are required to provide a full range of label packaging and printing services, including label printing, capping and capping, embossing, and die cutting. Supermarket suppliers only need to contact a printing manufacturer and check their packaging production process without having to contact two or three companies. This is the 'One-Stop Packaging Process' service where customers only need to see the entire packaging process for their products once.

Beautiful film label

The 137-year-old James Townsend Company is one of the largest independent label printers in the UK. It has recently made a major investment in the latest technology in the UV flexo printing market. It has purchased two flexographic printings of MPS EP510 equipped with IST UV curing system. Machines, specifically designed to print film labels for the beverage market. Continuous development ensures continuous success and they have always been proud of it.

More than 100 employees with an average length of service of 16 years also made important contributions to the stability and professional development of the company.

This company is known in the United Kingdom for its quality and service, and it is also one of the first printers to realize the importance of UV glazing for quality improvement. Since 1985, the IST UV curing system has been successfully used on offset presses.

Due to the trend in the beverage market, the use of thin and transparent thin film printing labels has prompted the company to enter the UV flexo printing market. Looks like packaging products without labels, clean and refreshing feeling is very popular in the market.

The company's manager said that they have been paying attention to the development potential of flexo printing, and also noted how the US bottled drinks market was involved in UV flexo printing seven or eight years ago. The problem is that the quality of the United States is not enough for the British market, that is, in the last few years, UV curing technology can finally meet the demanding requirements of British supermarkets.

With the continuous improvement of UV flexo technology, it means that the company can meet the requirements of the customers. The company has quickly and successfully expanded its business to the field of flexo printing. In just six months, production managers and quality technology managers picked three presses. One is an eight-color MPS EP510 flexo printer, equipped with a full set of IST UV curing systems in its printing unit and delivery unit, which has a very strong flexibility and operates much like a lithographic printing press, which is for employees from operating lithographic printing presses Turning to a flexographic printer is very helpful. This flexo machine is equipped with an air-cooled UV curing system, combined with cold mirror reflection technology to ensure that the heat load on the film is as low as possible, combined with the cooling roller provided by MPS, can effectively control the heat, and can completely super Thin thermal materials can be printed without having to reduce the printing speed. With a printing speed of 130 m/min, there are no problems with curing. The quality of flexo printing has been greatly improved over the years, and when customers are sent flexographic samples, they are often mistaken for lithographic printing.

In the first year of Flexo Printing, the company received five awards, including the first time to participate in the Best Works Award and one highly respected international award for outstanding achievements in flexo printing and two gold awards.

In June 2002, the MPS printing machine with the second ten units installed was still equipped with the same UV curing device. The company may purchase a third flexo printing press in recent years to further expand its investment in flexo printing.

Entering the field of flexo printing will not cause any damage to the reputation of the company that is known for its quality and service. Flexographic products will receive awards for their quality like lithographic printing, and they will not compromise on quality and customer service.

Fast label printing

Illochroma, a French company, mass-produces flexo labels. The current use of UV technology provides a reliable technical guarantee for the production of high-volume labels.

Originally specialized in offset printing, the company purchased a Canadian AJA flexographic press in 1996 and began flexo printing to print 23-inch label products. After more than three years of continuous testing and testing, the flexo printing business expanded rapidly and now Flexographic Production has achieved the expected profit. Agaflex flexo printers were produced day and night. Six flexo printers worked in a 4×8 shift.

The machine uses both water-based and UV inks. These inks are commonly used in print jobs that require fast and aging resistance. Water-based flexographic inks can achieve better color, but are not suitable for long-term printing, because the agglomeration of the ink can cause offset in the press. UV inks are used more flexibly and have excellent scratch resistance during transport. Water-based inks produce brighter patches, while UV inks appear a little darker, but it can be used for very fine screen printing. Therefore, the printing worker must operate according to the performance parameters of different inks in order to obtain the best printing effect.

95% of the label is printed on a clear or white polypropylene film (25 to 100 microns thick) with only a thin layer of ink on top. In general, water-based flexo printing speeds of up to 80 m/min, and UV flexo, or aqueous and UV hybrid ink speed up to 130 m/min, and even up to 200 m/min, but it depends Curing speed.

This online rotary press can print 7 (or even 8) colors with 10 printing units. The last two units are usually used for special processing such as light or adhesive. For UV flexo operations, five IST water-cooled UV curing light boxes (BLK type) are equipped on the machine, and 200 w/cm lamps and cold mirror reflection technology are also provided. For water-based flexo printing, use a hot air oven to dry the ink. Two decoiling devices, one for printing and one for laminating. When it is necessary to print on the back of the label, a turning device will be installed before the quality inspection and final die cutting. According to customer requirements, labels are delivered to customers after reeling or die-cutting. The CTP resin version provided by subcontractors (BASF or Asahi) can greatly reduce the dot gain and improve the quality of printing.

The French company produces labels for many manufacturers, some of which require more and more special labels. Some prints must be fully glazed to avoid leakage of certain ingredients, or to reinforce the label's scratch resistance by compounding (paper-film, film-film). They are looking from the future and are paying attention to both applications and are looking at other areas. They also studied in detail, such as high-brightness UV glazing, or scented glazing labels (microcapsules).

Illochroma Printing Company of France is a branch of the Illochroma Label Group. The Group has 1,060 employees in seven production bases and produces 30 to 35 million labels a day. The annual output is about 75 billion, and the total production capacity is 90 billion. The products are glue labels for beer labels, water and beverages. Labels for pet foods, etc. More than 70% of labels are produced in Europe, and the rest are exported to all parts of the world, from Russia to South America. ※

Author: Jiang Zhou Yang

Source: Chinese flexo