Printing Performance Every packaging and printing plant has its own operating procedures and organizational structure, so the cost of each process is discussed. But we can see:
Any center-printing flexographic printing press, even if fully automated or equipped with powerful components, requires more time and effort than a gravure printing press when changing jobs. A ten-color flexo press usually requires two and a half to three hours for a job, while a ten-color gravure press takes only one and a half hours.
The gravure printer is a simple mechanical printer consisting of four basic printing units:
The simple structure of the engraving cylinder, the ink fountain, the doctor blade, and the impression cylinder brings a high level of copyability and greatly reduces the time required for the replacement work, allowing quicker entry into the printing state, even when printing short runs. It can also achieve high efficiency. Now, on-line processing operations, such as cold-press sealing, have become a routine need. When printing with a flexographic printing press, it usually requires careful control, so the running speed is very low.
Experience in some printing plants in Europe and the United States is that a typical eight-color gravure printing can be completed in eight hours, while a flexo printing machine needs ten hours for printing because of the long replacement time and the slow printing speed.
Therefore, even if the poor quality of the flexo product, quality instability, and high waste are not taken into consideration, the cost of the machine per hour is USD 450, and the additional two hours of work in the eight-color print job requires an additional USD 112 per color.
In addition to ink, we must also consider the cost of the ink. The cost of ink in flexo printing is higher because of the more concentrated use.
However, the superbase gravure ink significantly reduces the amount of ink required. The initial results showed a 25% reduction in the use of inks and solvents.
The design of the ink system has been improved. Some gravure ink systems require only 7 liters of ink for circulation, while flexographic printers require 15-20 liters of ink. Therefore, the management of ink costs is greatly reduced, especially in the case of short-lived.
Flexographic Plate Costs and Reuse Some European printers and print buyers analyzed the cost of flexographic printing plates in accordance with international practice, indicating that the cost of printing for each color is at USD 198, the total cost (including printing plates) The cost is USD 340 per color, that is, the cost per printing plate is USD 145.
But what is the reuse of printing plates? Cleaning and removing the flexographic plates is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process with high labor intensity. Stored plates may be deformed, hardened, and embrittled and have a limited lifetime. Plates that contain a large number of continuous lines in their design cannot be preserved because the connections of the lines are easily damaged when the plates are being transported.
In terms of experience, 50% of printing plates can be reused, so the reprintable printing plate cost can reduce the cost from USD 145 to USD 70 per color.
Thin-walled flexo sleeves For companies with a large number of short-lived prints, thin-walled sleeves mounted on the back of the shaft allow the plate to be reused. The plate is placed on the sleeve for reuse. The average cost of a thin-walled sleeve is USD 125, and in each design a sleeve is required for each color, which extends the lead time by at least two weeks. (To be continued)