Gravure Printing Carton Preprinting Innovative Process Application (2)

- The main equipment used for preprinting cartons is a large-sized group-type gravure printing press. Its auxiliary equipment is a computer-controlled cross-cut and slitting of corrugated paper production lines. The pre-printed face paper is placed on the noodle station of the corrugated board line, and after sizing, veneering, flattening, drying, cutting and other processes, the colored cardboard is finally made, and the post-passage is obtained through die-cutting, sticking, and the like. The production process completes the production of the carton.

——Carton preprinting requirements for corrugated cardboard lines. The important configuration of the gravure printing carton preprinting production line is the computer cross cutting of the corrugated cardboard production line, that is, a crosscutting control function must be installed on the cross cutting knife of the corrugated board production line. Its main control principle is to identify the corrugated cardboard by the photoelectric eyes. The cross-cut logo on the printed pattern transmits the time when the cross-cut mark reaches the photo-electric eye to the control computer, and then the control computer controls the cross-cutting time, thereby accurately cutting the corrugated cardboard at the border of the pattern. At present, cross-cutting machine manufacturers at home and abroad can install this function for the carton factory, and the cross-cutting accuracy can be controlled within 0.5mm. At present, China's current production of corrugated board production lines can be installed according to customer requirements computer cross-cutting device.

The same principle is used for computer slitting and computer crosscutting

- Inks and Varnishes: The inks used in the preprinted intaglio printing machines are mainly alcohol-soluble inks or water-based paper-specific gravure inks.
When preprinted paper is subjected to flattening and drying processes on a corrugated paper production line, the ink used requires high temperature and abrasion resistance, otherwise the colored surface will be pulled or dragged. At present, the "Tianshi" brand ink produced by the Tianjin Toyo Ink Factory can meet the requirements of water-based paper gravure printing. The cost is low, no pollution and meets the national environmental protection requirements. The gravure carton preprinted inks produced by Shanxi Essence Industry & Trade Co., Ltd. are based on cellulose. The main solvents are alcohols and esters. Compared with water-based inks and offset inks, this kind of ink has bright color, high gloss and abrasion resistance, and is resistant to 180°C. -250°C high temperature, good printing adaptability, clear printing pattern, delicate color, etc., and excellent adhesion to most printing surfaces. Some domestic manufacturers of Varnish use high-temperature Varnish from Cprecision In & Technology of the United States, and some domestic brands have also been widely adopted. The effect is also very good.

- Printing plate: The preprinted plate is made of steel chrome-plated electrogravure. The number of gravure lines can reach more than 300 lines. It can be used for dot printing of dot printing on the ground and tone transition, but the gravure ratio of paper printing General gravure printed in gravure is more deeply carved in the sculpting, and the price of gravure plate has dropped from 0.7 yuan/cm2 to about 0.35 yuan/cm2, which is close to the flexographic version, and the number of gravure prints is 3-4 of the flexographic version. Times, up to 3 million - 4 million prints, glazing roller can use a fixed number of wire roller, using a shaftless drive. At present, there are more domestic plate-making manufacturers, such as the electric engravings produced by the shipping companies, the Southern platemaking industry and Sanmenxia Blue Snow, etc., which have reached the international advanced level.

- Paper: Intaglio preprinted substrates must use coated white paper with good surface smoothness, strong printability, and stable moisture content (6%-7%). Imported coated cattle card and domestic gray board can meet the high-end color corrugated cardboard paper distribution requirements. Finland's M-REAL Forestry Company is world-renowned for producing coated paper with high hygiene standards. 185g of coated paper has been widely used in domestic preprinting machines. The paper's quantitative range is 150g-350g/m2, and the US Mead Paper Industry has been using it. 500 grams of raw wood pulp coated bovine card gravure printing cartons and canned beer cartons are stronger than corrugated cartons.

● Problems and Solutions

The paper concave machine's printing products include preprinted paper rolls such as decorative paper, bubble gum paper, beer drink boxes, cigarette cases, medicine boxes, milk boxes, and fruit boxes, household appliances and daily necessities. The features are exquisitely designed, colorful, and demanding. The following solutions are available for reference for some common problems in the application process of the current paper concave machine.

Wrinkling: high gram preprinted paper roll tension is about 50kg, more difficult to control than the film (10kg) and thin paper (25kg). When the water is uneven and the thickness is uneven, greater tension changes will cause the paper to swing laterally. Form the surface creases of printed products. The preheating device of the paper concave machine can help reduce the tension change caused by moisture loss (when the moisture content is too low, install the humidifier); if you add a flattening roller, you can help the paper roll as far as possible The swing is reduced.
Ink draw: In addition to the above-mentioned temperature-resistant ink and varnish, the latest air-cushion heating plate heat conduction control system can reduce the heating temperature and stress strength of the cardboard through the hot end. The process is that an air spray channel is arranged at the gap between the heating plate and the cardboard, and air can be sprayed in an instant to form a gas film to hold the cardboard, so as to avoid defects such as scratches, inks and the like caused by overheated pressure of the cardboard.
Lubai: mainly due to the dust on the surface of the paper roll and blocked by the ink. The dust and explosion-proof electrostatic ink-absorbing devices installed in the field printing group can separate the air from the dust, improve the ink repellent effect, and reduce the dot loss.
Spiral rewinding: Preprinted gravure printing presses should use a closed-loop control system to ensure tension taper control.
Incomplete edges: The edges of the cross section are not uniform, and the backup roller (receiving rubber roller) can be added to remove air from the paper roll and eliminate static electricity on the surface. When the paper roll receives the material, the roller device is tightened to reduce the edge swing.
The installation of a PLC correction device also helps to alleviate uneven edges. Another solution to the problem of missing edges is offline rewinding.
Roll overlap: If the roll is improperly overlapped during printing, it will cause downtime and affect the consistency of the printed product. Zero-butt connection can be used to pick up the paper without interrupting the printing process.

At present, the gravure printing machine suitable for preprinted carton produced by Shaanxi Beiren Company has the following characteristics:

1. High printing speed and high overprinting accuracy The printing speed of this series is 150-200 meters per minute, and the overlay accuracy is ±0.2mm in length (automatic tracking system tracking, normal printing) ± 0.2mm in the horizontal direction (manual control)

2. The printing format is large and the quality of the printed product is good.
This series of models can be divided into 1300mm, 1650mm, 1800mm, 2000mm, 2200mm, 2500mm and other specifications, which can be matched with corrugated cardboard lines.

3. Printing and Oiling Once Completed This series of models can realize 4-10 color ink printing, and can be finished once with varnish. The coating unit is driven by a separate motor and can use a different coating roller than the printing plate roller diameter, which saves money.

4. Use alcohol-soluble environmental ink or environmentally friendly ink printing This series of models is equipped with an independent intelligent drying system, fully enclosed oven, heat source can be used for secondary air return, can fully dry and cure the ink, can ensure that the printing surface into Corrugated paper production line and pad friction does not fade, do not "pull flowers", ink automatic circulation system and ink mixing sticks can produce large quantities of printing products printing, ink uniform colorless.

5. High-speed automatic non-stop refueling This series of models can achieve high-speed non-stop automatically refueling reel, greatly improving the yield, saving work time.

6. Automation control This series of machines adopts closed-loop tension control system, Japan's Taiyang Company's DT950MII photoelectric register device (or domestically-made register device), still-image observation system, computer automatic refueling system, and pneumatic no-manual Shaft-mounted version, pneumatic scraper, embossing, non-shaft clamping, paper preheating, water cooling and other structures make the machine operation more convenient and reliable.

● Concluding remarks: The use of pre-printing methods to produce cartons is still on the rise in China. With the joint efforts of machinery manufacturers, ink, paper, plate suppliers, and the vast majority of carton manufacturers, we have raised the level of packaging cartons in China to a new level.