Digital Printing Postpress

When digital printing debuted for the first time, it brought the novelty of "print on demand" to the buyer. Compared with traditional offset printing, it provides a brand-new, rapid printing method, but it does not have a rich post-press processing method to match it. If there are requirements for post-press processing, manufacturers can only send printed products to various types of binding plants and some large-scale offset printing plants for processing. Digital printing companies found that outbound binding took longer than the time required to complete the printing.

With the continuous rise of digital printing, one of the most pressing needs of digital printing companies is to obtain a fast, one-step, on-demand printing and post-processing method. The customer's desired delivery time is getting shorter and shorter, so the post-press processing It is not worthwhile to waste time. Providing rapid post-press processing services to meet customers' deadlines for delivery is the key to digital printers' success.

According to authoritative survey data, by 2007, the number of color digital printing companies will increase by 230%. At the same time, the growth rate of color digital printing equipment will exceed 569%. From the point of view of mutual competition among printing companies, digital printing companies that add efficient binding equipment can be faster in the entire workflow from printing, post-press processing to delivery than some companies in the market that cannot perform post-press processing. The delivery time, lower costs provide more comprehensive services. In this way, the entire process time and cost savings become a very powerful competitive weapon.

Digital Printing New Model

There are two types of digital printing that are commonly spoken. First of all, the control of toner and ink jet volume is based on electrostatic technology. The quick operation time is the primary advantage of electrostatic printing. Second, direct imaging technology is used. Direct imaging is where each digit in the “digital” is described as an electrostatic parameter with a digital signature. It can print from hundreds to 25,000 identical prints with shorter print preparation times, special plates, and more. However, digital printing products are processed after printing.

Now, new digital printing is being merged into a separate process flow between "printing" and "rapid printing." Adopting this new model involves three kinds of solutions, digital printing manufacturers can choose different solutions according to their own situation. The three options are:

(1) Add online postpress processing equipment;

(2) Adding independent post-press processing equipment near the printing equipment;

(3) Arrange your own post-press processing supplier. The last such scheme may be the most unsatisfactory, as both outward binding and the sending and return of goods will be delayed for a long time.

Digital printing companies may face some competition from their existing customers. According to one data, many printing jobs are printed out to the printing plant because of the need for post-press processing. In order to reduce short-run printing and external commercial expenses after printing, some companies will purchase office digital photocopiers and some other types of post-press processing equipment. In this way, many print jobs can be completed inside the office without being sent to the printing factory for processing. If the digital and post-press equipment for office use continues to grow in size, this situation will increase. Therefore, digital printers must provide low-price, high-quality, and fast services if they want to pull those printing orders. This will make people think that it is not worthwhile to purchase office equipment.

Online or offline

This question is not easy to answer, nor can it give a general answer that is suitable for all printing companies. Off-line post-press equipment is now used more than on-line equipment. In fact, most digital printing jobs are done with offline equipment. This means that there will be a lot of waste: more time is needed to complete a job on the operational process, and the time to transport back and forth is also needed. However, for some post-printing jobs, off-line processing is more suitable.

In general, offline binding equipment can serve offset printing well. However, with the increase in the number of short-run digital printing jobs, offline bookbinding equipment must take the second position while serving traditional offset printing and digital printing, which inevitably brings about conflict and confusion in work arrangements.

Nowadays, online post-press equipment seems to have become popular because printers believe online devices can automatically pass prints to complete post-press processing and also prevent damage to printed products. It does not require the transfer of printed products between the printing unit and the post-press unit, and only one operator can complete the entire printing process. This can provide high-quality process management. If errors are found, the operator can directly stop the production line to correct it during the printing or finishing process.

However, the development of on-line digital postpress equipment has also declined. First, static electricity can cause some physical problems; secondly, ink layers and materials are also vulnerable to abrasion, scratches, and fractures; and then there is a mismatch between the printing speed and the post-press processing speed. Early on-line postpress equipment also had problems with data interfaces that were not matched and were not easily connected to the printing equipment. The on-line post-press processing equipment developed has basically realized the matching problem of the data interface, it can also process lighter paper, and the production capacity has been further improved. It can bind 8-148 pages of books. With the introduction of UP3i (a prepress, print, and post-press interface developed by a community of digital printers that connects ordinary printers), the interface matching problem is solved. This interface facilitates printing and postpress Data transmission. Although it is still subject to standardized formats, it is now supported by Duplo, Hunkeler, IBM, Oce and Xerox. Once standardization is established, it will greatly facilitate the operation of various types of postpress equipment.

However, with the ever-increasing speed of digital printing, the post-press equipment that is matched is still a bottleneck. We will do further analysis in "Digital Printing Postpress (II)".

Reprinted from: Ke Yin Network