With the development of the economy and the widespread use of labels on products, the label printing industry has developed rapidly The combination of various printing processes can leverage the benefits of each process, ensuring high-quality printing results to meet the increasing sensory demands of consumers. This also enhances the quality of printing  factories,

        leading to more business opportunities. 

        Combination of Multiple Processes in Label Printing Currently, domestic label printing mainly employs relief printing, offset, flexographic printing, and screen printing. From a technical perspective, each of these printing methods has its own advantages and disadvantages, and none can completely replace anotherOffset printing is a widely used printing method, with most domestic sheet-fed printing being dominated by offset printing. This method is characterized by high speed, high clarity, registration, and full-bodied printing layers. However, it has poor durability and shallow ink layers, making it less suitable for printing brightly colored label products. Relief offers good clarity, high printing speed, and better color strength and durability than offset printing, though it falls short compared to screen printing.

          However, it excels layer representation and registration accuracy over screen printing and flexographic printing. 

          Therefore, most domestic label production adopts relief printing. Screen printing's main advantage is its thick ink and good coverage, but it is slow, has poor layer representation, and low registration accuracy (referring to the general domestic level, recent developments in screen printing have achieved registration accuracy of 10 microns, with speeds reaching 6000 prints per hour). 

          Therefore, screen printing machines can be used for labels that do not require strong layer representation. 

          Flexographic printing offers moderate print quality characteristics. 

          It is widely used in foreign countries for label printing, but this technology high standards for the processing of anilox rollers and the technical level of workers.

          Although the equipment is simple, the process is quite complex. Currently, few operations use this method for label printing. 

         To produce the most beautiful labels, it is necessary to effectively combine various processes during printing, integrating the advantages of different printing to form a more powerful combination.

         The Purpose of Combining Multiple Processes

        (1) Effective anti-counterfeiting: Using various effects for printing on a single label can help consumers easily identify genuine products, thereby protecting the interests of both the product manufacturers and the consumers. This also earns a reputation for the printing factory. 

        (2) Improving print quality: Combining multiple processes integrates the advantages of various printing processes, ensuring the best possible print quality meet the increasing sensory demands of people. This also enhances the printing quality of the printing factory, attracting more business. Additionally, combining multiple processes can improve production efficiency reduce costs, as it allows for the completion of printing and post-printing processes in a single operation. 

        There are two forms of machines for combining multiple processes: 

        (1) One is a single-machine combination: In trademark printing machines, the most common type is the oblique-back machine, which can complete printing, gold stamp, die cutting, and waste disposal on a single machine. However, as it is a single-machine print, the print size may be affected.

        (2) other is a combination of machine units into a production line: This involves combining printing and post-printing processes such as flexography, screen printing, gravure, stamping, and die cutting into a line for production. 

        This method can meet the needs of the current label market, significantly improving the quality of printed products and bringing substantial profits to printing manufacturers. 

        The development of such production lines is increasingly favored in China. The combination of flexography, gravure, and screen printing label printing To illustrate the combination of multiple processes in production, let's consider an example of printing a label. The label content includes color gradients, solid blue, portraits, and corresponding text descriptions. 

        From the comparison above, we know that for printing patterns with rich colors, flexography offers better gradation than gravure For solid text and graphics, screen printing is the best choice. For portraits, we can choose gravure. Therefore, we combine flexography, gravure, screen printing on this label, forming a production line to print beautiful labels.  

        This combination of flexography, gravure, and screen printing is a typical example of process integration in label printing. The arrangement of processes in multiple process integration is also a science that requires extensive practical experience. 

        For example, screen printing has a slower time, so this must be considered when combining processes.

        Various contradictions that may arise in actual application Since combination printing is a comprehensive system of various printing processes, are bound to be various contradictions in actual application. 

        From the perspective of technology. First of all, it is necessary to ensure that the order of each unit of combination printing machine used has sufficient variability to adapt to the combination of printing processes required for various printed products. Choose the least number of printing methods to achieve the best effect. Secondly, the pre-press design and plate-making level of label printing play a very important role in the quality of label printing. 

        For example, flexography, screen printing, gravure, and letterpress, the design should try to reduce the large-area gradient pattern design to avoid the difference between the product and the ideal state due to dot gain during printing.                  

        Furthermore, out of consideration for anti-counterfeiting and aesthetics, modern labels have higher requirements for technology. 

        companies hope to equip their products with special labels. For example, the Pantene series labels first use gravure to create a metal effect base, followed by flex, screen printing, and varnishing. 

        The shimmering metal texture strongly resonates with consumers pursuing high taste. 

        To achieve this special effect, either special technological is needed or the characteristics of various printing methods should be reflected on the product.

         In summary, the colorful product packaging puts higher demands on label printing, while combination makes the production of product labels more visually appealing. Finally, let's look at the narrow-web rotary printing technology that represents the development direction of label combination printing. 

         is mainly based on flexographic printing machines, but also includes rotary offset printing, rotary screen printing, rotary gravure printing, and rotary special processing equipment such rotary hot stamping, cold stamping, lamination, transfer, die cutting, slitting rewinding, and super varnishing. 

        Therefore, the combination of processes has become a prominent feature of narrow-web rotary equipment. 

        Various processes can be freely interchangeable on the multifunctional platform, ensuring the realization of technological flexibility allowing full play of imagination in design. Label printing, as a new force in packaging printing, has been favored by more and more visionaries due to its huge prospects and substantial profits. With the extensive application of new technologies, new technologies, and new materials in the printing industry, label combination printing is increasingly showing its powerful.

Source: Carton Box Network, China Paper Industry Network