Offset printing and flexographic printing can also be used for label production, but the specific methods are different. Although the use of flexographic printing is more common among narrow-format printers, offset printing has its own advantages and disadvantages.
A major advantage of offset printing is that the quality is usually better than flexographic printing, but offset printing must use UV curing, and flexographic printing can be used regardless of hot air or UV curing.
Ink flow rate is another aspect of flexographic printing and offset printing. The flow of ink in flexographic printing is controlled by the ink volume of the anilox roller. This factor is determined by the paper surface and the printed image. In offset printing, the flow of ink is controlled by screws (also called buttons) in the ink reservoir, and the amount of ink supplied can be adjusted by the buttons.
Competitive advantage
offset printing
(1) High printing quality
The most commonly mentioned advantage of offset printing is better printing quality. Compared with flexographic printing, offset printing has more dots per unit of printed matter, and the optical density is more uniform. The highest precision of flexographic printing is 170 ~ 180dpi, and offset printing can reach 200 ~ 350dpi.
(2) Low cost
In the starting cost of a new project, offset printing has more advantages. Compared with flexographic or gravure cylinders, the cost of offset printing materials is very low. At the same time, the average production time for offset plates is only 10 minutes, which is surprisingly short compared to flexographic printing. All of this means that you can start a new project immediately without the long preparation time.
(3) Easy to operate
Jakob Landberg, director of sales and marketing at Nybot, a narrow-width printing machine manufacturer, said: "Even a sloppy printer can print excellent quality on an offset press, but in flexographic and UV flexo printing, care must be taken , 100% effort, a slight flicker, the quality may be much worse. Not only that, offset printing is more suitable for printing jobs with large print volume and long cycle. "
Flexo printing
In the contest with flexographic printing, offset printing is not impeccable.
Challenge 1: How can printers better control the printing press?
Although a sloppy printer can print good quality on an offset press, the premise is that he must be very familiar with the press. Offset printing operations must be fully and professionally trained by the printer, and gradually become proficient after a certain period of time. In contrast, it is easier for operators of flexographic printing machines to get started, and the training period is relatively short.
Challenge 2: How to deal with a wide variety of substrates?
Flexographic printing can exert its advantages on non-absorbent substrates (such as plastics, polyolefins or stickers), but offset printing does not work. At the same time, in the face of wide-format substrates, offset printing can only be prohibitive. Generally, the size of the printing format of rotary offset printing is fixed, although it can be solved by using a web offset printing machine with variable printing size, but the cost is relatively expensive.
Cost comparison
1. Equipment investment
In general, the investment cost of offset printing equipment is 30% -40% higher than that of flexographic printing equipment of the same configuration, mainly because of the complex design of its inking and dampening unit structure.
2. Printing material cost
Compared with flexographic printing, offset printing consumables are much cheaper.
The cost of making a set of flexible plates is more than 10 times that of the same set of offset plates. In addition, with the improvement of the quality of flexographic printing, the printing cost is also rising, but the cost of offset printing plate remains basically unchanged.
3. Ink cost
In Europe, flexographic printers generally use solvent-based inks, which is also a great cost advantage compared to offset printing with a wide range of inks.
4. Printing cost
Landberg believes that printing costs vary depending on the job. He said: "Although the cost of flexographic printing is higher, the total investment in flexographic printing is lower, and the running cost of offset printing is lower than that of flexographic printing. It is more cost-effective to use flexographic printing for short work."
5. Operation training
It is necessary to remind printers that training operators to use offset presses is also a cost. In this process, offset operators need to constantly adapt to new technologies and new processes, which is no small challenge compared to flexographic printing.
Offset wind
Looking at the busy offset press in the global market and the marketing process of offset printing equipment manufacturers, it is not difficult to see that offset printing is firmly established as the king of the printing market, which is an indisputable fact.
Digital prospects
With the development of information digitization, digital printing and offset printing share the same workflow. The same data can be used for both digital printing and offset printing. The two technologies share the same pre-press document management environment, so that they can get the same Printing quality, sharing the same printing standards.
Quality is king
To achieve the required quality, better printing methods are needed. Today's customers demand higher quality and better flexibility for printing presses. Press manufacturers are interested in offset printing largely because of their unmatched advantages in print quality.
Into the label
Landberg said: "The label market is a typical global market driven by end customers. In addition to more suppliers turning their attention to the high-end field, Newport also introduced offset printing into the label industry in 1994."
Because the printing quality of offset printing is higher than that of flexographic printing, it is generally used in the printing of self-adhesive labels that need to maintain quality for a long time, especially well-known brands such as health care, beauty and red wine that have high requirements for product packaging. The opportunity to distinguish other products on the shelf, so its product label design generally has a higher number of lines and finer dots. Based on various requirements, labels printed by offset printing are the most suitable. In addition, the quality of the packaging text of pharmaceutical products with a large amount of labels is far more prominent and more important than attracting consumer attention, because these texts must be easy to recognize.
Flexo printing dominates the pressure-sensitive label market, especially in North America. At the same time, the market share of offset printing is also growing rapidly. Many label printers today have begun to adopt the offset printing process. At present, at least 30% to 40% of the business every year uses the process of combining offset printing with flexographic printing and gravure printing, and the number will increase. Landberg believes that offset printing will become more common. He said: "Customers' increasing quality and value-added requirements have also contributed to the further subdivision of the printing process. Offset self-adhesive labels have begun to grow rapidly in the field of red wine labels, and many other fine labels will follow. "
Undoubtedly, considering technology, cost and other factors, the market share of offset labels will further increase. With its wide application, the label offset printing process will be more mature, and offset printing will be unlimited in the label market.
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