Corrugated cardboard offset printing way

August 12, 2022

We know that in the past there were three ways to print on corrugated cardboard:
1. Print directly on corrugated board with flexible or rubber;
2. Printed on paper with an offset press, and then composite the printed paper with corrugated cardboard;
3. In the production of corrugated board, a web-fed flexo printing machine is used to print the pattern on the uppermost layer of paper and then compounded. The corrugated board produced is a product that has already been printed.
Generally, the first three methods are used more often than before, and the third method is suitable for large quantities of products. ABBEY's corrugated cardboard company in the United Kingdom has developed another method: printing directly on the offset press using a cardboard called micro-corrugated board, the result is very satisfactory. I hope to change the habits of carton printing companies and people in the industry, reduce dependence on paperboard, and use more micro-corrugated cardboard.
The value of this method will depend on the carton printing company and industry insiders. Miniature corrugations are available in two sizes: N-type corrugations have a cross-sectional dimension of 0.5 millimeters, and a slightly larger F-type dimension is 0.75 millimeters. These products have been tested in some carton printing companies. One of these products is a frozen food packaging box, which was directly printed with a Roland 700 offset press. Except for reducing the printing speed from 12,000 sheets/H to 8000 sheets/H, no other adjustments were made. The results indicate that this product is promising. In addition to reducing the printing speed, further adjustments require the replacement of blankets, the use of softer blankets to avoid crushing the corrugations, and the need to adjust the pressure. If the pressure is too high, there will be traces of corrugations on the surface.
The use of a soft blanket can result in dot gains, which require some compensation. The result was satisfactory. At the beginning of the test, the proportion of crushed corrugated clay was 30%, which has now fallen below 3%. The use of UV inks and coating oils is no problem. The indentation grooves are wider during die-cutting and indentation to prevent crushed material. There is no difference in the folder-gluer. This new material has been used on various offset presses. test.
In terms of packaging, people often choose the solid-plate carton because of its high printing quality, which is easy to attract the attention of customers in a highly competitive market. However, the corrugated paperboard of the same weight is stronger than the solid carton. This is because of the corrugation between layers, which is still true even if the corrugation is reduced to a tiny size. The paperboard printing can provide a wide range of colors. ABBEY's test has proved that the use of a white micro-corrugated board can achieve most of the effects of board printing, and the micro-corrugated board is lighter, which saves material. In addition, corrugated boxes have better insulation properties for frozen products.