Herman Weiger, Vice President of Sales at Siegwerk Ink, Germany, said: “The market conditions in 2001 were not as good as in 2000; it was not much better in 2002. With the recent closure of Service Merchandise, the catalogue printing industry will be further affected. influences."
Global publication of the gravure printing industry last year was even worse. Siebwerk CEO and company founder Mr. Herbert Fuck said: "With the global economic situation is weak, economic benefits have fallen, and development has stalled." Mr. Longwig said: "The development prospect of packaging gravure is good Some are currently continuing to grow."
Mr. Bill Klein, head of the Packaging and Labels Gravure Printing Association, said: “The shrink-stretch label market is growing rapidly. In some cases, packaging bags currently use gravure printing technology,†said Bob, vice president of packaging sales at Sun Chemical Ink. Mr. Muren said: "In 2001, the packaging market did not improve much, but the gravure seems to have not been adversely affected in terms of flexible packaging." He added, "The folding carton market may be somewhat weaker, but flexo printing is comparable to offset printing and gravure printing." However, it has continued to gain more market share in the folding carton market."
"The current gravure packaging inks are mainly used for candy film substrates printing and folding carton printing. Overall, the above market is relatively stable," said Mr. McEmpostardo, vice president of market development for Flint Ink's North American Packaging Division. However, the market share of gravure will decline in the future.The economic slowdown last year and the demand instability have not helped any gravure printers. Short prints and declining inventories will not benefit gravure. India continues to be more competitive with printing methods that are more suitable for short-run jobs, but gravure printing has a high degree of copying accuracy, and it is still very attractive to the high-end printing market.
In 2001, the global package gravure printing market was very similar. Mr. Fu Ke said: "Although the global economy was not booming in 2001, the economic benefits of the package gravure printing industry remained good, with a stable growth rate of more than 5%."
Benefits and Disadvantages Printers and ink manufacturers agree that printing quality will always be a major strength of gravure printing. However, the disadvantage of gravure printing is the high cost of short-run printing, which is worth studying. Mr. Jeff Kozi, Production Manager of American Packaging Company, said: “The advantages of gravure printing include clear images, good quality stability throughout the production process, and excellent repeat printing effects. The disadvantages (in the eyes of the buyer’s management staff) are printed. The front and drum engraving costs are higher."
Mr. Todd, of Sun Chemical Ink Company, said: "When printing reaches millions of impressions, gravure has always been the preferred method of printing. Long print quality, color stability is the main advantage of gravure. High front-end operating costs The cost of both roller manufacturing and proofing can be recovered by increasing the number of hourly impressions at a fixed print speed and web width. The cost before printing is fixed, and the larger the number of prints, the lower the cost of a single sheet print."
Mr. Im Postado said: "The advantages and disadvantages of gravure printing are obvious. The main advantage of gravure printing is the high precision of image reproduction, and the printing effect is comparable to the photo. The biggest disadvantage of gravure printing itself is the short version. Higher printing costs In the past 10 years, gravure has made great progress in reducing the cost of short prints, but since single prints continue to decline, gravure does not have a competitive advantage over other print methods in terms of cost. â€
“The advantage of gravure printing is still long-run printing,†said Bill Wicher, publisher of gravure ink development at Flint Ink, who said that “as long as the required consumables are used and the general print job standards are followed, good print reproduction can be achieved.†The effect of gravure printing is reflected in short printing."
The feasibility of short-run printing It is generally believed that gravure applies only to long-run printing, while flexo-printing applies to short-run printing. Gravure printers disagree with this view. Mr. Kozi said: “The above views are related to the cost of replacing the graphic. Customers often request to print promotional labels, sometimes only need to change the address on the label, and think that gravure cylinders are costly compared to other printing methods. The industry has spared no effort to exaggerate this weakness, but in fact the cost gap between rotary gravure and flexo is very small.The gravure cylinder engraving processor has greatly reduced the internal processing costs, making the cost difference between gravure and flexo. Zooming out quickly."
Paraty Kering, vice president of production management at Nordenia Americas, said: “The above view is incorrect. In the past 10 years, Flexo people have been saying that the quality of flexo printing is almost as good as the quality of gravure printing. The cost of equipment is as high as the cost of gravure printing, the cost of a gravure cylinder is not much higher than the cost of a flexographic printing plate and an anilox roller, and the quality of first-rate flexo printing is still inferior to gravure printing quality. quality."
Time control is of great importance for gravure printers. Mr. Cozzi said: “In 1994, American Packaging used SMED (one-minute die change) technology. Before that, we thought that our production was very efficient. The preparation time was the same in the industry, and there was nothing that needed improvement. Later we changed our attitudes, adopted new technologies, and achieved unexpected and good results, reducing the preparation time for all devices by 50%.
In addition, U.S. packaging companies have also invested a lot of money to make equipment changes. They try not to use various tools and replace them with quick clamping devices. Mr. Kozi said: "We think that if there is a need for job replacement time between different design options, there will be opportunities for improvement."
Ink manufacturers also believe that the prospects for short gravure printing are bright. Mr. Wicher said: “In the past, economic benefits dominated the long and short gravure, but now the use of digital front-end technology to speed up the preparation of the machine, no longer use proofing machines, roller and printing equipment has greatly improved the degree of automation, so short Version gravure can also achieve better economic benefits. Further improvement of the paper and ink stability will certainly reduce the scope of change, speed up the debugging, help determine the color and improve the job replacement rate."
Mr. Im Pastado said: “The gravure printing has always been more suitable for long-run printing because the cost of the gravure printing machine is higher. This cost must be shared in the long-run printing production process. The higher cost of the gravure Drums can only achieve good economic benefits if they are used for long-run printing.Because the machine has a long time, it is only reasonable that the time between the adjustment machine and the printing time is longer in the long-run printing.The technology to improve the competitiveness of the gravure short version Progress will be reflected in prepress and printing equipment." (To be continued)
Although 2001 was a difficult year for the entire printing industry, there are still some bright spots in the gravure printing industry. In 2001, the US publishing market was particularly weak, and the gravure production sector was also affected by the economic downturn. According to Ken Todt, a domestic technical services manager for the gravure printing ink division of Sun Chemical Ink, “The notable feature of 2001 was that some factories were closed, and some were announced to close in the future. Most retailers closed down, others The number of prints has been reduced, and some publishers simply left it alone. On the other hand, new types of presses have been put into operation and some gravure plants have performed very well. Their success has been mainly due to the increase in productivity and the rational product structure."