With the gradual establishment of a market economy in China, all walks of life have begun to enter a stage of stable development. As an industry closely related to people's daily lives, the eyewear industry is naturally no exception.
There are thousands of companies engaged in the production of eyeglasses in China, and their consumption is tens of billions of yuan each year. Although this is not a big cake, as a daily consumer product, its market is still huge. The content of this article does not involve the development of the eyewear industry, but the printing by businesses to compete for consumer identification of products. It should be said that the continuous enhancement of brand awareness has led producers to pay attention to etch marks on the surface of products to become fashionable, so that consumers can recognize their favorite brands and styles through eye-catching text or graphic information.
Glasses consist of lenses and frames. The edge area of the lens near the blind spot of the eye usually needs to be printed, and the center of the nose pad of the frame and the side of the temple are both printable parts. In order to wear lightly, the frames are usually forged from light and tough steel. The frames are very narrow, usually between 1mm and 2mm. In such a narrow space, the product number is usually printed to distinguish a wide variety of eyewear styles. The vast majority of lenses are made of extremely transparent glass, and some lenses are made of resin sheets, and the trademarks of the printing manufacturer are used as decoration on the lenses.
The reason why the pad printing is used for the printing of the lens is that the pad printing can be printed on a smooth and curved surface, and laser marking will cause damage to the lens surface. In addition to the pad printing, the frame can also be printed by laser. Both pad printing and laser marking can achieve decoration on a very small area, but there are obvious differences: laser marking actually has an etching effect and can be stored forever: pad printing text is easy to peel off, but you can choose as you want Color to add eye-catching effects. From the perspective of cost, the price of the laser marking machine is between 100,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan, and the investment is large, while the price of the pad printing machine is only about 15 million yuan, and the investment is much smaller.
Using etching to obtain graphics is also a common practice to replace laser marking. The eyewear industry usually uses ferric chloride solution to make etching graphics. However, a potential threat to the etching technology is the destruction of the environment. Today, as society pays more and more attention to the health of operating employees, its use is greatly restricted.
Control of pad printing elements
The most significant feature of pad printing is indirect printing. The biggest advantage of indirect printing is that it maintains the independence of the position of the printing plate and the substrate. The adaptability of printing technology to the shape of the substrate is greatly enhanced.
Now we will give a rough introduction to the process issues involved in the printing of pad printing technology on glasses, so that everyone can understand the general situation of the application of pad printing technology in the glasses industry.
1.Ink selection
Ink selection occupies a very important position in pad printing technology, which is widely related to the printing materials involved in pad printing technology. Since the frame is made of metal, it is required that the adhesion of the ink on the metal surface is better. Now, two-component ink is commonly used, and the drying method is dry. The printing of lenses requires glass inks, which are usually two-component inks and dried by drying. The cured ink layer of the two-component ink has the characteristics of high hardness and good adhesion, but the operation is slightly more cumbersome.
The use of two-component ink is briefly described as follows:
(1) First add the hardener to the ink according to the ink instructions, stir it evenly, and pour it into the oil pan for printing. Since two-component inks will cure slowly, the amount should be controlled.
(2) After printing, it should be dried in a drying box to speed up the drying speed. The drying time of two-component inks at room temperature is up to 10 hours, which will affect the production efficiency. It is ideal to use the drying method. Generally, the drying temperature is between 150 ° C and 180 ° C, and the time is 5 minutes to 10 minute.
2. Pad
The choice of pads for pad printing is crucial. First, the shape of the pad must be able to print to the specified position, and second, the deformation must be small. Because the printing area of the frame is very small, the pads for pad printing should be slightly pointed. Through tests, A7 pads with a cross-sectional area of 38mm are more suitable. The printing effect of A3 rubber head is also very good, but because the cross section is slightly smaller, the printing distortion is slightly larger.
The hardness of pads for pad printing is another indicator that should be considered during selection. Softer pads have a wider adaptability, but the deformation of printed graphics is greater. Especially for printing products as small as eyeglass frames, the figure body is very small, and the large deformation of the picture and text can easily make the lines between the picture and text become blurred, so it is better to choose a harder rubber tip. Our test As a result, a pad with a Shore hardness of 32 degrees can achieve the best printing quality.
The rubber head for the print of the nose pad takes into consideration the limitation of the position. A rubber head with a smaller cross-sectional area should be selected. Our test result is that a rubber head with a cross-sectional area of 15 mm or less is more suitable, and the hardness should be above 32 degrees.
3． Steel plate
The printing plate of the pad printing machine is a steel plate, and the method of making a steel plate is an etching method. The printed graphics of the frame and the lens are very small, so the size of the steel plate does not need to be too large. According to the standards of various printing industries, steel plates of two sizes of 75mm × 100mm and 100mm × 100mm can be used, and the length of the longest side of the spectacle frame printed graphics is only 20mm, so 75mm × 100mm steel plates can be used for graphics.
The steel plate is made by the traditional corrosion method. Because the font is small and the exposure time is shorter, a steel plate with uniform depth can be obtained.
For steel plates, the control of depth is a major indicator. Too deep depth can easily cause offset, ink transfer is affected, and the strokes of the font are easy to be uneven in thickness, the spacing between the strokes is reduced, and the sharpness is reduced. The disadvantage of too shallow depth is also obvious. This is that the color saturation of the font is not high, and the color is difficult to achieve eye-catching effects. Our test results are most ideal for depth control at 19 μm.
4． Printing machine
The small printing area of the spectacle frame is just the trademark of the printing company, so it does not involve complicated graphics, and does not involve color registration. The machine should be a single-color small-area pad printer.
5. Fixture
In the specialty printing industry, making jigs is a basic job. Generally speaking, the production of fixtures is mainly to ensure that the printing area of the substrate and the rubber head have relatively fixed positions to ensure the uniformity of product printing. At the same time, it is easy to achieve accurate overprinting when multi-color overprinting is involved, so the position of the fixture in the pad printing process is indispensable. The inner edge of the spectacle frame is the area where the graphics are printed, and this position must be held by a clamp to ensure that it is parallel to the pad. During the printing process, the spectacle frame cannot be loosened, and the fastening effect is required to be good. The fixture cast by crystal glue should be the first choice.
The method of casting crystal glue is made by using the principle that the unsaturated polyester resin is cured under the action of the hardener. No matter how complicated the structure of the spectacle frame, the fixture made by this method can fix the spectacle frame well and meet the printing requirements. The production method is as follows: firstly mix and mix the resin A and B components into the paper form prepared in advance, until the resin gels, and then take out the glasses frame.
Although the printing of frames and lenses is a very simple process, it can be seen that the characteristics of the printing process:
Pad printing is very suitable for products with small printing areas and irregular printing positions; it is the special parts of glasses products that need to be printed to make the pad printing process wonderfully applied.
From the perspective of printing technology, in order to achieve exquisite printing effects, the selection of high-quality pad printing inks and pads with higher hardness are two factors that must be taken into consideration.
The quality of the pad printing effect is inseparable from the quality of the fixture.
Concluding remarks
The application of the pad printing process in the eyewear industry at least illustrates two issues: First, if any company wants to gain more market share in the ever-changing market, in addition to continuously improving the level of technology in the manufacturing process, it will change its product characteristics The use of various decorative means to show that it is becoming an issue of increasing concern for corporate managers. For most consumers, eye-catching product information and descriptions are more likely to stimulate their desire to buy.
Another problem is that humans start from manufacturing the first product. Although they gradually understand the division of labor, the division of labor can never be separated from the internal links between industries, especially the connection with printing. When people are at a loss in the fierce market competition, they may wish to invest in another industry and may find new inspiration. The pad printing process is an industry that is easy to inspire people. With a little thought, a creative solution will be produced quickly. With these sophisticated solutions, no one will be afraid of any competitors.
The market economy is cruel and fair, and those companies that are constantly creative and good at eating crabs often take the lead. We respect the first company to apply the pad printing process to the eyewear industry. They are already at the forefront. We will also respect those companies that will extend the pad printing process to new fields in the future. Similarly, they will also be in the industry cutting edge.
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