High value-added printing technology application seminar

Organized by the Industrial Bureau of Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs, Kaohsiung City Printing and Trade Association, the Taiwan Chinese Printing Technology Association, the Taiwan Printing Association of China, and the Taiwan Printing and Machinery Industry Association co-organized the "High Value-added Printing" executed by the Printing Industrial Technology Research Center. The Technology Application Seminar, held at the Huayuan Hotel in Kaohsiung on May 18th, attracted 70 industry players to attend and listen to how to open up a new game outside the highly competitive lithographic market.

The "High Value Added Printing Technology Application Seminar" invited three senior experts specializing in special printing to serve as lecturers. Including: Cai Yongming Trainer at the Taipei Vocational Training Center lectured on the introduction of screen printing and printing, challenged the company's Ye Wenjun to teach the application of screen printing technology, Shanshui Printing Co., Ltd. Wu Wenhe and the director of the company taught plastic lithography technology. Import and practice applications. Lecturers collaborated with lively printed products to make the lessons lively and interesting. Discussions were also more enthusiastic.

Tsai Yong-ming, a trainer at the Taipei Vocational Training Center who has been engaged in screen printing for 20 years, first mentioned that although the screen is widely used, there are many techniques that are based on applications such as lithographic, gravure and other layouts. Many of the effects are not only the screen version can be achieved, other layouts can also be achieved, but there will be differences in prices. Cai Yongming's trainer explained the application of flat, convex, concave, mesh, and non-engraving printing on special printed materials on the site with many printed products. He believes that even if the industry may be involved in various layouts, it may not be very proficient. As long as it carefully considers whether the products developed are now mainstream and future-proof, their chances of success will increase.

Ye Wenjun, General Manager, describes the business strategy of high value-added printing products

Screen technology is often used in high-tech products, such as plasma televisions, LCDs, and backlights. The value of the products is also higher than that of other people’s livelihoods. Therefore, precision and error values ​​are more stringent. In the introduction of the screen technology, we must first understand the weave, mesh (refer to how many network lines per inch or inch in the network) and mesh openings and so on. The cost of the weaving of the mesh cloth depends on the cost; the wire diameter of the screen mesh and the size of the opening of the mesh affect the fineness of the pattern; the thickness of the wire diameter of the mesh has a decisive influence on the thickness of the ink after printing; therefore, the screen printing is often performed. Formulas must be used to assist in the calculation of the precision of the mastered quality.

In addition to the calculation of formulas, the application of printing inspection related instruments is also necessary. The key points of inspection include: 1. We can accurately measure product specifications according to customer's requirements; 2. Test to ensure printing and product quality: such as printed material density, surface brightness, toughness, etc.; 3. Cooperate with processing demand detection: Because the screen has many three-dimensional products, and most products need to be reprocessed before they can become products, their light resistance, heat resistance, and elasticity all need to be tested. 4. Can meet the demand for printability conditions.

Ye trainers finally remind industry players to think about how to enhance the added value of products must have: 1. Product technology research enthusiasm; 2. Make use of different versions and processes; 3. Improve equipment and manpower quality; 4. Print function oriented products Rather than consumer printing; 5. printing of technical products.

The challenger’s Ye Wenjun’s general manager shared his experience in screen printing with the on-site guests from an operator’s point of view. In the beginning, some explanations were given on what was meant by high added value, which was used by field operators as a reference for evaluating product value. The general manager of Ye said that "added value" equals the company's turnover (after deducting the cost of materials) divided by the number of companies. This formula can be used by industry to assess whether it is worth investing in the operation of a product. Screen printing, because of its adaptability, is the most widely used format, including paper, electronics, and plastics. Paper products include paper transfer and self-adhesive stickers; plastic products include card printing, acrylic printing, etc.; electronic products include printed circuit boards, laptop computers, and optoelectronic products. Almost every item in daily life is related to the screen version, and the high selling price of the product makes it possible for the operator to obtain higher profits. This is in line with the definition of high added value. As operators, they must analyze whether to introduce or invest in the operation of a new product from the understanding of industrial trends, inspection of operating conditions, and planning of business operations. General Manager Ye also suggested that the printing industry should adjust its business concept and devote more efforts to strengthening product development and innovation so as to create added value of products and technology itself in order to expand its financial resources.

The theme of Wu Wenhe, director of landscape printing, is about plastic lithography. According to Wu, the current domestic printing plastic materials can be divided into four categories according to the printing format:

1. Toppan printing (mostly resin-engraved) makes plate making easy but poor quality

2. Lithography (lithographic UV printing) - the subject to be discussed today, the future development of the mainstream

3. Gravure Printing (Photogravure) - Platemaking is difficult and costly and suitable for mass printing

Screen printing (stencil printing) - The production speed is slow and overprinting is not easy, but it can do more special effects.

Wu Wenhe, Director of Plastic Lithography Practice

At present, the types of plastics for long-range lithographic UV printing include the following types: PVC, PP, PP, PS, and synthetic paper. In addition to printable plastic materials, lithographic UV printing is also very suitable for non-absorbent materials such as laser and aluminum foil.

Before and after the introduction of plastic lithography should pay attention to: the purchase of printing equipment and auxiliary assessment of the prudent assessment; from the network, machinery agents to obtain new technology and technical guidance; (if there is someone responsible for data collection is the best); Set the company's future development of major products (including the development of market segmentation products, high-quality high-priced products). As for the matters that should be paid attention to after the introduction of technology, including: the inheritance of technology, adherence to principles and concepts, the maintenance of stable quality and the spirit of innovation and improvement.

In actual operation, each link is closely related to the planning, prepress, printing, and post-press processing of the prints. In the print planning section, the print process of business units must be clearly explained. Because people often ignore things that should be paid attention to when they are used to doing things, when filling in the work order, special attention should be paid to it to avoid mistakes.

Matters requiring special attention in the prepress section include:

1.CTP publication - ordinary ink can be printed without baking.

UV printing must be baked in a 250 degree oven for 10 minutes, otherwise it will have an opportunity to print.

2. General plastic material is transparent and white. When using a transparent material, the film must be printed face up or out (sometimes with the exception of the exception); when white material is used, the film must be printed face down or out of the same paper.

3. Plastic printing is not allowed due to easy expansion and overprinting, especially when there is white ink, the plate-making personnel must have a good effect on the white ink-printing-printed components.

4. Some special prints require high parts, such as 3D printing, the number of output lines, resolution, and dot angle must be tested to the best conditions to get the best results.

5. Print guide (usually 1cm reserved) must be placed under the print material size license.

6. Make plate color management favorable for printing color control.

Matters needing special attention in the printing section include: 1. Color control problems 2. Ink adhesion problem 3. Special color deployment processing (Recommended that a color ratio recording system should be established to reduce the trouble of color matching in the future) 4. Plastic overprinting is not Quasi-problem 5. Avoid scratches in printing.

Finally, the director of Wu reminded the operators that the completion of the lithographic UV printing does not mean completion. There are still many follow-up actions to be completed, and whether or not the post-processing can be completed smoothly must be well communicated before printing. Beautiful and perfect but can not be processed or processed will affect the quality, still failed. Sometimes, after the printing or scraping of the tape, there is no problem. As a result, it is found that the color is dropped in the gluing box or other processing, or it has to be reprinted. This part should explain that it is still very important for everyone in the UV printing field to work hard on R&D. At the same time, the cooperation and trust between upstream and downstream customers have a considerable relationship to enhance technology.