The current domestic cigarette pack printing technology features The development trend is relative to the status quo. Therefore, if you want to understand the trend, you must begin by understanding the status quo. At present, the domestic cigarette pack printing technology has the following characteristics: 1. Development of single gravure printing to offset printing and combination printing Offset printing has always dominated the publishing and commercial printing fields. In particular, high-quality printed catalogs can only be completed with offset printing. This is because the offset press has developed to the present day and the technology is very mature. It has the advantage that other printing methods can't be compared in the reproduction of image details. Compared with gravure printing, offset printing plate has the characteristics of short cycle and low cost. In the current tobacco factory frequent replacement of cigarette package design, continuous introduction of new products, and new product sales are not large, the offset printing machine will show The higher flexibility, which is the main reason for the increasing proportion of offset printing in cigarette pack printing in recent years. Especially in the field of printing in China, offset printing has become very popular. It has the largest proportion in various printing methods and is the most important printing method in the field of publishing and packaging printing in China. Therefore, in China, the installed capacity of offset printing presses is the largest and has the best Hardware environment and software conditions. Six international suppliers of offset press Heidelberg, Manroland, KBA, Komori, Mitsubishi, and Akiyama, sales in China have been steadily increasing in recent years, and most of the imported sheetfed offset presses are used for packaging and printing. Although many large and medium-sized cigarette pack printing companies have purchased web gravure printers or flexo printers, they have invariably used offset printing as one of their main operations, or for printing small and medium-sized cigarette packs, or Used to print packaging products (such as cigarette cases, cosmetics boxes, kits, etc.) in other industries. However, in recent years, with the intensified competition in the tobacco industry and the continuous improvement of the cigarette box design, a single offset printing can no longer meet the requirements of exquisite cigarette packs. Therefore, the combination of offset printing, gravure printing, screen printing, and flexographic printing has just printed cigarette packs. The technology has quietly emerged and it has become popular all over the world. The result of the combination printing brought the grade of cigarette packs to an unprecedented level. At the same time, the characteristics of several printing methods have been brought into full play, complementing each other and leading the way. Offset printing images and gradation patterns are printed using offset printing. The use of the advantages of thick gravure ink layer and stable ink is to print large areas of spot and spot colors, gold and silver, pearlescent colors and various imitation metal etching inks. If you need special finishing effects, you can also screen printing process, such as frosted, ice, crystal, wrinkles and so on. Therefore, the combination of offset printing, gravure printing, and silk screen printing has brought unprecedented strong artistic visual effects to cigarette packs. Together with the post-processing technology: gold sweeping, UV spotting, hot stamping, and embossing, the cigarette packs are icing on the cake, which makes them amazing and amazing. 2. The materials used are getting more and more affluent As the four or five types of cigarette factories are not profitable, how to bring the first and second types of cigarettes to the market, sell brands, and open up sales are the dreams of cigarette factories in recent years. As the soft package "Zhonghua" is the number one representative of high-grade cigarettes in China, the packaging design of its typical Chinese-style cigarettes has become a target for imitation of cigarette factories. As a result, most cigarette factories have adopted flexible packaging design when they introduce their own top-grade cigarettes. The materials used are almost exclusively laser holographic aluminum foil. The price of this paper is undoubtedly the highest in all papers. Like: Blue Hibiscus King, Treasures of Nanjing, Treasures of White Sand, Treasures of Pampered Child, Sunshine Petite, Blue Soft Bagh, Century Boutique Furong King, Hard Box, Hibiscus King, Red River V8, Gui Yan, Special Alcohol Gold Medal Cloud smoke and so on are all plain-faced laser aluminum foil. The packaging is so special and the interior is not behind. Many of the tipping papers used in these cigarettes have been gilded. All of these make packaging printing costs unprecedented increase. Of course, the price of these cigarettes is also expensive, both in the 20 to 80 yuan / box, or even higher. 3, more and more patterns of cigarette processing technology, the operation is more and more complex Apart from the fact that the printing process has become more and more complicated and the materials have become more and more sophisticated, the post-processing technology has been unrelenting, the design has become more and more complicated, and the operation has become more and more complicated. 1, sweep gold A process between bronzing and gold printing is characterized by its high speed and low cost, and it can achieve the desired results regardless of the thickness of the image and the size of the area. Gold powder color is also varied, such as gold, silver, red gold, red copper, green, brown, lemon, peacock blue, etc., also have different granularity, showing different visual effects. In foreign countries, there is currently a kind of gold powder that has the effect of imitating diamonds. The gold powder has four particle sizes and 10 colors. It can make the whole graphic text appear as a set of diamond patterns under the illumination of light, reflecting the uniqueness of multicolored light. effect. Representative cigarette packs: Red 'Huangshan'. 2, holographic hot stamping Laser holograms are based on the principle of laser interference, using the method of spatial frequency coding. Because laser holograms were pleasing in color, distinct in level, vivid in image, varied in optical transformation effects, and high in information and technology, they were used in the field of security in the 1980s. The latest OVD technology has been clearly distinguished from the widely used HOLOGRAM holograms, which have machine identification capabilities. The mechanism of holographic foil stamping is that the hot melt adhesive layer and the separation layer on the holographic hot stamping material are heated and melted by the hot stamping die on the hot stamping device, and the information layer of the hot stamping material is holographic under the action of the predetermined pressure. The grating stripe is separated from the PET substrate, so that the information layer of the aluminum foil is adhered to the bearing surface and integrated to achieve a perfect combination. There are three types of holographic hot stamping: A. The hologram in the regular version is hot; B. The special hologram is hot; C. The special hologram is positioned hot. Among them, the third special version of hologram positioning was hot and appeared frequently on high-grade cigarette packs in the past two years. It means that the hologram of the specific part of the holographic anti-counterfeit stamping electro-aluminum is accurately stamped on the hot stamping device to a specific position of the cigarette pack by photoelectric recognition. Holographic positioning hot technology is very difficult, not only requires the printing plant equipped with high-performance, high-precision positioning hot equipment, but also requires a high-quality special positioning hot stamping aluminum, production process must also be strictly controlled to produce qualified Cigarette products. Since the positioning stamping mark has a high anti-counterfeiting performance, it is used in occasions such as banknotes and important documents. Representative cigarette packs: Need for "cloud smoke" and "Lotus King". 3, soft paper stamping, positioning hot Due to the popularity of high-end cigarettes in the form of soft packaging, the gorgeous post-processing technology that has matured on white cardboard paper has also shifted to soft paper. Yunnan Qiaotong Packaging & Printing Co., Ltd. first tried in this area and achieved great success. This process will be hot stamping, pressure convex finished in a process, the product is full of hot gold, graphics, fine, beautiful, non-pressure convex ramp features. However, this process technology is difficult, and the precision requirements for hot stamping, holographic film, and hot stamping machines are particularly high. All operating indicators must be very strict. Because of this, it is difficult to imitate and the degree of anti-counterfeiting is high. It represents cigarette packets: "Fu" and Huize "Little Panda". 4, first hot after the printing process In order to highlight the specific patterns and logos on cigarette packs, in recent years, some printing companies have also launched a new process of stamping anodized aluminum, and then printing patterns on anodized aluminum. The resulting effect makes the subject of cigarette packs more vivid and lively. The key to this process is that the stamping of the galvanized aluminum must be firm. During the printing, the galvanized aluminum must not be pulled back by the printing ink. This will not only affect the quality of cigarette packs, but also the anti-pulled aluminum will quickly accumulate on the blankets, resulting in the loss of image dots, which will result in partial image printing failures. With the operation of the machine, the electro-aluminum powder will also remain. Transfer to the ink roller system to accelerate the wear of the ink roller. Therefore, this process should be based on the characteristics of printing paper, select the appropriate aluminum, to ensure that the aluminum can be firmly attached to the surface of the paper. Representing cigarette packs: Soft pack "Guobin", soft pack blue "Eight hi", blue "Shilin". 5, micro-embossing process This process uses a micro-embossed plate to press on a variety of fine lines required in the graphic part of the aluminum foil. The obtained product has the effects of hot stamping and embossing, and the metal texture is very strong. Representing cigarette packs: Soft and hard packs, "Guobin", soft pack "Guobao", soft pack blue "Eight Bakes", soft pack "Furong Wang". (to be continued)