In the early days of the founding of New China, tobacco products were mainly cut tobacco and paperback cigarettes in the 1970s. The packaging of cut tobacco is done by hand, and the trademark is a small square label. Cigarette equipment is mostly semi-automatic simple paperback cigarette maker and simple semi-automatic direct packaging machine. One end of the small packaging trademark paper has a tear about one centimeter long, which is left by the cigarette separation needle that separates the cigarette label when packaging directly. In the middle and late 1950s, the tobacco industry began to use the new China paperback cigarette machine. All the strips were finished by hand, and the labels of the strips were attached to the seals on both sides. At that time, the trademark design was simple, with few colors and rough printing; Simple moisture-proof paper is used in the small bag to prevent moisture, and the shelf life is short.
In the middle and late 1950s, the national tobacco industry began to implement public-private partnership, and the people's government increased its investment and transformation in the tobacco industry. The new 8 1S filter-tip cigarettes are very popular with consumers. At that time, the cigarette equipment was mainly the clamp-type splicing machine and the simple direct-package packaging machine matched with the new China cigarette machine, and the wrapping paper of the small package was moisture-proof with aluminum foil paper, which extended the shelf life of the product. Printing technology has been greatly improved, and multi-color overprinter makes the trademark of the product more exquisite.
In the 1960s, the national tobacco industry implemented a major alliance, and all cigarette production units were marked with "China Tobacco Industry Company", and the factory name was printed on the seal or the side of the trademark. In the mid-1960s, the technical transformation of most factories was stopped, and many cigarette brands were named after the slogan of "Cultural Revolution", and labels such as "All Red" and "Quotation" appeared one after another.
At the end of 1970s after the Cultural Revolution, the country gradually implemented the policy of reform and opening-up, and the tobacco industry began to introduce foreign advanced cigarette equipment, such as MK8 cigarette unit and AMF-3000 packaging unit produced in Britain, and the single machine production speed increased from 1000 cigarettes/minute to 3000 cigarettes/minute. At the same time, domestic YJ 13 packaging machine and other equipment have been introduced, and the automation level of cigarette production has been continuously improved. For example, cigarette production is changed from cigarette maker and cigarette receiver to one unit (YJ 14 cigarette unit); Small packaging is changed from straight packaging to horizontal packaging (it can be distinguished from the shape of cigarette labels and the crease direction on old cigarette labels); Strip packaging technology has changed from manual packaging to mechanized production. Packaging technology has realized the online production of small package machine, small package transparent machine, strip package machine and strip package transparent machine (AMF3000 packaging unit), and initially realized the automation of packaging production.
In the aspect of cigarette label printing, with the application of color printing technology, cigarette label patterns become rich and colorful. Because it was the joint period of cigarette production at that time, the brands of various cigarette factories could be exchanged for production, so the same brand would be produced by several cigarette factories. For example, the "Fengshou" brand cigarettes produced by Guangzhou No.1 Cigarette Factory can see the cigarette labels produced by Guangzhou No.1 Cigarette Factory, Guangzhou No.2 Cigarette Factory, Meizhou Cigarette Factory and Guangzhou Cigarette General Factory. Factory name labels gradually return to front printing.
Since the 1980s, the country has carried out the reform and opening-up policy in an all-round way, cigarette enterprises have taken the lead and the pace of introducing equipment has been accelerating. Cigarette makers range from MK8 to MK95 and Super MK95 in Britain, LOF3000 and LOGA6000 in France to PROTOS packaging machines from AMF3000 in Britain to SASIB6000, GDX 1 and GDX2 in Italy. The machine speed increased from 3000 to 10000.
Packaging technology is changing with each passing day. From the appearance changes of cigarette labels, it can be seen that the transverse corner cutting trademark packaging of soft bags is mainly AMF unit and SASIB packaging unit; Soft package horizontal right-angle trademark packaging is mainly GDX 1 and BE packaging unit, which is characterized by vacuum separation of trademark paper and no tearing of trademark paper. Hard box packaging mainly includes domestic Tianjin YB4 1 packaging unit and GDX2 packaging unit. With the introduction of complete tobacco conveying equipment, filter conveyor, packaging machine and other equipment, the packaging methods are horizontal packaging and hard box packaging; On-line production of cigarette machine and packaging machine makes the process of cigarette production from cut tobacco to packaging and warehousing complete at one time, and the technological process of cigarette production is fully automated. The cigarette industry has entered a period of rapid development.
In the packaging and decoration design of cigarette labels, various factories vigorously explore local themes, design famous people, folk customs, geography, landscapes, trees, flowers and birds and other characteristic cultures on cigarette labels, and adopt various technologies such as color matching, laser and anti-counterfeiting to try their best to attract consumers' attention and seize the consumer market.
In the change of cigarette quality, we can see that with the increasing awareness of "smoking is harmful to health", the tar content and nicotine in cigarettes of various cigarette factories are developing in the direction of low harm. From the cigarette labels of the same brand in different periods, it can be seen that the contents of the above two indicators are declining, and low-harm cigarettes are loved by people.