Digital printing is in the process of infiltration in the packaging industry should be dealt with as soon as possible

Numerous facts tell us that the combination of various printing production processes is the need to improve product quality, and the need to improve production efficiency. In the final analysis, it is to meet the needs of product sales and user aesthetics.

There are examples to prove:

Banknotes are special products that use gravure printing, embossing, and a series of anti-counterfeiting measures on special paper. The bills and labels are the traditional combination of traditional flexo or offset printing and digital printing, and the barcode packaging box. The same is true; individual product packaging highlights the texture through partial processing of the digital post-printing device after printing; In response to the above-mentioned multi-printing process combination requirements, Italian and domestic machinery manufacturers have introduced roll-type special printing machines that integrate several processes such as concave, soft and glue. These machines can be replaced by custom-made machines. The drum realizes the transformation between the process color groups. In this case, packaging printing is based on the history of gravure and offset printing, and it is reasonable to gradually move toward the mixed printing road combined with digital printing.

Digital printing is rapidly infiltrating into various fields with its ability to meet individual needs.

Digital printing is closely related to the development of digital technology. Digital printing is longer than meeting the requirements of personalized products. After printing orders move to small prints and batches, digital printing equipment is more concerned by manufacturers.

Since the global economic crisis was detonated by the US subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, and people gradually become accustomed to obtaining information through Internet terminals, the number of orders for long printing has been significantly reduced, so the sales of traditional printing equipment have been sluggish, and the performance is not as good as before, despite digital printing. The sales of equipment are also affected by the cold wave, but the technological breakthroughs in digital printing equipment and the expansion of the application range are extremely clear.

Compared with the fully mature traditional offset printing, the printing format is small and the printing speed has always been a short board of digital printing presses. It has been criticized by the industry. However, this situation has basically been rid of in recent years, and almost all major digital equipment manufacturers have successfully launched. With the B2 format machine, the printing speed has also been greatly improved, and the quality of the printed products has been approved by the users. It is reported that at this Drupa printing exhibition, Israeli Benny Landa will launch the Landa S10 sheetfed press for folding cartons and POP printing, and the Landa S10P double-sided for commercial printing. The printing press and the Landa W10 web press for flexible and cardboard printing, where the S10 sheetfed presses run at speeds of up to 13,000 sheets per hour, and the format is further extended to large pairs (B1). The news also said that the cost of Nano-Metallography, also introduced by Benny Lanta, will be half the cost of traditional metal printing. If this is the case, people have no reason to accept the advancement of digital printing technology. Convenience and cost reduction?

If the technological advances in digital printing equipment have been exciting in recent years, digital printing is more widely used in various production fields and people can see its infinite vitality. Digital printing is very popular for graphic printing and short-run commercial printing; it is also accepted by publishers for short-run book printing; digital printing is more widely used in labels and anti-counterfeiting printing. Personalized printing of wallpapers and tiles is not uncommon; now digital printing has begun to move towards printing and dyeing, and has moved toward home decoration; ... It is believed that with the continuous development of printers, digital printing will go more and more to all aspects of our lives. Inevitably, it includes the packaging field that occupies most of the printing.

Packaging printing is a big print

With the popularity of the Internet, the volume of prints and commercial advertisements based on books and periodicals fell rapidly. According to the data released by the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the proportion of packaging and printing in 2009 was 636.773 billion yuan. 65%; in 2010, among the total printing output value of 770.65 billion in the country, the output value of 576.646 billion completed in packaging and printing was 4.67 times of the printing output value of publications (123.426 billion); in 2013, the total output value of printing industry in China exceeded 1 trillion, reaching 1039.85 billion yuan. The output value of packaging and printing is 774.2 billion yuan, accounting for 74.45% of the total, which means that in the past 4 years, packaging printing has increased by almost 2% per year. Therefore, packaging printing, which is closely related to people's lives, is a big print. In this case, digital printing, which is linked to new scientific and technological achievements, should be used more in packaging and printing. This does not mean that digital printing should replace traditional crafts, but should play a variety of printing techniques and take the road of mixed printing. .

For a long time, China's printing market has always dominated offset printing, followed by gravure, flexo and silk screen printing. The latter two should account for a single digit in the printing market. The sales of digital printing equipment have been in recent years. Although there is a sudden rise in the trend, according to the statistics of the General Administration, it is about 1 percentage point. (Considering the large number of digital printing production capacity that does not have a digital printing license, the public believes that the market share of digital printing should be in the total amount of printing. Between 2-3%), far below the international market has reached an average of 14%. Of course, in recent years, with the increase of environmental protection pressure, the amount of flexographic printing and digital printing using water-based inks with relatively negative environmental impact has increased. The packaging printing capacity is basically the same as the above-mentioned basics. The only difference is that the gravure printing process is used for the long-term packaging printing, because the gravure printing plate is relatively expensive and can be shared in the production of large printing.

It is precisely because of the large number of gravure printing and offset printing used in packaging and printing production. In September 2012, the “Twelfth Five-Year Key Area Air Pollution Control Plan” drafted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection listed the packaging and printing industry as a key management planning catalogue. In October of the following year, the "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan" issued by the State Council clearly stated that "the VOCs sewage charges will be tested in the petrochemical, surface coating, packaging and printing industries, and comprehensive management will be implemented". The capital is located in the capital of the devastated area. But it is the first to bear the brunt.

There is no doubt that there are emissions of pollutants such as VOCs in printing production, which have a certain negative impact on the environment. Printing companies should also make efforts to protect the environment, but only in the situation of relatively difficult economic situation, governance and punishment. In terms of relationships, monitoring methods and charging standards, etc., it is more operational and more realistic. Enterprises may be more accepting subjectively and take the initiative in their work. What's more, the existing environmental management plan will require a considerable amount of up-front investment, and the cost of replacing the carbon core with the activated carbon adsorption program is also a small expense. Some environmental protection agencies have clearly stated that what they can do now is that the cost of governance is no more than the cost of sewage disposal that the unregulated enterprises need to pay to the government. From this we can see that it is not easy to reduce this part of the expenditure.

Of course, when traditional printing faces the pressure of environmental protection, it may be a good thing to promote the application of digital printing in the packaging field. It is only a digital printing equipment and consumables that are highly dependent on foreign countries, as long as its high production cost cannot occur. Feel the decline, and the difficulty of further promotion and application will increase objectively. This is why in Germany, where the population is only tens of millions, "Fuji's personal album processing center in Germany, thousands of beautifully mounted hardcover albums are produced here every day, and the Christmas season is more likely to exceed 10,000 copies." Every year, there are hundreds of millions of overseas travellers in China, and the number of similar albums is very small. The relationship between quantity and price is a problem that suppliers need to think about; mobilizing domestic technical forces and taking the road of localization of digital printing equipment and consumables is a problem that the relevant government departments should seriously consider. Otherwise, in this field, we are at the international advanced level. The gap will be bigger and bigger, and the right to speak will be smaller and smaller.

Meeting individual needs will be the next stage of product development

The quality of printed products and the relatively low production cost determine the production process of offset printing or gravure printing in packaging and printing production so far. Moreover, even if the environmental protection determines the cost of collecting VOCs and the cost of the enterprise needs to be invested, It will still be basically the same for a long period of time that can be foreseen, because application is the basic principle of choice.

However, digital printing has gradually emerged in the packaging field. First of all, in the label printing of packaging, Coca-Cola has launched nickname bottles, lyrics bottles and expression bottles for several years in order to promote market sales, which obviously promotes the development of digital printing in the field of packaging and printing. It can be believed that with the further rise of the personalized market, digital printing will gradually increase in packaging and printing, but this will be a process, and it is impossible to do it all at once, if blindly thinking that this change will soon It will happen, which will affect the decision-making and profitability of the company. This is almost the same as what has happened in the short-run book printing market. As a preemptive layout, gaining market share and leading edge, it can be used as a profit-making means for enterprises, except for individual exceptions (such as IP Publishing House, because The nature determines the number of prints is limited, and at the same time the use of relatively low-cost digital printing equipment), in the initial stage is obviously a little too high expectations, it is not realistic at the moment.

When Alibaba’s Ma Yun looked forward to the future market development, he once said something like this: “In the future, the competition of the enterprise is more than the value, it is its unique creative consciousness, the second is the personality, the third ratio is Specifications.” “For companies, they are not willing to customize for consumers.” Here, he tells us that any company must pay attention to personalized customization, because this is an inevitable trend that is accompanied by the progress of the times. It is obviously unrealistic and impossible for our minds to stay at the stage of complaining about market changes and expecting time to go back. To this end, packaging and printing companies that are doing well today should consider entering the digital printing field, especially when the technological transformation capability still exists, which is called advancing with the times.

At present, packaging printing should consider the use of digital printing for at least the following three reasons:

First, digital printing has well responded to the high demands of relevant departments on packaging and printing enterprises in terms of pollutant emissions.

Second, digital printing is easy to meet the personalized printing needs that have emerged in the market.

Third, the digital printing equipment has the advantages of integration with the existing printing process, and is suitable for the packaging printing enterprise to take the road of mixed printing to meet the needs of different customers.

At present, packaging printing companies introduce digital printing equipment, the purpose of which is not to replace the technology. It is impossible and unnecessary, but to supplement, in order to meet the needs of different customers, in order to choose economical products according to products. Production methods, in order to improve production efficiency. It can be said with certainty that it is only a matter of time before digital printing equipment and processes enter the packaging and printing enterprises on a large scale.

Digital printing is now in the packaging stage.

In recent years, there have been some large-scale and capable packaging and printing companies that have purchased digital printing equipment such as INDIGO10000 for packaging and printing production, such as the tobacco packaging and printing company in Shanghai, which is to solve the physical proofing of packaging design products. Customers have a direct sense of the newly designed products, and also in order to have the ability to organize the production of personalized products. However, due to financial constraints and business volume, there are still few units that can enter this field.

Undoubtedly, digital printing has advantages in meeting people's individual needs, and has a lot of space in combination with other production methods. However, when packaging and printing companies enter the digital printing field, they are not relying on digital printing to make money. It is only to facilitate the enterprise to win the market with numerous production processes, to train relevant professionals, and to prepare for the explosion of digital printing at a certain point in time.

The reason why it is not digital printing for the packaging printing enterprises to earn money is that it is basically because of the digital printing equipment and consumables that rely on foreign brands, the production cost is still high, and the lack of competitive price/performance ratio is quite Digital printing to complete the production task, once encountered the traditional printing press through the production organization of the competition, often lost the reason.

It is said that digital printing is not a time for packaging and printing companies to make money, but also because in addition to individual consumers, ordinary consumers still have an invisible sense of rejection of high-priced products, which is why in addition to marriage, the object is willing to make money for the family. Specialized candy bags, but they are not willing to spend this extra cost. This is related to their consumption concept and to the income level. I believe that one day, when the price drops to their psychological endurance, such personalized orders will increase exponentially.

Although digital printing is less than a time to make money in the packaging field, entering this field as early as possible is indeed the next step for the company to develop. This part of the development phase is digested when traditional printing can provide financial support for digital printing. It is possible to invest, otherwise, even if the company wants to enter the field with the big flow, but it lacks financial support, or if others have already taken the lead in the market, the cost of re-entry will be higher.

When the amount of content printed showed a large decline, many people believed that packaging printing should rebound sharply along with the economic recovery, and even did not exclude some professional consulting organizations. However, in my opinion, saving resources and reducing waste on packaging is becoming a market consensus. Pursuing simplicity, novelty and fashion is becoming a trend, not to mention that the packaging itself is only a beautifying function, and the inner goods that are actually spent on purchasing. There is no direct correlation. The conclusion drawn from this is that, like content printing is affected by the Internet, the amount of packaging and printing will not appear to be unrestrained. Only creative products can attract people's attention.

In short, today, when traditional printing has been achieved and printing orders are shrinking, digital printing is trying to expand its share of total printing, including packaging printing with large market share. It is believed that with the passage of time, the proportion of digital printing into packaging printing will continue to grow, and hybrid printing will become a direction of packaging printing, both to reduce production costs and to meet short-form packaging printing with individual needs. It is an unquestionable development trend. To this end, all companies interested in further developing packaging and printing should seize this opportunity and enter this field as soon as possible to lay a solid foundation for future development.

(Original title: Digital printing: layout should be developed as soon as possible)