Chiterion devoted to Customizing Eco Bag Solutions for Shopping, Packaging, Delivery, Storage and Travel Since 2007
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Chiterion devoted to Customizing Eco Bag Solutions for Shopping, Packaging, Delivery, Storage and Travel Since 2007
In the field of our bags, printing patterns play an important role: they are not only as simple as decoration, upgrading products from "industrial products" to "emotional goods", enabling the products to “speak” which is more attractive and making it easier for consumers to resonate with them, so that the products can cut out a small blue ocean with a high premium in the homogeneous red sea.
Each type of printing has its specific application scenarios and advantages, and choosing the right printing method can ensure optimal printing results, product performance, and price competitiveness.
Here are four commonly used printing methods for our bags:
1. Silk screen printing
Silk screen printing is suitable for all materials like textile fabrics, papers, leather, plastic, or metal, etc.
Regular silk screen printing process:
Design pattern -> Develop printing film / Make the plates -> Stretch the net and apply the photosensitive gel
-> Adjusting the ink and positioning -> Printing -> Drying and curing.
It includes below as well:
1) Silk screen printing glossy surface, which is divided into 3 steps:
Step 1: Printing base layer.
Step 2: Adjusting the water slurry base colour.
Step 3: Printing the shiny surface.
2) Silk screen printing silver/gold:
Silk screen printing can be printed with water slurry printing and ink printing:
Water slurry printing: Suitable for materials whose surface is not flat enough, like canvas, which requires a transparent rubber bottom before printing.
Ink printing: one is water-based printing, which is suitable for non-woven material; the other is oil-based printing, which is suitable for all materials with high-quality printing.
Which is better, printing quality? Of course, it is oil-based ink printing, but it is more expensive than other silkscreen printing methods.
Advantages:
- Not only can it be printed on flat surfaces, but also on specially shaped molded objects such as spherical surfaces.
- The ink layer can be printed in pure white on all-black paper with strong coverage and a three-dimensional sense.
- Convenient plate making, cheap price, bright colors, long shelf-life, fast delivery.
Disadvantages:
- Only one color can be printed at a time, and easy to be inaccurate if there are many colors, so it is recommended to only make small logos of fewer than 4 colors.
- Water slurry printing is a waste of work labour, ink printing is a waste of materials, resulting the high costs.
- Only suitable for small batch orders.
2. Digital printing
Digital printing is a modern printing method that outputs directly from a digital file to the substrate, like fabric, without plate making. It is suitable for high-temperature-resistant fabrics.
It includes:
1) Sublimation: The pattern is printed on the paper firstly, then transfer/cover the printed paper pattern on the fabrics through high temperature. Only suitable for chemical fibers containing >/=60% polyester or materials with polyester (including PET, PPT, felt fabric, etc.) coating on the surface. For 100% cotton and pure linen materials, polyester coating needs to be done first, and then you can use this printing, but the hand feel will become hard.
2) Digital direct injection: Suitable for 100% cotton or high-content cotton materials and leather.
3) UV printing: Suitable for PVC/EVA/TPU transparent film and other materials, it has good color fixation, so the price is extremely expensive.
Advantages:
- Free of charge plate making, zero stock.
Delicate pattern expression, strong sense of layering, extremely full flower shape. The resolution is high, so that it can print complex gradient patterns.
- The dye enters the fabric fiber, the color fastness can meet 4-5 class, washable and sun-resistant, and the finished product is breathable and does not crack. The ink is eco-friendly, no wastewater no slurry.
Disadvantages:
- Only white or light colour for the material base can be transferred printing.
- For the sensitive colors, it is easy to transfer the color; it is necessary to do a good color fixation.
- Only suitable for small batches of personalized products, as the printing ink and paper are expensive, even without making plates.
3. Heat transfer stamping
The heat transfer stamping, also known as "hot press transfer", is a decorative technique that transfers the pattern printed on the transfer film to the surface of the substrate, like fabric, through hot pressing. Its core principle is to use high temperature and pressure to melt the hot melt adhesive on the transfer film, thereby securely transferring the pattern onto the target materials such as polyester, cotton fabric, nylon, etc.
Advantages:
- Suitable for small areas, complicated, multi-color, with gradient patterns.
- Lower cost for making the plate.
- The pattern is full of layers, and the color is beautiful.
Disadvantages:
- Durability is lower than traditional silkscreen printing.
- The size of the plate has a limitation; the biggest plate size is 75X40CM, the smallest plate size is 30X20CM.
- The breathability is poor, and the hand feel is not as soft as sublimation heat transfer.
4. Rotogravure printing
Rotogravure is a printing technique that utilizes photo plate making and chemical etching processes to create mesh holes of varying shades on the surface of a metal roller, achieving image-level restoration by controlling the thickness of the ink layer. Suitable for materials such as PP woven and non-woven, as well as Recycled PET Non-woven, etc.
Advantages:
- Bright color and high saturation, normally can be printed with 5 colors - CMYK + white.
- The printing plate has a high print resistance.
- Fast printing speed, suitable for large batch printing.
Disadvantages:
-The plate has a limited size, plate length size is 50-126CM cm, plate width size is 42-100CM, normally it can not exceed 70CM.
- can only be printed on very thin film or paper, and 13 colors at the most.
- Long-cycle plate making requires spending 2 weeks to set up/engrave the rollers for each colour. With high plate making cost, the more colors, the higher the price, even for 1-2 pcs samples.
Chiterion is committed to designing, manufacturing and supplying a wide range of ecological packaging products and solutions.
