Application Analysis of Combination Printing in Screen Printing (Part 2)

Third, the application of combination printing in screen printing

Screen printing is a kind of printing that can be compared with lithography, letterpress, and gravure. Because it has its own unique advantages, it has played an important role in many fields, especially in the electronics industry, textile industry, large-scale advertising, etc. The advantage is that other printing methods cannot match. In addition, due to the extensiveness of screen printing printing materials and the research and development of printing machinery, inks and other consumables, complementing the advantages of other printing, and overcoming some of its own deficiencies, it will make the screen printing market more extensive.

1. Screen Printing Combination Printing Main Applications

In view of the combination of printing can not only play a complementary role, but also can create new printing effects and expand the scope of printing. Combined printing has been used for production for many years, and the research and development of its equipment, technology, and used materials have made significant progress, making it rapid development in recent years. Due to the special nature of screen printing, it can make up for some deficiencies in other printing and improve the quality of printing. It can also add decoration and artistic effects to other printed materials, so that the printed materials have unique features and attract customers. Therefore, it also has a wide range of application prospects in combination printing. At present, screen printing is mainly combined with flexographic printing. For example, a combination of a rotary screen printing unit with a very high printing precision and a flexographic printing press can be used to deposit a thick ink layer with excellent screen printing methods. Coverage and other characteristics, and then use the flexographic printing itself printing speed, clarity and other advantages, making it gradually occupy an important position in the packaging and printing market, especially in the following aspects are more significant.

(1) In order to enhance the attractiveness of the product, when using the air-through effect design, it is necessary to use very strong colors or light-emitting inks;

(2) Some labels used in harsh environments, such as battery labels and paint labels;

(3) Products that emphasize product branding and labeling, such as drug labeling and injections;

(4) Certain ingredients need to be warned by law, including the blind;

(5) Get the design of gold, silver and other metal effects;

(6) simple and elegant decoration effects, such as the use of screen printing to print a large area of ​​the field and anti-white characters, and no longer print fine text;

(7) Embossing and matte effects appear on cigarette packs or cosmetic packaging;

(8) Using the characteristics of thick screen printing ink, printing "scratch prize", various kinds of lottery and other securities;

(9) The use of optically variable screen inks and temperature change screen inks can increase the security features of valuable documents and high-grade trademarks.

2. Flexo and Silk Screen Printing

In the packaging and printing market, screen printing has made great progress in the field of packaging, decorating and anti-counterfeiting, and its growth has continued unabated. Today, the combined printing form of screen printing and other printing methods further promotes the important position of screen printing in the field of packaging and printing, and will gradually become one of the major printing processes in the field of packaging and printing. Screen printing, with its thick printing ink layer, ink layer can be adjusted and other unique advantages, showing that flexo printing is difficult to achieve the highlight effect.

At present, the combination of rotary screen printing units with extremely high printing precision and flexographic printing presses has played an important role in the field of packaging anti-counterfeit printing. To sum up, this combination printing has the following remarkable features.

(1) The rotary screen printing unit is printed with a flexographic printing press, which improves the quality and creativity of the printed product and enhances the attractiveness of the product. If you need a more expressive product, you can achieve ideal results only by adopting an air-through effect design, and then using thick colors or light-emitting inks;

(2) The use of this combination printing method to print specific signs (such as the blind person) to indicate signs can achieve ideal results;

(3) This combination printing can obtain gold, silver and other metal printing effects on substrates. It can be used in the packaging of cigarettes, medicines, cosmetics and other commodities, through technical processing, and can show the effect of embossing, matte, so as to achieve some exquisite decorative effect.

Due to the obvious advantages of this combination printing, EM series flexographic printing presses, which are mainly used for packaging and printing production, have more than 90% of the models being user-configured with rotary screen printing units. Moreover, many printing and packaging users are required to configure a rotary screen printing unit on a flexographic printing press when purchasing a flexographic printing press. This also shows that this combination printing method is more popular.

In the future, with the continuous development of science and technology, especially the popularization and application of digital printing in the printing field, the combination printing will cooperate with digital printing. For example, on the relatively short printing length, digital printing will begin to be combined with printing. Showing a positive support situation. Digital printing has long since entered the short-run printing market and has become an ideal tool for a large number of personalized prints. Therefore, with the full application of computer technology in combination printing, the printing market will be greatly expanded.

In addition, in the near future, it is possible to print a long version of the background pattern with a screen printing or flexo printing unit, and print the personalized content with a digital printing unit. Also, with the continuous improvement of the printability of the ink and the like, it is bound to make the combination printing company more variable and different, and make the printing process more stable and reliable.

In addition, electron beam (EB) curing ink, which is another development direction in the future, also has a potential increasing trend. This EB ink not only has the advantages of UV technology, but also has a high hiding power.

The cost of using EB ink curing equipment in combination printing is still too expensive today, but as the technology advances, the price of this technology will sooner or later fall to the user-approved level. By then, EB curing ink will be the driving force for the next leap, which will make the hiding power of the ink layer and the speed of the printing press higher and meet the high speed and high quality processing requirements.

In addition, with the continuous advancement of technology, the ever-increasing trend of end-users' demands for differentiation is obvious, so the prospects for combination printing are bright. For example, from the past few years, the number of printed signs using the combination printing process has risen rapidly. According to the forecast of the industry market, the share of the processing of combination printing in signage printed materials is expected to reach over 90%. This is a certain truth. of.

First of all, users are always looking for a certain kind of printing and decorating methods that can make their products more competitive on the shelves of supermarkets, and the difference is the first requirement in this kind of consumable and brand-effect products. The concept of innovation on packaging and decorating has promoted continuous technological innovation. Driven by this innovative concept, the market is optimistic about the combined printing process, especially the flexographic and screen printing processes using UV-curing inks.

Second, due to the improvement of the performance of printing presses, inks, printing materials, and other auxiliary materials, the combined printing process has been rapidly promoted and trusted. This has also promoted the post-press processing of high-end label products into various small and medium-sized enterprises in the printing industry. It is no longer confined to processing in a few large printing plants, thus opening up wider applications. In addition, the market for printing services such as product packaging will also be fully developed.

Source: Screen Printing Industry