Flexographic linkage production line has been used more and more in the processing of folded cartons, and has become one of the fastest developing printing processing methods, which brings great power for the development of carton processing industry. Even in some of the slowest growing regions of the carton processing market, there has been significant development.
There are still some processors that do not consider post-press processing such as die cutting, waste discharge and molding to be a vital part of flexographic production. However, only after die-cutting, waste discharge and molding processing after the box has the actual packaging and transportation performance, can be called a really practical packaging. Imperfect post-press processing effectively renders perfect printing meaningless.
There are still many factors restricting the efficiency of carton processing plants. For example, in the end is the use of sheet paper or web paper to feed paper, the use of circular die-cutting or flat die-cutting, the use of joint die-cutting or off die-cutting, all directly affect the production capacity of the whole factory, the interests of the enterprise and the ability to serve customers.
In the carton processing industry, now occupy a larger market share is still single paper feeding, multi-machine offset processing, flat pressing die cutting processing technology. Its process flow is:
paper roll - sheet paper - stop - printing - stop - rush - stop - die cutting - stop - waste - processed box
From the capital input and labor cost evaluation, if also in this mode to operate a box processing plant, will face great pressure.
Therefore, there are only two ways for the existing sheet box processors to get ahead of the competition. One is to produce as fast as possible with the existing equipment; Second, the realization of mass processing under the low cost production, such as a variety of different specifications of the box together for processing. The high cost of equipment investment, the time-consuming transfer of printing and the difficulty of managing multiple sets of processing equipment at the same time, especially the difference in speed matching between printing and post-press processing, is continuously reducing the proportion of sheet offset + flat die cutting in carton processing.
The typical flexographic printing line processing process, that is, the web material directly into the printing part, and then output the finished product from the other end, the process is as follows:
Obviously, this production mode reduces capital investment, die cutting consumption and labor input, and shortens the time for finished products to reach customers. This is very different from the multiple processing processes in the processing of sheet paper box.
After realizing this difference, and considering the requirement of processing time, the following results can be compared: offset processing requires 5 sets of printing equipment, while flexographic processing only needs 1 set of printing equipment; Offset printing processing needs 6 processes, flexographic printing processing only 2 processes; Offset processing ultimately requires 10 to 12 workers, while flexographic processing only needs 2 to 3 workers. The advantages and disadvantages of technology are obvious.
Whether it is single sheet paper or web paper printing, if equipped with flat die cutting, there will be some defects in the processing technology. Therefore, the choice of die - cutting process becomes the second most important determinant in carton processing. Although the price of circular die-cutting die is still higher than that of flat die-cutting die, the price of circular die-cutting die is gradually reduced and its reliability is gradually improved, so that its popularity is constantly expanding. So far, more and more carton processors have realized the advantages of circular die cutting processing, mainly reflected in the higher average processing speed, similar consistency of processing technology (rotary printing + circular die cutting), lower investment and simple, fast preparation of recognition.
From Table 1 it is easy to see the cost advantage of circular die cutting. In terms of equipment investment, the price of a flat pressing die cutting machine is enough to buy more than a round pressing die cutting machine. Although the price of circular die cutting version is slightly higher, but its investment can be postponed, only in the actual receipt of special carton processing orders, only need to buy the mold. Further, the modern circular die cutting version has been made very precise, so that most of the pre-press preparation work is completed in the mold processing factory, die cutting version of the pad, hollowing out, stick indentation pad strip and other preparatory work in the printing enterprise has ceased to exist, printing enterprises only need to use a thin double-sided adhesive version is enough, in fact, also reduce the cost. Of course, the most important factor of all is still productivity. Compared with the linkage die - cutting processing technology, the production efficiency of circular die - cutting is much higher. After the successful adoption of new methods such as reducing the cutting blank, the success factor of carton processing production is the number of processing per unit time, that is, how to improve the production efficiency. Although the combination of flat pressing die cutting and web printing process also has a higher processing speed, but higher equipment maintenance costs, difficulties in die cutting waste removal and alignment difficulty, so that the actual processing capacity is not as good as circular pressing die cutting processing.
Of course, circular die cutting is not omnipotent. Large format printing of small box processing production using flat die-cutting process still has advantages, in some aspects even more than narrow-band rotary + circular die-cutting process processing capacity.
It is important to note that there are many types of rotary die cutting processing equipment, and you need to have a considerable amount of knowledge to make a successful choice.
Solid die cutting plate and magnetic die cutting plate
solid die cutting plate of steel alloy in nearly 20 years has been the most important die cutting plate used in circular die cutting. The price of the previous die cutting version is expensive, considering that to make the carton processor continue to maintain a competitive advantage, the price of the mold has been significantly reduced in recent years, almost to the point where the carton processor does not need to consider too much. The tooling process has also advanced to the point where it can be delivered in a few days (whereas previously it could take weeks, or even months for large molds), the tooling is becoming more accurate, and all the die cutting preparation is completed before the mold is delivered. Although the mold manufacturing process is constantly reducing the cost of the mold, but for some carton processors and certain production conditions, there are still some deficiencies in the physical die cutting version. To make up for this as quickly as possible, die makers accelerated the development of flexible die cutting plates, namely magnetic die cutting plates. It uses magnetic roller to fix the die - cut plate.
Magnetic die cutting version of the development is very rapid, the main reason is its low price. A set of magnetic die cutting version of the price is only about a set of physical die cutting version of the price of 25% ~ 30%. Through the application in recent years, magnetic die-cutting has established its position in the processing of ultra-small number of cartons. Especially when the carton processor is not sure whether a carton can be processed in large quantities, it can be used in the trial production of carton samples, test products, etc. In general, box processors if they can reasonably calculate the annual production of less than 8 million boxes, you can completely use magnetic die-cutting version, and when the output is greater than 8 million boxes, the use of solid die-cutting version is more suitable. Two differences should be noted here. First, most of the magnetic die cutting version of the die cutting processing needs an auxiliary process or a waste box, which is different from the physical die cutting version processing. Solid die cutting plate has been equipped with an integrated pin type waste discharge part, so it has advanced in simplicity, reliability and processing speed; Second, magnetic die cutting plate in the die cutting edge passivation can not be re-grinding, and solid die cutting plate in the normal die cutting edge passivation, can also be repeated grinding 3 ~ 5 times. This is why mentioned earlier to 8 million carton processing number as the choice of different die cutting version of the reason.