Sweeping gold "brilliance"
Sweeping gold is a special process in fine printing. Metal powder is attached to a specified part of a commodity package or label print to achieve gold glitter effect. The commonly used gold powder has a variety of colors, from lemon yellow to red copper, from bright gold to dark gold, and graphite, tan, everything. In the hands of printing manufacturers who are good at using the gold-sweeping process, it can be transformed into a variety of effects. Currently in North America and Europe, a kind of gold powder has begun to flourish. The gold powder has 4 kinds of thickness and nearly 10 colors. It will radiate multicolored light under the irradiation of light, and its unique effect will make the counterfeiters aware of it. Difficult to retreat. The process of sweeping gold is not complicated. Simply transfer the printed sheet to a monochrome or two-color offset press, apply the adhesive bottom ink at the point where the gold is to be swept, and then send it directly to the sweeper to press the special gold powder. Into the end of plastic, and after polishing, sheet metal and other processes to complete the sweep.
To date, there is only one company in the world that produces automatic sweepers—Dreissig, Germany. At present, gold-removal equipment has been widely used throughout the world, especially in general cigarettes, cigars packaging, cosmetics, chocolate packaging and liquor, such as trademark printing and invitation card products. The domestic users are mainly concentrated on cigarette labels, followed by kits and food packaging, which are mainly distributed in South China and East China.
Features vary
Gold printing, bronzing, and gold scouring as printing and post-printing processes that produce metal effects have their own advantages and disadvantages:
1. The speed of printing gold is fast, but the deformation is relatively serious when printing small prints or thin lines. The metallic texture is not strong enough when printing large areas of gold, and the metallic luster is poor.
2. As a traditional process, bronzing has a strong sense of metal, but its cost is high, its efficiency is low, and registration is difficult. When the graphics are very small and the gilding is large, the quality is not easy to control.
3. Compared with the printing and gold-plating methods, the gold-sweeping process is relatively simple, the production speed is high, the cost is low, and the metal texture is realistic, and the gloss is good, and the finishing effect is good. Regardless of the thickness of the picture, the size of the area can get finer results.
In foreign countries, many printing companies use multiple shifts to make full use of new sweepers and have achieved significant economic benefits. In China, compared with other fine print technologies, the number of sweepers is very small, and there is little market competition. Therefore, the pressure from market prices is small, together with the unique anti-counterfeiting effect and advertising effect of sweep gold products. Allows customers to accept a range of price differences; at the same time, the use of standardized gold powder and viscous ink can ensure that the sweep is quick and easy, and the loss of raw materials and maintenance costs are low, which can ensure that the printing manufacturer to obtain better benefits.
Market to be developed
Since sweeping gold has such a good effect, and has low costs and high returns, why is there currently only 8 sweepers in the country?
Experts pointed out that understanding the problem is the primary reason. In foreign countries, sweeping gold applications are very common, while domestic gold mining companies are rare, which is closely related to the difference between Chinese and Western aesthetic tastes. Foreign and domestic aesthetics are different. Domestically, they generally appreciate the glittering bronzing effect and turn a blind eye to gold scans that are closer to the color of the metal itself.
Second, at present, most people in the country do not know that there is technology for sweeping money. Only those who often go abroad may notice that many foreign packaging uses gold-sweeping techniques, such as wine packaging abroad. Knowing the existence of this technology, it will only turn to the domestic manufacturers to seek related products. In addition, many domestic manufacturers have not yet fully realized the fierce market competition, and the pressure has not been so great that they have used gold-sweeping techniques to improve their own packaging. Therefore, even if the manufacturers know it, they will not consider investing in the printing cost.
Once again, the chief craftsman of Qi Jinshan has said that the limitation of the gold sweep itself is that the fineness is not enough, and it is more difficult to want a more detailed effect because the gold sweeper is mainly made of glue and gold powder, affected by the gold powder. Larger, thicker words do not work well, but if they are thin, they are not bright enough. The gold sweeper is easily affected by falling off the gel material. In addition, the gold-sweeping process is quite strict with respect to temperature and humidity. The climate in the south is not very suitable for protecting gold powder from moisture, which brings problems to the gold-removing process and products.
Although so far only 8 sweepers have been sold in China, the equipment dealer Jiuheng Printing Equipment Co., Ltd. is still full of confidence. Its responsible person stated that as China's packaging design is aligned with international standards, , China's packaging design level continues to increase, more personalized, sweeping gold technology with its unique superior performance, will be promoted with the improvement of China's packaging level.