Considering the printing quality, offset printing and pre-printing have been favoured among the printing methods for folding cartons. It is costly for enterprises to adopt the equipment of both methods in order to achieve two effects, which brings a problem to the industry – how to complete offset printing and pre-printing on the same production line. Despite the difficulty to achieve both effect of offset printing on mounting single paper and pre-printing on gluing roll paper, domestic market has been blank in this sector. Meanwhile, traditional equipment causes more restrictions and difficulties to pre-printing of surface papers at corrugated lines due to the gluing methods of single corrugated paperboards and pre-printing roll papers. Therefore, the production of folding cartons faces an urgent need of reform, which, surprisingly, has been commenced by Qingdao Meiguang Machinery Co., Ltd. at SinoCorrugated 2017.

∎ Qingdao Meiguang Machinery Co., Ltd.

With over a decade of technical development and a year of sample test, Meiguang Machinery unveiled SCL1650 corrugated production line, which can achieve a combined effect of offset printing on mounting single paper and pre-printing on gluing roll paper with high efficiency and also features less cost on labor, body papers and glue and high accuracy, satisfying the market demand. The production line earned high expectation long before it is unveiled. According to Meiguang Machinery, the equipment will be delivered to Hebei Herui Packaging Co., Ltd. and STEC KARTON COMPANY, before which the 180 days of strict tests helped remove all possible quality defects for the client's interest.

The production line is composed of single-surface corrugated machine, shaft-less body paper frame, pre-heating cylinder, splicer, paper tension system, spraying humidification system, hauling system, rectification system, trimmer, servo transverse cutting machine, high-speed laminating machine, pressure transportation solidifier and turnover stacker, as a perfect integration of technologies on corrugated board production lines, high-speed laminating machine and high-speed turnover stacker s, reaching world-leading level. 

∎ History and main structural units of single corrugated laminating production line

Following are the technical advantages of SCL1650:

Higher production efficiency and lower labor cost: In offset printing of single paper, the mounting efficiency is triple to the traditional laminating machines. In the packaging machinery marker in pursuit of high intelligence and automatic production, the production line perfectly satisfies industrial demands for its low labor cost (only 4 operators needed). It also replaces a single corrugated line (or three-layer line) and three laminating machines, meaning that 10 operators can be saved.

Advanced gluing method and scatheless pre-printing: Given the gluing mode with single corrugated board on top and pre-printing roll paper beneath, no damage can be caused to the colored surface. Ordinary gloss oil can be applied to glazed and laminating boards without any concern about the restrictions and difficulties on pre-printing of surface papers at corrugated lines, thereby significantly lowering the production cost of folding cartons.

Less glue consumption and high board intensity: The tackifier for mounting can be white emulsion or starch glue, and the consumption can be less than 20g. Even the use of low-gram papers will never result in the omitted corrugating. Moreover, the less application of glue brings lower water content and higher intensity and deflection of boards. Therefore, with respect to ordinary laminating machines, this production line can reduce a weight of 30g-50g for surface papers.

Higher equipment accuracy and lower body paper cost: Thanks to mounting with the single corrugated board and color-printed surface papers, the production line is free from secondary positioning. The accuracy of side-mark mounting increases to ±0.5mm, and 2mm-5mm deckle edge can be saved compared with single mounting. Based on a breadth of 10,000m, the utilization of body papers can reach 4‰-10‰. 

∎SCL1650 production line

∎ Main technical parameters of SCL1650

More surprisingly, Meiguang Machinery also offered a preferential price for the production line, only RMB5.8 million for the standard configuration (including the gluing of offset printing of single paper and pre-print of roll paper). According to Mr. Gao Defu, general marketing manager of Meiguang Machinery and the speaker of release, along with the increasing price of cartons and raw materials like ink, massive manufacturers are facing greater survival pressure. The only ways to increase revenue include reduction of labor cost and raw material consumption and enhancement of production efficiency. However, SCL1650 makes both achievements in offset printing and pre-printing. It is known that the price of similar production lines out of China reaches over RMB15 million. Therefore, Mr. Gao kept stressing that the preferential price offered by Meiguang Machinery is not the proof of technical accumulation but also the feedback to the market, so as to help domestic manufacturers take the crown in the market competitions on high-end devices.

At the end of the interview, Mr. Gao share us with a good news that Suzhou Hengchen Printing & Packaging Co., Ltd. also expressed its satisfaction on the production line and concluded relevant contract. Furthermore, a dozens of clients are under negotiation with Meiguang Machinery. According to Mr. Gao, Meiguang Machinery plans to hold a release conference after the production line is landed, so as to demonstrate its high quality to clients and manufacturers. 

In fact, with reference to the remarkable achievements of Meiguang Machinery, such as certification of “High-Tech Enterprise”, wide product application in domestic market, 20 domestic patents for inventions and 4 international patents for inventions, we have reasons to believe that SCL1650 is bound to lead a new wave for the industry manufacturing. In the meantime, we are also expecting more surprises from Meiguang Machinery.