Advantages and applications of the hottest combina

Advantages and applications of combined printing

as the name suggests, combined printing is a printing process in which multiple printing processes are combined and different printing and post press processing are completed successively on the same production line, that is, a printing method in which multiple printing processes are completed by using paper (or plastic film and other printing materials) at one time

combination printing has existed for a long time. At that time, the combination meaning was not as complex as it is now. The single sheet printing machine had been equipped with processes such as glazing and marking for a long time, which was also called combination printing to some extent. However, the complexity of combinatorial printing now dwarfs such simple combinatorial printing. Now the term combinatorial printing no longer includes these simple "combinatorial" printing

nowadays, combined printing is a new industry and technology mainly for the production of a special product, such as lottery tickets, the packaging of a certain commodity, for the needs of processing, the purpose of anti-counterfeiting, and the requirements of printing products. It is generally believed that flexible packaging will sweep all products. It is a combination of various printing processes and post press processes, which is the inevitable trend of mass production development and the inevitable requirement of the market. Due to the development of technology, the application of computer in the design and manufacturing of printing machinery, the realization of digital process flow, and combined printing have made great progress in recent years, and have occupied a considerable proportion in the current printing applications

1 The need for mass production. In the past, combined printing was usually printed or processed on different single machines. In the past, when technology development was relatively backward, many technical problems needed to be solved to realize online and complete all processes of a product at the same time, among which the beat and failure rate were more prominent

(1) beat. Different printing processes can achieve different processing speeds in a single machine. Some printing processes are simple and complete quickly; Problems caused by complex process or material properties (such as ink drying) will prevent some processes from being processed at a high speed. If the processes with different speeds (that is, different rhythms) are connected together, it is bound to drag down some simple processes and affect the productivity of the whole production line. However, in today's printing, generally speaking, all machines handling the same materials can reach a certain speed level limited by materials, so there is no big problem in realizing the beat

(2) failure rate. Fault is also the main problem that plagued online production in the past. Due to the relatively high failure rate of single machine in the past, the downtime and times of single process are often one or several orders of magnitude more than those of today's machinery and equipment. If it is single machine production, the impact on the overall productivity is not great. If the machines with such a high failure rate are connected, the failures of various processes in the production will occur one after another. As long as a part of them goes wrong, the whole production line will also stop, which has a great impact on the utilization rate of equipment. As the failure rate of single production machine is greatly reduced, the conditions for online production have been met

(3) openness of the system. Online production is the result of years of efforts by printing equipment suppliers. Similar to the development of the computer industry, the current printing equipment has also made considerable efforts in modular design, which has reduced the interconnection between different devices. For example, the beat problem was not easy to achieve by machinery in the past, Now? "It's no longer a problem to invest a little more in electronic control. Many equipment manufacturers are also designed to operate online on the models of other manufacturers, so the compatibility with other models is one of the important design indicators of some smaller equipment. In addition, modular design is not only an indicator to ensure the online operation of the machine, but also to ensure that the machine can operate offline, which is a production process Flexible choice

2. The need of printing technology. Different printing processes have different printing characteristics, which cannot be replaced by other printing processes on many occasions. Therefore, using the different printing characteristics of different printing processes is also a combination of liquidation, greasing and installation; One of the main purposes of printing. For example, some products need the low cost of offset printing, some products need the ink layer thickness of silk printing, and some products need special printing materials in the future (such as fluorescent ink, UV glazing, etc.). In order to meet these special needs, different printing processes are required for printing

of course, this also includes the process of post press processing. In combination printing, some post press processing processes are often added in order to make the print have a certain function, such as glazing, bronzing, die cutting, marking, film coating, etc. In the past, these were realized on a single machine for post press processing after printing, but now they are also completed by directly adding them to the production line

3. The need of anti-counterfeiting. Combinatorial printing was first used in the printing of banknotes, securities and lottery securities. For example, banknote printing has long been combined with lithography, embossing and numbering while engraving gravure. Using the characteristics of different printing processes on a printed matter increases the difficulty of imitation and improves the level of anti-counterfeiting

4. Need for printing products. This is mainly reflected in packaging printing and special printing. There are many special requirements for this kind of products. In addition to the common bronzing, polishing and marking, there are also some die cutting, indentation, embossing, etc., including variable data printing with new technologies (this kind of printing is mainly completed by inkjet system)

in packaging and printing, combined printing is mostly connected to the back end of packaging product production. On such a linkage machine, printing drama and post press processing are just a foil. In the huge packaging production line, adding a few printing processes can not be regarded as excessive requirements, so combined printing is also logical. Although combination printing is not obvious in such a field, it is also a combination method with high technical requirements from the perspective of printing

5. Management needs. Today, the management of printing production is fully computerized. Online production is the need of printing processing plants. It is the need to improve the management level, reduce the labor force, reduce the inventory of semi-finished products, shorten the printing cycle (one-time paper feeding can complete multiple processes of products), and so on. At the same time, there are some additional advantages, such as accurate overprinting, reducing waste products, and so on

6. The need to print a single product. The singleness of production products is also a reason for the rapid development of combinatorial printing at present. At present, the printing industry seems to be going to two extremes. One is that there are more and more short edition activities, which requires printing houses to be able to meet the needs of different printing processes, that is, printing houses need to have the function of generalists; On the other hand, due to the adjustment of market structure, those who produce a single product can form advantages in a small production environment. Therefore, online, large-scale and specialization are the needs of enterprises with large production demand and single variety. Using one machine to produce some fixed products with large production capacity, such as Bill production, bank savings books, etc., is one of the main application fields of combinatorial printing

source: Zhonghua printing and packaging