Breakthroughs in many areas of printing - digitization and informationization

In recent years, breakthroughs in the field of printing technology have been multifaceted. The most prominent should be the JDF-based open workflow solution suitable for different application areas. The overall solution for digital printing that directly applies this technology is : Digital printing technology based on digital imaging technology and variable information printing and digital printing technology based on digital prepress system combined with traditional printing (combination of CTP technology and traditional printing equipment).

One, JDF

Workflow solutions based on JDF, suitable for different application areas, such as Prinect workflow management system from Heidelberg. Prinect's internal software is based on JDF. Products based on JDF, such as Prinect Express, and products with JDF interface extensions such as Prinect and Prinance management software can be integrated into the new workflow. in. Peking University Founder Group launched a streamlined digital workflow management system that uses PDF as an internal file format, adopts the JDF industry standard format as an electronic work ticket to pass job parameters throughout the process, uses net.JAVA as a research platform, and completes workflows. The processing plan and work ticket processor can be easily and quickly automated including standardization, prepress preflight, trapping, color management, screen preview, folding, imposition, digital proofing, film or plate output, ink control output, Automated archive control, J0F information import and export, remote copying and other tasks. Creo introduces a full Chinese workflow management system, including Prinergy Prinergy Workflow, Prinergy Evo Prinergy Evo workflow, and Preps imposition software, which provides page processing, proofing, film and direct plate output. A complete set of workflow management tools and includes a powerful database. The highly localized system is tailor-made for Chinese printers.

Any one print can constitute a process, but how to effectively build and execute is the key to the profitability of the printing company. Those workflow solutions that were specially developed and modulated allowed the printers to find a profitable road while finally seeing that digital printing was the solution. Of course, the construction of a digital workflow requires a relatively high information environment. The threshold is not low. How far a Chinese printing company is from the digital workflow, and many companies have begun to seriously consider this issue.

Second, digital printing system

There are more than 30 top digital printing companies around the world. These include major companies in the digital printing industry such as Kodak Versamark, Kodak NexPress, Fuji Xerox, Xeikon, EFI, OCE, HP Indigo, and Scite. Its digital printing system includes imaging technologies such as optical imaging, inkjet imaging, electro-agglomeration imaging, and magnetic recording imaging, as well as various types of digital printing equipment and digital production integrated solutions using dry toner and wet toner as raw materials. . Although the printing quality and speed of digital printing systems have been greatly improved, they have been developed to high speed, high quality, wide format, and automation. However, at present, in some areas, it is still unable to replace traditional printing, which is mainly reflected in high-quality print and batch printing speeds. Therefore, its main application areas are: commercial express printing, institutional printing, finance, telecommunications, postal services, insurance, etc. Small batch print publishing, packaging labels, card printing, and other fields with higher requirements for variable data printing.

At the same time, another development of the digital printing system has evolved from display technology to market-based application. In commercial personalized printing, label printing, security printing, various professional ticket printing, barcodes, and variable data. In areas such as printing and traditional printing, digital printing takes advantage of its high-efficiency processing of information and is unique in the world. Digital printing not only changes the pattern of the printing market, but also constantly explores and creates new market space, bringing a brand-new printing concept to the printing industry—printing is information service, and the era of digital informatization in the printing industry is beginning to come.

Third, CTP

CTP technology has matured, improved, and entered the stage of industrialization. Such as heat-treatment plates, purple laser CTP, UV exposure CTcP, and super-large-format CTP editions that are exempted from treatment are all competing. Creo's flagship brand of CTP equipment, Trendsetter, boasts quad-based thermal imaging and is exemplary in terms of quality, efficiency and reliability. The screen company's "Cho" series CTP can meet the requirements of various printing presses' printing formats and different media output speeds. The chemical-free processing of CTP plates is the development direction, and the Xcalibur 45 platesetter and Azura chemical-free thermal plates have become the highlights. After sensitizing the Azura plate, you only need to rinse with water and gluing, then you can print on the machine to ensure the quality and environmental protection requirements. Sublima's sublimation sites are realized on the CTP, meaning that 3401pi printing can be easily achieved. This technology is also quite eye-catching. In recent years, purple laser CTP has developed rapidly. Its advantages are low laser price, long life, high sensitivity, fast imaging speed, and high-polymer polymeric plate material technology. Compared with the thermal and violet laser technologies, CTcP is not only very competitive in terms of platemaking quality and efficiency, but also has the advantage of low cost, and can better complete the transition from analog to digital without conflict. Open up new areas for CTP applications. The problem of heat, violet, and CTcP is good or bad. I am afraid that this problem can only be determined by the market. Buying quality, or pursuing low cost, can have different priorities for users, but customers are looking forward to both.

Fourth, printing equipment

It is the eternal theme of printing technology to increase production capacity and added value, improve quality, reduce energy consumption of consumables and operating costs. To achieve this goal, the integrated production and digitization workflow has begun to take the stage. In the concept of integrated production, printing equipment is no longer a traditional concept of isolated equipment, but the node of the entire production network system, must be able to accept the implementation of open standardization instructions, complete the equipment automatically preset, and can monitor in real time, Adjustment and management. Therefore, the equipment itself must be a highly automated and open system. Automatic printing plate replacement, automatic cleaning roller, automatic ink control system, automatic overprint system, programmable smart board, etc. are used to improve the system automation and intelligent configuration. Prominent, and the standard module as a unit, flexible configuration, composition of the system, and successfully docked with the digital workflow, has become the mainstream of printer design Traditional printing equipment is still multi-color, a variety of specifications format, to adapt to a variety of heavy thickness Paper, wiring, and the development of reduced auxiliary operation time (downtime). Different configurations of five-color, six-color and eight-color units can complete full-color + spot color (including metal ink) + variable information + UV glazing, and double-sided full-color printing, super large-format printing, printing + mold Cutting, printing + binding and other printing equipment continue to make brilliant appearance, it is dizzying.

The highly intelligent configuration makes its operation very agile. The application of shaftless (electronic shaft), seamless, inkless, and sleeve technology will revolutionize the development of printers. Non-shaft (electronic shaft) drive, ie, real-time independent drive technology, not only eliminates mechanical transmission errors, simplifies mechanical transmission structure, facilitates modular design, but also enables variable adjustment of drum arrangement structure, adjustable drum diameter adjustment (This is also the dream of printer designers dreams). In combination with the seamless sleeve technology, it can achieve zero useless printing, zero pressure loss and vibration printing, adapting to multiple formats, multiple line cutting sizes, multiple kinds of heavy paper, and printing of multiple types of printing materials. It will also make the currently relatively silent machine-to-plate (D1) technology use a new place (translating machine-to-machine plate directly to sleeve-making is very simple).

The application of shaftless drive and sleeve technology in rotary machines has become very common. Manroland, KBA, and GOSS have many models of shaftless driving rotary machines. It is worth noting: BEIREN NT3145 and NT3175 two tower printers developed by the Beiren Group of domestic companies, Gravure rotary machines introduced by Shaanxi Beiren, and URB-H type tower structure web rotation launched by Shanghai Goss Machines have adopted shaftless drive technology, which shows that domestic printer companies have made progress in applying this technology.

In the sheet-fed printing presses, the shaftless technology has also begun to be applied. The plate cylinder on Manroland 700 is directly driven by an independent motor, while other rollers still adopt the conventional driving mode, so that the unit operation can be flexibly adjusted. Can be independently changed version. However, the non-shaft prototype with variable diameter seamless sleeve technology is still rare. It can be seen that the new concept of realizing variable structure and variable diameter has many technical difficulties that need to be overcome and solved. However, this development trend of printers is beyond doubt.