Overview of the development of flexible packaging technology
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China's flexible packaging industry has a history of nearly 30 years of development. In the past 10 years, it has been developing rapidly. The average annual growth rate has been maintained at around 15%. In some respects, China's flexible packaging production and equipment manufacturing level has reached the international advanced level. There has also been a qualitative leap in processing technology and quality control.
Technological development level and market conditions
1. Flexible packaging color printing enterprise scale
In recent years, China's flexible packaging color printing industry is growing in size. There are more than 10,000 flexible packaging color printing enterprises in the country, including 25 enterprises with annual sales of more than 300 million yuan and enterprises with sales of more than 100 million yuan. There are 68, and there are more than 20,000 small flexible packaging color printing companies (including family workshops). Overall, due to the rapid growth of production capacity, the soft packaging market has experienced a serious oversupply.
2. The nature and distribution of flexible packaging color printing enterprises
From the perspective of the nature of enterprises, flexible packaging color printing enterprises are mostly private (about 72.5%), sole proprietorship (about 11.8%), joint venture (about 15.2%), and enterprises with state-owned enterprises account for about 0.5%. China's flexible packaging color printing enterprises are mainly concentrated in the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, the Bohai Rim, the three northeastern provinces and other regions, accounting for 91.5%, a small amount distributed in the central and western regions, accounting for 8.5%.
3. Production capacity and equipment status of flexible packaging color printing enterprises
Domestic flexible packaging color printing companies have a number of production lines ranging from more than 10, and some large flexible packaging color printing companies have as many as 16 production lines, which is one of the few in the world of flexible packaging color printing companies. In general, the annual output value of a flexible packaging color printing enterprise with one production line is 30 million to 40 million yuan. The printing equipment owned by flexible packaging color printing enterprises is mainly gravure printing machine, accounting for 96.4%, and the flexographic printing machine accounts for 3.6%; the printing equipment color group is mainly 5~12 colors, of which 6~8 color printing machines account for 88.6%, 9-12 color printing presses accounted for 10.2%, 5 colors and below printing presses accounted for 1.2%; printing speeds ranged from 80 to 300 m / min.
With the rapid development of the technical level of China's flexible packaging color printing industry, the product quality has been greatly improved. In terms of printing quality, the printing level of China's flexible packaging color printing industry is quite high, which can be said to have reached the world's leading level; but in product standards, In the development and production of high-end modern packaging materials (especially special and special functional packaging materials), the gap between China's flexible packaging color printing industry and developed countries is still quite obvious.
4. Soft package color printing commonly used substrate status
The printing substrates commonly used in the domestic soft packaging color printing industry are LDPE, BOPP, VMBOPP, BOPET, VMBOPET, BOPA, BOPS, CPP, CPE, AI, PT, PVC, non-woven fabric, woven fabric, synthetic paper, co-extruded film, and the like. The amount of BOPP is about 36.5%, the amount of BOPET is about 14.5%, the amount of paper is about 15.8%, the amount of AI is 7.4%, the amount of LDPE is about 10.3%, and the amount of other substrates is about 15.5%.
5. Flexible packaging process and material application status
At present, in the composite process adopted by domestic flexible packaging color printing enterprises, dry composite still dominates, accounting for 45.7%, extrusion compound accounts for about 23.4%, coextrusion compound accounts for about 13.8%, solvent-free compound accounts for about 7.2%, wet composite About 5.6%, coating and other processes account for about 3.3%; the number of composite layers increased from the first 2 layers to up to 9 layers; the composite barrier material and the inner layer of heat sealing materials are also increasing The barrier layer materials are mainly AI, VMPET, EVOH co-extruded film, PVDC co-extruded film, silicon oxide, aluminum oxide, K coating material, etc., heat sealing layer materials are LDPE, LLDPE, MLLDPE, CPP, VMCPP, EVA, EAA , EMAA and co-extruded membranes.
6. Soft packaging post-press processing status
In the post-processing technology (cutting and bag making) of the flexible packaging color printing industry, the proportion of direct slitting into finished film rolls is increasing, while the proportion of bag-making products is decreasing, mainly to meet the requirements of automatic packaging machines. The slitting speed has also been increased from the original 100-150 m/min to 180-300 m/min. The bag-making bag type is increasingly diversified and shaped. In addition to the common back-sealing bag and three-pocket bag, the stand-up bag and the zipper are provided. Bags, side seal bags, and mouth bags are constantly increasing.
the problem we are facing
1. Overcapacity, increasingly fierce competition
China's soft packaging market is oversupplied, at least about 40% of the production capacity, resulting in more and more fierce competition, in some low-end flexible packaging areas (such as ice cream, convenience foods and washing powder packaging), some enterprises in order to undertake Orders, adopting a low-cost or even zero-profit strategy, dragged the entire industry into the abyss of meager profits and even losses. After the brutal baptism of the market, most companies in the industry have begun to awaken and have developed new business strategies.
2. Lack of research and development capabilities
Domestic soft-package color printing enterprises don't invest much in product research and development, and pay insufficient attention to technological innovation. They are not closely related to universities and research institutes. Products with core competitiveness are rare in the soft-package color printing industry.
3. The problem of cost increase caused by short version and complicated packaging design
At present, the large customers in the terminal market are deliberately reducing the inventory and shortening the inventory time, resulting in an increase in the number of printed jobs, a reduction in batch size, and a short version. The flexible packaging color printing enterprises need to frequently change the printing jobs in production. Reduces labor utilization and yield and increases production costs. At the same time, the packaging design of customers is becoming more and more complicated. The traditional 6-color printing is difficult to meet the requirements of packaging design. More and more customers choose 8 to 10 color printing, which invisibly increases the variety, quantity and printing sleeve of the spot color ink to be recycled. The exact difficulty will also increase production costs.
4. Solvent residue in soft packaging affects the safety of food and medicine
The state stipulates that the total solvent residue of the composite film (bag) for food is ≤10mg/m2, and the residual amount of benzene solvent is ≤2mg/m2. To meet the requirements of the index, enterprises must take strict measures in ink selection and process control. At the same time, the drying system of the gravure press and the laminating machine is improved. Moreover, with the introduction of the Food Safety Law, food companies will become more and more strict with the hygiene and safety requirements for packaging materials.
5. Environmental pollution and occupational injury problems in gravure printing of flexible packaging
The organic solvent is widely used in the gravure printing and composite processing of soft packaging. The volatilization and direct discharge of organic solvents are the main causes of harm to the health of operators and environmental pollution, and also the bottleneck in the development of gravure printing of flexible packaging.
Technology development forecast
Today, with the growing voice of environmental protection, flexible packaging color printing companies must face the reality, work hard on energy conservation, environmental protection and resource recycling, and achieve green printing of flexible packaging gravure.
1. Organic solvent recovery treatment
At present, some large-scale flexible packaging enterprises in the industry have begun to recycle their organic waste gas, mainly including regenerative catalytic combustion method and adsorption recovery method. Among them, the adsorption recovery method not only solves the problem of environmental pollution caused by organic waste emissions, but also turns waste into treasure, recycling the recycled solvent, and saving a large amount of solvent procurement funds. In 2008, organic solvent recovery technology has emerged in the flexible packaging industry, and it is believed that it will be rapidly developed and promoted in the next few years.
2. Benzene-free gravure ink and water-based gravure ink
The use of benzene-free gravure ink and water-based gravure ink can eliminate the harm of benzene-soluble gravure ink to the human body and the influence of solvent residue on the quality of the food and medicine, which is beneficial to accelerate the environmental protection process of the gravure printing process. At present, all or most of the products of domestic Amcor, Alcan Baobo, Zijiang, Southern Packaging, Dalian Dafu and other flexible packaging enterprises have achieved non-benzene, and some of the products use water-based gravure ink. However, due to the problems of poor adhesion fastness and slow drying speed when the water-based gravure ink is printed on the film, the application of the gravure ink in the gravure printing of the flexible packaging is restricted, and further improvement and improvement are needed in the future.
3. Solvent-free composite process
The solvent-free composite process does not have the problem of organic exhaust gas emission, does not require a large and complicated heating blast, exhaust gas exhaust device, simple equipment, and saves energy, so it will be the main direction for the future development of flexible packaging composite process. At present, the application of solvent-free composite technology is still relatively rare in China. There are only about 40 solvent-free composite production lines in the country. However, in the long run, with the increasingly strict environmental regulations and the continuous development of China's economy, the solvent-free composite process will welcome. Come to a period of great development.
4. Recycling of composite flexible packaging waste
There are many kinds of raw and auxiliary materials used in composite flexible packaging, and the packaging structure of different products is ever-changing, which causes the types of composite flexible packaging waste to be disordered, and the screening is very difficult. Moreover, the bonding strength between the substrates of the composite flexible packaging is relatively high, and it is difficult to separate by the general method. Therefore, the recycling of the composite flexible packaging waste is complicated, which is one of the bottlenecks of the recycling of the composite flexible packaging waste. At present, a variety of composite flexible packaging waste recycling methods have emerged in China, such as thermal decomposition recovery technology, chemical separation technology, dissolution separation technology, hydraulic separation technology, and infrared separation technology.