At the global self-adhesive label printing can be divided into three camps according to the different printing methods used.
1. Flexo printing is the main method
North America is a typical representative of flexographic printing as the leading technology for printing self-adhesive labels. The main equipment is small and medium-sized unit type printing unit, mainly ink, using roll to roll printing, circular die cutting, with high production efficiency, advanced technology and meet the requirements of environmental protection.
2. Letterpress and flexo printing are equally divided
This processing method is mostly in Europe, the application of flexographic printing is basically the same as that of the United States, letterpress printing also accounts for 50% of the proportion, and letterpress printing all use UV ink, most of the equipment is stacked or satellite. The material processing method is also roll-to-roll printing.
3. Mainly letterpress
This approach is mainly in the Asia-Pacific region. Most of the developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, label printing is still relatively backward, even if the use of letterpress printing, but the use of UV ink equipment is only a minority, most of the label printing still uses resin ink, roll-to-roll printing and sheet printing; Due to the high proportion of manual labeling, sheet-fed offset self-adhesive labels are widely used; In the mode of die cutting to flat die cutting.
4. Offset printing
Offset printing is the main way for Chinese label printing plants to print paper self-adhesive. Offset printing is characterized by fine graphics, rich layers, suitable for mass printing, and printing equipment can be used in one machine, suitable for the characteristics of the Chinese label market. However, sheet offset printing is not suitable for printing films with non-absorbent surfaces, because film labels are mostly roll-to-roll printing and require volatile drying inks. Offset printing can print thicker plastic materials, such as in-mold labels and tag tags, but it is necessary to install uv curing devices on the machine, which requires a small cost.
5. Screen printing
Screen printing is the most adaptable printing method for substrate, at present, there are many screen printing factories using low-cost screen printing equipment to contract self-adhesive label and film label printing business. Screen printing labels are characterized by strong ink color, strong three-dimensional sense, and can be printed with uv ink film products. In addition to a handful of rotary screen printing equipment can be competent for roll-to-roll label printing, most screen printing equipment is semi-automatic flat screen printing machine, can only print single products, overprinting accuracy is not high, not suitable for film label production equipment supporting the production line. In the process of business transformation, attention should also be paid to the corresponding changes in label post-printing processing, such as when printing self-adhesive labels, according to the application form of the label, the post-printing of self-adhesive is divided into sheet processing and web processing.