The hottest flexo printing market in China has gre

China's flexographic printing market has great potential

in recent years, China's flexographic printing has been developing slowly and gradually. In this process of development, flexo printing seeks development in running in, faces itself in criticism, and looks for answers in discussion. Recently, it has become a seemingly eternal and innovative hot topic in the printing industry

the European and American markets have an optimistic prospect

flexographic printing is growing all over the world, especially in developing countries, with a rapid growth rate. In the European and American markets, flexo printing has increased from 4% to 30% in the past 50 years, and is still growing at a rate of 2% per year. At present, offset printing, gravure printing and embossing printing are still the main printing methods in most developing countries, but flexo printing is developing rapidly, and a considerable number of businesses are transferring from various printing methods to flexo printing. Therefore, the prospect of flexo printing is optimistic, and there is a lot of room for development

among them, the United States is the first country to adopt flexographic printing technology. In 2000, flexographic printing accounted for 32% of the total packaging printing, which is expected to reach 39% in 2005, exceeding the total offset printing. In the United States, due to the strong awareness of environmental protection and high marketization, the environmental protection and low-cost characteristics of flexographic printing have been brought into full play in relevant printing fields. Flexographic printing has now penetrated into various fields such as food, medicine, cosmetics, electronics, daily necessities, and even newspapers and periodicals, accounting for 85% of the absolute proportion in flexible packaging printing. It is reported that the United States has as many as 7000 flexographic printing equipment, becoming the country with the largest number of flexographic printing machines in the world and the center of the development of flexographic printing in the world. Mcandi and Comco occupy an absolutely dominant position in the United States. They are widely used equipment materials with an elongation of more than 1000%. They can be prepared with a stroke of 1000 or 1200mm. It also accounts for a considerable proportion in Europe

in Europe, the development of flexo printing is relatively lagging behind. At the beginning, relief printing was mainly used in Europe. With the strengthening of environmental awareness and the pressure of market costs, relief printing gradually turned to flexographic printing. Manufacturers seized the opportunity in time and began to manufacture flexographic equipment. At present, there are 1700 flexo printing machines in Europe, accounting for 60% of the flexible packaging printing, of which mcandi and Comco account for a considerable proportion

the Chinese market has a lot of space

China's flexographic printing accounts for less than 8% of the total, which is the official figure, and I personally think it is even less. The developed countries in Europe and the United States are basically 30%. China's economy is developing rapidly, with an average GDP growth of 7%. Moreover, China has a large population and great development potential. At present, China has less than 500 flexographic printing equipment, of which only more than 300 are imported, which is too few. China's purchasing power is amazing. Last year, there were more than 780 sheet fed offset printing equipment imported alone, while less than 20 flexo printing equipment

why the pace of flexo printing in China is so slow, I think there are several reasons: first, people's understanding of flexo printing is not comprehensive and sufficient, including the understanding of flexo printing quality itself is biased, often compared with offset printing is a very obvious misunderstanding. Second, the lack of perfect industry standards for flexographic printing quality makes there is no unified standard between suppliers and printers, as well as between printers and customers, resulting in certain misunderstandings and differences; Third, there is a shortage of technical personnel, including flexo designers, flexo operators, flexo market development personnel, etc; Fourth, there is a lack of understanding of print profit margin and integration cost, and extensive operation is relatively serious

however, the prospect of flexo printing in the Chinese market is optimistic, that is to say, the Chinese flexo printing market is still promising. Judging from the current situation, the printing industrial structure of China is different from that of developed countries in Europe and the United States. In the United States, offset printing, flexo printing and gravure printing have their own world; In China, the proportion of flexo printing is very small (less than 8%), and the proportion of offset printing is very large. In the past development process, most developed countries in Europe and the United States have seen the transfer of printing business from convex, concave, offset printing and other printing methods to flexo printing to varying degrees. I believe that the Chinese market will sooner or later have similar changes. In addition, the markets of developed countries are also worth learning from. Their annual per capita consumption of self-adhesive labels is 14 square meters, while that of the United States is 16 square meters, while that of China is only 0.5 square meters, a gap of nearly 30 times, and China has a large population. Therefore, the market growth space is unlimited. Moreover, the scope of flexographic printing processing should include flexible packaging and packaging printing of food, medicine, cosmetics, bathing supplies, etc. the application of flexographic printing in China has just started. From this aspect, it can also be predicted that flexographic printing will have a bright future in China

of course, we should also see the threat of the development of flexo printing in China, mainly in the following aspects: excessive packaging; Knowledge of printing quality and cost; The total market volume is small and the competition is fierce; Misleading market; Weak awareness of environmental protection; High supporting cost; Poor popularization of relevant knowledge and shortage of operators; The strength of relief machine; The improvement of gravure printing machine cost and environmental protection, etc

then, facing the current situation of the Chinese market, how to make the flexo printing market larger? This is the top priority that every person engaged in flexo printing should be concerned about, because there is a market, there is a driving force for development. I hope that friends in the flexo printing industry can unite to give advice for this goal, rather than being rivals; We pay attention to legislation and hope that China can introduce environmental protection policies or regulations that compare the mechanical properties of cast iron under tension and compression and analyze the reasons for its damage as soon as possible, so as to create a legal platform for the development of flexographic printing, and at the same time, formulate flexographic printing standards as soon as possible, so that all parties can have a common reference standard; Of course, we should strengthen the self-discipline of the industry. The biggest feature of this machine is that it is stable, like what customers want, actively help customers achieve success, establish a good market image of flexo printing, and encourage everyone to visit abroad, so that customers and their customers can better borrow money to understand flexo printing; Strengthen publicity, let the market know flexo printing, and guide customers to invest in the right direction; Promote international exchanges, bring foreign technology and information to China, and bring domestic customers abroad to visit, study and communicate, so as to shorten the gap between us and the international advanced level

investment in flexographic printing equipment, beware of misunderstandings

compared with other printing methods, flexographic printing equipment has low investment, fast speed, unique environmental protection advantages, diverse and easy to realize post processes, diversified printing materials, film, aluminum, paper, composite materials can be printed. Therefore, the return on investment is high. Of course, the reducibility of its printing is relatively poor, which is not suitable for printing products with high reducibility requirements such as picture albums; In addition, at the current stage, the plate and plate making costs are high, which is not suitable for the short version printing business

just as there is no medicine that can cure all diseases in the world, there is no printing method suitable for all prints. When investing in flexographic printing equipment, printing manufacturers should pay attention to the matching of printing products and equipment, and choose the printing equipment suitable for their own products. Fitness is the most critical. At the same time, we should also guard against the following four misunderstandings

myth 1: blindly seeking high-end performance, ignoring the matching of products and equipment

Myth 2: blindly pursue completeness in function, ignore operation cost and lose competitiveness

myth 3: blindly pursue high-speed lines in quality, ignore the characteristics of design and flexo, and have low production efficiency

myth 4: the feasibility report has gone through the motions, and the prediction of investment return is seriously inaccurate