The technical key to flexo ink is well known to you, but what are the methods for controlling costs? Today, here, the label gentleman has hands-on teaching and teaches you how to control the cost of flexo ink.
Different types of ink combinations
1. Flexo printing inks generally include water-based inks, UV inks, and solvent-based inks. However, if the three flexo inks can be used differently or combined, it will be a win-win result in the printing effect and cost control.
Case:
The printing process of a cigarette packet soft box is "a large area of ​​red + spot color text + glazing." Large area of ​​red due to the large amount of ink used alcohol-soluble ink (solvent type), compared to water-based ink, its advantages not only in the price, but also to avoid the water-based ink due to incompatibility adhesive infiltration, resulting in the ink layer Reconstitution and resulting bleaching problems. Spot color text is printed using water-based inks. Varnish uses UV varnish, which has higher protection and gloss than water varnish.
According to statistics, the average area of ​​self-adhesive label graphics only accounts for about 30% of the printing repeat perimeter area. Estimate ink usage as follows:
Quantity: 200,000 pieces;
Label size: 120mm×60mm;
Printing color number: 6 colors;
The average use of ink: 240g;
Practical use (disposal of waste ink and other factors): about 300g.
However, if printing a large area of ​​color blocks, the use of water-based ink can save costs. Take the above label order as an example. If the area of ​​a color image occupies 80% of the entire label area, and the BCM value of the anilox roll is 5.0, the ink consumption is 3.3kg (see the flexographic ink consumption for the specific calculation method). How accurate predictions are given to you!). According to actual measurements, about 1 kg of aqueous ink will be used in about 20-30 minutes.
With such a large amount of ink, the ammonia in the water-based ink is too late to be volatilized, and the water-based ink has already been used. At the same time, new ink will be added to the ink tray. Therefore, the pH value of the water-based ink is quite stable, and it does not require much effort to control the printing ink. There is not much difference with the use of UV ink. But compared to UV inks, it can save a lot of cost. Other inks that use less amount of ink can still use UV inks. In this way, both cost and printing effects can be taken into consideration.
Good adhesion
The adhesion of the water-based ink to the film-like material and the adhesion of the UV ink to each other are superimposed. First of all, you need to choose the right type of water-based ink to make it adhere well to the surface of the film-like material. Second, pay attention to whether the water-based ink's binder or Vanish Water can be superimposed with the UV ink, if it cannot be overprinted or overprinted. Adhesion of the ink is not good, it is necessary to consider printing a special coating between the two to ensure the quality of the overprint, or the ink of the UV ink printed on the surface of the water-based ink will not stand the 3M tape test.
Control the relationship between ink pressure and printing pressure
If UV ink printing is used, the printing pressure is slightly greater, which has little effect on the quality of the label. However, if water-based ink printing is used, the printing pressure is too high, and the image border is prone to “wild inkâ€, causing problems such as dirt and burr. If this leads to unnecessary waste, it will be worth the candle.
Consider the cost from the product process
Note the difference between two ink printing and one ink printing
In general, when printing on a large area, most label printing companies use two layers of ink to avoid the occurrence of dirt. In fact, there is another reason for this: In the case of the same color density, two layers of thin ink use less than a layer of thick ink.
Case:
A job requires the use of 500 lines/inch, 4.0 BCM anilox roller to print Kodak special red. In order to reduce the dirt on the ink printed on the foamed PS material, two ink printing methods are used.
It should be noted that when printing a thicker layer of ink, the flatness of the ink is usually not very good, it is easy to send flowers, it is not true, and it looks slightly lighter. If coated with coated paper, ink penetration will exacerbate this phenomenon; but when printing two layers of ink, the situation is not the same. The first layer of ink will usually be printed thinner, in addition to taking away the printing materials. Dirty spots can also fill gaps or unevenness on the surface of printing materials. After printing the second layer of ink, the actual printing effect will be evener. The density value measured by the instrument will be higher.
Determine if you need to polish
Glossing has two purposes: one is to increase the gloss of the label, and the other is to protect the label from wear. If just to increase the gloss, the flexo ink itself has a certain brightness, so there is no need to polish. If it is to protect the labels, some labels may not be worn out at all during transportation and use, and do not need to be glazed. If you do not consider the actual situation, blindly choose the glazing process, it will lead to unnecessary loss of optical oil. Although the varnish price is cheaper than the normal ink, the varnish is often full-plate coated, and the coating is thick, so the usage is large and wasteful.
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