Technical advantages of offset printing over flexo

The technical advantages of offset printing over flexographic printing in label printing

offset printing and flexographic printing can also be used in label production, but the specific methods are different. Although flexographic printing is more commonly used in narrow width printers, offset printing has its own advantages and disadvantages

one of the advantages of offset printing is that the quality is usually better than flexographic printing, but offset printing must use UV curing, and flexographic printing can be used whether hot air or UV curing

ink flow rate is another aspect of the difference between flexographic printing and offset printing. In flexographic printing, the ink flow is controlled by the ink volume of the roller, which is determined by the paper surface and the printed image. In offset printing, the ink flow is controlled by screws (also known as buttons) in the ink reservoir, and the ink supply is adjusted by buttons

advantage competition

offset printing

(1) high printing quality

the most commonly mentioned advantage of offset printing is better printing quality. Compared with flexographic printing, offset printing has more points on the unit print, and the optical density is more uniform. The highest accuracy of flexographic printing is 170 ~ 180dpi, while offset printing can reach 200 ~ 350dpi

(2) low cost

offset printing has more advantages in the starting cost of a new project. Compared with flexo or gravure cylinder, the cost of offset printing plate is very low. At the same time, the average production time of offset plates is only 10 minutes, which is surprisingly short compared with flexographic printing. All this means that you can start a new project immediately without long preparation time

(3) easy operation

jakoblandberg, sales and marketing director of nubotai, a narrow width printer manufacturer, said: even a careless printer can print excellent quality on the offset press, but in flexography and UV flexography, we must be careful and try our best. If there is a slight mistake, the quality may be much worse. Not only that, offset printing is more suitable for printing live parts with large printing volume and long cycle

flexographic printing

offset printing is not impeccable in the competition with flexographic printing

challenge 1: how can printers better control the printing press

although a sloppy printer can print excellent quality on the offset press, this premise is that he must be very familiar with the press. Offset printing operation must be fully and professionally trained by printers, and can be gradually skilled after a certain period of time. In contrast, the operator of flexographic printing machine is easier to use, and the training cycle is relatively short

Challenge 2: how to deal with a wide variety of substrates

flexographic printing can exert its advantages on non absorbent substrates (such as plastic, polyolefin or self-adhesive), but offset printing cannot. At the same time, in the face of wide substrate, offset printing can only flinch. Usually, the test results of rotary offset printing are certainly inaccurate. The size of the brush format is fixed. Although the printing size can be solved by using a web offset printing machine with variable printing size, the cost is relatively expensive

cost comparison

1 Equipment investment

generally speaking, the investment cost of offset printing equipment is 30% - 40% higher than that of flexographic printing equipment with the same configuration, mainly because of the complex structural design of its inking and fountain unit

2. Printing material cost

compared with flexographic printing, offset printing consumables are much cheaper. The cost of making a set of flexographic plates is more than 10 times that of the same set of offset plates. In addition, with the improvement of flexographic printing quality, the printing cost is also rising, but the cost of offset plate making remains basically unchanged

3. Ink cost

in Europe, flexographic printers generally use solvent ink, which is also a great cost advantage compared with offset printing with a wide range of ink applications

4. Printing cost

Landberg believes that the printing cost varies according to the living parts. He talked about the design specifically for safety valve enterprises: Although the cost of flexographic printing is higher, the total investment of flexographic printing is lower, and the operating cost of offset printing is lower than that of flexographic printing. For short edition activities, flexographic printing is more cost-effective

5. Operation training

it is necessary to remind printers that at the same time, they should also make the metallographic polishing machine rotate and move back and forth along the radius of the rotary table. It is also a cost to train operators to learn how to use the offset press. In this process, offset printing operators need to constantly adapt to new technologies and processes, which is not a small challenge compared with flexographic printing

the trend of offset printing

looking at the busy offset printing machines in the global market and the market promotion process of offset printing equipment manufacturers, it is not difficult to see that offset printing is firmly the king of the printing market

digital prospects

with the development of information digitization, digital printing and offset printing share the same workflow. The same data can be used for both digital printing and offset printing. These two technologies share the same prepress document management environment, so that they can obtain the same printing quality and share the same printing standards

quality is king

to achieve the required quality, we need better printing methods. Nowadays, customers require printing machines with higher quality and better flexibility. Printer manufacturers are interested in offset printing largely because of its unparalleled advantages in printing quality

enter the label

landberg said: the label market is a typical end customer driven market led by world-renowned brands. In addition to more suppliers focusing on the high-end field, nubotai also introduced offset printing into the label industry in 1994

because the printing quality of offset printing is higher than that of flexographic printing, it is generally used in self-adhesive label printing that needs to maintain the quality for a long time, especially for well-known brands with high requirements for product packaging, such as health care, beauty and red wine. They attach great importance to the opportunity of products to distinguish other products on the shelf, so their product label pattern design generally has higher number of lines and smaller points. Considering various requirements, the label printed by offset printing is the most suitable. In addition, the quality of the packaging text of pharmaceutical products with a large amount of labels is far more prominent and important than attracting the attention of consumers, because these words must be easy to identify

flexographic printing plays a leading role in the pressure-sensitive label market, especially in North America. At the same time, the market share of offset printing is also growing rapidly. Today, many label printers have begun to expand product sales and adopt offset printing technology. At present, at least 30% - 40% of businesses adopt offset printing, flexographic printing and gravure printing technology every year, and the number will rise. Landberg believes that offset printing will become more and more common. He said: the continuous improvement of customers' requirements for quality and value-added has also contributed to the further segmentation of the printing process. Offset self-adhesive labels have begun to grow rapidly in the field of red wine labels, and many other exquisite labels will follow

there is no doubt that considering many factors such as technology and cost, the market share of offset labels will further increase. With its wide application, the label offset printing process will be more mature, and offset printing will be unlimited in the label market