Tinplate printing process and characteristics
Printing plays a vital role in metal tin products especially packaging. We generally proceed tin plate sheet with custom printing firstly, then canned with production process bending, stretching, flanging and others which require high strength and adhesion to prevent the coating film and ink layer from being deformed, cracked, or even falling off from the tinplate. Therefore a layer of paint is essential between tinplate and ink to approve adhesion.
Tinplate printing is finished on the printing iron production line and this line comprises feeding equipment, offset printing unit, coating unit, drying room and film-receiving equipment.
full-color technique
Most widely used for printing tinplate is the offset full-color technique. Different custom printing demands can be mainly divided into the below options:
white base printing Coating
This is one of the major printing process for custom printed tins. Before any other color printing (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key/black), we shall proceed white coating on tinplate firstly. The printing on a white surface, which makes it impossible to obtain a transparent or fully metallic effect. Nice quality custom artwork printing would be easy to achieve based on accurate white coating . This line is for white coating mainly.
Fully metallic printing
This printing always be chosen when some tin packaging requests high shiny and metallic feel such as Christmas ball tin, star tins, perfume tin can, candle tin, gift tins etc. Proceeding transparent silver or gold ink on tinplate and then go on other CMYK color or spot color printing steps. Let’s check below custom project.
Partial Metallic Printing
This is one of the major printing options for food or gift tins. On silver or gold coating tinplate, to print somewhere with white color before CMYK color printing process. We can regularly see that the barcode is printed on white surface to be easily recognized when scanning. Some customer brand prefers major artwork to be metallic look, some customer brand prefers major artwork to be printed based on white and small part to be metallic all that can be customized as per your idea.
CMYK color printing
CMYK color（Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key/black） printing machines, one line all CMYK color printing completed. CMYK printing is the most popular and common application for metal tin plate printing.
All of tin containers internally being coated with one paint on the surface to have corrosion resistance, good adhesion, flexibility, non-toxic, odorless and meet the requirements of food safety. Today printing techniques have been improved rapidly to meet people’s high quality demand. Great quality CMYK colors printing are completed on below line and dried after.
Pantone Color Printing
Pantone color (spot color) printing machine proceed pantone colors printing after CMYK printing finished for the artwork with CMYK+pantone colors. On this line we can do 2 pantone colors printing or matte finish printing process.
Matte and gloss vanishing
For tinplate with fully matte or fully gloss varnish, they shall be proceeded on the same machine like above first white coating machine. This is the last step to finish custom tin orders printing. This essential process to make sure tin box printing quality during tinplate bending, strentching, stamping and to prevent the coating film and ink layer from being deformed, cracked, or even falling off from the tinplate.
If you need any other custom packaging solutions for your custom tins, please feel free to contact us.​
Our custom tin packaging design services cater to a wide range of products. Whether you’re looking for personalized metal tin cans, canister, or jars, we’ve got you covered. All our packaging materials are crafted from sustainable and recyclable materials. You can select one of our molds and personalize it with custom-printed designs. Alternatively, we can assist you in creating a brand-new and unique custom packaging solution from scratch.
