When customizing printed boxes in printing & packaging factory, you need to know the printing process of custom boxes. If you know the process of custom printed process, it can reduce soe troubles and avoid unpleasant communication. It can be divided into pre-printing process and post-printing process. Now I will share the pre-printing and post-printing process of custom printed boxes for everyone.

1.Pre-printing Production Process of Custom Printed Boxes

• Consultation and communication of custom printed boxes (based on customers’ demand). Customers need to confirm the box type, material requirements, size, design, etc.
• Sign a contract. After printing factory understanding this requirement, the marketing staff will calculate the price to the customer according to the above requirements. After the customer is basically determined, the contract can be signed.

• Packaging design. What are the requirements for custom printed box design and what kind of purpose to achieve? Customers need to further communicate with designers.

• Packaging boxes proofing. After the design of the packaging box is finished, it is necessary to conduct proofing. After proofing, if you are not satisfied with the boxes, you can still modify the file, and then you can proceed with the steps of printing and production, that is, the post-printing process.

2.Post-printing Production Process of Custom Printed Boxes

• Processing of paper containers. Paper containers are containers made of cardboard for packaging goods, such as paper boxes, paper cups, cartons, etc. To evaluate the quality of containers, not only the quality of printing, but also the complexity of container modeling and processing. The manufacturing process of paper container is: plate making, printing → surface processing → die cutting, indentation → box making.

• Materials. Generally, it is made of cheap materials with good printing effect and suitable for packaged goods, including yellow paperboard, kraft paper, cardboard, white paperboard, etc. As printing materials, if the requirements are high, first-class paper such as art paper can be mounted on these materials, and printing ink should also be light-resistant, wear-resistant, oil-resistant, drug-resistant and nontoxic according to the packaged goods.

• Plate making and printing. Use letterpress, lithography, gravure and flexographic printing. At present, lithographic printing and letterpress printing can get the finished products with good printing effect, bright tone and luster, but the plate-making process is complicated and not as simple as lithographic printing. Spray powder during printing to prevent the back from getting dirty.

• Surface processing. Coating polyethylene, pasting surface film, waxing, foil pressing, embossing and other processes can be carried out as required, but not all products have to be surface processed.

• Die cutting and creasing.

1. Die-cutting plate making. A better way to make die-cutting plate is to make die-cutting plate with plywood. First, transfer the boxes pattern to plywood, saw seam along tangent line and fold line with wire saw, and then embed the cutting line and folding line into plywood to make the die-cutting plate, which has the advantages of light plate, accurate overall size and preservation. It can also be controlled by computer. For laser die-making and plate cutting, the size, shape and cardboard weight of the carton are input into the computer, and then the computer controls the laser movement, and all tangent fold lines of the carton are carved on the plywood, and finally embedded into the knife line. The process flow is as follows: drawing the class box sample drawing → drawing the layout plan → copying the layout design drawing → transferring the layout design drawing to plywood → drilling and sawing → embedding → making the die-cutting negative template.

            ① Draw boxes sample drawing. Draw the black-and-white paper knife line diagram of the paper box, with each precise size of the box, and the line is required to be very accurate.

            ② Draw imposition design drawing. According to the carton sample drawing and the maximum printable paper size, the imposition design should consider saving paper and automatically removing waste edges after die cutting. Draw layout design according to layout design.

            ③ Copy the imposition design. Copy two imposition design drawings, one for printing plate and one for die-cutting plate making, which can ensure consistency and accurate registration during die cutting.

             ④ Layout design drawings can be transferred to plywood by hand drawing or photo copying. Hand-drawn should be highly accurate.

             ⑤ Drilling and sawing. There is a special saw sewing machine, which is a wire saw moving up and down. Drill holes at the joint of two box cores to facilitate threading saw and sawing along tangent and broken line. The thickness of the wire saw should match the thickness of the die-cutting knife line and the crease knife line.

            ⑥ Embedding. Use cutting machine, bending machine, punching machine and other machines to crush, round or bend the cutter line into various angles according to the shape of the box. The tangent lines embedded in the die-cutting plate must be highly consistent. The height and thickness of the crease line depend on the thickness of the paper. The height of folding knife line is the height of die cutting knife line minus the paper thickness. After the knife line is embedded, foam rubber should be attached to both sides so that the cardboard can pop out from the die-cutting plate.

1. Die-cutting machine

Die-cutting machine is generally flat press type, which can automatically feed, die-cut and receive paper, with a general speed of 1800-3600 sheets/hour. Electronic control device for die-cutting abroad, the speed reaches 8500 sheets/hour, and can automatically remove waste edges. In addition to die cutting, die-cutting creasing machine can also be used for cold pressing concave and convex, hot stamping flat concave and convex telephone aluminum and hot printing concave and convex.

• Printed boxes making

Fold it into a paper box with a box maker for the next process. Corrugated boxes are usually printed with flexography, and at the same time, they are printed, glued and are made into the shape of boxes, which are usually folded and rotated in plane, and are opened into boxes when in use.

The pre-printing and post-printing processes of the custom printed boxes are explained above, I hope that can help everyone, so that the products won’t have any trouble because of the lack of understanding of the paper boxes printing process, and it can also provide customers with time-saving, labor-saving and worry-free color box printing services.