Experience Digital Printing (2)

Third, several new digital printing presses

At the DRUPA 2000 exhibition, several new digital presses were exhibited as follows:

(I) XeiKon's CSP320D sheet-fed digital printing machine This machine is a double-sided digital color printing machine for sheet-fed color toners. It adopts the principle of electrophotography and its imaging resolution is 600*600 (dpi). Its maximum sheet size is 320 * 470 (mm), the largest printing format is 308 * 460 (mm), the substrate is paper, synthetic media, etc., the weight of the substrate is 80-300g/m2, the paper feeding method is the traditional offset printing machine same. A4 double-sided four-color printing speed of 960 pages / hour, mainly for the on-demand printing market. Such as: postcards, business cards, samples, promotional materials, calendar printing.

(II) Indigo's E-Print 1000+ Series Digital Printing Machine This machine is a sheet-fed liquid ink color digital printing machine. Using electrophotographic principle, imaging resolution is 800dpi, maximum paper size is 320*457 (mm), printing format is 308*437 (mm), paper weight is 90-300g/m2, printing speed: A4 single-sided four-color 2000 Zhang/hour, double-sided four-color 1000 sheets/hour.

(III) Manroland's DICOWeb web digital printing machine This machine adopts SQVARE SPOT thermal imaging technology from CreoSage Angels with a resolution of 3200dpi, printing size of 520-300 (mm), unlimited length, and substrates. The weight is unlimited and the printing speed is 3.5 meters/second. The machine adopts an open working platform and realizes a fully automated workflow from prepress, printing to postpress.

(d) Xerox's DOCU Col-or2060 color digital printer This machine uses toner to print, with a resolution of 600 dpi, capable of printing plain paper and art coated paper, substrate 64-280g/m2, A4 single-side printing speed For 3600 sheets/hour, double-sided printing is 1800 sheets/hour.

(5) Heidelberg's Nexpress 2100 color digital printer This machine is a product of Heidelberg and Kodak. Dry ink, printing format 350*470 (mm), paper weight 80-300g/m2, resolution 600dpi, can print up to 6 colors, single side printing speed: A4 is 4200 / hour, A3 is 2100 Zhang/hour.

(6) Versa Mark Business Color Press of Scitex Digital, a full-color web commercial digital printing machine

The aircraft has a resolution of 300*600 dpi, a printing speed of 500 feet/minute, and approximately 120,000 sheets per hour. The speed can be adjusted according to the complexity of the substrate, ink and page. This system provides great flexibility for various paper loading methods, such as web to web, web to sheet/stack, etc. It can also be linked to the binding equipment.

Fourth, the status quo and development prospects of the digital printing press market

Digital printing is a high-tech printing technology developed in the 1990s. In 1993, Indigo of Israel and Xeikon of Belgium also launched E-print1000 and DCP-1 color digital presses. Later, XeiKon gave OEMs of its products to companies such as Agfa, Barco and IBM. At the DRUPA show in 1995, different types of digital presses were exhibited, and digital printing set off a boom in the world. Since then, Xerox, Canon, Scitex, Heidelberg, Manroland and other companies have successively introduced various types of digital printing products. Especially at the DRUPA 2000 exhibition, digital print was unprecedented. At the Beijing International Printing Technology Exhibition in May this year, we also saw a number of new products exhibited by companies from various countries. The technology has matured.

Digital printing has developed rapidly in Europe and America in recent years. According to a recent survey conducted by Mark W. Fleming, the US digital printing consultant, he has discovered that digital printing publications and business printing have grown from 7 billion U.S. dollars in 1997 to 2,000 after investigating more than 90 industries that purchased and used printed materials. In the year of 11.4 billion US dollars, the growth rate reached 63%. It was also reported that the U.S. digital color print-on-demand products had reached 54% of all color activity in 2000. According to the survey of the American Printing Leaders Association, currently about 24% of the printing factories can provide digital printing services. In Europe, about 200,000 companies currently use full-color digital printing systems. According to Mr. Jeff Garbsen, the Kodak Polygraphics Group, digital printing has rapidly emerged in the on-demand printing and short-run market and is now estimated to have accounted for 7% of the industry's total output value. Mr. Benhardt Schailer, president of Heidelberg, pointed out that in the print market produced by high-end printing machines, which cost about 20 billion U.S. dollars per year, the annual sales volume of digital printing presses totals 4 billion U.S. dollars. The market growth of ordinary printing equipment is only a few percent, while the annual growth rate of digital printing machines is expected to reach 18%. So far, Heidelberg has invested approximately US$400 million in the development of digital presses, and has exhibited new products for digital printing development at DRUP A2000. Heidelberg’s goal is to achieve great results for digital printers in the coming years. Dominance. In the field of traditional printing presses, Germany’s leading companies Mann Rolland and KBA also actively launched serialized products for digital presses. The world-renowned large-scale printer manufacturers have entered the field of digital printing, reflecting the figures. Printing technology has broad prospects for development in the future.

The development trend of the printing industry is moving towards short editions and variable data printing, and is currently attracting customers in a personalized way. The US CAP Printing Survey Company predicts that the annual growth rate of print-on-demand retail sales in the United States will be 18%, which will increase from 21 billion U.S. dollars in 2000 to 48 billion U.S. dollars in 2005. A Heidelberg executive predicts that digital color presses will increase at a rate of 30% a year in the United States and reach $46 billion by 2008. The CAP Printing Survey Company also conducted investigations in Europe. It is forecasted that the annual growth rate of on-demand printing retail sales in Europe will be 22%, retail sales will increase from 8.610 billion euros in 1998 to 28.83 billion euros in 2004, and the printing market share will also be 20 % increased to 29%.

After several years of popularization and application of digital printing, its production process is almost fully accepted by people. The American Printing Leaders Association surveyed companies that wanted to add new equipment in the next two years, and 40% of respondents suggested adding digital presses, which is the highest percentage of companies preparing to purchase new equipment. After investigation, the association predicts that there will be a 350% increase in variable data printing sites in the United States from 1998 to 2002; and the number of variable data printers installed in these places will increase by 375%. By 2002, variable data printers only took away 2% of the business from the traditional lithographic presses. This shows that digital printing is developing a new on-demand printing market, rather than competing with the traditional offset printing business.

The wave of digital printing has affected China after DRUPA95. After Beijing Kunlun Electronic Printing Company introduced the first Indigo E-print1000 for China, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenyang and other places have introduced several companies. Ten sets of digital printing presses played a certain role in promoting our personalized on-demand printing market. However, a few years have passed and the development of digital printing in China is still very slow. Some companies have unsatisfactory business conditions. The main reasons are as follows: (1) Digital printing machines are expensive. Indigo, Agfa and other company products introduced in China have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars in price in recent years, making most companies unable to invest in them; (2) Enterprises are skeptical about China's on-demand printing market, and whether they can recover investment if they purchase expensive equipment. , raise doubts; (3) The price of digital printing products is higher. It is understood that a company in Beijing has introduced a digital printing machine from a foreign company. The A3 prints on one side, each printing fee reaches 6 yuan, and one printing starts. The printing fee is 120 yuan. Under the circumstances that the economic income of the vast majority of consumers is not yet high, some of the market's low-quality and cheap printing products are still welcomed by them; (4) The personalized printing market has no power to publicize, so that ordinary people do not understand and accept. This is the main reason that affects the development of digital printing in China.

The personalized on-demand printing market is developing abroad. With China's continuous reform and opening up this year, joining the World Trade Organization, the economy will develop rapidly. The personalized on-demand printing market will develop normally. Since the late 1990s, potential changes have taken place in China's printing market. The main performances are as follows: (1) In the field of book printing, the number of books is increasing, the number of prints is also decreasing, and bookstore sales are accelerating. , and require the book printing cycle is getting shorter and shorter. According to relevant statistics, China's short-run printing will account for 60% of books and periodicals. Digital printing can meet the requirements of this fast, short-run, on-demand printing market; (2) In the office business printing market, the types of printed materials used by offices and companies in the daily office business are increasing, and the number of prints is small, requiring fast printing. Such as briefing materials, proposal charts, feasibility reports, alerts, notices, tenders, evaluation reports, annual reports, etc. Make digital printing a lot of business; (3) In the commercial printing market, as the people's material and cultural standards increase, people's consumption concepts began to change, the proportion of commercial printing increased, personalized, variable information printing increased year by year Large, such as hotel and hotel profiles, menus, personalized business cards designed according to personal preferences, wedding invitations, personal calendars, desk calendars, greeting cards, graduation albums, family albums, wedding albums, design portfolios, etc. all make personalized on-demand The printing market is getting bigger and bigger. For the above-mentioned personalized and variable information printing market, traditional offset printing has been ineffective, and only digital printing can meet this growing market demand. It can be said that the potential of China's on-demand printing market is huge, and the outlook is bright. It can be predicted that with the continuous development of digital printing technology and the world market, the prices of digital printing equipment and consumables will all drop, and the investment of enterprises will become possible. Reduced, China's digital printing will soon form an industry, and can get rapid development.

Digital printing has formed a new market. We must strengthen publicity and do a good job of nurturing market work. First of all, digital printing equipment vendors must adopt a variety of preferential measures so that enterprises can afford equipment and more enterprises can join the industry. The number of enterprises engaged in digital printing increases, and the on-demand printing market can form a In the big climate, people's ideas can gradually change with the market. Again, it is to increase marketing efforts. Enterprises can take the approach of requesting customers to enter the factory or go to customers. Through the demonstration, they can experience the function and superiority of digital printing.

Due to its unique advantages, digital printing makes it play a special role in the on-demand printing market. Especially with the continuous expansion of Internet coverage, when digital printing technology and network technology are combined, online printing will develop rapidly. The on-demand printing market formed by digital printing will become an attractive industry.