Printing technology for cigarette packaging

1. Single Gravure Printing to Offset and Combination Printing Development

Offset printing has always dominated the publishing and commercial printing fields. In particular, high-quality printed catalogs can only be completed with offset printing. This is because the offset press has developed to the present day and the technology is very mature. It has the advantage that other printing methods can't be compared in the reproduction of image details. Compared with gravure printing, offset printing plate has the characteristics of short cycle and low cost. In the current tobacco factory frequent replacement of cigarette package design, continuous introduction of new products, and new product sales are not large, the offset printing machine will show The higher flexibility, which is the main reason for the increasing proportion of offset printing in cigarette pack printing in recent years.

Especially in the field of printing in China, offset printing has become very popular. It has the largest proportion in various printing methods and is the most important printing method in the field of publishing and packaging printing in China. Therefore, in China, the installed capacity of offset printing presses is the largest and has the best Hardware environment and software conditions. Six international suppliers of offset press Heidelberg, Manroland, KBA, Komori, Mitsubishi, and Akiyama, sales in China have been steadily increasing in recent years. Most of the imported sheetfed offset presses are used for packaging and printing. Although many large and medium-sized cigarette pack printing companies have purchased web gravure printers or flexo printers, they have invariably used offset printing as one of their main operations, or for printing small and medium-sized cigarette packs, or Used to print packaging products (such as cigarette cases, cosmetics boxes, kits, etc.) in other industries.

However, in recent years, with the intensified competition in the tobacco industry and the continuous improvement of the cigarette box design, a single offset printing can no longer meet the requirements of exquisite cigarette packs, so the combination of offset printing, gravure printing, screen printing, flexo printing, etc. The technology has risen quietly and it has become popular across the country. The result of the combination printing brought the grade of cigarette packs to an unprecedented level. At the same time, the characteristics of several printing methods have been brought into full play, complementing each other and leading the way. Offset printing images and gradation patterns are printed using offset printing. The advantages of thick gravure ink layer and stable ink are used to print large areas of spot and spot colors, gold and silver, pearlescent colors and various imitation metal etching inks. If you need special finishing effects, you can also screen printing process, such as frosted, ice, crystal, wrinkles and so on. Therefore, the combination of offset printing, gravure printing, and silk screen printing has brought unprecedented strong artistic visual effects to cigarette packs. Together with the post-processing technology: gold sweeping, UV spotting, hot stamping, and embossing, the cigarette packs are icing on the cake, and they are amazing.

2. The materials used are getting more and more affluent

As the four or five types of cigarette factories are not profitable, how to bring the first and second types of cigarettes to the market, sell brands, and open up sales are the dreams of cigarette factories in recent years. As the soft package "Zhonghua" is the number one representative of high-grade cigarettes in China, its typical packaging design of Chinese cigarettes has become a target for imitation of cigarette factories. As a result, most cigarette factories have adopted flexible packaging design when they introduce their own top-grade cigarettes. The materials used are almost exclusively laser holographic aluminum foil. The price of this paper is undoubtedly the highest in all papers. Like: Blue Hibiscus King, Treasures of Nanjing, Treasures of White Sand, Treasures of Pampered Child, Sunshine Petite Child, Blue Soft Bag of Eight Pleasure, Century Boutique Furong King, Hard Box Packaging of Hibiscus King, Red River V8, Your Smoke, Special Alcohol Gold Medal Cloud smoke and so on are all plain-faced laser aluminum foil. The packaging is so special and the interior is not behind. Many of the tipping papers used in these cigarettes have been gilded. All of these make packaging printing costs unprecedented increase. Of course, the price of these cigarettes is also not cheap, are in the 20-80 yuan / box, or even higher.

3. More and more cigarette processing methods

Apart from the fact that the printing process has become more and more complicated and the materials have become more and more sophisticated, the post-processing technology has not been unrelenting, more and more tricks, and the operation has become more and more complex.

1. Sweep money

A process between bronzing and gold printing is characterized by its high speed and low cost, and it can achieve the desired results regardless of the thickness of the image and the size of the area. Gold powder color is also varied, such as gold, silver, red gold, red copper, green, brown, lemon, peacock blue, etc., also have different granularity, showing different visual effects. In foreign countries, there is currently a kind of gold powder that has the effect of imitating diamonds. The gold powder has four particle sizes and 10 colors. It can make the whole graphic text appear as a set of diamond patterns under the illumination of light, reflecting the uniqueness of multicolored light. effect. Representative cigarette packs: Red 'Huangshan'.

2. Holographic hot stamping

Laser holograms are based on the principle of laser interference, using the method of spatial frequency coding. Because laser holograms were pleasing to the eye, with distinct layers, vivid images, varied optical transformation effects, and high information and technical content, they were used in the field of security in the 1980s. The latest OVD technology has been clearly distinguished from the widely used HOLOGRAM holograms, which have machine identification capabilities. The mechanism of holographic bronzing is that the hot melt adhesive layer and the separation layer on the holographic hot stamping material are heated and melted on the hot stamping device through a heated hot stamping die, and under the action of a certain pressure, the information layer holographic grating of the hot stamping material is applied. The stripe is separated from the PET substrate, so that the information layer of the aluminum foil is adhered to the bearing surface and integrated into a single body to achieve a perfect combination.

There are three types of holographic hot stamping: A. Ordinary version of hologram hot; B. Special edition holograms are hot; C. Special version hologram positioning hot. Among them, the third special version of hologram positioning was hot and appeared frequently on high-grade cigarette packs in the past two years. It means that the hologram of the specific part of the holographic anti-counterfeit stamping electro-aluminum is accurately stamped on the hot stamping device to a specific position of the cigarette pack by photoelectric recognition. Holographic positioning hot technology is very difficult, not only requires the printing plant equipped with high-performance, high-precision positioning of hot equipment, but also requires a high-quality special positioning hot stamping of aluminum, the production process must also be strictly controlled in order to produce qualified Cigarette products. Since the positioning stamping mark has a high anti-counterfeiting performance, it is used in occasions such as banknotes and important documents. Representative cigarette packs: Need for "cloud smoke" and "Lotus King".

3. Soft paper embossing, positioning hot due to the popularity of high-grade cigarettes in the form of soft packaging, making the original in the white cardboard mature after the gorgeous processing technology, have also moved to the soft paper. Yunnan Qiaotong Packaging & Printing Co., Ltd. first tried in this area and achieved great success. This process will be hot stamping, pressure convex finished in a process, the product is full of hot gold, graphics, fine, beautiful, non-pressure convex ramp features. However, this process technology is difficult, and the precision requirements for hot stamping, holographic film, and stamping machines are particularly high, and all operating indicators must be very strict. Because of this, it is difficult to imitate and the degree of anti-counterfeiting is high. It represents cigarette packs: "Fu" and Huize "Little Panda".

4. First hot post-printing process

In order to highlight the specific patterns and logos on cigarette packs, in recent years, some printing companies have also launched a new process of stamping anodized aluminum, and then printing patterns on anodized aluminum. The resulting effect makes the subject of cigarette packs more vivid and lively. The key to this process is that the stamping of the galvanized aluminum must be firm. During the printing, the galvanized aluminum must not be pulled back by the printing ink. This will not only affect the quality of the cigarette packs, but also the anti-pulled aluminum will quickly accumulate on the blankets, resulting in the loss of image dots, and in some cases causing partial image printing failures. With the operation of the machine, the electro-aluminum powder will also remain. Transfer to the ink roller system to accelerate the wear of the ink roller. Therefore, this process should be based on the characteristics of printing paper, select the appropriate aluminum, to ensure that the aluminum can be firmly attached to the surface of the paper. On behalf of cigarette packs: soft pack "Guobin", soft blue package "Eight hi", blue "Shilin."

5. Micro-embossing process

This process uses a micro-embossed pattern on the aluminum foil paper graphic part to apply various fine lines. The obtained product has the effect of hot stamping and embossing, and the metal texture is very strong. Representing cigarette packs: Soft and hard packs, "Guobin", soft pack "Guobao", soft pack blue "Eight Bakes", and soft pack "Furong Wang".