Current situation and Prospect of self-adhesive la

Current situation and Prospect of self-adhesive label printing in China (I)

three modes of self-adhesive label printing

at present, there are basically three modes of self-adhesive label printing:

1 Mainly flexographic printing

North America, represented by the United States and Canada, is a typical region that uses flexographic printing of self-adhesive labels. Its equipment is a unit type flexographic press, with web paper feeding and web paper receiving. The printing is mainly based on water-based ink, and the round pressing and online die-cutting processing method is adopted

after visiting the Chicago printing exhibition in 1997, the author was invited to visit Weber marking, a self-adhesive printing company located near Chicago. The company has 400 employees, mainly engaged in all kinds of self-adhesive label printing. It has 27 mcandi flexographic printing machines, with machine specifications ranging from 7 inches to 25 inches, produced in two shifts, and annual sales of $100million (including a self-adhesive paper production line)

2. Letterpress printing and flexographic printing account for 50% respectively.

this mode is represented by Europe. The situation of printing labels by flexographic printing is similar to that in the United States, but the labels printed by letterpress still account for a considerable proportion. Relief printing uses UV ink, and the equipment is mostly laminated or satellite. The machine also adopts the processing method of web feeding and web receiving

3. Mainly letterpress printing

this processing method is represented by the Asia Pacific region. In the Asia Pacific region, there are many home furnishings in developing countries, and label printing is relatively backward. In letterpress printing, UV ink printing is only a minority, and most equipment still uses traditional resin ink. The equipment adopts web paper feeding, and there are two ways of web paper cutting and web paper receiving

in addition, the use of sheet fed offset printing machines to print self-adhesive labels is also a feature of the region. Many enterprises in China use offset printing machines to print self-adhesive labels. The die-cutting processing of labels printed with this kind of equipment is basically flat die-cutting

the printing of self-adhesive labels in China is basically due to the large capacitance of the tested cable

the printing of self-adhesive labels in China began in the late 1970s, and the main technology, equipment, process and materials are from Japan. This new technology will be digested, absorbed and extended to the whole country, mainly in the coastal cities of Tianjin, Qingdao and Guangzhou

the domestic self-adhesive label printing market has maintained a sustained high-speed growth in recent years, with an average annual growth rate of 15% - 20%. The self-adhesive label printing market has a considerable scale. As an emerging industry, self-adhesive label printing is becoming a new highlight of the packaging and printing industry, attracting the attention of many industry insiders

after more than 20 years of efforts, self-adhesive printing has achieved great development in China. Whether it is the production of raw materials, printing processing technology, the number of equipment, or production capacity, it has a certain scale

according to relevant data, at present, there are more than 3000 enterprises, large and small, engaged in self-adhesive label printing in China, including about 60 or 70 enterprises with a certain scale (annual sales of more than 20million yuan). The annual output of self-adhesive printing is nearly 1billion square meters. At present, the regional economic centers in China are mainly the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, Wenzhou, Beijing and Tianjin. The existing label printing enterprises are mainly concentrated in the above-mentioned regions, but 90% of the high-end label printing enterprises are concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. Shanghai, Shenzhen, Suzhou and Dongguan are the most developed areas of label printing in China. Although there are many label printing enterprises in Beijing and Tianjin, they are generally small in scale

in recent years, with some foreign label printing enterprises entering China, new equipment, new processes and new technologies have also been introduced into China's packaging and printing industry. Now, China can process high-end labels, and the quality can be comparable with foreign products. Some labels previously printed abroad have now been converted to domestic processing, which is one of the important reasons for the rapid development of domestic label printing

domestic market demand and development trend

according to statistics, the annual per capita consumption of self-adhesive labels in developed countries in Europe and the United States is square meters (14 square meters in the United States, 10 square meters in Europe, and 8 square meters in Japan), while the current per capita consumption of self-adhesive labels in China is less than 1 square meter, which shows that there is still considerable room for the development of self-adhesive label printing in China. At the same time, driven by strong market demand, China's self-adhesive label printing market will continue to develop at a high speed for a long time in the future. In the coming years, the growth in the demand for self-adhesive labels will be reflected in the following industries

1. Daily chemical industry

daily chemical industry is the largest market for self-adhesive products. In recent years, this market has been developing very rapidly. According to statistics, the demand for self-adhesive labels of products in the daily chemical industry accounts for more than 30% of the total demand for self-adhesive labels. Because it does not dry. 1. It is milky white crystalline solid adhesive material, which is flexible in production and meets the printing requirements of exquisite labels. Meet the needs of designers and other advantages and gradually accepted by the domestic market. At present, domestic mainstream daily chemical brands have basically changed to self-adhesive labels. Its development process first extends from foreign-funded enterprises to private enterprises. At the same time, because most daily chemical products are sold directly on the counter, there are no other external packaging, so the label has become the most important way of expression of its packaging. Compared with screen printing directly on the surface of the packaging container with different sizes of brushes or using heat shrinkable labels, self-adhesive labels appear more delicate and beautiful, which is conducive to improving the overall image of the product. Nowadays, the proportion of self-adhesive labels used in daily chemical products is increasing, and about 40% of daily chemical products use self-adhesive labels

in addition, liquid detergent products in daily chemical products are becoming more and more popular, gradually replacing solid detergent products. Some large daily chemical production enterprises have introduced equipment of more than 100000 tons. These products that need to be automatically filled also need a large number of self-adhesive labels to be pasted on their bottles

2. Electronics and home appliances industry

China's electronics and home appliances industry has an annual growth rate of more than 20%. Due to the high requirements of electronic products for labels and the diversity of product applications, the self-adhesive label industry has brought huge growth space. When you open a computer, you will find that self-adhesive labels are pasted everywhere, from keyboard, mouse, hard disk to transformer. Labels not only have the function of warning and brand publicity, but also can expand the application of products to more fields

in addition, there are many durable self-adhesive labels on all kinds of electrical appliances. These labels have a large unit area and a large number. Although the current household appliances in China have a high penetration rate in urban households, the penetration rate in rural areas is still low. With the further popularization of household appliances in Chinese families, it will drive the demand for durable self-adhesive labels. In addition, with the rapid popularization of IT products (mainly computers and electronic communication products), self-adhesive labels, as product description marks, are widely used in these products, which will also drive the demand for self-adhesive labels

3. The prevalence of SARS in the pharmaceutical industry has created an explosive demand for pharmaceutical products. Although this is an accidental phenomenon, it is undeniable that the pharmaceutical industry itself is in a period of rapid development. At present, 6000 pharmaceutical factories in China, especially Chinese patent medicine enterprises, use self-adhesive labels more. In the future, the national packaging requirements for the pharmaceutical industry are becoming higher and higher, and the paste labeling method will be replaced by more self-adhesive labels. The increase in the installed capacity of high-speed automatic labeling machines has also accelerated the application of self-adhesive labels in the pharmaceutical industry

traditional pharmaceutical products are generally labeled by brushing glue or paste on the back of the label. This labeling method has the following shortcomings:

(1) the labeling speed is slow, which can not meet the requirements of high-speed automated production

(2) the glue performance is poor, causing the label to curl and fall off, affecting the beauty of the medicine bottle, and even bringing a lot of inconvenience to patients

(3) it is easy to leave glue on the outside of the label when brushing and labeling, absorb dust and form stains, which does not meet the requirements of the sanitary label

self adhesive labels suitable for high-speed labeling requirements can effectively solve the above problems. Therefore, more and more drug packaging began to use self-adhesive labels. As over-the-counter drugs are gradually sold over the counter in pharmacies, drug manufacturers and consumers pay more attention to the packaging of drugs, which to a large extent urges drug manufacturers to accelerate the pace of converting from traditional labels to self-adhesive labels

4. Supermarket and logistics industry

with the development of market economy and the acceleration of commodity circulation, China's retail industry is developing at an extraordinary speed. According to the statistics of the National Bureau of statistics, there are 1232 chain enterprises above the designated size in China's commercial retail industry and catering industry, with a total of 34551 stores. In the future, the market will have more and more demand for variable information printing labels. For example, fresh food in supermarkets has always been "a must for strategists" because of its fast circulation speed and rich profits. Therefore, thermal labels have a lot of room for development. Luggage tags, supermarket price tags, storage and transportation tags, etc. have been widely used now. In some logistics developed countries in Europe, self-adhesive labels used for variable information printing have accounted for more than 40% of the total market demand of self-adhesive labels. In China, this market has just started, and the annual per capita consumption is very small. Logistics industry is a new industry. Many large and medium-sized cities in China hope to play the role of logistics center. Bar code sticker is the most basic requirement for production management and logistics management. While more enterprises taste the benefits of barcode management, it will also bring infinite business opportunities to the self-adhesive industry. With the rapid development of logistics industry, the market will have a huge demand for variable information self-adhesive labels

5. The characteristics of anti-counterfeiting industry

self-adhesive labels have the application conditions in the anti-counterfeiting industry. The earliest anti-counterfeiting labels in China appeared in the mid-1980s, and their applications include alcohol, food, medicine, health products, cosmetics, children's products, toys, clothing tags, shoe labels, computer software and hardware products, sporting goods, auto parts, agricultural materials, etc. The use of self-adhesive anti-counterfeiting labels on commodities has broad market development space in China

at present, the annual consumption of anti-counterfeiting labels in China is about 60billion. According to the application, anti-counterfeiting labels can be divided into the following four categories

class I: laser holographic anti-counterfeiting label. This is the earliest and most widely used anti-counterfeiting label in China. It was first produced by holographic equipment imported from the United States for a long time. For example, in 1996, China began to apply the national iodized salt anti-counterfeiting (laser holographic technology) logo, with an annual consumption of about 3billion. In order to prevent counterfeiting, China has also successfully pasted anti-counterfeiting labels in the composite layer of salt packaging bags. Laser holographic labels are anti-counterfeiting labels that have been widely accepted by domestic users. The requirements for self-adhesive labels include anti opening, anti transfer, one-time application, etc. For example, fragile paper labels are printed with special fragile self-adhesive paper. Once pasted, it is not easy to tear off, and it will be broken immediately. The production date and warranty period of the product are printed on the label, which plays a role in safeguarding the interests of businesses

class II: special printed labels. For example, the anti-counterfeiting plate making technology is adopted for the labels of protected varieties of traditional Chinese medicine in China,