The third time for flexo printing or traditional printing**

In 1980, there were only 10,000 printing factories of various types in the country. In 2007, there were more than 180,000 printing and typing enterprises in the country. From 1978 to 2008, the number of books in China increased from 12,886 to more than 248,000.

Up to now, the printing industry has ushered in revolutionary changes. The first revolution was to “eliminate lead and fire and usher in light and power”. Laser photocopying has replaced movable type printing, enabling our country to get rid of the old bondage and step by step to the international advanced ranks. The second revolution was a digital revolution. Careful attention to the topics of the six Drupa exhibitions since 1986, it is not difficult to sort out the development of digital printing, Drupa1986's desktop publishing system, Drupa1990's color desktop publishing system, Drupa1995's CTP, Drupa2000's digital workflow and cross-media publishing, Drupa2004 JDF and Drupa2008 inkjet printing.

Now, some experts say that traditional printing is opening the door to the third revolution, that is, the flourishing world of flexo printing.

At the end of the 1970s, flexo printing began to be applied in China. It belongs to a rare special printing method. The first type of machine used was a laminated flexo printer, and its application range was mainly limited to color blocks and plastic film packaging products with 40 to 50 lpi dots. However, people have always mistakenly thought that flexo printing is equivalent to plastic film printing, and the quality is far worse than that of offset printing, gravure printing, etc., so it has not received due attention.

With the continuous deepening of reform and opening up, China's economic system has moved from a planned economy to a market economy, and advanced flexographic equipment has also been introduced into the country one after another. However, because domestic operating technology, substrates, plate making, inks, and supporting equipment failed to keep pace with the imported equipment, the development of flexo printing in the domestic market was limited for more than 10 years.

At that time, Shanghai Printing Technology Research Institute took the lead in carrying out research on flexographic printing in China, which helped promote the development of domestic flexo printing technology. The power of the flexographic printing technology professional committee established by the China Printing Technology Association (now renamed the China Printing Technology Association flexo printing branch) has played a very good role in promotion and promotion of the flexo printing industry.

The development of flexographic printing has the following advantages:

1. Green production methods, inks are mainly VOC-free, dry quickly, do not contain harmful heavy metals, water-based inks and UV inks that are environmentally friendly.

2. The use of laser-engraved ceramic anilox roller for quantitative ink transfer ensures uniform ink transfer, ink color uniformity and color tones.

3. The printing plate is soft and elastic, adaptable to various materials, and has a wide range of application materials.

4. Rapid plate making, low cost, flexible layout change.

5. With post-press connection processing capability, production cycle is short and work efficiency is high.

6. Applicable to medium and long-term print business, product quality is reliable and stable.

7. The equipment is simple in structure, easy to operate and maintain; the area occupied by the equipment is small, and the plant utilization rate is high.

8. Improve working conditions of employees, no environmental pollution, no impact on physical and mental health.

9. The use of manual labor on the production line is reduced, web printing is commonly used, which can significantly reduce production costs.

These advantages and properties of flexo printing have gradually become well known. They have finally evolved from a rare special printing method to a printing method with a great potential for development. The positive effect on the green printing industry that the industry is trying hard to promote is immeasurable.

In 2009, despite the impact of the international financial crisis, the overall development trend of China's printing industry was good. The total output value of the printing industry still reached 574.6 billion yuan, an increase of 18% from 488.9 billion yuan in 2008. Among various printing methods, flexo occupies 10%, and the development prospect cannot be ignored.