Differences between eastern and Western consumers

Asian flexible packaging printing Market: the difference between eastern and Western consumers

as long as you go to the local supermarket, you will find some very interesting phenomena. What is the buying habits of local people? What is the approximate ratio between the total shelf space of a product and its sales volume

in Europe, about 60% of flexible packaging adopts flexographic printing, and in North America, the proportion is as high as 80%. However, in Asia, flexographic printing is only used in mutual corrugated box printing, as well as some narrow packaging printing, such as trademarks, labels, folding cartons and so on. High quality wide flexographic printing machines print color flexible packaging, and there are only dozens of plastic film printing machines; However, in the field of flexible packaging, there are hundreds of high-quality gravure printing machines, even if not thousands

first, the difference between eastern and Western consumers

Westerners are often surprised to find that Asian consumers have such high requirements for printing quality, even far more than Western consumers. This should be a habit passed on from Japan. Most of the general users in Asia still remain in their past understanding and impression of flexographic printing. They think that the quality of flexographic printing is too poor, and they only know that the quality of gravure printing plastic film is acceptable

in recent years, flexographic printing has made amazing progress, and now it has reached the quality expected by Asian users. Technological advances, such as thin plate technology, laser engraving rollers, elastic sleeves, newly developed water-based inks, and so on, are the key driving forces to promote flexographic printing to achieve high-quality printing. For example, many businesses that originally used offset printing or embossing, such as trademarks, labels, and folding cartons, can now be completed by using narrow or medium width flexographic printing

although most packaging consumers in Asia seem unwilling to adopt new attempts, some multinational companies in Asia have introduced flexographic printing, which is mature in other parts of the world, to Asia, which has provided reference for packaging and printing manufacturers in the Asian market, and its guiding role has been encouraging Asian printing manufacturers to invest in flexographic printing

in most western countries, most of the main foods are sold in supermarkets. Supermarkets are bound to become very powerful guides in the packaging industry, teaching them how to calculate their own costs. The majority of the market requires a small but fast delivery (JIT) to meet the limited space on the shelf. The promotion methods of the food industry have also been launched frequently, which has accelerated the transformation of multi terminal packaging design

printing processors like to apply the advantages of flexographic printing to meet the rapid changes and demands of the market. In particular, flexographic printing plate making is much faster than gravure plate making, and it is extremely cheap; In particular, flexographic printing can quickly replace the substrate of any material. Even films such as PE can be replaced immediately and can be produced at full speed (300 m/min). Therefore, European printing processors use flexographic printing to print PE or pet in order to achieve the required high quality, rapid replacement and high-speed production

in Asia, generally speaking, supermarkets attract ordinary citizens, but housewives still like to go to traditional markets. Supermarkets do not take advantage of food suppliers, so the development of flexible printing will go slower and longer

second, experience the advantages of flexographic printing

1.ci flexographic printing machine

because PE is thin and easy to stretch, it is not suitable to use gravure printing machine for high-quality printing. Moreover, high-speed printing and registration are actually very difficult for gravure printing, which usually requires a very low speed (about 50~100 M/min). If the resin is added to the PE raw material to make it thinner, the gravure printing in this situation will become worse. Compared with gravure printing, CI flexographic printing machine can register very accurately, and can achieve high-speed printing of 300 meters/minute. Whether it is a very thin flexible packaging material or a rough surface material, CI flexographic printing machine can also print beautiful effects. Therefore, CI flexographic printing machine provides a lot of convenience for printing processors who often change printing materials and require high quality and high efficiency

2. plate making

from the perspective of plate making, western countries generally believe that the resin version is cheaper than the intaglio version, because the resin version can make plates within the company, and the plate making process is very simple and fast; On the other hand, resin plate making machine is also much cheaper than gravure plate making machine. It is believed that in the near future, many experienced resin plate makers will be able to master more important knowledge and professional technology, make high-quality color separation and provide high-quality printing plates for flexible technology, and the technical level will still lag behind those of printing industry in some developed countries

as far as flexographic printing in Asia is concerned, its infrastructure has begun to mature. Now some ink suppliers can also provide a complete range of suitable products. Generally speaking, when a large number of printing plates are produced from the resin plate making industry, their prices will be reduced, and the output will not be less than that of the gravure plate making industry. The lack of professional plate making companies in some Asian countries is obviously an obstacle to those who have high-quality color printing. Once the company takes the lead in action, the flexographic printing market in this region will rise in an all-round way

3. Cheap printing press

4. labor cost

as far as western countries are concerned, the Yingwu method of making PE flexible packaging is to blow the bag by yourself. It is first shot into a circular tubular film, and then split into two layers of roll material, each of which is usually 1.3 to 1.6 meters wide. After flexographic printing and slitting, it is handed over to the final packaging industry to use the automatic packaging machine to form, fill and seal the flat film, which is a very common and effective practice

in contrast, due to the cheap labor in Asia, many PE flexible packaging in Asia adopt manual packaging or semi manual filling, and directly use the tube posture to fill the packaging. The sealing is the top and bottom ends, such as diaper packaging and rice bags. As for the bag blowing machine, it is only a small one that can directly blow out the final required size. In this typical case, the slow gravure printing machine can only be used. Even the final choice of the customer is to use tubular rather than flat. Most manufacturers also know that using CI flexographic printing machine in high-speed printing, using the steering cylinder can print both sides of the circular tube at the same time, which actually saves a lot of costs

III. PE film market

it's very interesting to visit the supermarket, from which you can have an insight into the purchasing habits of local people? What is the approximate ratio between the total shelf space of a product and its sales volume

in the west, many packages seen in supermarkets are PE films. There are many frozen foods on display in the window, most of which are packed with flexible printing blown bag PE film. Bread, fruits, vegetables, salads and other packages are all PE thin bags printed with flexographic printing

compared with ten years ago, today's typical Asian supermarkets have added many kinds of PE film packaging. More common diapers and toilet paper are new scenes in retail stores. Other packages that use PE film extensively, such as frozen food, daily necessities, bagged lettuce salad, etc., are rare in Asian supermarkets. On the contrary, a large proportion of the shelf space is filled with instant noodles, snacks and snacks, which are packed with PP film. Only in Malaysia, some thin bread is packed with PE film. This ultra-thin PE film packaging seems to be newly developed stimulated by high-quality flexographic printing

IV. wide width flexographic printing market

flexible packaging is the most important application in the flexographic printing packaging market. If flexible packaging is combined with handbags, textile bags and preprint markets, it will create a larger flexible packaging printing market, and the share of flexible packaging in the flexographic printing market will exceed 50%

we have heard that flexible packaging occupies the first place in the flexographic printing market. Now let's take a look at the market statistics, which can prove all this

flexographic packaging market application market share (%)

flexible packaging 35

handbag 7

textile bag 8

pre printed carton 4

corrugated carton 26

label, packaging paper 9

beverage box 6

other 5

it can be seen from the above table that the flexible packaging has a share of 35%, which is the most important project in the flexible printing market

1. The final product of wide flexible flexible packaging printing

Plastic Products:

decorative bags, napkin boxes, frozen food packaging, frozen food packaging, dessert packaging, bread packaging, candy paper, milk boxes, edible oil packaging, pet food bags, T-shirt bags, handbags, etc

handbags, cement bags, candy paper, flour bags, medicine boxes, corrugated carton surface, folding carton surface, pet food bags, biscuit bags, etc

aluminum foil products:

main packaging, cream packaging, milk cool packaging, instant cup cover, etc

2. The range of wide flexible packaging printing

although there is no standard definition, most manufacturers take it seriously. The width range of wide flexible packaging printing is 600mm to 1400mm. Narrow width printing machines with a width of less than 600mm and ultra wide width printing machines with a width of more than 1400mm. Now there is also a 000mm medium width printing machine in the packaging market, which will be fully committed to the development of short version printing and rapid replacement of prints

3. wide packaging flexographic printing machine

looking at the evolution of Web flexographic printing machine and understanding the development process of flexographic printing technology, in fact, it is very clear to see the development history of flexographic printing machine. When we want to discuss why and how to do it, here we can explain the whole process in three steps

step 1: quality

starting from the appearance of the first generation web to web aniline printing machine, it is basically a poor design of paper web printing machine. In the early 1930s, after the invention of the first laminated six color printing machine, we have been using this inferior six color machine. In the 1950s, a new shape of the laminated printing press appeared, which is known as the arch structure. Until the first CI flexographic printing machine was developed in 1958, the whole flexographic printing technology entered a new milestone