The plastic cup printing machine is a specialized equipment used to print patterns, logos, text, and other content on the surface of plastic cups. It utilizes advanced printing technology to achieve high-precision and high-quality printing on plastic cups of various shapes and sizes. It is widely used in industries such as food packaging, beverages, and catering.

Specialized Printing Equipment for Disposable Plastic Cups.

The core challenge of this highly specialized printing equipment lies in achieving high-quality multi-color pattern printing on the conical, non-absorbent plastic surface.

I. Work Introduction (Workflow)

The workflow of a fully automatic offset printing machine can be summarized into the following core steps:

Automatic Feeding:Workers place stacked plastic cups into the hopper of the equipment.Through an automatic separation device (like a starwheel), the cups are separated one by one in an orderly manner and conveyed to cup holders on the transmission chain or conveyor belt.

Pre-Printing Treatment (Crucial) - Corona Treatment:Plastic cups (especially PP material) have low surface energy and are inert, making ink adhesion difficult.

Before printing, the cups pass through a corona treatment device. This device uses high-voltage discharge to alter the molecular structure of the plastic cup surface, increasing surface energy and roughness, thereby significantly improving ink adhesion and preventing printed patterns from peeling.

Positioning and Conveying:The cups are precisely positioned on servo motor-driven cup holders.Each cup holder can rotate during conveyance. This is the key to achieving uniform printing on the conical surface.

Printing:This is the core ink. When the cups intermittently pass each printing unit with the transmission chain:

Ink delivery system: Takes ink from the ink fountain and, through a series of ink rollers (ductor roller, vibrating roller, distributor roller), evens out the ink and delivers it to the plate cylinder.

Inking: Even ink is applied to the image areas of the printing plate (relief or resin plate).

First transfer-Plate to Blanket: The plate cylinder contacts the blanket cylinder, transferring the ink from the plate's image areas onto the elastic rubber blanket.

Second transfer - Blanket to Cup: The blanket cylinder, carrying the ink, presses down onto the surface of the rotating plastic cup. Due to the elasticity of the blanket, it conforms well to the conical cup surface, completely transferring the pattern.

Each printing unit is responsible for one color. A machine with 6 units performs 6-color printing; 6 units perform 6-color printing. All colors are overprinted sequentially in a single pass,Ultimately forming the complete color pattern.

Drying and Curing

Plastic is non-absorbent, so the printed ink cannot dry quickly through penetration like on paper.

After printing, the cups immediately enter a UV curing system. High-intensity UV (ultraviolet) light irradiation instantly causes the photosensitive resin components in the UV ink to polymerize, solidifying the ink from liquid to solid within fractions of a second, firmly adhering it to the cup. This process is fast, involves no volatiles, and is environmentally friendly.

Automatic Collection

The cured cups are conveyed to the collection section.

Through mechanical hands or chutes, the cups are re-stacked for worker packaging or directly connected to the next production process (like sleeving, boxing).