The market share of flexographic printing in Europe and the United States is expanding, and it is undoubtedly the leading position in all printing methods in the future. In Japan, the expansion of flexo printing is slow because users are too demanding about quality.
The steady expansion of the flexographic printing market has recently reported that the market share of flexographic printing in various countries has expanded significantly. In the United States in recent years, the output value of flexographic printing has grown at an annual rate of 7%. At present, 70% of the packaging printing market uses flexographic printing (see "GATF World" 2001-5~6). The market share of flexographic printing in Europe has also increased. Its market share in the total printed matter market is 27%. In terms of packaging materials alone, it has a market share of about 50%.
In the future, in Europe and the United States, it is expected that the market share of flexographic printing will further expand. For example, in the US full-print market including general printing, the market share of flexographic printing is expected to increase from 18% in 2000 to 20% in 2010 (see “TAGA2001 News letter†No, 137. ). In the ten years, from 18% to 20%, it seems that there will not be much change. However, in the same forecast, digital printing will increase from 8% in 2000 to 20% in 2010. The other side of the market share has increased dramatically. Offset printing has been reduced from 46% to 37%, gravure printing has been reduced from 18% to 15%, and letterpress printing has decreased from 7% to 5%.
Contrary to the expansion of market share in the flexographic printing market in Europe and the United States, the Japanese market has been stagnant for the past 20 years due to the user's demand for quality, and has even been reduced. However, due to technological innovation in recent years, attention has been given to the area from prepress to printing.
Not long ago in May, at the 7th World Printing Conference held in Beijing, Robert Rees, vice president of Cyrel Corporation, also spoke of the fact that flexographic printing will surely have great development in the future. Because its quality is not inferior to lithography and gravure, and the production speed has been improved, the biggest advantage is that digital proofing improves the production environment.
The quality, price, and delivery of quality flexo printing, not inferior to lithographic and gravure, are always superior to those of lithographic and gravure printing in terms of labor price, and the equipment is cheap and the reject rate is low. Recently, environmental concerns have attracted attention. In this regard, the practicality of water-based inks and UV inks is considered to be superior to gravure printing.
The biggest issue for flexographic printing is its quality. In the past, the quality of flexographic prints was indeed inferior to offset prints and gravure prints. However, since the digital photosensitive plate (Digit alplate) was developed and introduced in 1995, the quality distance that can be achieved with other formats has been reduced. In the past, flexographic printing has not reached the level of high-level reproduction and tone reproduction, and now digital printing plates can completely achieve a certain quality of printing. Moreover, the quality of overprinting or gravure prints can sometimes be printed. Each year, IoPP (Institute of Packaging Professionals) selects the recognized food department (Ameri Star Packaging Award). Flexo-printed finished products often receive the best prize. Of course, digital printing plates are used for the printing of such printed products.
The focus of competition is that the quality of production speed flexographic printing has finally improved to the level of lithographic and gravure printing. Therefore, the next topic before the flexographic printing is to increase production speed. Various technological improvements have emerged in this area.
In terms of printing engineering, such as the automatic installation of the drum method and the sleeve method, which accelerates the replacement time of the job, this technology is combined with the automatic cleaning device, and each person in the printing press can assume various tasks at the same time. The efficiency of the entire operation has been greatly improved. In addition, in the printing machine using 10 or 12 units, during the printing of the 5 to 6 units, the remaining 5 to 6 units can be set. Improvements such as registration control using video technology also contribute to the improvement of printing speed.
In the area of ​​layout design and prepress engineering, digital workflows are being shifted to achieve a significant increase in speed.
In terms of hardware and software, standard work platforms are also commonly used. The price of work terminals is also declining, and the processing speed is also increasing. The application software has also become very strong and powerful. Compared with the special system that was very expensive for a few years ago, it has produced a full-featured, high-quality product. Thanks to the full digitalization of the prepress project, skilled workers who used manual operations for hours in the past required several hours of lithography and continuous drying operations in just a few minutes.
Rely on Advanced Digital Proofing Improvements One of the strengths of past flexo printing methods was the use of numerous spot colors. However, the only way to correctly understand color proofs until today is analogy proofs like Crolimline. This method requires a negative image. Proofing work requires skilled labor. It is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Moreover, in the printing process, the dot gain is very serious. Therefore, two negatives different from the original plate for proofing and the negative plate for printing must be prepared first, which is uneconomical in terms of time and cost, and at the same time becomes unnecessary. The factors of the engineering variables.
Until recently, the analog proofing system was replaced by a continuous proofing system such as digital Cromartin. First of all, it is characterized by good reproducibility of color and tone and stability of reproduction. In addition, the color reproduction field is broad and it is able to accurately represent the tone of Spot color, which is also a great advantage.
Manufacturers provide highly accurate color matching functions at very low prices, and because the printing specifications correspond to a wide variety of equipment costs, the proofing machine for remote control proofing is also suitable.
Mature and practical CTP
In the field of flexo printing, CTP has been developed and has begun to be introduced. While CTP can contribute to the quality required for providing flexographic printing, it has also achieved great results in shortening the production period of the prepress project.
The first-generation CTP, although it has already experienced three years of operating results, but because it is a new technology, the equipment cost is indeed too high. Therefore, its market demand is limited to the professional plate-making units that can maintain the amount of jobs that meet the requirements of expensive equipment. However, the recent introduction of Barco, Creo Scitex small flexible version of the CTP is relatively cheap, no doubt attracted more printing companies to introduce CTP. It is estimated that the digital imaging professional plate-making company will also gradually introduce CTP.
As mentioned above, from the designer to the plate making professional, as well as the printing company's internal production workflow, new technologies have been selected to increase productivity. In the future, the company will expand the market by strengthening the communication network between companies, including users, with the goal of further shortening the production period. In fact, this trend has already begun. ("Printing Arts")
The steady expansion of the flexographic printing market has recently reported that the market share of flexographic printing in various countries has expanded significantly. In the United States in recent years, the output value of flexographic printing has grown at an annual rate of 7%. At present, 70% of the packaging printing market uses flexographic printing (see "GATF World" 2001-5~6). The market share of flexographic printing in Europe has also increased. Its market share in the total printed matter market is 27%. In terms of packaging materials alone, it has a market share of about 50%.
In the future, in Europe and the United States, it is expected that the market share of flexographic printing will further expand. For example, in the US full-print market including general printing, the market share of flexographic printing is expected to increase from 18% in 2000 to 20% in 2010 (see “TAGA2001 News letter†No, 137. ). In the ten years, from 18% to 20%, it seems that there will not be much change. However, in the same forecast, digital printing will increase from 8% in 2000 to 20% in 2010. The other side of the market share has increased dramatically. Offset printing has been reduced from 46% to 37%, gravure printing has been reduced from 18% to 15%, and letterpress printing has decreased from 7% to 5%.
Contrary to the expansion of market share in the flexographic printing market in Europe and the United States, the Japanese market has been stagnant for the past 20 years due to the user's demand for quality, and has even been reduced. However, due to technological innovation in recent years, attention has been given to the area from prepress to printing.
Not long ago in May, at the 7th World Printing Conference held in Beijing, Robert Rees, vice president of Cyrel Corporation, also spoke of the fact that flexographic printing will surely have great development in the future. Because its quality is not inferior to lithography and gravure, and the production speed has been improved, the biggest advantage is that digital proofing improves the production environment.
The quality, price, and delivery of quality flexo printing, not inferior to lithographic and gravure, are always superior to those of lithographic and gravure printing in terms of labor price, and the equipment is cheap and the reject rate is low. Recently, environmental concerns have attracted attention. In this regard, the practicality of water-based inks and UV inks is considered to be superior to gravure printing.
The biggest issue for flexographic printing is its quality. In the past, the quality of flexographic prints was indeed inferior to offset prints and gravure prints. However, since the digital photosensitive plate (Digit alplate) was developed and introduced in 1995, the quality distance that can be achieved with other formats has been reduced. In the past, flexographic printing has not reached the level of high-level reproduction and tone reproduction, and now digital printing plates can completely achieve a certain quality of printing. Moreover, the quality of overprinting or gravure prints can sometimes be printed. Each year, IoPP (Institute of Packaging Professionals) selects the recognized food department (Ameri Star Packaging Award). Flexo-printed finished products often receive the best prize. Of course, digital printing plates are used for the printing of such printed products.
The focus of competition is that the quality of production speed flexographic printing has finally improved to the level of lithographic and gravure printing. Therefore, the next topic before the flexographic printing is to increase production speed. Various technological improvements have emerged in this area.
In terms of printing engineering, such as the automatic installation of the drum method and the sleeve method, which accelerates the replacement time of the job, this technology is combined with the automatic cleaning device, and each person in the printing press can assume various tasks at the same time. The efficiency of the entire operation has been greatly improved. In addition, in the printing machine using 10 or 12 units, during the printing of the 5 to 6 units, the remaining 5 to 6 units can be set. Improvements such as registration control using video technology also contribute to the improvement of printing speed.
In the area of ​​layout design and prepress engineering, digital workflows are being shifted to achieve a significant increase in speed.
In terms of hardware and software, standard work platforms are also commonly used. The price of work terminals is also declining, and the processing speed is also increasing. The application software has also become very strong and powerful. Compared with the special system that was very expensive for a few years ago, it has produced a full-featured, high-quality product. Thanks to the full digitalization of the prepress project, skilled workers who used manual operations for hours in the past required several hours of lithography and continuous drying operations in just a few minutes.
Rely on Advanced Digital Proofing Improvements One of the strengths of past flexo printing methods was the use of numerous spot colors. However, the only way to correctly understand color proofs until today is analogy proofs like Crolimline. This method requires a negative image. Proofing work requires skilled labor. It is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Moreover, in the printing process, the dot gain is very serious. Therefore, two negatives different from the original plate for proofing and the negative plate for printing must be prepared first, which is uneconomical in terms of time and cost, and at the same time becomes unnecessary. The factors of the engineering variables.
Until recently, the analog proofing system was replaced by a continuous proofing system such as digital Cromartin. First of all, it is characterized by good reproducibility of color and tone and stability of reproduction. In addition, the color reproduction field is broad and it is able to accurately represent the tone of Spot color, which is also a great advantage.
Manufacturers provide highly accurate color matching functions at very low prices, and because the printing specifications correspond to a wide variety of equipment costs, the proofing machine for remote control proofing is also suitable.
Mature and practical CTP
In the field of flexo printing, CTP has been developed and has begun to be introduced. While CTP can contribute to the quality required for providing flexographic printing, it has also achieved great results in shortening the production period of the prepress project.
The first-generation CTP, although it has already experienced three years of operating results, but because it is a new technology, the equipment cost is indeed too high. Therefore, its market demand is limited to the professional plate-making units that can maintain the amount of jobs that meet the requirements of expensive equipment. However, the recent introduction of Barco, Creo Scitex small flexible version of the CTP is relatively cheap, no doubt attracted more printing companies to introduce CTP. It is estimated that the digital imaging professional plate-making company will also gradually introduce CTP.
As mentioned above, from the designer to the plate making professional, as well as the printing company's internal production workflow, new technologies have been selected to increase productivity. In the future, the company will expand the market by strengthening the communication network between companies, including users, with the goal of further shortening the production period. In fact, this trend has already begun. ("Printing Arts")
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