Aug. 07, 2023
Turning packaging creativity into reality relies heavily on the support of printing technology. The rapid development of printing technology has transformed ideas from imagination into tangible products, enriching packaging design creativity and bringing forth numerous opportunities for personalized packaging.
Let's take a look at the various printing technologies that can be used in packaging printing:
Digital Printing in Packaging
Digital printing packaging technology is gaining increasing recognition in the market, with short-run printing products emerging constantly. Personalized packaging prints have become an effective tool for brands to attract customers.
Digital printing technology can be used for brand protection, achieved through the use of transparent UV fluorescent toner or ink. Currently, brand retailers are inclined towards creatively designed product packaging, creating favorable conditions for the development of digital printing technology in the packaging sector. Printing barcodes on product outer packaging allows for the tracking of the entire supply chain.
Digital printing technology offers a cost advantage and is favored by the packaging industry. In the next five years, the market value of packaging printing using digital printing technology is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13.6%, with market size increasing at a rate of 16.2% on average annually. Digital label printing accounts for 80.5% of its market value and 93.5% of market size. It is mainly applied in paperboard, corrugated paperboard, flexible packaging, hard plastic, and metal decorative packaging, with rapidly increasing adoption.
Packaging printing using digital printing technology is one of the few industries in the printing sector that maintains rapid growth. According to estimates by the international research organization Smithers Pira, the global market value of this industry is around $10.5 billion this year. Currently, digital printing packaging technology is continually advancing, and technological innovation has exerted significant driving force in the packaging industry.
Inkjet Printing in Packaging
New types of inkjet inks and substrates have given packaging printing companies the confidence to address short-run packaging printing businesses.
Through digital printing, packaging samples and models can be obtained quickly and economically. Digital packaging technology assists businesses in forecasting sales in regional markets through the production of a small number of packaging units, after which consideration can be given to using traditional printing processes for large-scale packaging printing. Traditional printing methods are evidently too costly for short-run production. Inkjet printing technology is simple, has a short production cycle, allows for the addition and modification of printing information at any time, and eliminates concerns about delivery deadlines.
Inkjet printing also enables printing on special media, providing technical support for wide-format inkjet printing technology in the packaging field. For instance, solvent-based inkjet printers can be used to print on soft white film packaging. Additionally, solvent-based inkjet printers can directly print on shrink film for packaging model production and short-run printing. After printing, the film is removed from the temporary support, cut, and shrunk onto the packaging.
Wide-format inkjet printing technology offers packaging printing companies a new and beneficial option. It enables rapid transformation of graphics and timely production and delivery, greatly reducing costs by minimizing inventory. In the near future, wide-format inkjet printing will become a mainstream technology adopted by the packaging printing industry, playing a significant role in the future packaging market.
Gravure Printing in Flexible Packaging
As the gravure printing industry for flexible packaging trends towards environmental protection, energy efficiency, and savings, more and more new technologies are being applied to the gravure printing industry.
Domestic gravure equipment manufacturers have adopted new technologies such as rapid pre-registration and high-precision tension control, achieving low levels of losses in cutting, equipment restarts (already registered), job changes, restarting previously stored orders, and speed reductions, even surpassing international advanced levels in some aspects. Nowadays, advanced gravure press operation assistance significantly reduces auxiliary time.
Energy consumption in the drying ovens of gravure production processes accounts for a large proportion. The application of heat pump technology, waste heat recovery systems, and layered drying ovens effectively reduces heat energy consumption. The automatic monitoring and drying system based on the lower explosive limit (LEL) not only reduces energy consumption and emissions but also prevents the risk of drying system explosions and combustion, substantially reducing exhaust treatment costs.
The advancement of gravure technology has greatly improved the efficiency of flexible packaging printing and promoted environmentally friendly production for flexible packaging.
Flexographic Printing in Flexible Packaging
Flexographic printing is a relatively environmentally friendly printing method. With the maturation of technology and the prevalence of environmental concepts, the development of flexographic printing in the flexible packaging industry is immeasurable.
Flexographic printing uses flexible photosensitive resin plates to transfer ink to the substrate, exhibiting high-resolution characteristics. The high-resolution flexographic printing image resolution can reach 4000ppi², whereas standard flexographic printing has a resolution of around 2450ppi². High-resolution flexographic printing offers fuller solids, better ink transfer, smoother highlights transition, better reproduction of high-quality images, and the ability to achieve screen rulings above 150lpi.
Flexographic printing can accommodate smaller orders; modern flexographic printers can handle orders of as few as 15,000 to 20,000 prints. High-resolution flexographic printing enables quick job changes, shortening the time cycle from design to print. These advantages provide more options for packaging businesses, particularly in the current market environment that emphasizes personalization, regionalization, and frequent promotional activities.
Broad gamut printing is another significant innovation in flexographic printing. Broad gamut printing uses spot color printing technology to add orange, green, and purple to the standard four-color printing, allowing for the representation of all printed images using a combination of one or seven colors, eliminating the need for spot color inks. It can reproduce 85% of the 1,800 Pantone colors. Broad gamut printing technology provides packaging designers and developers with more color choices, facilitates printing of more complex colors, enhances image realism, achieves more eye-catching product effects, and enhances the contrast between products and backgrounds.
Nanographic Printing in Packaging
In the printing process of paper cartons, ink materials play a crucial role in determining the print quality of the product. The application of nanotechnology to carton printing serves the packaging printing industry with new types of ink.
As a professional packaging factory with more than ten years of experience, RX Packaging has rich experience and professional knowledge, and can provide high-quality, customized color box production solutions. They pay attention to every link such as design, printing, assembly and quality control to ensure that customers get high-quality color box products.
