Postpressing
After the printing process is completed, we can say that largely 3/5 of the work is done. After the offset machine has finished its work, and the sheets have sufficiently dried (approximately 24 h), the post-press work of the printed material can begin.
The post-processing stages are done in a set order, and every subsequent action depends on the nature and specifics of the packaging. Beautiful print is only one part of an eye-catching packaging, after all. The other part is made up of spatiality that must be conjured up out of the flat sheet.
Ecoprint produces packaging out of corrugated paper or cardboard. This article explained, which material should be chosen for your packaging. If your packaging is made of corrugated paper, the first stage in post press is laminating the printed sheet onto the corrugated paper. In simpler terms, one sheet is glued onto the other. This results in a quality and sharp image for boxes and crates.
If your packaging is made of cardboard, the lamination stage is skipped over as we move to the next stage.
Printed (and laminated, in the case of corrugated paper) material is given its shape using a B1 die cutting machine. Die cutting is part of post-processing, the purpose of which is to cut (press) box shapes out of the printed sheets. The work is carried out using a special-shaped steel tool (die) mounted on plywood. The production of dies demands great precision and is not a job anyone could do.
After die cutting, the printed product is removed from the machine and sent on for additional processing — cleaning. During this, excess material is removed from the edges of the cut material. In most cases, this can be done using a machine, but in some cases, workpieces have to be removed from the sheet by hand.
The final part of the process is gluing. After a workpiece has been removed from the large sheet, it must be folded, to give it three-dimensionality, and glued together correctly. At Ecoprint, we use a capable gluing line that is capable of producing up to 50,000 pieces per hour. The machine is also capable of gluing the complex autolock system bottoms, which greatly speeds up the packaging process by the client.
In this article, we briefly looked over the key stages of packaging production. There are some parts of post-processing that were left out (laminating, UV-spot varnish, embossing etc.). Various additional steps can make a product appear more luxurious and eye-catching. Should you feel the need to make your packaging more attractive, do not hesitate to contact us.