Direct offset printing technology on micro cardboard

Today, most shipping boxes look very monotonous, and even the outer boxes used by valuable goods are no exception. Brown kraft paperboard has a maximum of one monochrome bar code and product name, and the advertising effectiveness of the outer package surface is not fully utilized. Why don't you print colorful ads on the surface of the transport box? One of the reasons is that the offset printing process is complicated and expensive. In addition, transport packaging is mostly short live printing, further increasing the cost of investment.

Now, direct offset printing on corrugated board is a good and inexpensive option. Compared with flexographic printing, direct offset printing not only results in better print quality, but more importantly, it is less expensive. Therefore, the direct printing of offset printing on corrugated cardboard as a brand-new process has caused widespread concern in the packaging industry.

In the micro-corrugated cardboard directly offset printing, printing presses, printing materials, air-cushion blankets and other factors will affect its print quality, this article will make a detailed introduction to these points.

Printing equipment - flexible choice of printing materials

Koenigbauer (KBA) AG is one of the world's top three printer manufacturers and suppliers. Founded in 1817, it has a history of more than 180 years. As a professional printer manufacturer and supplier in the world, its variety of printing presses and advanced technology are second to none in the industry. The Rapida offset printing machine developed by KBA can directly offset printing all kinds of corrugated materials, achieving a very high level in terms of printing effect and process quality, which can be comparable to the effect of printing on paper.

The structural design of the feeder and feeder of the Rapida sheetfed offset press allows the replacement of various substrates, even from very thin to very thick materials. Except for a few exceptions, all replacements are done automatically. Most setting adjustments can be done automatically via the Ergotronic central console remote control.

The current height of the Rapida 105 standard feed stack is 1.3 meters, and the pile height of the Rapida 105 is 1.5 meters. For printers using cardboard or corrugated board, it is also possible to raise the press by a further 37 to 60 centimeters. In this way, the Rapida 105 has a paper stack height of 1.8 meters and the large format paper stack has a height of more than 2 meters. The Rapida 105 model, which is 37 cm tall, even eliminates the need for expensive special foundations. Standard and fully automatic non-stop devices ensure production continuity. The combination of a fully automatic, non-stop feeder and an automatic stack supply system can fully exploit the full potential of the Rapida press.

Printing materials - perfect for direct printing on fine corrugated sheets

In the past, offset laminated corrugated paperboards had to wait for a certain period of time after lamination, which was time consuming and costly to produce. Today, with the advent of fine corrugations such as G grades, there is a good alternative to laminating - printing corrugated board directly on the offset press.

Grade G corrugated paper is the first type of corrugated paper that can be printed directly on the market using the offset process. It is the thinnest corrugated cardboard in the world, with a grammage ranging from 320 g to 550 g/m2 and a height between 0.82 mm to 0.98 mm. Grade G corrugated paper also offers a combination of different types of paper. When used for direct offset printing, at least one side is composed of double-coated Kraft paper or double-sided paper. If the product requires double-sided printing, the inner cardboard also needs to be coated paper.

The G-class corrugated paper has higher strength (including bending rigidity, bursting strength, pressure resistance, etc.) compared to a cardboard box (GDII) having a comparable weight. .

Grade G corrugated paper can be printed on any sheet-fed offset press with a large radius of curvature. Compared to offset laminated corrugated cardboard that is completed by lamination, direct offset printing on grade G corrugated board can save significant costs because it eliminates the entire lamination job. Thanks to the direct, double-sided, full-color offset printing that has produced excellent results, products made of grade G corrugated board have established a firm position on retail shelves.

New air-cushioned blanket Conti-Air Prestige - with excellent elasticity

KBA's Rapida presses do not require any additional or special attachments to process corrugated paper. Conti-Air Prestige with air-cushion blankets has produced excellent results.
The Conti-Air Prestige air-cushion blanket is a new product jointly developed by KBA and consumables manufacturer Conti Tech Elastomer-Beschichtun Gen to meet the urgent needs of the offset printing market for advanced technology. Conti Tech Elastomer-Beschichtun Gen

The new blanket can achieve high-quality printing from 180 g/m2 paper to E-grade corrugated cardboard with 1.5 mm rigidity. Its application can eliminate the unpleasant "seesaw" effect on corrugated board, and can achieve good offset quality on a heavier corrugated board (such as F class or E class corrugated board) than G class corrugated board. It is no exception when printing in large areas.

The Conti-Air Prestige air-cushion blanket has unparalleled compression characteristics and is suitable for the surface structure of all types of substrates used for offset printing. The cross-sections and close-ups on this page reveal the mysteries. First, the surface composition of the printing surface is relatively soft (Shore A hardness 55°). Secondly, the compression capacity of the compressible layer below is about 20%, the compression volume is 1.55, the thickness of the compression layer is three times that of conventional blankets, and it has good pressure bearing capacity, which can relieve the pressure of sharp increase.

Another new feature of the Conti-Air Prestige air-cushion blanket is that it can be used with mineral oil-based inks, UV inks, and hybrid inks, and is not affected by paper.

Tests conducted on a Rapida 142 press of size 6 show that Conti-Air Prestige can also achieve good overprint accuracy on large-format corrugated cardboard. In order to ensure the cleanliness of the paper, the surface of the blanket is finely ground and the paper is placed more evenly. Therefore, the transfer of the ink is also clean, the stacking ink is reduced, and the dots are clear. Therefore, the large-area solid print quality is also good. The Conti-Air Prestige, which has been used extensively on KBA's sheet-fed offset presses for E and F printing, offers an opportunity for packers using offset printing to develop new businesses without installing new kits.