Budweiser corrugated cartons become the four elements of the boutique

In addition to the physical functions of beer corrugated cartons, the exquisite print designs of the beer corrugated containers play an important role in attracting consumers' eyeballs in the current highly competitive end-market channels. They have a good reputation for product brands and promotions. Promote effect.

Except for bottled beer, all Budweiser brand beer produced at the Budweiser Wuhan plant is packaged in three-layer B-type corrugated cartons. The cartons used by Budweiser are purchased in accordance with the standards set by PTG (Packaging Technology Department) of the United States Budweiser headquarters. This standard is different from the inspection criteria of the thickness, adhesion, puncture, and side pressure of the carton GB, but it imposes very strict requirements on the friction, flat pressure, puncture strength, sliding angle, water resistance, printing quality, and environmental protection of the carton. .

In the aspect of friction index, all corrugated cartons of packaged Budweiser products can withstand more than 200 frictions from a certain force and the color of the carton will not be transferred. Budweiser has linked the flat pressure index of corrugated boxes with the weight of corrugated paper in terms of flat pressure. The specific indicators are as follows: 127 grams of paperboard made of core paper to achieve 40PSI flat pressure (1 PSI is equal to 6.89Kpa); 161g of corrugated medium to achieve the strength of 50PSI; if the corrugated medium is more than 176 grams, flat pressure indicator Need to reach 55PSI accordingly. The acceptable range of sliding angle is 24°C±3. The reason for setting this index is to balance production logistics with handling efficiency. The index set in terms of puncture intensity is 220 PSI. Faced with such stringent requirements, how carton suppliers can provide stable supply with more economical costs and improved services. The author believes that printing process, paper, printing equipment, ink, and varnish are four aspects that are indispensable.

Reduce costs with high quality preprinting
The existing box-making process of three-layer color printing corrugated carton is divided into traditional offset printing, watermark printing, and preprinting. If plain printed sheet paper is used, the die can be cut into a box and a beautiful pattern can be printed. However, in the process of confrontation, because of the pressure applied to the corrugated medium and the excessive moisture left by the colloid, the technical strength of the carton, such as the flat compressive strength and the adhesive strength, are difficult to meet the requirements for packaging of high-grade goods.

The watermarked post-printing corrugated cardboard consists of noodles, core paper, and paper. It has a hollow structure. The surface of the corrugated paperboard is not even, and the pressure at the corrugation radius and the corrugation point is inconsistent, resulting in a washboard phenomenon. At the same time, the accuracy of water-based grooved printing machines is not high, generally about 80 lines, so the printing quality is low, and it is difficult to realize the promotion function of packaging for goods. Generally used for this product is a fruit box or a drink box that does not require high printing.

Preprinting jobs absorb the advantages of both and abandon their deficiencies. The use of precision flexographic or gravure printing equipment to print high-end color graphics to meet the needs of promotional goods, and then tile production line through corrugated production of tiles, the final simple die-cut into a box to protect the integrity of the cardboard performance, It plays a very good role in the protection of the goods, so that the corrugated boxes produced can fully meet the requirements of the high-end commodity cartons for their strength and fine print.

At the same time, according to the idea of ​​modern supply chain management, the pre-press job has achieved a division of labor based on the carton processing process. Preprinting reduces the overall cost of the carton in both process control and production efficiency.

The company responsible for the print job chain carries out high-quality printing and online glazing of the web in an efficient manner. For the carton manufacturer who is responsible for the carton boxing process, he is dedicated to researching the process problems in the boxing process. In view of the overall cost, due to the professional division of labor, the scrap rate of the printing and box making process is greatly reduced. The facial paper purchased by the carton factory is a finished product that can be printed, eliminating the need for printing processes. It will not only reduce the investment of fixed capital, but also save a lot of manpower, but also reduce the scrap caused by the semi-finished products in circulation, thus greatly reducing production costs.

From the aspect of efficiency, the corrugated production line speed can reach 120m/min, which meets the needs of high-speed production. After being die-cut into boxes by high-speed automatic die-cutting machines, the production cycle is greatly shortened, meeting the requirements of timely delivery by customers and enabling production. Increased automation efficiency. From the use of the raw materials of the tile, the face paper is a high-grade coated paper. The pressure of the tile is die-cut, and the corrugated shape can be ensured. The technical performance of the tile is not changed while reducing the weight of the core paper and the liner paper. This reduces the wattage of the tiles and saves production costs.

Currently, Budweiser's vast majority of long-term products, such as Budweiser 355ML bottles and Budweiser 640ML bottles, use preprinted cartons. In the past, 300g of gray-white board was used as the paperboard of the carton. After using the pre-printed carton, the weight of the carton was reduced by 30%. According to the existing statistics, the total packaging cost savings due to the preprinting reached about 20%. .

Based on high-quality, low-weight, high-strength paper and scientific design, the protective performance of the preprinted carton is more prominent. It not only can better protect the corrugated board from damage, but also makes the carton's compressive strength 10% higher than before. The quality of the products in the transportation process is well guaranteed, which is very suitable for the demand of the bottled beer for the high compressive strength of the carton.

Sophisticated printing equipment is a must-have tool
Judging from the pre-printing trends of developed countries, flexo printing technology is the future promotion direction. Budweiser's carton uses the Italian biliographic six-color flexographic printing press and the German W&H company ASRAFLEX satellite six-color flexographic printing press. Among them, Sichuan Today Color Printing Co., Ltd. (Deyang Daily Printing Factory) is the first company in China to introduce a six-color web (satellite) flexo press. The company's Italian Billy flexo press has a maximum print width of 1200mm. Printing speed up to 250m/min to 300m/min, the use of non-toxic harmless water-based ink, can meet the needs of field products, cable version 175 below the various types of products, PLC control overprint accuracy, network restore, level reproduction ability . After using four-color printing and efficient on-line coating, the effect of offset printing is comparable with that of offset printing. After a series of transportation, warehousing and handling processes, the printing quality can still be maintained and the image of the product can be effectively maintained.

High-quality base paper is a good guarantee for the strength of the carton
Flexo preprinting not only requires the use of advanced equipment and technology, but also puts high demands on the corresponding materials. It is necessary to have high side pressure strength and breakage resistance of the paper, and it is also required that the smoothness of the paper is better in order to achieve good printability. After comparison and testing, Budweiser currently uses APP and Sun Paper's grey-end whiteboard papers as facial papers and domestic pure bull card papers as inner paper, while corrugated medium paper uses high-strength corrugated paperboards. The carton made in this way not only has the characteristics of light weight and high strength, but also the exquisite degree of printing can meet the company's standards.

Advanced preprinted inks and varnish formulations add finishing touches to the product
Budweiser's carton uses spot colors for printing, "Baiwei Red" and "Baiweilan". In addition, the preprinted paper on the corrugating machine is subject to high temperature and friction, and the finished cartons must meet the company's requirements for friction performance and sliding angle when entering the factory. Therefore, the inks and glosses used in Budweiser preprinted cartons mainly have the following: characteristic.

High temperature performance
The web pre-printing technology is to print first paper. The pre-printing press adopts the front-receiving and the front-receiving, the printed product remains in the form of a roll, and will be used as a faced paper for processing corrugated cardboard. Afterwards, the printed product is directly loaded onto the corrugated paper production line, and is processed into corrugated cardboard in combination with the paper and crepe paper. In the process of processing into corrugated board, the printing process is only one step in the process. The printed product can only be regarded as a semi-finished product, and further processing is required to enter the next process. In the production of corrugated board, in order to completely dry the adhesive in the corrugated board, it must be dried at a high temperature. At present, the drying temperature of domestic tile line is basically above 160°C, and the drying temperature of some high-speed tile lines even exceeds 200°C. In this process, the preprinted pattern ink color cannot be changed, so the preprinted ink must have better high temperature resistance.

Friction resistance
During the process of tile processing on pre-printed surface paper, corrugating medium and liner paper on tile lines, friction between the tissue and the equipment of the corrugating machine is inevitable, since the printed pattern must not be worn or even destroyed. problem. Therefore, the use of preprinting techniques must use inks and varnish with good rub resistance.

Water resistance
During the secondary processing of the preprinted surface paper on the tile line, the adhesive used in the multi-layer composite contains a large amount of moisture, which requires that the preprinted ink must have good water resistance so as to ensure that the pattern printed in the processing is not Any changes have occurred.

The author believes that in order to achieve the above requirements, corrugated carton preprinting inks should mainly consider the indexes of fineness, viscosity, drying speed and PH value:

1. Fineness: It is a physical index for measuring the size of pigments, fillers, etc. in inks. The fineness of flexographic water-based inks is generally less than 20μm. Fineness of the ink can be measured by a fineness scraper.

2. Viscosity: The cohesive force of ink is the most important control index of water-based ink. The viscosity value directly affects the quality of the printed matter, so the viscosity of the aqueous ink must be strictly controlled in the flexographic printing. The viscosity of the water-based ink is generally controlled within the range of 30 to 60 seconds/25°C (with the No. 4 cup of paint), and the viscosity is generally controlled to be between 40 and 50 seconds. If the viscosity is too high and the leveling property is poor, the printability of the water-based ink may be affected, and the phenomenon of a dirty plate, a paste plate, etc. may easily occur. If the viscosity is too low, the ability of the carrier to drive the color material may be affected.

3. Drying: The most water-based ink