The hottest metal effect label MEC leads the new e

Metal effect label MEC leads the new era of beer labels

in the past 10 years, beer labels have experienced the transformation from coated paper to aluminum sprayed paper, and then to coated paper metal effect (MEC). High gloss, high humidity and strong metal labels have made the grade of high-end beer visible. All high-end and super high-end beer, accounting for 15% of beer share, have switched to aluminum spray labels. There are also many users of medium-end beer, and the total amount of aluminum spray paper wine labels is 30%. After ten years of market promotion, metal effect label (MEC) is no longer strange to the domestic printing industry. More and more packaging technicians in breweries began to pay attention to its development trend. Many domestic and foreign beer brands have turned to MEC with low price and good quality

mec principle

mec uses special PVD metal ink to print on wet strong paper with a whiteness of more than 80%, resulting in a real and strong golden or silver visual effect in graphics and text or on the ground. It is a new way of surface metal effect after pure aluminum foil and aluminum spray paper. Its core technology is the development and application of metal effect pigments and inks, so that gravure prints have excellent beauty and applicability, and the impact strength will also be improved. Avery Dennison of the United States uses vacuum metallization technology to make thin and flat matte bright metal pigments, German Eckart company (Eckart) is one of the best in processing bright metallic color ink. Its metal effect, stability and functionality are not only suitable for paper inner printing, but also can get a real shiny effect in surface printing. The printing effect of luminosity, chroma and saturation measured by photometer is very close to that of aluminized paper

learning from cigarette label

the innovation of cigarette label technology has promoted the emergence of more advanced wine label technology. Ten years ago, Wuhan Nanyang Printing Co., Ltd. tried metal effect ink to print gold and silver cigarette packets for Hongjinlong Tobacco Group on white cardboard. The new ink printing technology began to knock the cheese of aluminized gold cardboard. Compared with traditional aluminized gold card paper, metal effect color printing Budweiser beer MEC label has the same effect as gold card paper printing except that the hue is slightly darker, but it can save a lot of costs. Metal effect color printing prompted the company to invest 50million yuan to install a lemanic820 eight color machine after using the boster 620 gravure machine for one year, so as to expand the production capacity of the product. In the same year, Belgium illochroma, Germany HN, Topfer and other label printers brought beer labels printed with metal ink into China. The metal effect color (MEC) made the beer industry realize that the new technology of cigarette labels can be used for wine labels

cost advantage

mec's main advantage in attracting breweries is cost. If the label design is appropriate and the gold and silver printing surface is not more than 30%, the appearance of the printed product is close to aluminized paper, but the cost can be reduced by 20% - 30%. Simple price accounting method 4.2.2 wedge clamp and accessories are used to clamp flat and round samples at room temperature: the ton price of aluminized paper is 28000 yuan, MEC wet strength paper is 14000 yuan, and the cost of base paper is reduced by 50%. Although the price of metal ink is very expensive, when the amount is lower than the printing surface balance point, the total cost must be reduced. MEC printing has its mysteries. Domestic printing plants have tried to print MEC with offset printing machines, and the metal effect is greatly discounted. Finally, breweries cannot be convinced that it can replace high-end beer aluminized standards at a lower cost. In fact, gravure printing is the solution

gravure printing is better than offset printing

gravure printing has been proved to be the best process for printing metal ink. The steel roller gravure printing plate made by laser engraving technology can transfer pictures and texts or the field in a rich and thick manner. Only when the printing coating amount is heavy can the metal ink better highlight the bright effect. The coating amount of gravure printing is as high as 4 grams per square meter, while the offset printing is less than 2 grams. The metal vision needs an ink layer to reflect

the lithographic offset printing machine has a high share in the domestic wine label printing market, with a number of highly professional label printers, such as Guangdong Wanchang, hailibao, Wuhan Changyin, Nanjing Jinya, etc., with an annual production capacity of more than billions of sets. There are two reasons why offset printing is popular in the wine label printing industry: first, offset printing has exquisite printing quality, which is in line with beer consumers' appreciation of external decoration; Second, foreign offset printing machines once entered the domestic printing market at a large number of low prices, which not only satisfied the printing factory's orientation towards the price of printing machines, but also adapted to the frequent return and short version orders of breweries. This is the industry characteristic caused by the backward economy and underdeveloped printing industry in the early stage. With the domestic printing industry becoming bigger and stronger, it is sooner or later to integrate into the international model. The integration of the beer industry and the unification of brand image will lead breweries to put forward requirements for printing processors that are more conducive to gravure or flexographic printing, such as batch, environmental protection, anti-counterfeiting, etc. Most beer labels in Europe, America and Japan use gravure machine for web printing, mainly because wine labels are generally large quantities of long orders, with high web printing efficiency, small color difference and fast delivery

in addition, the offset label adopts the process of embossing before printing, while the MEC label adopts the process of gravure before embossing. This process adjustment is conducive to the rapid and easy washing of the label when the brewery recycles the bottle, and ensures that the ink is firmly attached to the label paper during the alkali washing process. The label is off the bottle, and the new ink source, Chaoli automobile and Weiqiao's acquisition of Hongbang double zero aluminum foil project have been pilot produced without falling off and will not pollute the alkali liquor. The reason is that because offset labels are printed and polished with embossed paper, the holes are blocked by the ink layer, which is not conducive to the rapid infiltration of alkali, thus prolonging the glue dissolution time and reducing the bottle washing efficiency; At the same time, the characteristics of the offset off-line strand testing machine and the precautions for the protection of the equipment. The glazing method does not play a good role in anti alkali protection. After the ink is dissolved by alkali, it will pollute the bottle washing tank, and pure water bottle washing cannot be guaranteed

mec is similar to hot stamping and aluminum plating in application, while gravure printing, coating, metallized material effect, aluminum foil effect and bronzing effect are the improvement of offline production process, with high efficiency, low loss, flexible and simple operation. Gravure printing can also reduce the paper weight from 73 grams to 53 grams. On the one hand, light-weight labels reduce costs, on the other hand, they are flexible, which is conducive to the subsequent beer labeling process

mec special coated paper

mec label adopts high wet strength coated paper with surface whiteness and smoothness after special treatment. Looking at the MEC mark from the back under the light, the metal color is clear and bright because there is no coating and covering of the sprayed aluminum layer. The technical indicators for measuring the running capacity of label paper include: wet tensile strength, tearing degree, curl degree, (reactivity with water), back water absorption, washing time and alkali resistance

the use of wet strength paper will reduce the strength of the paper under specific environmental conditions, such as the humidity in the packaging workshop of the brewery, the high temperature during filling and pasteurization, and the strong condensate caused by cold bottles. This will cause the label to fail to resist moisture and damage, and the label will tilt or fall off the bottle when encountering condensed water. The use of high wet strength paper for imported wine labels (such as French Starr paper) can ensure that the label paper still has high strength in extremely humid environment, and maintain a good adhesion state on the bottle

as paper is a living material, it will react to the labeling environment. In order to ensure good bidding and reduce downtime or rejection, the flattening of labels must be controlled. If the flatness of large sheets of paper is not well controlled during offset printing, the label may curl. In addition, the label may curl after contacting the glue board. To control the curvature of the paper, it is recommended to use low reaction paper and adopt gravure printing

when labeling, too high or too low water absorption on the back will cause insufficient glue or too much glue, resulting in label slippage, falling off or glue waste. By controlling the water absorption on the back, the gluing performance and labeling condition can be controlled

the washing time is the time required to wash the paper label off the bottle. The length of time will affect the operating efficiency of the alkali pool and the consumption of alkali. Usually, breweries hope that the maximum time for standard washing will not exceed 120 seconds. MEC standard can shorten the time for standard washing more than aluminized paper. Since the label washing process involves soaking in alkaline water, the label must be kept intact throughout the process. MEC label is to print the ink directly on white paper, so it has better alkali resistant ink retention, so that the label can be removed without ink, and the bottle washing machine can be kept clean

in addition, the whiteness, wet opacity, gloss, abrasion resistance and printing adaptability of the printed paper will also affect the quality of MEC standard. The higher the whiteness of the printing paper, the higher the printing color contrast, and the better the effect of MEC. A higher ambient humidity (such as water condensation) may reduce the opacity of the paper, resulting in the phenomenon that the glue coating line runs through the whole label. When used on brown or green bottles, the color of the label will darken, so use paper with high humidity opacity. When the wine bottles with MEC labels are running on the conveying line and packaging line, in order to avoid label wear caused by mutual friction of bottle bodies, MEC special paper adopts a special coating formula and adapts to the characteristics of gravure printing. Its good wear resistance may fully ensure the quality of finished products

consumers usually only take a few seconds to choose a beer from many brands, so the gloss of the wine label determines consumers' choice to a certain extent. Aluminized labels have natural surface gloss, and white paper labels can achieve the same effect after MEC printing, so it is not worth choosing high-priced aluminized paper for 30% metallic gloss, and using high gloss paper can achieve the same effect