Beer trademark printing and precautions (2)

Second, gravure

Gravure printing plays a large role in the printing of trademarks, but due to the long period of gravure platemaking and the high cost, it is not suitable for short-run printing. Since the gravure plate has a long storage time and a high printing rate, it is suitable for printing long prints and prints that require frequent printing.

As people's requirements for beer packaging are continuously improved, more and more beer use top labels printed with pure aluminum foil. Currently in China, the top label of beer is mainly gravure. In the application of gravure printing pure aluminum foil top label need to pay attention to the following factors: First, due to the gravure printing method is the gravure printing plate and the squeegee to directly distribute the ink and transfer the capillary phenomenon between the plate and the substrate. To the substrate, so the viscosity of the ink is very strict, we must ensure that the viscosity of the ink in the printing process should not change too much, otherwise it will affect the consistency of the color of the print, the general speed of 30 ~ 80m/min, The ink viscosity is controlled from 16 to 22s, and the machine speed is from 80 to 120m/min. The ink viscosity is controlled from 12 to 16s (the 3# Zahn cup test is applied at 25°C). In addition, since the pure aluminum foil is metal, it has no absorption. Therefore, the drying of the ink must be guaranteed. During the printing process, strict attention should be paid to the amount of wind and temperature of the hot air to ensure rapid drying of the ink, and the solvent is added periodically to the ink to ensure the stability of the ink drying and viscosity. In addition, the resistance of the ink must be noted. Friction. Because the top of the pure aluminum foil directly wraps the bottle cap and the bottle neck of the beer directly, this requires that, after drinking the beer, after the bottle is opened, the remaining top label cannot be broken and the pure aluminum foil contaminants will not be polluted on the wine. To meet such requirements, the first choice of materials should not be too brittle; secondly, after the product is processed, strict process requirements are ensured to ensure that the hole pitch and pressure are uniform when the holes are embossed.

In addition, in the application of pure aluminum foil for beer top label printing, the requirements of the ink is very strict, mainly in: 1, the ink adhesion must be high, generally with adhesive tape printed on the surface of the aluminum foil does not fade better 2, the ink's gloss and vividness should be high; 3, the ink's smoothness should be appropriate, because the high degree of smoothness will cause inconvenience to the top label processing and labeling process during the process, but too low The degree of smoothness will make the top label appear to cause adhesion to reduce the labeling efficiency; 4, the ink's water resistance and frost resistance to high, in order to ensure that at the low temperature does not appear top label color change phenomenon.

Third, flexo

Flexo printing has the advantages of uniform color, wide substrates, and in-line processing. With the widespread use of water-soluble inks, flexo printing has also been given the title of green printing. At present, many beer trademarks have been flexographically printed, and the newly-developed self-adhesive beer trademark has also been flexographically printed.

The factor that plagued the development of flexo printing is that there is a certain gap between print registration accuracy and offset printing. If the precision of platemaking is not very high, it is difficult to produce fine dot printing plates. Therefore, the use of flexographic printing for beer logos is in graphic design. We should try our best to ensure that text, lines, and fields are the main factors. In addition, since flexographic printing is mainly based on field printing, we should pay attention to the printing of absorbable substrates (especially the use of flexo printing When the machine is printing, the phenomenon of inaccurate prints caused by the soaking of the substrate has occurred. In order to compensate for such phenomena in the printing process, it is generally necessary to consider compensating methods such as increasing trapping during the process of making a film. When printing the color sequence, you should also pay attention to place the large-scale solid units at the color group behind the printing unit. In the application of flexo printing beer labels, should also consider the market for trademark requirements, in the market for the storage of beer are generally placed in the water or in the refrigerator for refrigeration, so the trademark is required to be waterproof but also antifreeze, The trademark is generally glazing in order to achieve such requirements, in addition to the ink and varnish water resistance and frost resistance of strict inspection, in order to ensure that the ink does not appear in the low temperature failure phenomenon caused the trademark fade. Also, when using a flexo trademark printed with a water-soluble ink, it is necessary to pay attention to prompt the user to choose a suitable labeling glue, because the water-soluble ink is dissolved in a strong alkali solution, so when choosing the labeling glue, pay attention to alkaline Must not be too strong to avoid discoloration of the mark. Flexo printing is also very strict with respect to the temperature and humidity of the environment. Under normal circumstances, the temperature is maintained at about 25°C and the humidity is stable at more than 60%. In addition to having good surface smoothness, high whiteness, strong opacity, and other indicators, flexo-printing requires good mechanical strength and a relatively stable overwrap tension to ensure reeling. The quality of the paper during the printing of the beer logo is stable.

At present, three kinds of printing methods are widely used in the beer trademark printing, but three kinds of printing methods have their merits: offset printing plate making cycle is short and the cost is low, the accuracy of registration is higher, but after the finished product printing, especially the vacuum aluminized paper printing Due to the influence of the ink oxidation and conjunctiva drying method, it is generally required to process and label the product after 8 to 10 hours after printing. Therefore, it is generally suitable for printing short and high-precision printed products; the gravure printing is colorful. However, the plate making cycle is long and the plate making cost is relatively high. Therefore, it is generally suitable for printing long-run prints, especially pure aluminum foil top marks. The flexo platemaking cycle and cost are between offset printing and gravure printing, but flexo printing can be processed online. The wide range of substrates, the use of sleeve technology, the higher utilization of paper, it is generally suitable for printing long version of printed products as well as special-shaped trademarks.

In short, when printing beer trademarks, we should fully consider the advantages and disadvantages of the three printing methods and try to avoid weaknesses so that the printed beer brands have the best quality and the lowest cost, so that the intrinsic quality of beer can be fully reflected. In this way, beer trademark packaging will continue to leap to a new level.

(author/Beijing Shuangyan Trademark Printing Co., Ltd. Wang Chengxin)

Guangdong Packaging Fourth Issue, 2005