Value-added printing: the commanding heights of future sheetfed offset printing

Since the invention of offset printing at the beginning of the last century, offset presses have been continuously introduced to lead the printing industry. Although the development process during this period was slightly ups and downs, but after all, offset press with a good printing quality, application of a wide range of flexible and easy plate making, consumables, cheap and easy to get quickly popularized and become the preferred choice for today's printing methods.

It now appears that the reason why offset presses have achieved such performance is that it was fortunate to have caught up with two major opportunities in the 1970s and 1980s, and therefore there has been tremendous development in offset presses.

In the 1970s, with the development of electronic color separation technology and photosensitive materials, the problem of quick plate-making technology and inexpensive plate materials needed for offset printing was completely solved, which laid the foundation for offset printing to improve printing quality, production efficiency and efficiency, and stabilize printing quality. Make offset printing more widely used in publishing, commercial, packaging and printing fields.

In the 1980s, it was the brilliant period for the development of offset printing: On the one hand, due to the development of electronic control technology and computer technology, the entire manufacturing precision and functional configuration of the offset press was brought to a new level; it was achieved in terms of production stability, reliability, and automation. A brand-new height has finally made the offset press a high-precision modern industrial product with integrated machine, light, electricity and gas; on the other hand, the breakthrough development of the desktop color design production system and laser output technology has made the industry long-standing. The popularity of cheap and convenient color process technology became possible, which in turn set off a new wave of offset press applications throughout the world. At present, offset printing has occupied 70% of the production methods of print media, which is beyond the reach of other printing processes.

In recent years, the rapid development of digital technology and network technology has brought unprecedented impact on the printing industry. The people in the industry are worried about the role and even destiny of the offset press in the era of electronic media and paper media. However, the facts show that: the development of digital technology will not only replace offset printing, but will make offset printing products more abundant. Offset printing machines have more comparative advantages and wider application areas.

In recent years, with the rapid development of printing materials, inks, and drying and curing technologies, as well as increasingly complex business types and shorter delivery time requirements in the printing market, new requirements for offset printing have been introduced. Bringing new development opportunities to other printing processes. This shift in development has not actually brought much impact on the leading position of offset printing in the industry.

It can be said that the development history of offset printing for a hundred years is the process of innovation and change in response to changes in market demand and continuous satisfaction of the demands for ever-increasing product quality and production efficiency.

In fact, in the face of higher quality in the market, fewer prints, more value, broader application scope, and greater flexibility, many printers are actively exploring the survival of sheetfed offset printing in the new situation. Ways and future developments, of which the most important focus is how to innovate production and business models, including through the promotion of production efficiency, in order to reduce production costs; or add commercial value to print, in order to increase the unit price of print.

As for these two new means of profit, improving production efficiency means reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and externally reflecting the difference in the value of production labor. At the moment, large-format color printing and fine corrugated board printing as well as double-sided or reverse printing are all covered by full-sheet and full-split offset presses.

The printing that adds commercial value to prints, that is, value-added printing, is not a new term or new thing. As early as several decades ago, with advances in photochromic technology, leading printers and R&D companies in Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries. Institutions have already achieved high resolution and high-precision printing by increasing the number of printing screens from 175 lines to 200 lines, 300 lines or even higher. However, due to the fact that the actual printing quality is difficult to control, the reject rate is high, and the value of printed matter is high. The effectiveness was not satisfactory and it was not implemented in the industry.

Later, the mid-1990s. An innovative technology "FM FM plus network" technology, with its small network, no net angle and other characteristics, has awakened the industry for a long time, expect to break through the limitations of four-color offset printing process, to achieve high-fidelity HiFi six colors, seven colors The printing is very promising, but due to the endless maturity of the color separation theory, the plate printing process is difficult and has not been popularized and applied.

Afterwards, with the traditional process of protecting the ink layer on the printed matter, due to environmental protection and quality problems, it is challenged by the glazing process. As an effective means to improve the surface properties of the printed matter, glazing has the effect of increasing the luster and color of printed materials. Power, protection of printed and graphic arts, favorable for post processing and environmental protection and many other advantages, has been widely used in packaging, trademarks and publishing and printing areas, and can be combined with printing materials, Varnish and drying methods change and guise. At this point, the value-added potential of glazing technology has been highly valued by the industry.

Nowadays, the so-called combination printing, which mainly incorporates offset printing technology, especially a sheet-fed offset printing process, into other processes is also increasingly prevalent. This printing mode fully utilizes the advantages of various printing processes, enabling sheet-fed offset printing of printable jobs. The wider range also brings more vitality to sheetfed offset printing. For example, the combination of offset printing and UV technology and the combination of offset printing and flexo printing have given the industry people a sense of “willow blossoms, flowers, and another village” for sheetfed offset printing.

UV printing: Let offset printing shine again

In today's era of advocacy and innovation, with the revamping of process technology, printing materials, and printing equipment, there are many different ways to create higher added value for print end users. Among them, UV (ultraviolet) curing technology is used in the printing industry. Both UV and UV offset can effectively release the potential of sheet-fed offset printing, reflecting the production and service concept of “difference in creating value” in the current market.

In fact, the difference between UV offset printing is that the printing ink layer is instantly cured and dried, which not only greatly shortens the production cycle, increases the efficiency and reduces the loss, but also applies to non-paper substrates (such as plastic, synthetic paper, and foil-coated paper). The printing greatly expands the application range of the sheetfed offset printing process.

Further, the essential difference between UV offset printing and ordinary offset printing is that UV inks are used instead of ordinary inks. UV inks are cured immediately after being exposed to ultraviolet light. In other cases, they will not dry out. That is, they will not dry on the machine, and they will dry after printing. This is very suitable for fast or wired operation, which greatly improves production efficiency.

UV ink curing process is a photochemical reaction process, so both the ink layer and light oil layer have strong adhesion and water resistance, chemical resistance, wear resistance, anti-aging, etc., very suitable for printing non-absorbent printing materials.

The UV ink has fine particles, high concentration, and stable performance in the printing process, so the printability is good, the dots are clear, the tone reproduction is good, the ink is bright and bright, and the printing consistency is high.

UV inks have no solvent evaporation and high utilization of active ingredients. They can all be converted into ink layers. Therefore, they use less ink, have a low overall cost, and are environmentally safe.

In summary, UV inks are well received in the fields of packaging, labeling, and commercial printing due to their outstanding performance in print quality, productivity, operability, environmental protection, and comprehensive cost-effectiveness. In particular, physical and chemical properties such as color, luster, texture, texture, and other physical and chemical properties such as color, luster, texture, texture, etc., of the printed materials have been superior to traditional glazing techniques after UV coating, and have become one of the highly value-added printing methods in the industry.

Followed by the rise of UV offset printing in the field of packaging and printing. For example, in the US packaging and printing industry in the late 1990s, UV technology began to be rapidly applied in sheet-fed offset printing. Many innovative printers took the lead in UV. The printing process is applied to special substrates, which breaks through the traditional design and printing effects and is welcomed by the market. Soon, the successful application of UV technology in the packaging and printing industry inspired print companies in the label, commercial, and special printing industries. They also used UV printing on traditional prints such as labels and cards to launch new and different prints. The price war in the middle and lower end of the print market has interfered.

Practice has proved that the use of UV offset printing printed label, stickers, in-mold labels, printing quality, comprehensive cost reduction are obvious.

For high-end commercial prints, such as annual reports, car samples, real estate books, fashion and jewelry catalogs, UV offset printing is adopted, with clear and colorful graphics and effects, and non-ordinary offset printing can be compared.

The three-dimensional and glossy effects produced by UV offset printing on plastic cards and metal foils also have special touches, which also opens up new market areas for printing companies.

In the Japanese commercial color printing market, some astute printers have also developed some products with novelty and market potential through the use of UV offset printing features, such as novel postcards that can protect personal information, beautiful and delicate PET folders, and holographic aluminum. Mold internal standard, etc., these prints are incompetent in the past ordinary offset.

Value-added printing: professional printing platform is the basis

Although UV offset printing has many advantages in performance and efficiency. However, to really dig out and make it a point of growth for the benefit of printing companies and a killer for competition, it still needs the support of professional printing equipment and equipment, the mastery of highly qualified employees, and the ability of companies to seize market opportunities.

As far as the current domestic printing market environment is concerned, printing companies with different scales of strength and different market positioning have different demands on the cost-effectiveness of UV offset printing equipment, presenting a bipolar development trend:

The first is that large and medium-sized printing companies with scale and strength rely on advanced equipment that is expensive and with the strength of brand and capital. Constantly innovate prints, pursue economies of scale and add value.
The second is that small and medium-sized printing companies with obvious characteristics, in the diversified market structure, give full play to the advantages of flexible, rapid and professional production, through the optimization of the production process portfolio. Fully tap existing printing resources to highlight professional service capabilities in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency and expand marginal profits.

In view of the actual demand for offset printing machines of the above two types of printing companies, Beiren launched the BEIREN 300-5-XL five-color ribbon coating with a deep understanding of the long-term development of the offset printing market, taking advantage of the May 2005 Beijing International Printing Exhibition. Extra long delivery unit offset press, and BEIREN300-1-L type monochrome with gloss and extended delivery unit offset press.

It is understood that the BEIREN300-5-XL type multicolor offset press is a series of retrograde four-color offset printing machine BEIREN300 made by Beiren for ten years. It is based on the feedback summary of many users of BEIREN300 applications. The improvement of the nature, at the same time, added some automatic functions and configurations, such as the pneumatic semi-automatic printing device, the transfer roller skew adjustment function, etc. The purpose is to further shorten the auxiliary production time, increase the production efficiency, and create additional value.

Glossing and lengthening of the delivery unit is an important functional component of this type of offset printing press, in which the coating unit uses the internationally popular cavity doctor blade anilox roller coating device. Compared with the traditional glazing method, the advantage of this glazing technique is that the cavity is small, and the optical oil transmission line is short. Therefore, the change of the vehicle speed and the fluctuation of the viscosity of the varnish oil rarely affect the quality of the glazing, and is suitable for the whole and fine parts. Polishing, as well as gold and silver, pearl color and other special finishing effects printing. Up to 3 meters of drying lines can be configured with infrared drying, UV curing device can be flexibly combined, enough to ensure that the UV coating to obtain the best gloss and texture texture effect.

In short, the BEIREN300-5-XL is a master of the Beier offset press and is a high-demand add-on