Analysis of the current situation of the hottest E

Analysis of the current situation of the European printing market

in the European printing market, although the printing process tends to be short and digital, gravure printing continues to maintain its original market share because it has always maintained its unique high-grade and high-quality, and is constantly developing. It is mainly used in publishing, packaging, decoration and other three fields, and has become the leading printing process of magazines, product catalogs and packaging products. Relevant research shows that in the European packaging field, based on the fact that many brands are committed to improving the printing quality, gravure printing occupies an absolute market share in a variety of printing methods, and gradually recapture the market that flexographic printing (the main competitor) once took away

at present, in the European packaging and publishing market, every "point" of the gravure process chain is constantly working to promote the development of gravure printing; Equipment manufacturers, suppliers and printers are trying to improve their profitability through printing; Ink manufacturers have been developing and constantly introducing new products, and also do their best to improve the quality and performance of gravure ink; The latest EU environmental protection rules also agree to use phenyl ink in publishing gravure printing, which greatly ensures the production efficiency of publishing gravure printing machine; The reduction of cost ensures that gravure printing process maintains the ability to compete with other processes, such as in the field of packaging and flexo printing, and in the field of publishing and offset printing. Finally, all these constitute the driving force for the accelerated development of European gravure processing enterprises, prompting them to invest in large-scale gravure printing plants and large-scale integration between factories, so as to obtain higher economic returns. For example, the merger of SCHLOTT sebaldus and broschek has formed SCHLOTT, a group enterprise ranking among the top three gravure printing enterprises in Europe, second only to Arvato and Quebecor. Recently, in the gravure printing industry in Europe, another "super combination" event occurred, that is, Arvato and Springer, subsidiaries of Bertelsmann, are preparing to cooperate on gravure printing in Germany and the UK. If the merger is realized, the new enterprise will become the largest gravure printing group in Europe with an absolute leading edge, and its investment will exceed 18% of the existing gravure printing enterprises in Europe, excluding Bertelsmann's gravure printing branches in Spain and Italy. At the same time, it will determine the future of gravure printing in Europe, including 60% of printed magazines and 50% of product catalogs

although the pace of merger is fast, compared with North America, the gravure printing market in Europe is still somewhat fragmented. In the United States, only a few independent gravure printing enterprises control the entire market; However, in Europe, there are still 25 independent gravure printing enterprises coexisting, including many consolidated group enterprises in the development process of more than 310 years

for gravure printing, in order to maintain the competitive advantage with other printing processes, it is imperative to reduce costs. Cost reduction requires ink manufacturers to ensure that they can maintain or even create better print quality without adding any costs

for the packaging printing field with high added value, gravure printing plays an important role in the European market, while in the United States, flexographic printing occupies an important position. Coupled with more attention to gravure printing, there are still many good opportunities for small ink manufacturers in the packaging and printing market in Europe. In the field of gravure printing, it is also important to reduce costs. Although the distribution and sales of magazines are relatively affected by certain regions and readers, the number of millions of publications is still relatively common. In the field of catalogue, gravure printing in Europe has great development potential. According to statistics, IKEA, a furniture retailer in Switzerland, uses gravure printing to print 150million product catalogs every year. The quantity is so large that the cost control in every aspect cannot be ignored, especially the paper, the main raw material in product processing. Many large European publishers are trying to reduce their spending on paper. At present, some manufacturers have taken specific practical actions and began to turn to relatively cheap MF paper (non coater finishing paper), which has the same gloss and opacity as coated paper. However, the test shows that the rough surface of MF paper results in slightly lower printing density and unsaturated color

ink suppliers have also made positive adjustments to printers' choice of paper. At present, adhesives for reverse osmosis have been introduced, which can be applied in the processing process to realize the pretreatment of MF paper; It can also be directly mixed with printing ink. Siegwerk ink company has been committed to the improvement of the existing reverse osmosis additives for gravure MF paper

in addition, in terms of reducing unit costs in publishing gravure, some gravure printing enterprises in Europe have chosen to introduce wide width gravure printing machines, which are usually more than 4 meters wide. At the same time, it also improves the competitiveness of enterprises to a certain extent and promotes the development of collectivization. It is reported that the maubelser gravure factory of Arvato in Nuremberg has purchased two KBA gravure printing machines with a width of 4.32 meters, becoming the first gravure printing enterprise in the world to use gravure printing machines with a width of more than 4 meters to print catalogues and magazines

for high-speed large gravure printing machines, the use of phenyl ink is very important. Benzene is the only solvent that can meet the drying requirements in high-speed gravure printing. It can not only volatilize quickly, but also realize cross-linking with paper components. To sum up, it is the relevant introduction of the purchase and measurement precautions of pressure testing machine, so as to realize the drying of printing ink well. Based on health considerations, the EU has issued strict regulations on the use of benzene solvents, and these regulations will not be easily lifted in the future. This has more or less an impact on the future development of phenyl ink

in order to ensure that benzene exposure during the average working hours of 8 hours per day has no negative impact on the health of workers, the European Union has stipulated an occupational exposure limit (OEL). For OEL value, the initial recommendation was 20ppm (20 parts per million), and later the European gravure Association and other groups recommended this value as 50ppm; The initial short-term exposure limit (STEL, within 15 minutes) was 50ppm, and later this value was increased to 100ppm. At the same time, the EU also allows 25 Member States to set their own maximum exposure limits, but it must be scientific. For example, Germany, which is recognized as a country with strict environmental protection regulations, has a STEL value of 200ppm

in the new material classification, the EU does not include benzene in the high-risk category. Faced with the problems encountered in the use of phenyl ink, ink manufacturers have made full use of the existing conditions to make a series of improvements to help publish. In addition, PGA dura substitutes are also under research. Gravure printers use phenyl ink more healthily, including the use of closed-loop system to realize the recovery of benzene solvent. For such a solution, large printing machines do not need to be specially improved

in Europe, in order to ensure the color standardization of brands and improve the quality of packaging and printing, many well-known brand products use gravure printing to realize the packaging and printing of products. The survey data of the European gravure Association shows that half of the famous brand product manufacturers choose gravure printing as their only packaging printing process, and 20% choose flexographic printing as their only packaging printing process. The main competitor of gravure printing in the field of packaging printing is flexographic printing, which is manifested in quality, cost and production efficiency. Cost analysis shows that the cost difference between the two is not significant, and through technological innovation can also improve the economy and flexibility of gravure printing. For low-end packaging printing, the production cost of gravure printing is 1.5 to 2 times higher than that of flexo printing; For the high-quality packaging printing market, gravure printing is only 10% higher than flexographic printing, and in the quality business, flexographic printing products cannot be compared with gravure printing at all

in fact, flexographic printing and gravure printing are the main competitive fields in Europe, but they are less affected by the constant tensile stress (generally neglected) in flexible packaging printing. Flexographic printing is more common in the field of paper packaging printing, and gravure printing has more obvious advantages in film packaging printing. Relevant surveys have proved that 86% of consumers are concerned about the design and printing quality of food packaging, while 74% are more concerned about shelf placement

in short, in the field of packaging and printing, gravure printing will become the preferred printing method for brand products because of its high quality and high gloss effect. In addition, flexographic printing no longer has obvious cost advantages in the field of high-end products, and the market share of gravure printing relative to flexographic printing will be increased

source: Chinese ink technology