Gold and silver ink flexo printing technology (on)

Gold and silver ink printing process

With the development of economy and the improvement of people's living standards, people have higher and higher requirements for the packaging of goods. In today's commodity packaging, more and more goods are printed using gold and silver ink. The printing methods of gold and silver inks are basically the same as the general graphic and text printing methods, that is, gold or silver inks are used to transfer gold or silver graphic information to the printing materials through the printing process, so that the printing artwork has golden or silver luster. The application of gold and silver ink printing technology in the field of packaging and decorating can significantly enhance the packaging quality of goods, increase the competitive advantages of the goods, and make the goods appear noble. Because the gold and silver ink printing process is particularly adaptable, the printing cost is relatively small, and the economic benefits are also relatively good. Therefore, gold and silver ink printing has been widely used in packaging patterns, trademark printing, and book cover printing.

Gold ink and silver ink

Like other common inks, gold and silver inks are made of pigments, binders, and other auxiliary materials that have been thoroughly stirred and repeatedly ground.

1. pigment

The color forming substance in gold ink is gold powder, and the gold powder is a mixture of copper, zinc, aluminum and other metals with a particle diameter of 50 to 100 μm, and the main component is copper. The hue of the ink changes with the amount of copper contained in the toner. In general, the higher the amount of copper, the warmer the hue, and vice versa, the hue of the hue. The color forming material in the silver ink is aluminum powder. Because of the difference in particle size, the generated aluminum powder is also inconsistent. The particles are large and the reflection gloss is good. The particles are small, and the reflective gloss is poor. The silver ink used for printing generally uses 64~. 128μm aluminum powder.

2. Binder

Gold and silver inks are made from dry vegetable oils, synthetic resins and organic solvents through high-temperature refining. The metal connection material is called gold transfer oil, and the silver ink connection material is called silver adjustment oil. There are many kinds of gold transfer oil and silver adjustment oil, which determine the performance of gold and silver ink.

3. Auxiliary materials

Gold and silver ink auxiliary materials include plasticizers, antioxidants, desiccants, etc. The auxiliary materials give the ink a lot of special properties.

Corrugated cardboard market development

Corrugated cardboard is generally formed by adhesively bonding corrugated paperboard and corrugated cardboard together. Corrugated paper cores are often made from corrugated base paper with a certain degree of bulkiness and sufficient stiffness. The production of corrugated medium paper usually uses semi-chemical pulp, straw pulp, brown ground wood pulp or waste paper pulp. Boxboard is used as the surface layer of corrugated board. It should have high pressure resistance, wear resistance, folding resistance and puncture resistance, and has enough stiffness and toughness. The pulp used to produce boxboard is usually some semi-chemical. Pulp, straw and waste pulp.

This type of corrugated paperboard or carton pack made from corrugated cardboard invented by American Albert L Jones has the advantage that traditional wooden boxes and metal buckets cannot be compared. People often use corrugated boxes or cartons to package goods and use it to transport goods. And store goods. With the development of materials science, corrugated board has penetrated their application fields into sales packaging. In Western countries, as the cost of raw materials continues to rise, people's demand for corrugated packaging that is inexpensive, high-stiffness, and high-capacity is increasing. According to statistics, Germany's consumption of corrugated paper in 2001 was 3.91 million tons (approximately 7.4 billion square meters). This value has reached the total consumption of packaging paper in Germany in 2000. In 2001, the total sales of corrugated paper industry increased by 4.5% year-on-year. %, about 3.3 billion euros. Even if Germany has such a large consumption of corrugated paper, the per capita consumption of corrugated paper in Europe is still lower than that of the United States and Japan. The main reason is that the Eastern European economy lags behind. We can believe that with the rise of the economy in this region, it will Will give the entire European corrugated paper production industry a huge impact and business opportunities. In our country, we estimate that the annual demand for corrugated paper is about 16 billion square meters, and it is still growing at an annual growth rate of 10%.

Corrugated paper printing process

The current corrugated board printing process mainly includes the following types: Preprinting, Postprinting, and Covering. The so-called preprinting process refers to printing on corrugated cardboard materials (from roll to roll) before production of corrugated cardboard boxes, and then printing the printed roll paper on the corrugated board machine (reclamation machine) production line. Face to produce printed corrugated cardboard. Covering process refers to the process of fine pattern flexography or offset printing on the surface of coated paper or offset paper prior to the production of corrugated cardboard boxes, and then bonding the corrugated paperboard and printed matter with an adhesive. Because these two processes do not involve the direct printing of corrugated board, the strength of the corrugated board will not be reduced.

The post-printing process refers to the direct printing of colorful patterns on shaped corrugated cardboard. In the past, people often used light-pressed flexo printing or screen printing to print such corrugated sheets. Now that the corrugated quality has been continuously improved with the development of corrugating in the direction of miniaturization, more and more printing companies are more inclined to adopt “direct offset printing”. Printing corrugating process" printed corrugated cardboard. In China, almost 70% of corrugated packaging is printed on corrugated cardboard using “flexo printing direct printing corrugating process”. In the West, some experts predict that by 2004 the “direct printing and corrugating process for offset printing” will account for 12% of the entire corrugated printing industry (Source: Marketpower)