With the development of the commodity economy and science and technology, printing processes such as offset, letterpress, and gravure printing, as well as special printing processes, will all develop. Different printing processes have different characteristics and suitable printing ranges, and they will coexist and complement each other for a long time, each occupying a place in packaging printing.
1. Offset printing will remain the mainstay. Offset printing is simple to make, uses lightweight plates, and allows for rapid plate mounting. It can quickly produce large-format color printed products with high quality and accurate registration, and is particularly suitable for printing products with both text and images. In recent years, offset printing technology has continuously incorporated advanced technologies such as optics, chemistry, and computer technology, reflecting the current high-tech level.
2. Letterpress printing technology will see breakthroughs. Letterpress printing is a traditional printing process in my country, with a good technical foundation, low investment, and quick implementation. It is suitable for small-batch, small-format, and special-specification packaging printing; it is not demanding on paper and ink materials, and allows for large-format adjustment of printing pressure and control of ink volume, achieving a relatively ideal printing quality, making it widely applicable.
3. Gravure printing will continue to develop steadily. The advantages of gravure printing have always been high speed, wide width, low consumption and less downtime, and it can achieve the best printing effect on various printing materials.
4. Screen printing will become more active. As a representative of stencil printing, screen printing in my country has always been mainly produced in workshops and was considered to be only suitable for producing line and large color block products and not suitable for high-end use. In today's era of great technological change, modern screen printing equipment, materials and processes have injected new vitality into screen printing technology. With the rapid development of science and technology, packaging printing technology is constantly combining with emerging technologies and interdisciplinary fields, innovating and breaking through in strategic high-tech fields, and many new technologies have emerged, such as electrostatic printing, inkjet printing and digital printing technology. At the same time, from the current trend of printing technology development, my country's printing press manufacturing technology is rapidly developing towards high automation, linkage, intelligence, digitalization, networking and multi-color and multi-functionality. Modern printing equipment now widely utilizes the latest technologies, including computer remote control, automatic plate loading, automatic registration digital control, automatic fault monitoring and display, shaftless technology, servo technology, ion spraying technology, and fiber optic transmission technology. For example, the application of harmonic drive technology in printing presses offers advantages such as multi-tooth meshing, large transmission ratio, small size, light weight, high load capacity, high transmission efficiency, and stable transmission rate. These advantages help improve printing press speed and working accuracy, achieving a better balance between printing production efficiency and product printing quality.
