With the continuous development of society and the continuous improvement of people’s living standards. People’s pursuit pf beauty is constantly improving, the demand is more and more diversified.
All these promote the continuous development and innovation of printing technology, so as to meet the requirements and progress of the people and society.
There are mainly four kind printing method, here we will discuss its characteristics and application scenarios, their advantages and disadvantahes.
1. Offset Printing
The vast majority of books, magazines, picture albums and packaging color boxes are offset printing products.
Offset printing is a kind of lithographic printing. Simply speaking, offset printing is a printing method in which the graphics on the printing plate are transferred to the substrate with the help of rubber (blanket). The lithographic printing method, which is called offset printing in the south of our country.
Offset printing: all kinds of books, paper posters, folding sheets, handbags, and some PVC, PET, can also be printed on.
2. Gravure Printing
Plastic bag products are generally gravure printing.
The gravure printing ink is full and three-dimensional, the graphics are convex, and the layers are rich, the lines are clear, the quality is high, the printing plate has a long life, and it is suitable for mass printing. Gravure printing can print thin materials such as plastic films.
The main shortcomings of gravure printing are: pre-press plate making technology is complicated, the cycle is long, and the plate making cost is high; due to the use of volatile solvents, the content of harmful gases in the workshop is relatively high, which causes greater damage to the health of workers; the treatment required by gravure printing practitioners is relatively high .
Gravure printing is complicated and the ink pollutes the environment. These two issues have affected the development of gravure. In particular, the reduction of a large number of large prints, and a large increase in short-run prints that require low prices at the same time, have caused gravure printing to continue to lose the market.
3. Flexo Printing
Common logistics packaging corrugated cartons are flexographic products. Flexo printing is an evolution of letterpress printing. Flexo printing is a direct printing method. It is called flexographic printing due to the use of flexible and convex image printing plates. The flexographic printing plate is fixed on the printing plate cylinder, and the printing plate is supplied with ink by an engraved metal anilox roller.
Direct flexographic printing has the following characteristics:
1). The ink layer is thick and the ink color is consistent.
Although the ink layer of flexo printing is thinner than gravure printing, it is definitely thicker than offset printing. This is very beneficial for the large-area color patches commonly seen in printed packaging products. Because of the use of anilox rollers to transfer ink, generally speaking, if the paper condition remains unchanged, the ink If the situation remains the same, the ink color of the same batch of products or different batches of products can be kept consistent. This is the basic requirement of packaging printing, and it is also not easy to achieve with offset printing.
2). Widely use non-toxic water-based ink for printing.
Flexo ink is the only non-toxic ink approved by the American Food and Drug Association among all printing inks. Therefore, flexographic printing is also called green printing and is widely used in equipment and pharmaceutical packaging, which is beyond the reach of other printing methods.
3). A wide range of printable media.
The flexographic printing machine can not only print all kinds of paper, but also print aluminum foil, plastic film, self-adhesive notes, woven bags, breathable film, metal foil, non-woven fabrics and textiles. There are more types of suitable printing media than gravure printing methods. . Except for paper, the offset printing method cannot or is not good for printing on other media.
4). The product has a wide range of applications.
Almost all paper and plastic packaging products can be printed by flexo printing. In addition to packaging products, newspapers, books, magazines and other products can also be printed.
5). The equipment has a strong comprehensive processing capability.
The flexographic printing machine can perform post-printing processing on the same equipment, such as reverse printing, glazing, laminating, die cutting, cross-cutting, slitting, punching, dragons, fan folding, automatic waste discharge, etc., even in Add numbering, hot stamping or screen printing units to the printing unit. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for some people to call the flexographic printing machine a printing processing line.
4. Silk Screen Printing
Silk screen is a printing method that is close to our lives.
The common local UV is screen printing, which can form ink accumulation according to the thickness of the screen, which has a very good three-dimensional effect; screen printing is also widely used in self-adhesive label printing.
When we were young, our exam papers were transcribed and mimeographed. The teacher put wax paper on a textured steel plate, engraved with a pointed engraving pen, and then printed it with a mimeograph. This printing method is based on the same principle as our screen printing: the screen has a hollow part, and the ink is transferred to the substrate (paper, ceramic, etc.) through the holes to form an image or text. Silk screen: all kinds of metal, glass, paper, plastic, wood, ceramics, etc.
It is claimed that there is nothing that cannot be printed except air and water.
In General:
For the printing of playing card,some times its needs special process like emboss, deboss, foil and so on, sometimes a combination of multiple printing is needed. However is the most and maily applied printing method for playing card, card game, flash card, tarot and affirmation cards is offset printing. It can guarantee the quality as well as its printing effect, save cost and time.
Diffferent printing method has their own advantages as well as disadvantages,various product do have the most suitable for them. For playing card printing, the better printing method is offset printing for now. We believe that with the development of the technology, our printing way will be more various and get more progress.
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