The future of offset printing (below)

Shorten production cycle For a long time, the printing speed of the printing press has always been a matter of great concern to printing companies. However, there are also some offset press manufacturers who believe that with the growth of short-lived and ultra-short live markets, the requirement for printing speed is no longer as high as it once was. “The speed and speed of the offset press have reached the peak,” said Tom Nishimura, chairman of Hamada. “For the 5,000 to 20,000 printed jobs, the current printing speed is sufficient. In the four-color printing order, Only 1% of jobs with more than 20,000 prints will be available, and there will be less and less in the future.” According to Tom Nishimura, offset press manufacturers are currently focusing on how to shorten the adjustment time of offset presses rather than designing and manufacturing faster offset presses. machine. To shorten the machine's adjustment time as much as possible, this is the key issue to improve the production efficiency. The operator of the printing shop spends an average of 50% of the time and effort on the adjustment of the printing press, that is, only the remaining 50% of the time and effort is actually used for printing production. People think that they should and must change this situation. ABDick's Newton said: "Therefore, it must be automated. Obviously, the offset printing industry is moving in the direction of digital printing presses. We can use the photo-composing machine as an example to do analogy. Now that we have direct-printing (CTP) System, you don't need to buy an imagesetter anymore, otherwise the cost will be too big, and if you buy a CTP system now, maybe after 7 years, you will feel regret again: You will feel that It's better to be able to image directly on the press, not only to save a lot of expenses, to reduce costs, but also to avoid failures in the print copy process, thereby increasing production efficiency and product quality." After all, the core and focus of technology Focus on automatic ink control, automatic print registration, automatic version change, and more. In addition, in the next few years, the automatic cleaning system for rollers and blankets will also be the focus of research and development, which will surely make great progress. The development of digital printing technology to talk about digital printing technology and digital printing machines, we can not fail to mention Heidelberg's 74 DI digital presses. Heidelberg's 74 DI digital press should be regarded as the most famous, most popular and more widely used digital press. The 74 DI printer has a larger format than the Quickmaster DI four-color printer. “In 1991, Quickmaster DI was put on the market, but only the presence of the 74 DI really satisfied the customer's needs,” Kendig said. “Customers say they need a larger format, a larger number of colors, and they also have the advantages of a traditional offset press. Some features, such as glazing and drying equipment, so why not choose Speedmaster? Why not image directly on the press?" "We believe that 74 DI is a pioneer in digital printing technology. And, I believe the printed version may also be Faced with elimination. Why do we make plates? Why not image directly on the rollers?” Many printing companies plan to introduce digital printing systems, but in reality, for most printing companies, a very real problem is, in the end, When will digital printing really be achieved? Perhaps 74 DI is a good example to a certain extent. Kendig said, “The 74 DI brought us real gospel from the beginning of the market. However, when the operator presses the button, after three minutes, it will get six register accurate plates, which is too It's amazing! It saves a lot of processes, saves time, saves money, reduces costs, and increases profits.” Kendig said that the key is whether it is necessary to choose digital printing technology, not just a rush to pursue one. Variety of vanity and satisfaction. Kendig said: "Like a decade ago, people asked me if all future presses will be self-printed. Just ten years ago, people said: 'Because old-fashioned printing and punching are still used, the automatic version is not What's the matter?'Well, now you can see which printing company is not using automatic printing. This is a leap forward in the process. With automatic printing, people can easily install the printing plate on the printing press. At the same time, we will complete the registration work of printing plates. Now we are discussing how to completely remove the plate making process.” Outlook Newton said: “In the printing industry, digital printing is currently in a dynamic growth trend, and, in 2001, It may be a huge turning point. By then, digital printing will become a necessity. Therefore, digital printing is very promising both from the process itself and from a technical point of view." Therefore, this requires Managers of enterprises should do a good job of market inspection and investigation before purchasing any major printing equipment to ensure that no matter what kind of equipment is purchased We can be compatible with the recent and upcoming technologies. As Valenta of Mann Rolland puts it: “The future of digital offset presses is to be able to use and operate the current performance of various offset presses. This is what customers need. However, new technological reforms cannot be in a vacuum. The implementation will inevitably involve many issues in many aspects, but also take into account the needs of the market.” A recent survey and research report showed that by 2005, the market share of offset printing in the field of publishing and printing will account for about 80%. Other media (including the Internet) will also affect the dynamic changes in the market. Heidelberg is aware of these issues: The development of various media is very rapid, but their respective growth rates are not the same. At present, some of the traditional media we know have a slightly slower growth rate, such as the printing industry. However, in the end everyone still agreed that in the next decade, offset printing will still be a very active process. Surch insists: “The paperless society will not exist at all. Science and technology are changing the traditional offset and offset technologies, but the major premise of embossing ink onto substrate materials will not change.”