Folding Carton Industry Looks to Reduce Carton Conversion Costs

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CHINA - Nowadays, people attach greater importance to the outward appearance of folding cartons.  One of the main ways to meet this demand for better aesthetics is to carry out precise processes on folding cartons, decoration and furnishing to improve their quality.

According to current statistics, good packaging can boost the sales of folding cartons by as much as 15%. The simplest way of making folding cartons more attractive found so far is to process products with UV varnishing. During the last decade, UV varnishing has enjoyed tremendous popularity among folding carton companies because of its great quality, minimal pollution, high efficiency, low cost and ability to be recycled with paper.

As ordinary UV varnish does not adhere to ink, the procedure for ordinary UV varnish requires the application of water-based varnish before UV varnish oil. This way, it ensures excellent adhesiveness of UV varnish on the ink so that it will not be easily torn off by the tapes, which will detract from the cosmetic appearance. However, these traditional procedures are not without their shortcomings.  A few of these are explored below:

1. Low efficiency: Hydro-oil is dried mainly via infrared ray, which is a physical process that utilizes heat to dry off all the water vapor. The time taken to dry is normally twice that required for the solidification of UV varnish oil. Hence, this procedure limits the overall speed of UV varnishing, particularly for high-speed UV machines which have no varnishing device. In such cases, paper has to be varnished and stockpiled together before use. During peak seasons, this flaw poses a serious challenge to production managers.
2. Affects Exterior Appearance: Some thin paper, or high-quality copper paper, is pretty demanding in terms of achieving optimum exterior appearance and requires strong leveling effects or varnishing on certain areas. As the leveling of base oil is relatively poor, coupled with UV, it will yield a comparatively poorer effect on the whole. If the base oil is applied before varnishing on certain areas, the colors of the other non-glazed areas will differ. Achieving high adhesiveness in the summer heat is a particularly severe problem due to the soft make-up of base oil.
3. High cost. The existence of two procedures means that the costs involved in material consumption are considerably high. The electricity the equipment uses is also staggeringly high. The majority of consumption originates from infrared ray drying devices used to dry the base oil.

Bailide Printing Technology Development Co. Ltd., a part of the Bailihe Group, has always considered providing quality products and reducing costs for clients its primary objective. In 2008, Bailide’s research team shifted its focus to oil-based UV varnish.  After the marketing staff had tested templates for clients over six months and the researchers had made the requisite improvements, the team came up with BUV208E-3 to eliminate the need for gloss oil. This product has the following outstanding advantages:

1. Exceptional Adhesiveness. During inspection, tape manufactured by 3M was dragged against the same spot three times - the UV painting layer didn’t come off.
2. High Gloss, High Slipperiness and High Leveling. This product uses slip agents manufactured by BYK, the best agent manufacturing company in the world. It can produce a clear reflection using a good UV machine, characterized with a fine outer layer, smooth texture and gloss of more than 85 degrees.
3. Fast Solidification. If the UV machine is sufficiently powerful, the speed can exceed 8000 pieces of paper per hour, saving a huge amount of time.
4. Saving Costs for Printing Enterprises: Assume the price of base oil is RMB 20 per kilogram and the cost of facial oil is RMB 30 for the same weight. Four grams of base oil and facial oil are used for each square meter of paper. The drying cost of base oil is normally 40W/CM2, costing approximately RMB 0.1 of power. BUV208E-3, the gloss oil manufactured by Bailide, will save RMB 0.12 on material charges and RMB 0.1 on power bills for drying base oil. So RMB 0.22 can be saved when varnishing 1 sqm of paper. Assume 6000 pieces of paper, roughly 5000 sqm, can pass through a UV machine per hour, that is a tremendous cost saving of RMB 1000 per hour.  Over the course of the year, this will add up to impressively significant savings.

The successful development of BUV208E-3 has inspired Bailide’s research team to push on. Using feedback from Bailide’s marketing department, the research team is continuing to develop a wider range of gloss oil products, including super-white, oil-based UV gloss oil; odorless UV gloss oil for food-level products; anti-flammable, oil-based UV gloss oil; high-gloss and high-durability priming-free UV and oil-based UV matte lacquer. Additionally, the team is developing different priming-free UV gloss oils based on clients’ requirements and the characteristics of the machines they use.

The priming-free gloss oil series of products developed by Bailide Printing Technology Co., Ltd. has widely been adopted by many printing companies. This series of priming-free gloss oil is helping printing companies to get through the financial crisis.

At SinoFoldingcarton 2010*** Bailide will showcase its latest products. As the leading folding carton exhibition in China, SinoFoldingcarton attracts many companies involved in manufacturing folding carton production equipment and raw materials. Next year, over 500 companies, 800 pieces of printing equipment and nearly 1,000 kinds of folding carton raw materials will be showcased at the exhibition. Companies of global renown like Bailide will take part. A key exhibitor, Bailide will display its latest products and offer products and services of the best quality to the visitors.

SinoFoldingcarton 2010 will take place at the Guangdong Modern International Exhibition Center in Dongguan, Guangdong Province from April 7 to April 9, 2010.