Overview
Ink is an indispensable raw material for corrugated box printing. Its performance and quality determine the appearance quality of printed articles. With the continuous increase in the demand for corrugated carton packaging, the printing process of corrugated cartons has been continuously updated, and the corresponding inks have also been greatly developed. New types of new inks continue to emerge; on the other hand, the globalization of green requirements also promotes Corrugated box printing uses environmentally friendly ink products. At present, China's ink industry already has a considerable scale, and there are more than 500 production companies, of which about 30 have considerable scale and production and research and development capabilities, and the ink's comprehensive production capacity is about 300,000 tons. However, compared with the advanced level in foreign countries, there is still a big gap, especially for high-grade environment-friendly printing inks for flexible printing of corrugated boxes, which should be improved in performance and reduced in price. Here we come to talk about the carton ink market, improper look at peer correction.
Ink type used in corrugated carton packaging
According to the corrugated box printing process, the ink used is also different. Corrugated carton packaging printing process mainly has the following ways:
Flexographic printing process and water-based ink: Corrugated carton flexo printing is a widely used processing technology in the world today, and it is also widely used in China's carton packaging industry. The use of environmentally-friendly water-based inks in the flexo-printed carton is mainly based on the use of high-grade organic pigments and inorganic pigments as colorants. The resin is a binder, water is used as a solvent, and the corresponding additives are added. Made of liquid ink. Compared with other printing inks, water-based inks do not contain volatile and toxic organic solvents, so they have no adverse effects on the health of printing press operators during the printing process, have no pollution to the atmospheric environment, and have no pollution to the printed materials themselves. Environmentally friendly products. China's water-based ink was introduced in 1975. It was first developed and put into production by the Tianjin Ink Factory. It was mainly gravure printing service. With the introduction of modular flexo production lines and domestic production, there are approximately 1,000 flexible printing presses in China, and there are many imported high-end three-color, four-color water-based ink printing slotting machines for color printing of corrugated paper.
Offset Printing Process and Oily Ink: It is applied to the color printing of corrugated cardboard paper, and then the paper is mixed with the tile. The use of oily inks requires more UV curing inks for environmental protection. UV ink refers to the use of ultraviolet light of different wavelengths and energy to make the ink filming and drying under the irradiation of ultraviolet rays. Its characteristics are: no solvent, fundamentally avoiding the pollution of the VOC to the environment; fast drying speed; gloss Good, colorful, water-resistant, solvent-resistant, and wear-resistant, is a very mature ink technology, applied in the latest micro-corrugated cardboard boxes, cartons direct offset printing.
Gravure Carton Paste Preprinting Technology: Gravure carton printing ink is based on cellulose. The main solvents are alcohols and esters. The ink has a vivid color and luster, and can be formulated to have a transparent or opaque effect depending on the properties of the substrate and the end use; this type of ink has a very clear printing effect at different printing speeds, and at the same time to most of the bottom The surface of the material has an excellent printing effect. It is an ink applied to the corrugated cartons gravure printing process. It has excellent gloss, high color saturation, and excellent dot reproducibility. Because the pre-printed color corrugated paper must go through the hot plate section of the corrugated board production line at a temperature of 180°C, the ink must have superior wear resistance and heat resistance in order to meet the requirements of the paper production process.
Screen printing: The use of oily inks has basically been eliminated in corrugated box printing.
Market application
At present, the market share of the three major corrugated box printing inks and their forecast for future growth are as follows:
Table 1 Printing Methods Ink Type Market Share Growth Trend Flexo Printing Water Ink 40% 45%
Offset oil ink 50% 40%
Gravure Printing Solvent Ink 10% 15%
(preferably charted)
The use of water-based ink for corrugated box printing in China is very extensive, so we mainly look at the price of water-based inks. The performance of imported ink is better than that of domestic ink, but the price is much higher. Therefore, most cartons companies now use domestic ink products.
There are three grades of domestic water-based inks on the market: their main difference is the use of different binders/pigments. Their characteristics and prices are shown in the following table:
Grade connection material features high-grade imported acrylic resin 1. Bright color printing, pure, strong color reproduction.
2. The ink layer is delicate, the dots are clear, the layers are rich, and the pattern has a strong three-dimensional effect.
3. Good printing leveling in the field, uniform color overlay, and no pinholes.
4. Ink drying speed, color printing effect is good, with excellent high-speed printing adaptability.
Price 35 yuan/kg mid-range rosin modified resin and styrene-acrylic resin mixed printing color bright, pure, color reproduction strong price 20 yuan -30 yuan / kg
Source: Global corrugated box industry