Industry discussion: What is hindering the rapid development of flexo printing1

Correct understanding of the status quo

Prior to this interview, the subject of the original article has been fixed, called "where is the problem of flexo printing?", but Secretary General Lin Fengming of the flexographic printing committee objected to this topic. He said that at home, the development of flexographic printing has been very fast. Especially after 1995, the installed capacity of China's flexographic printing presses is basically increasing at a rate of 30 to 40 units per year. Last year alone, the installed capacity of imported and domestic flexographic presses reached more than 50 units. The situation of what has been said before, "being good or not," has been changed in the following aspects:

(1) The number of flexographic printing machines (including imported machines and domestic machines) purchased in 2002 was more than that of any previous year, exceeding 50 units.

(2) In 2002, the flexographic printing committee received many foreign traders who came to understand the Chinese market. Large manufacturers of offset presses such as Manroland and Mitsubishi also started to enter the domestic flexo printing market.

(3) In 2002, the volume of business of domestic flexographic plate-making units, suppliers of plate materials, and ink suppliers increased mostly, and some of them even increased by 20% to 30%. In addition, in 1996, Shanghai had only three platemaking units, and it has now grown to 16 and the business conditions are good. Some of these units have a monthly output value of 1 million yuan.

(4) Some manufacturers that have used flexographic printing have purchased new flexographic printing presses. For example: Shanghai Toothpaste Factory, Jie Long, International Paper Shanghai Co., Ltd., Xi'an First Printing Factory, Baoji Yahua and others. Some units also purchased more than one device at a time. For example, Shenzhen Jinjia added six units at a time.

(5) The market share of flexo printing continues to expand and the quality has steadily increased.

Secretary Lin’s comments represented a positive and optimistic attitude in the domestic flexo printing industry. We adopted his opinions and made changes to the article’s topics to play an active role in advocating, correctly guiding, and assisting in guiding.

At present, flexo printing accounts for approximately 7% of the market share in packaging and printing in China. Although there is still a large gap between the 75% market share and 7,000 assembly lines in the United States, it is clearly felt that the market share of flexo printing will continue to expand. the trend of. While the market share continues to expand, the quality of flexographic printing is also steadily increasing, and has been recognized by more and more people in the industry.

Of course, compared to the big flexo countries such as the United States, the market share of flexo printing in China is still too low, the number of flexographic printing lines purchased is still too low, the development speed is relatively slow, and the low cost of flexo printing is reflected in foreign countries. The advantages have not yet been reflected. In general, the printing quality and product quality are still not high enough and there are many problems. This has caused people in the industry to have mixed opinions about flexo printing. So what causes this situation, and what factors are hindering the development of flexographic printing?

Flexo printing took a detour

According to Secretary-General Lin, the United States is the oldest, most and best country in the world for flexographic printing. The development of flexo printing in the United States has gone through three stages: in the 1940s, light and thin cellophane appeared in the packaging, offset printing machines could not print, gravure printing cost was too high, and flexographic printing was particularly suitable. After the printing of cellophane, people's understanding of flexographic printing was further deepened, and flexographic printing was developed. In the 1950s and 1960s, based on environmental considerations, newspapers no longer allowed the use of lead printing, and flexographic printing was also a letterpress printing, which coincided with the needs of the newspaper industry at that time. Flexographic printing was the second opportunity for development in the United States. In the 1970s, due to the development of the commodity economy, the amount of self-adhesives and folding cartons was greatly increased, and flexographic printing was able to give full play to its production capacity. Therefore, the development of flexographic printing in the United States can be described as smooth sailing.