The reason why inkjet printing can get a slice of the traditional printing market is that its single printing job cost is lower. Nevertheless, inkjet printing still cannot replace traditional offset printing or screen printing, because its printing speed is not so exciting. satisfaction. Now, the emergence of UV curing technology has made UV curing inkjet printing greatly improved in printing speed.
In fact, UV curing technology has already penetrated into all kinds of printing equipment, printing inks and printing materials (sheets or rolls, even textiles), making these new equipment printing faster, higher resolution, applicable For more printing materials, and a higher degree of automation. It can be said that the UV printing technology saved inkjet printing so that it can be applied to new markets-those new fields that were not thought of and developed.
The UV family expands again
1. Expansion of the UV printing market
If you participated in a recent printing exhibition, such as the ISA held in 2007, more than ten UV printing equipment debuted, and at the SGIA exhibition held in the autumn of 2006, more than ten UV printing equipment were also launched for the first time. In just one year, more than 20 new types of UV printing equipment have been launched on the market. Such an unprecedented scale is a significant improvement for the UV printing market.
"We believe that the UV inkjet printing market will continue to grow strongly globally, and the sales rate of new UV printing equipment will be increased by 30% per year." InfoTrends / CAP Ventures head of large-format printing Tim Greene said, "More Multiple business options, improved image output quality, environmental protection, and the drive to new markets such as the printing of hard surface substrates have made UV inkjet printing highly active. "
InfoTrends predicts that the sales growth rate of UV curing printing equipment will reach double-digit growth in 2010, and in 2010, the sales of UV ink will exceed the equipment sales, becoming the largest growth market in the UV printing field.
Grey Held, head of the large format printing consulting service department of the printing industry research organization Lyra, predicts that the UV printing market will achieve a 38% growth in 2007. Major printing equipment manufacturers continue to spare no effort in improving UV printing equipment, such as the increase in printing speed In terms of the durability of UV inks, the application of these new technologies has opened a new door for a series of printing applications.
2. Breakthrough in UV printing technology
UV ink has a short reaction time under ultraviolet irradiation and low temperature requirements. It can print a wide range of printing materials. However, when printing with UV metal ink, it must be very accurate. Special printing color groups must be in special materials, such as glass, If printing on ceramics, if the UV printing process on the conductor can be solved well, I believe that the UV printing market will gain more space to expand.
3. Looking for a new blue ocean for UV printing
Commercial printing companies usually rely on banner advertising and display rack advertising to obtain business, but those customers who provide advertising printing orders to printing companies are obviously not satisfied with these existing and limited forms of advertising. They hope to expand their business through continuous innovation and acquire new customer bases.
UV printing can be flexibly printed on various substrates that are hard or soft, and immediately wins in the fiercely competitive market. These innovative markets include: car body printing, textile printing, printing and so on. One of the hottest markets is automotive body advertising. The previous UV printing process cannot be achieved, but now, the flexibility of UV curing printing is perfectly reflected. Not only can the hard body be printed directly, but even the most complex car row The printing on the trachea is also handy.
4. Technical innovation of UV print head
Better print quality means finer inkjet ink droplets, which of course also includes better control of ejected ink droplets. In addition to continuously reducing the size of ink droplets to improve print quality, it can also be achieved by a multi-grayscale printhead. At present, the most advanced printheads on the market include Toshiba's gray scales that can reach 8 tones, with ink droplet sizes ranging from 6-24ppl, and 6 grayscales that can achieve 6 tones. 3-40ppl Xaar OmniDot 760 / GS8 print head.
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Extend the color gamut of UV inks
1. Become a third-party UV ink supplier
The perfect performance of UV ink in printing is not only dependent on the ink itself, but also depends on various factors such as the print head and curing lamp. It should be said that it is the result of simultaneous action. At present, most UV inks are still supplied by UV printing equipment manufacturers, although companies such as Sun Chemical, Hilord, and Triangle Digital, as independent third-party UV ink suppliers, have begun to provide UV ink products to specific customers.
2. Increase UV ink printing color set
Many UV printing equipment only provides CMYK four-color basic printing color groups, and some printing equipment is equipped with light cyan and light red printing color groups. Other devices have added spot color groups such as orange, green, blue, and purple to expand the color gamut of printing inks.
Raster Printers' 4000 series UV-curable inks are used on Daytona printers, while RP-720UV printing equipment adds orange and blue color groups on the basis of the CMYK four-color basic color group. Gandinnovations' Jeti 5024 UVRTR, and some Easytech Octra devices offer orange and green color sets, while Gerber Solara UV2 printers provide green and purple color sets.
In fact, for most UV printing equipment, the largest increase is the white color group. White ink can not only be used as a primer before printing, but also directly used for printing white graphics of printed matter.
Durst's Waters believes that the rapid growth of white ink demand is a matter of course, because white ink can meet more customer needs, such as more visual effects and richer business applications. Just use cheap and simple UV curing to print on almost any substrate.
Other UV printing equipment suppliers, such as Lüscher and Easytech, provide personalized spot color services and provide customers with personalized UV color printing color set matching services. Although this service has strict requirements and high costs, it Customers are very interested in this service.
Roger Walkley, manager of the inkjet product department at Inca Digital Printers, said: Adding spot color printing groups is still a very large project at present, because CMYK four-color groups are commonly used in printing.
3. Development of Varnish
Varnish is also another emerging paint that is often formulated in UV printing. It can not only expand the color gamut of ink colors, but also expand spot colors and white areas, helping UV printed products to be comparable to screen printing and offset printing.
4. Openness of UV ink technology
Walkley believes that the successful printing solution should be in terms of flexibility in ink application. Compared with traditional solvent-based inks, UV inks do not have obvious advantages. Due to the effect of polymerization (the process of curing UV inks after photoreaction), the inks Flexible handling after printing is very difficult, and only under vacuum can the tension be reduced to make the ink surface strong. Therefore, whether the ink is flexible in the application process has become a very important point.
Tony Fulco, a market development consultant at 3M Image's product center, believes that "whether it is traditional printing or digital printing, the secret to success should be to ensure the openness of UV ink technology as much as possible."
Recently, the 3M multi-purpose UV-curable piezoelectric inkjet ink series 2700UV ink jointly launched by Durst and 3M company is used in conjunction with Durst's Rho 160R inkjet printer. It is equipped with a 62-inch round cylinder and can be used in 3M Good UV printing on inks and printing materials. At the same time, 3M also launched its 2200 series of UV-curable inks for EFI VUTEk UV inkjet printing equipment.
Aellora Digital has been looking for hybrid UV semi-solid inks for its special UV printing equipment. The specialty of this ink is that the ejected ink is very hot. When it touches the printing material, it will become very viscous immediately, which makes each When the ink drops fall, they must be very precise, without displacement. This eliminates the need for immediate full curing even when printing on porous or non-porous substrates. "When we use this ink, even if the ink is not completely dry, the ink droplets will not expand or cause splashing." Aellora Mike Stoudt, president of Digital, said.
Long-term printing experience makes inkjet printing companies interested in single-channel inkjet printers. However, many printing companies prefer multi-channel inkjet printing that can store more ink to meet the needs of a variety of printing operations. But from now on, the guardians of single-channel inkjet printing decided to change this situation.
Inca FastJet is a strong supporter of single-channel inkjet printing. As early as drupa2004, Inca FastJet launched an inkjet printing device with a resolution of 300dpi. This device can output ultra-large-format printing jobs every minute. Using fixed installation or dot matrix nozzles, the printing material passes under the print head, and the ink ejected at one time can completely cover the entire printing job.
Aellora Digital provides a full range of solutions for single-channel printing. The company can provide semi-solid inks. The SureFire TKMP1000 digital printing system can achieve a printing speed of 250m2 / h under 600dpi × 600dpi production conditions.
Worth looking forward to
What factors limit the development of UV printing?
One of them is to expand the color gamut of UV inks. These have become the goals that equipment manufacturers and suppliers strive to solve.
For future UV inkjet printing, the following aspects are worthy of our expectations.
(1) Third-party UV inkjet ink suppliers are gradually entering the market.
Ink companies, including Triangle Digital and Sun Chemical, are already producing UV-curable inks for specialized printing companies.
Hexion recently launched its new product-HexiJet FlashCure UV inkjet ink. The biggest feature of this ink is that only a small amount of UV curing energy is needed to make the ink cure while contacting the surface of the substrate. Compared with previous UV inks, very little energy can achieve complete curing. Easier curing means that UV printing can be performed on thinner substrates without worrying about curling, which of course also means higher printing speeds can be achieved.
(2) Although UV printing equipment achieves the same printing effect, compared with inkjet printers that use traditional solvent-based inks, it does not have a cost advantage. Therefore, suppliers of UV printing equipment have taken the initiative to reduce The cost of UV inks and printing equipment has become a top priority.
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