Differences between Bottom Printing ＆ Top Printing Carton Machines

Two different printing types of case maker / carton making machine, top printing type and bottom printing type.

Top printing type is printing patterns on the top surface of the cardboard, so the slotting and die cutting will cut from the bottom surface of the cardboard to protect the printing surface.?And the folding will be down folding.

Bottom printing type is printing patterns on the bottom surface of the cardboard, so the slotting and die cutting will cut from the top surface of the cardboard to protect the printing surface.?And the folding will be up folding.

The macro-function of the two types of carton machines is the same, making corrugated cardboard to be carton boxes.?

Below are the difference in detail between the top printing type and the bottom printing type carton machines.

1. For Feeder unit?-- No matter the top printing machine or bottom printing machine, both of the machines have vacuum cleaner and brush cleaner. But, there may be still some dust on the top surface of the cardboard while making rolling paper to be corrugated cardboard, so that the bottom surface will be cleaner.

2. For Printer unit?-- Top printing is printing patterns on the top surface of cardboard, bottom printing is printing patterns on the bottom surface of cardboard. Printing on the bottom surface means the printing plate and anilox roller are at the bottom side of the cardboard, so the gravity will make the layout of the ink be better.

3. For Slotter unit?-- top printing means cutting from external side of the box. Bottom printing means cutting from internal side of the box. It's obvious from the below picture that the cutting shape of bottom pritning is more beautiful.

*?bottom printing?- the zigzag cutting shape is at box's internal

* top printing?- the zigzag cutting shape is at box's external

* tips: you can check a box which made by top printing type machine, and see if the slotting shape at outside of the box is with zigzag cutting shape, and the slotting shape at the inside of the box is plain shape.

Guess you have no box on hand, so update a video of box cuttine.

4. For Die-cutter unit?-- For top printing machine, the cutting die roller is at the bottom side of cardboard, because the printing image was on the top surface of cardboard, so the setting is to protect the printing surface. For bottom printing machine, the cutting die roller is at the top side of cardboard, so the waste paper in the cutting die can drop off better because of the gravity.

5. For Folder Gluer Count Ejector?-- Top printing machine is down folding, and bottom printing machine is up folding. The design of folder gluer for the two types of machine is twice staking and twice squaring, so both of bottom printing and top printing type machine can have good box shape, as below picture.

Also, bottom printing machine will have higher height in the machine dimension.

The reason why American and European clients prefer bottom printing is that their operators get used to the operation of bottom printing machine, and the performance of bottom printing type machine do better than top printing type machines. But the cost of bottom printing type machine will be 8%-15% higher than top printing type machine.

Generally speaking, the difference is not vast, the macro-function is the same, and both of two types of machines can work well on corrugated box production.

So would you like to pay the higher cost for the bottom printing type machine?

About the top printing type machine and bottom printing type machine, both of the two machines are printing boxes on one side of the cardboard, so the printing pattern is on the outside of the box.

Then there is the question, which kind of machine can print on two sides of the cardboard, means printing patterns on outside of the box and inside of the box, as below picture.

Video of the two types machines

1. Bottom printing type machine

https://youtu.be/ejEGc7ab7NA (with detailed function explanation)

https://youtu.be/6E0oQCmjyY4 (machine in Mexico)

2. Top printing type machine

https://youtu.be/QMTbNGaZ7O0 (with detailed function explanation)

https://youtu.be/qK9BqbVJAQ8 (machine in Korea)

Giant Packaging Machinery company is the manufacturer of carton making machines, such as flexo printing, slotting, die-cutting, gluing, stitching, folding, etc.

Giant is a wholly Korean-owned enterprise, factory in Korea & China.?Giant machines all have national patents and CE certification, already passed audit by BV, SGS.

Contact us for more details.