The future of packaging design process development

First, the mainstream of future packaging design

Packaging design has entered the computer age. The traditional packaging design method has been unable to adapt to the highly competitive commodity economy due to its slow design and poor accuracy.

Today, the period from development to market entry of a new product is getting shorter and shorter, and the structure and form of packaging are becoming increasingly diversified. Sometimes a product needs to be packaged in various forms to suit different regions and different consumer groups. There are different requirements from creativity, color, specifications, materials, and production methods. Therefore, in order to grasp market opportunities in a timely manner, it is necessary to quickly design packaging products needed by the market with advanced means. Packaging designers must also know the relevant packaging production process, how to choose materials, how to use modern packaging manufacturing equipment, such as prepress processing equipment, post-press processing equipment.

In short, the future of packaging design is more to use the existing packaging and product packaging patterns, to choose between, and a reasonable combination, rather than the traditional packaging design, from scratch, start from scratch. Reference and combination are the mainstream of future packaging design. The appreciation of designers is the key to the success of packaging design.

Second , the packaging process tends to be simplified

Modern science and technology are used in the packaging field to make many packaging processes easier and more scientific and rational.

The packaging process mainly refers to the manufacturing process of the packaging process. The development of the packaging process is achieved through the development of related sciences. For example, the packaging molding process, the bonding process of the packaging, the printing process of the packaging, and the finishing process of the packaging all undergo a process of improvement. The molding process of packaging includes metal packaging, plastic packaging, paper packaging, and other composite packaging. Among them, in the past, plastic packaging, such as extrusion, hot pressing, stamping, etc., has been gradually used in the formation of paper packaging; past cardboard cardboard packaging convex (concave) molding is more difficult, and now has basically been resolved; plastic foam molding Technology has been widely used for foaming and forming of paper-type packaging products, so that paper packaging cannot be used for products that cannot be packaged in the past.

The packaging and printing treatment process is more scientific and applicable, and the packaging performance and effects have undergone significant changes. For example, waxing and laminating processes in the past for the surface treatment of packaging have gradually been replaced by surface gluing (spray-bonding), because the surface gloss of the wax is not good, and the single-sided film in the film is easy to make. Warp and deformation of the packaging products, and the use of double-sided lamination will bring difficulties to the cutting of subsequent processes.

The packaging and drying process has also been turned from ordinary heat drying to ultraviolet light curing, making the drying process more energy-efficient, fast, and reliable.

The packaging and printing process is more diversified. In particular, high-end merchandise packaging printing has adopted screen printing and four printing. There are also anti-counterfeiting packaging production processes, which have been turned from partial printing or production to integral large-area printing and production anti-counterfeiting.

Third, intelligent packaging machinery

The packaging machinery market is highly competitive. It is a fast-growing category of the packaging industry in China. Together with food machinery, it has become one of the ten categories of China's machinery industry.

The general trend of the development of packaging machinery: The current characteristics of packaging machinery tend to "three high" - high speed, high efficiency and high quality. The focus of development tends to be low energy consumption, light weight, compact structure, small footprint, high efficiency, appearance and environment adaptability, psychological needs of operators, and environmental protection requirements.
The development trend of foreign packaging machinery is: It embodies the advanced technology of modern advanced packaging machinery, especially the packaging machinery and equipment produced by science and technology and economically developed countries such as Europe, America and Japan. Its technology is accompanied by the development of science and technology and commodity economy. leading position. In recent years, on the one hand, in order to meet the diversified needs of modern commodity packaging, developed countries have developed multi-variety, low-volume general packaging technologies and equipment, while keeping pace with high-tech development, continuously applying advanced technologies, and developing and developing high-tech applications. Modern technology-specific packaging machinery. The new technologies applied include: Aerospace Industry Technology (Heat Pipe), Microelectronic Technology, Magnetic Technology, Information Processing Technology, Sensing Technology (Photonics and Chemistry), Laser Technology, Biotechnology and New Process Technology, New Mechanical components such as tapered synchronous toothed belt drives, new fiber optic materials, etc., tend to intelligentize a wide variety of packaging machinery.

The development trend of domestic packaging institutions is: on the basis of introduction, digestion, and absorption, there is a certain degree of innovation, and the technological content of products is also continuously improving. These packaging machinery products are being developed in the direction of electromechanical bonding, main and auxiliary equipment, and complete sets of connection. . There are some problems in the development of China's packaging machinery products, mainly how to face the competition of foreign companies and foreign-funded enterprises, how to improve the level of "threeizations" according to China's national conditions, achieve high-speed work, and diversify and increase the specifications of packaging products. Reliability and how to make food and pharmaceutical packaging machinery sterilized. Under the premise of improving the use performance and reliability of packaging machinery products, it will go toward electromechanical integration and control of computerization. Advanced design methods such as reliability design, optimization design, and computer-aided design are used to develop advanced machinery and components (parts), such as modular and modular, to improve the technological level of the product and the level of “three changes,” and to match the international quality system. In combination, vigorously develop various automatic detection technologies and equipments that are compatible with packaging machinery. At present, compared with advanced developed countries in terms of packaging machinery in China, there are gaps in certain processing technologies and certain components and some critical materials do not meet the requirements. Therefore, this aspect will be the future of packaging machinery in China. Focus on breakthroughs and solutions.

Third, the replacement and update of packaging materials

The quality of packaging depends largely on the properties of the packaging material. There can be no good packaging products without good packaging materials. Packaging new materials and packaging new technologies are the primary pursuit of packaging companies or research institutes. Now many new products and new processes must have new packaging materials in order to achieve good packaging results.

Based on environmental requirements, packaging materials that are environmentally unfriendly are urgently updated. New types of packaging materials are being developed, and some have achieved initial success, mainly in the following categories:

1. The plastic packaging represented by the EPS fast food box will be replaced by a new type of paper packaging.
In many places due to the hazards of plastic packaging waste, such as EPS fast food boxes, such as the amount of large, difficult to recycle and deal with the plastic packaging has been limited, the country has issued a document will be listed as the key to replace the packaging products. The new type of packaging produced from pulp and plant fibers has emerged as one of the key promotion programs of the State. Replacement EPS-type packaging products also include Eppl industry packaging liners.

2. Plastic bag packaging materials are moving toward soluble, non-polluting materials.

Many cities have banned the use of ultra-thin plastic bags (packages), so the environment-friendly plastic packaging materials are in urgent need of research and development. Such as composite materials in the composite plastic film, a variety of surface coating. Some researches on new materials that can replace existing plastic packaging materials have made progress. For example, water-soluble plastic films and other biodegradable plastic films have begun to be applied. In particular, some foreign companies are targeting large Chinese markets. For example, some Japanese companies began to seek partners in our country to establish joint ventures to produce soluble plastic films.

3. Wood packaging is looking for alternative packaging materials.

As the United States and other Western countries use the “Cattle” as an excuse to find wood products in Chinese export products, and restrict the export of Chinese products, any products that use wood packaging must undergo complex special treatment or be replaced with other materials. Due to the problem of cost and price, even heavy-duty corrugated boxes are difficult to handle. Therefore, at present, China is already working on research and we recommend using honeycomb cardboard boxes instead. However, it is necessary to solve the problems that the box can withstand gravity and handling strength.

4. Other new auxiliary packaging materials are also urgently studied. Such as adhesives, surface treatment agents, inks and so on. Many cartons in China have large paper consumption, high cost, and low strength, because the quality and performance of these auxiliary packaging materials cannot meet the requirements. In terms of packaging printing inks, environmental protection inks (or green inks for short) have become popular in the world, and China is currently vigorously developing. For example, Zhuzhou Institute of Technology cooperates with Shishchenko Group to develop several kinds of multifunctional water-based inks that have been mass-produced. The user responded well after use.

Fourth, packaging and processing integration

Many packaging technologies are based on new packaging ideas. Packaging new thinking is to detach existing packaging technologies and products, and apply other related technology combinations to packaging to form new packaging technologies. There are several types of technologies in this area:
1. Packaging curing technology - the update of curing and drying energy, from heat to light;
2. Packaging cutting technology - new cutting and forming equipment;
3. Combination of packaging and processing technology - a combination of packaging and processing;
4. Packaging function borrowing technology - packaging function beyond packaging, value-added effect;
5. Packaging function protection technology - Adding functional ingredients such as fresh-keeping, bactericidal, moisture-proof, anti-static and anti-odor to packaging materials.

In addition to the above five aspects, there should be other technologies, such as packaging technology for fresh produce (packaging for living packages). In addition, with the emergence of new packaging materials, some new changes have also occurred in the packaging process. Such as the emergence of dry stretch film, so that wrapping, shrinkage, banding and other processes into one, the operation is simplified and fast.

The most promising of these is the packaging and processing technology. It solves a lot of processing technology, directly borrows the packaging mechanism, realizes the integration of packaging and processing, and makes packaging more potential and effective.

Fifth, the packaging industry must rely on the industry

The development of packaging industrialization is achieved through the combination of technology and products in the market to increase market share. The packaging industry in the future should not only have characteristics but also have scale. Like Tetra Pak is relying on characteristics and technology to dominate the world. With the emphasis on environmental protection, the recycling of packaging will result in a new type of packaging industry, and there will be faster development.

The packaging industry must rely on the industry, backed by equipment and technology, and take the path of conglomeration. Many packaging companies founded or co-founded by cigarette factories, cosmetics factories, pharmaceutical factories, wineries, etc. have good product quality and economic benefits because they rely on the industry and have a stable market.
Specialization and technological innovation are the magic weapon for the packaging industry to be invincible in the competition, and technology-based packaging industries that are technology-led, such as professional can-making plants, bottle-making plants, lid-covering plants, and new-type packaging material plants. The greater the development, the typical representative of this type of packaging industry.