How to Use Standard RGB Color Space

The high-quality plate cylinder is a prerequisite for the gravure plate making factory to participate in the market competition. The digital proofing system and experienced technicians are the standardized process management of the gravure plate making factory, and the reliable design of the gravure plate making factory is successful.

Digital proofing system - the right hand of the plate making factory

At present, there are two kinds of digital proofing systems used in the gravure platemaking industry: one is the IRIS digital proofing system, and the other is the EPSON proofing system. IRIS digital proofing system is more professional, its color reproduction performance is better, the proofs are more exquisite and realistic, especially the effect of the image layer part is more refined, and it is generally used for high-grade product proofing.

Through the color management system, the proofs of the digital proofing system can be very close to the actual OPP standard proofs, and the actual gravure effect can be restored. Therefore, the digital samples can help the plate-making personnel to find problems before the plate making and take corresponding measures to correct and adjust them. Improve the quality of plate making and reduce the rate of rework. Secondly, the digital proofing system is beneficial to the control of the entire plate making process, ensuring the stability and consistency of the plate making process and the quality of the platen roller. In addition, the digital proofing is quick and easy, and the plate making cycle is greatly shortened to ensure delivery. period.

Experienced technicians - valuable assets of the plate making factory

The gravure platemaking industry has no ready-made theory or formula to apply, and it depends on the operator's experience in production. Therefore, the operator, especially the color separation personnel, must have a high level of technology and rich experience, otherwise it is difficult to obtain Ideal product.

Nowadays, more and more jobs are being replaced by spot color technologies. Spot color substitution refers to the use of other colors instead of black, blue, yellow, and yellow to reflect the color and gradation of images. For example, they use ultramarine instead of green, and red instead of magenta. Replace brown with black and so on. The packaging of many chocolates on the market today uses spot color alternatives. This kind of craft is more difficult, the traditional proofing is very difficult to demonstrate the special spot color effect that designs, in this kind of situation, must look at the separation person's experience and technical level. Of course, the conditional gravure platemaking factory can use the Cromarin proofing system to achieve spot color proofing.

Standardized process management - reliable guarantee of success

The plate making process includes such steps as order taking, reviewing, color separation, design, machining, electroplating, electric carving, and proofing. All processes must be institutionalized and standardized in management and control.

Proofing is an important part of the process control of the gravure plate making factory. The brands, viscosity, proofing speed, proofing pressure, and temperature and humidity control of the proofing room should be standardized. At present, the common practice of the gravure plate making factory is to select different grades of ink for proofing purposes according to different customer requirements. The inks used by Toyo in proofing are roughly divided into high, medium, and low grades. Large customers or high-end products use high-grade inks such as DC and Dalian Schmidt inks; small customers or ordinary products that require less Low-grade ink is used for proofing to avoid the effect of high-grade ink proofing by the plate-making factory when the printing factory prints with low-grade ink; secondly, the plate-making factory can also save costs.

1. Excellence in quality

Prior to platemaking, gravure platemaking and printing plants are required to conduct technical exchanges. Gravure platesetters must organize special reviews to determine the best route for product requirements in accordance with the specific requirements of the customer's products. Some specific areas are prone to color drift, such as the shallow part of the high-light part, multi-color superimposed brown, light white (such as milk cups), three-color superimposed gray, etc. In the face of such jobs, the plate-making plant must be careful : Perform special processing on areas in the original that are prone to color drift; select reasonable number of electric carving lines and electric carving angles to avoid the range where color drift occurs. For special fine work pieces, such as special small but clear patterns, we must adopt special plate-making techniques, such as carving, laser engraving and so on.

2. Technical support is increasingly prominent

When a printing company encounters thorny problems in the printing process, it usually seeks technical support from the gravure platemaking factory. In the actual production process, there are many factors that affect the printing quality. It may be the problem of the printing plate, or it may be the improper control of the printing factory. Correctly judging and finding the printing failure becomes the key to solving the problem.

3. Frequently Asked Questions Exchange

(1) The plate and text do not match the manuscript

When a printing factory makes a plate-making order to a plate-making factory, it must explain the dimensions and text content of the cleaning piece. In particular, when there is a large amount of information provided by the customer, such as a disc, a color draft, or a copy, fax, etc. The contents of the various materials attached are the same.

(2) Hue deviation

The gravure plate making factory will generally make a digital sample before the plate making, so that the printing factory and the customer can confirm. The effect of the digital proof is close to the actual gravure effect. As long as the printing process of the printing factory is relatively stable, there is not much fluctuation and no appearance will occur. Too obvious hue deviation.

(3) The layout is easy to dirty

The chrome plating layer must meet certain brightness and density requirements. The surface of the chrome layer is controlled at 400-600 strips/cm2. Within this range, the layout is not easy to get dirty. Improperly controlled printing process can also cause the layout to be dirty, adjust the printing pressure, ink viscosity and solvent ratio, replace the ink, adjust the squeegee and other methods to solve.

(4) Cutting line

From the plate-making point of view, there are two reasons for producing the knife line. One is the scratch on the copper plated surface, and the second is the low hardness or rough surface of the chromium layer. From the perspective of the printing process control, the reasons may include: foreign matter in the ink scratches the layout; the sharpness and straightness of the squeegee are poor; the squeegee angle and pressure are not proper.
(5) Low plateau print resistance

Mainly related to the hardness of the chromium plating layer, the hardness of the chromium layer should be controlled between HV900 ~ 1000, the chromium layer hardness is low, affecting the life of the printing plate, the chromium layer hardness is too high, the internal stress is relatively large, easy to occur chromium layer Burst (also known as "burst") can also affect the printing plate's resistance to printing.

(6) Imprinting is not allowed

There are mainly the following reasons: The plate cylinder diameter; the dynamic balance of the plate cylinder does not meet the requirements, and there is a large jump in the printing process. Material expansion and deformation is large; oven temperature is set improperly; tension is not properly controlled or fluctuates.

Improve quality - everyone works together

1. Improve communication and exchange
The communication and exchange between the gravure platemaking factory and the printing factory is of course very important, but the most important thing is to communicate well with the end customer and satisfy the end customer. This is the common desire of the gravure platemaking factory and the printing factory.

Each year, Toyo holds several technical exchange meetings with its own major customers and major customers to provide customers with necessary training. The service object has been extended to the final customer's design company.

2. Strengthen the stability of process control

The control of platemaking process in the gravure platemaking factory and the control of the printing process in the printing factory are all very important. The two must cooperate closely in order to ensure that the final customer is satisfied with the printed matter.

Although the whole process of gravure platemaking has basically been standardized and digitized, there are still phenomena of arbitrarily arbitrarily operating and unstable product quality. For example, when the same job is being remastered, the quality of the plate cylinder is often deviated. The gravure platemaking factory must further improve the stability of the platemaking process to ensure the stability of the quality of the plate cylinder.

The stability of printing processes in printing houses is also very important. In order to ensure the consistency of printing quality, effective measures must be actively taken to ensure the relative stability of the printing process. The printing plant should also establish a special plate cylinder management system, which should track and record the entire cylinder inspection, storage, use, and scrapping. Send someone to be responsible for the storage and maintenance of the roll, so as not to affect the correct use of the roll.

3. Pay attention to the training of technicians

Both the gravure platemaking factory and the printing factory have their own technical personnel. The communication and cooperation between them are generally conducted through them. The quality requirements of these technical personnel cannot be ignored and relaxed. Regular or irregular training is required, not only training The industry's knowledge and skills, but also to understand the relevant areas of knowledge. For example, the technicians of the gravure plate making factory should have some understanding of the printing process, and the technical staff of the printing factory should also have a certain understanding of the gravure plate making. The two parties should better communicate, communicate and cooperate with each other, and in the process of making the plate making and printing process, Starting from a global perspective, the process developed is more reasonable and feasible.

Keywords: Printing House / Gravure / Platemaking