New Solution to Digital Printing and Offset Offset Printing

With the changes in the market, printers have finally found a space where digital printing and lithographic offset technology coexist.

In the past decade, the debate between digital printing and lithographic offset printing has continued. Now when the passions of the two printing technologies collide, most people's attention changes. The printers are no longer staring at the process. Digital printing and offset printing have been used as a combination to work together to increase the competitiveness in the market, and no longer rely on their own strengths and weaknesses alone.

Jon Brunken, the creator of Creo's product management department, who is now a Kodak company, said: "To be honest, we didn't expect that the competitive relationship between digital printing and lithographic offset would take such a long time. Successful companies It has been seen that digital printing and offset printing are two complementary technologies. In many cases, both can jointly provide customers with complete market solutions."

It is worth mentioning that digital printing and lithographic offset printing are complementary technologies, but it has also caused many vendors, printers and printing customers to confuse the scope of digital printing. For some people, all the concepts of digital printing are about documents. If digital documents pass through all the rollers they print, then this completes digital printing; for others, all the concepts of digital printing are about ink. The use of toner in printing instead of traditional ink, then became digital printing. Finally, there is another view that if the printer can print data files that can be changed on every page, then this is digital printing.

According to Howard Howie Fenton, senior consultant for digital technology at the American Offset Printing Association (NAPL), the definition of digital printing based on ink may be the most common method. No matter how you view or define digital printing, it is an objective reality. According to the American Printing Industry Association / Graphic Arts Foundation (PIA/GATF), digital printing is considered to be the fastest growing segment in the printing industry.

Technical partner

Laurie Haryman, owner of Queen City Imaging in New York, said: “By benefiting from the satisfaction of digital printing to customers and other good word of mouth, our business conditions have improved rapidly. "She bought this company in 1998 when it was a very small copying center. In 2000, she wanted to increase her business and reduce costs, so she had printed two Ryobi color digital offset presses. Since then, she has integrated digital presses such as the Océ 3165 and the Canon 6000 into the company's operations along with the finishing equipment. She recently purchased the Océ VarioPrint 2090 with a patent on offset offset printing. Quinn Image uses offset printing for color cover printing, and then prints the variable data through the Océ VarioPrint 2090 digital press.

Dillon Mooney, PIA/GATF's technical advisor, has been in contact with many integrated printing processes. He said: "Color printing on the offset press, and then printing on the digital press. This is a good way for the printer to integrate the two technologies." Mooney warned that the use of ink and The moisture content of printed sheets may cause some problems. Digital printers that use toners use heat to melt the toner and then transfer it onto paper. If no laser security ink was used in the previous lithographic offset process, the ink on the printed sheet will melt during the digital printing process. Another problem is the moisture content of the paper. The high temperature of the digital printing process can dry the paper and curl the paper at the same time, jamming the paper during printing, printing and folding. If the situation continues to occur in print production, it will be very bad. If the press operator transfers the paper printed by the digital printer to the offset printing press, there is also a problem of humidity. Very dry paper absorbs moisture and deforms during printing on the offset press. Mooney added: "This is not simply a matter of simply printing a sheet of paper from one device to another and printing it on another device. You must be very careful about your raw materials."

Not only did the printers successfully solve these problems themselves, digital printer vendors were also trying to avoid these problems entirely. Bruce Ganger, senior sales director at Océ North America, points out that offset digital offset printing is designed to replace high-temperature melting with low-temperature melting. In addition, Océ has also developed a single-component toner including a developer. Due to the inclusion of the developer, the primary cause of inconsistent print quality due to deterioration of the developer is also eliminated. Low-temperature melting, single-component inks and shorter, simpler printing together ensure the stability of the printing. Copy Press technology also allows printers to print on more substrates. This low-temperature melting capability allows the press to print heavy, light, coated, and glossy papers at a constant speed.

Technology Alliance

The combination of short-run, low-cost digital output devices and high-quality lithographic offset technology – direct-imaging (DI) presses, offers the greatest advantage of both technologies. Presstek, as a pioneer in the industry, launched a DI solution in 1990 to provide jobs for the production of digital printing between small batch production and traditional offset large-volume printing. Presstek technology is still the core technology of most DI press equipment.

Digital printing machines use toner printing, so it is very close to the effect of laser printing, and DI printing press is the process of high-speed automated waterless offset printing using ink. Like traditional offset printing, DI printing requires plates and inks. But unlike traditional offset printing, the plate is already installed on the press before imaging. This reduces job preparation time, and automated operations also reduce many errors.

John Schuck, the global vice president of Kodak Poly Optical Digital Printing, stated: “The new generation of DI printers provides offset quality in an efficient and profitable manner. The DI printer is the best choice for controlling the short-run color printing market. ”

"I saw more and more companies owning two types of equipment. We believe digital printing includes the transmission of data information directly to the equipment, not just the company." Whether to use toner ink or whether it has variable data printing capabilities.” Manroland's DICO web offset press uses Creo's square dot laser to cure the polyester layer directly onto the cylinder inside the press, and The effect of this polyester is very similar to the image on the plate. When printing is complete, an automatic cleaning device removes these images from the roller like a blanket cleaning unit on a conventional offset press. The device takes only 12 minutes to clean the image, re-image, and fix the image. It can use heat to fasten more than 500 plates to the roller, and then can reach the printing rate of 30,000 sheets.

According to Don Tritan, vice president and general manager of Xedex Corp., a sales and marketing company for Ryobi DI printing presses in the United States, “With the continuous improvement of functions, DI presses have been able to adapt to different printing needs. Our sales target includes business. Printing companies, express printing centers, trade stores and service agencies. They use DI equipment to print everything from color brochures, newsletters and even greeting cards."

Joel Dinehart, manager of small-format printing products in Heidelberg, USA, recommends that printers considering the introduction of DI technology should pay attention to refurbished DI equipment, which is only half the price of new equipment. "As long as 150,000 U.S. dollars, you can own an installer's latest RIP refurbished equipment. One of the advantages of the DI printer is that you can upgrade RIP to the latest version at any time, and you can bring more profits."

Cost and demand are the key

Obviously, both offset printing and digital printing have their own advantages. In addition to the advantages of long-run printing speeds, offset printing also offers a wider range of printing than digital printing, the use of more ink types, more color and paper sizes, and higher print quality. Bruce Ganger, Senior Sales Director at Océ North America, points out that “offset printing is still the way big projects are printed. No one with normal thinking will print 900 million books on digital presses, such as the latest version of Harry Potter. There is no doubt about this series."

The Xeikon brand of Punch Graphix USA has established a strong position in the digital product market. By August, the company’s sales of the Saikon 5000 had exceeded the 2004 total. The Xeikon 5000 is a color digital printer with a speed of up to 130ppm, a resolution of up to 600dpi, dry toner, and unique One-Pass-Duplex technology. Webcopy printer Expresscopy has just installed four Xeikon 5000s. Its purpose is to help complete more than 125,000 postcard prints per day. Liditz, general manager and CEO of Expresscopy, said: “The Xeikon 5000 and X-800 digital total control systems form the core of our process. We have about 90% of the jobs are required to print on both sides, so a paper feed Double-sided printing is the best choice for our process."

Of course, the cost is also a key factor in determining which way to print. In response to this, there is usually some contention. Most people think that the best cost for each page needs to be determined based on the entire job. Our interviewer provided us with a four-color job accounting method as a tool to determine which method is the best.

Dillon Mooney, technical consultant of PIA/GATF, believes that the competition between offset printing and digital printing is only between 3,000 and 7,000. Below 3,000 sheets, customers will choose digital printing, and customers will select offset printing for more than 7,000 sheets. Finton, senior adviser to NAPL digital technology, believes that over 5000 years has been considered as the demarcation point. If more than 5,000 sheets are to be selected for offset printing, digital printing will be selected if it is less than 5,000 sheets.

Heidelberg's Dean Hart said: “We believe that digital printing is the right solution for the short-lived 500-7000.” Meanwhile, Steve Sankoh, Director of North America Marketing at Presstek, said: “The DI printer is 300-5000. The best choice for a job, but this press can also be used for jobs of 15,000 or more."

Finally, Creo's Bu Kanken concluded that the printing customer may consider digital printing or offset printing to complete the job between 1000-5000. This series of answers also shows that this question is difficult to answer. The final choice is determined by the type of job, the printing cycle, and the type of evaluation for digital printing or offset printing.

Technical sale

Dr. Joe Webb, founder and advisor of the Outlook Weekly Survey Center, which provides survey services for the printing industry distributors, praised the technology, but believed that everyone should pay more attention to the market. He thinks: “There is a gap between the printers' perception of their own evaluations and their customers. The printers often do not understand the nature of the products they want to sell within the context of printing customer needs and expectations. Businesses can be more successful."

PrintManagement, a printing company in Ohio, is an example of successful response to the market. The company just started with only a five-color press and four dual-color presses, as well as a finishing press. In 2003, the company purchased a Xerox DocuColor 6060 color digital press and quickly acquired the original customer's digital printing business. Recently, the company purchased a Xerox iGen3 digital press to replace the original five-color press. The company's executive vice president Brian Frank said: "When we make these changes, some vendors are very shocked. But this is very beneficial to our customers. They are able to achieve high-quality short-lived Excited."

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