Development Status

With the development of commodity economy and science and technology, printing processes such as planographic, letterpress, gravure, and special printing processes will all develop. Different printing processes have distinct characteristics and applicable scopes, and they will coexist for a long time, complementing each other, and occupying a place in packaging printing.

1. Lithography will continue to maintain its dominant position. Lithographic plate-making is simple, the plate material is light and easy to mount, allowing for rapid production of high-quality, accurately overprinted large-format color printed materials, especially suitable for printing products with both images and text. In recent years, lithographic technology has continuously integrated advanced, precise, and cutting-edge new technologies such as optics, chemistry, and computer technology, reflecting contemporary high-tech levels.

Packaging Printing

Packaging Printing

2. Letterpress printing technology will have breakthroughs. Letterpress printing is a traditional printing process in China, with a good technological foundation, low investment, and quick setup. It is suitable for small-batch, small-format, and special-specification packaging printing; it has less stringent requirements for paper and ink materials, can significantly adjust printing pressure and control ink volume, achieving a more ideal print quality, and has a wide range of applications.

3. Gravure printing will continue to develop steadily. The advantages of gravure printing have always been high speed, wide format, low consumption, and less downtime, enabling it to produce the best quality prints on various substrates.

4. Screen printing will become more active. As a representative of stencil printing, screen printing in China has always been primarily based on workshop production and was considered only capable of producing lines and large color blocks, thus not being suitable for high-end applications. In today's era of great technological change, modern screen printing equipment, materials, and processes have injected new vitality into screen printing technology.

With the rapid development of science and technology, packaging printing technology continuously integrates with emerging technologies and interdisciplinary fields, innovating and making breakthroughs in strategic high-tech areas, leading to many new technologies such as electrostatic printing, inkjet printing, and digital printing. At the same time, looking at current trends in printing technology development, China's printing machine manufacturing technology is rapidly developing towards high automation, integration, intelligence, digitalization, networking, and multi-color multi-functionality.

　　Modern new technologies have been widely applied to new printing equipment, including computer remote control, automatic plate loading, digital control for automatic registration, automatic fault monitoring display, shaftless technology, servo technology, ion spraying technology, and fiber optic transmission technology. For example, the application of harmonic drive technology in printing machines has advantages such as multiple-tooth meshing, large transmission ratio, small size, light weight, high load capacity, high transmission efficiency, and stable transmission rate, which helps improve printing machine speed and working precision, ensuring both printing production efficiency and product print quality are well-balanced.

Development Trends

1. Development Direction of Lithographic Technology

Currently, major international research topics in lithography include direct plate-making technology, direct printing technology, waterless lithography, and FM screening technology. Most foreign sheet-fed multi-color offset presses adopt ink remote control, automatic plate loading, and automatic registration devices, and control and diagnose faults throughout the entire production process. Domestic development started later, and more effort is needed in the R&D of new-generation integrated multi-color offset presses. Additionally, the quality of domestically produced printing consumables (paper, ink, photosensitive materials, rubber blankets) needs to be improved.

2. Development Trends in Flexographic Technology

After the signing of the Montreal Protocol in 1995, controls on CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) emissions became increasingly strict, and solvents such as trichloroethane and tetrafluoroethylene were also restricted. To make flexographic printing environmentally friendly, there are two development paths: one is the development of new environmentally friendly plate-washing solvents, and the other is the development, manufacturing, and practical application of water-developable flexographic plates. Meanwhile, the thinning of plate materials will also be a development direction for flexographic printing.

3. Development Trends in Gravure Printing Technology.

Gravure printing requires large equipment investment and high plate-making costs, making it only suitable for long-run products. Due to the presence of toxic substances in gravure inks, its application is limited. If these drawbacks can be resolved, gravure printing will see some development. In recent years, advancements in gravure plate technology have significantly shortened the preparation time for gravure printing, improving its competitiveness in the medium and short-run markets. It is expected that the future development of gravure printing will mainly focus on: fully automatic gravure cylinder electroplating; the application of film-less electronic engraving processes; the development of photopolymer thin roll gravure processes and wraparound gravure plates on cylinders; digital quick proofing; gravure printing machines will develop towards multi-purpose, multi-color, high-speed, automated, integrated, and environmentally friendly directions; achieving water-based gravure ink printing and effectively controlling the residual solvent amount in solvent inks.