How to print self-adhesive labels?
At present, offset printing, screen printing, flexo printing, and letterpress printing are the most widely used printing methods. Let’s take a detailed look at the differences between them.
Offset printing: Offset printing is the main method for printing paper self-adhesives in label printing factories in my country. Offset printing is characterized by fine pictures and texts, rich layers, suitable for large-scale printing, and the printing equipment can be used for multiple purposes. Offset printing can print thicker plastic materials, such as in-mold labels and label tags, so the machine must be equipped with a UV curing device to ensure the quality of the label.
Screen printing: Screen printing is the most adaptable printing method for substrates. The screen printing label has strong ink color and strong three-dimensional effect, and can use uv ink to print film products. In addition to a handful of rotary screen printing equipment, which can be used for screen printing label printing, most screen printing equipment is semi-automatic flat screen printing machine, which can only print single products, and the overprinting accuracy is not high, which is not suitable for the film matching the production line. Label production equipment.
Flexo: Flexo is prevalent mainly in North America. Its equipment is a small and medium-sized unit-type printing unit, mainly in ink, using roll-to-roll printing, circular die-cutting, and has the characteristics of high production efficiency, advanced technology and environmental protection requirements.
Letterpress: Letterpress mainly focuses on the Asia-Pacific region. This is because there are many developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, and label printing is still relatively backward. Even if letterpress printing is used, only a small number of UV ink equipment is used. Most label printing still uses resin-based inks, roll-to-roll printing and sheet-fed printing. Paper printing methods coexist. Due to the high proportion of manual labeling, sheet-fed offset printing self-adhesive labels are widely used.
Letterpress + Flexo: Letterpress printing all use UV ink, and most of the equipment is lamination or satellite. The material processing method is also reel-to-reel printing.
