Flexographic printing industry chain is becoming more and more perfect and diversified
China’s flexographic printing industry chain has been formed. Both domestic and imported “keep pace” has been realized for printing machines, printing machine auxiliary equipment and printing consumables. The market competition has been sufficient and even reached the white hot level.
As an important part of the flexographic printing industry chain, the production and supply of flexographic plate has distinctive characteristics: more than 80% of flexographic plate production is undertaken by professional plate making companies, so plate making companies are an important part of the flexographic printing industry chain. At present, there are hundreds of large and small plate making companies in China, but it is estimated that there are no more than 30 plate making companies with high level of specialization and considerable market reputation. Due to the large number of plate making companies, the competition is becoming increasingly fierce, but only professional and large-scale plate making companies will go further and better.
The increasing perfection and diversification of flexographic printing industry chain is conducive to the progress of flexographic printing technology and the reduction of costs. Therefore, the sustainable development of China’s flexographic printing has a fundamental guarantee.
Flexographic printing has been innovating continuously since its birth: from the initial rubber plate to the advent of photosensitive resin plate, and then to the application of digital flexographic plate and digital process flow; From field color block printing to halftone image printing; From flat plate double-sided adhesive paste plate to seamless sleeve, there is no need to paste plate innovation; From environmentally friendly solvents instead of non environmentally friendly solvents to plate making; From solvent plate making to solvent-free plate making (water washing flexo, thermal plate making technology, laser direct engraving plate making technology, etc.); Flexographic press from gear shaft drive to electronic shaftless drive; From low speed to high speed; From ordinary ink to UV ink; From low wire count anilox roller to high wire count ceramic anilox roller; From plastic scraper to steel scraper; From hard double-sided tape to elastic double-sided tape; From regular outlets to FM and am outlets, and then to hybrid screening; From step-by-step plate making to flexo automatic plate making; The application of light-weight sleeve to screen roller; From low resolution to high resolution dot reproduction technology and digital flexo flat top dot technology
“Three parts of printing, seven parts of prepress”, which is widely circulated in the industry, really reflects the importance of prepress technology. At present, flexographic prepress technology mainly includes pattern processing and plate making. Here is a brief introduction to the flat top dot technology of digital flexo. In recent years, flat top dot technology has become a hot topic in the field of flexographic plate making. Flat top dot plate making technology is widely respected because it can significantly improve the stability and consistency of flexographic dot and increase the tolerance of printing operation. There are five ways to realize flat top outlets: next of flint, NX of Kodak, lux of Medusa, digiflow of DuPont and inline UV of ASCO. These technologies have their own distinctive characteristics, but the additional materials or equipment involved will still put pressure on the comprehensive plate making cost of users. To this end, flint, Medusa and DuPont have invested in corresponding R & D work. At present, they have launched flat top dot plates without the help of additional materials or equipment, such as flint’s Nef and FTF plates, Medusa’s ITP plates, DuPont’s EPR and ESP plates.
Objectively speaking, the application of domestic flexographic printing technology is consistent and synchronous with the highest level in Europe and America. There is no phenomenon that any foreign flexographic printing technology has not been adopted and applied in China.