On the current situation of digital printing devel

Talk about the development status of digital printing at home and abroad

digitalization and networking are the characteristics of the 21st century, and the printing industry is striding towards the explosive era of digital printing. Commercial printing companies are in a period of rapid growth in the use of digital printers and direct imaging equipment. It is predicted that by 2007, the number of digital printing equipment owned by commercial printing companies will increase by 234.1%

birth background

the important feature of digital printing is variable data printing. Variable data printing is the main way of point-to-point communication. Point-to-point communication regards the recipient as an individual with independent preferences and needs. The recipient formulates specific information to meet people's needs. Printing information changes with the preferences and needs of the audience. It can be said that variable data printing is the direct driver of the birth of digital printing. After the advent of digital printing technology, in order to become one of the mainstream technologies in the printing field, it has been prepared for nearly 10 years

digital printing directly transmits electronic documents to the printing machine after being poured and fixed by the anchor nut, thus canceling the third color separation, plate making, plate making, commissioning and other steps, bringing printing into the most effective process engineering: from input to output, the whole process can be controlled by one person to realize one printing. At present, the main technology types in digital printing generally do not need to rely on pressure to transfer ink, but some digital printing technologies, such as electrostatic printing, need to rely on a certain pressure to assist the role of electrostatic field force to complete the transfer of toner or electronic ink

advantages of digital printing

1. The printing method is fully digital. Digital printing is a full digital process from computer directly to printed matter

2. There is no need for film and printing plate in the process, and there is no cumbersome process of traditional printing process

3. One piece of printing, no waste of machine testing

4. Realize variable data printing, and the content of digital printing can be changed at any time

5. It is suitable for personalized color printing and short version printing

6. It is a production system similar to "combine harvester" with full digital production information and production control requirements

7. Digital features make it easier to introduce digital integrated technologies such as digital asset management, automated workflow and color management

8. Remote printing can be realized through interconnection

9. Optimize resources for environmental protection

digital printing is suitable for short edition and personalized printing, but at present, its printing quality is still not superior to traditional printing such as offset printing, and for medium and long edition printing, its cost is much higher than traditional printing, so the medium and long edition and high-quality printing market is naturally monopolized by traditional printing. At present, the market share of digital printing market and traditional printing (including CTP) system in the printing field is roughly shown in Figure 1. The market represented by the dotted line area in the figure is the goal of digital printing. The wood flour of digital printing must be dried before filling. The improvement of printing quality and speed is the main weapon for its development and market share

current situation and trend of market and technology

1. Domestic current situation and trend

according to statistics, the number of officially registered printing manufacturers in China has reached 180000, with an annual printing turnover of about 150billion yuan, of which digital printing accounts for only about 7% of the total market share. At present, the per capita consumption of printed matter in China is US $3-5, while the per capita consumption of printed matter abroad is nearly 100 times that of China. From this figure gap, we can see that China's printing industry has great development potential

the main determinants and proportion of the promotion degree and progress of digital printing technology are as follows: the improvement of economic conditions (60%); Short version color printing is carried out by digital printing machine (29%); Expand full-time sales staff (29%); Expand service, transportation and mailing capabilities (24%). Combined with various factors, the domestic digital printing market is not perfect. The first investors do not get good returns because of the lack of short version living resources, and the successors also retreat from difficulties and are not optimistic about digital printing. At the same time, because the number of domestic digital printing enterprises is small, and most of them are small, they are unable to invest too much money in publicity, which also leads to the fact that digital printing is not familiar and accepted by everyone for the time being, and the research and development of digital printing technology is even less, so China is still in the early stage of relatively passively accepting the impact of the international digital printing technology tide

2. Current situation and trends abroad

at present, HP indigo, Xerox and other companies have basically monopolized the sales market of digital printing machines. In terms of digital printing technology alone, HP indigo and Xeikon are pioneers in this technology field. As early as 1993, HP indigo launched the world's first color digital printing machine during the IPEX exhibition, and then jointly launched the digital printing technology revolution with Xeikon on drupa1995

from the beginning of its development to the present, HP indigo has never stopped its progress in the field of digital printing technology. Whether it is sheet fed digital printing machine or web printing machine, there are a wide range of types. In addition, the patented electronic ink technology used by HP indigo digital printing machine is also one of its technical cores

xeikon has signed OEM agreements with other printing manufacturers and prepress suppliers. Therefore, many printing companies use their technology to develop digital printing machines. For example, Xerox has shown considerable strength in the digital printing machine market, largely thanks to the digital printing technology of Xeikon company. At present, Xeikon has launched docucolor, DocuPrint, docutech and other series of digital printing machines. Roland Mann is also one of the partners of Xeikon's OEM agreement. Its Web digital printing machine DICOweb is a very excellent model. The nexpress2100, a representative model of Heidelberg, was very popular once it was launched

the future of digital printing in China

although digital printing has unique advantages, the application of digital printing machine is not ideal at present. Technically speaking, the digital printer transmits and receives synchronous information for printing, so how to correctly transmit the data of the network or database to the printer has become a key problem. From the price point of view, the high price of digital printing presses has deterred many users. From the perspective of the service life of printing machines, it takes 5-7 years in Europe and about 4 years in the United States to replace the machines, but many manufacturers' traditional printing machines are often used for more than 10 years and have not been replaced. When the old machines can be used and the profit return after the introduction of new equipment cannot be seen in the short term, printing brush manufacturers should not invest too much in new equipment. However, the bigger problem comes from people's ideas. Traditional printing practitioners are bound by ideas and have doubts about digital printing, a new form of printing. Ordinary users have formed a deep-rooted idea of printing for a long time, believing that printing can only do large quantities of business, while ignoring the development of printing technology, which has already made on-demand printing a reality

in general, it is precisely because the research and development in the field of domestic digital printing technology is almost blank, so the progress of international digital printing technology and market strategy are the main impact force of the development and changes in China's digital printing field. To get rid of this situation, we must strengthen the research and deep-seated excavation of technology in this field, grasp the core of technology as soon as possible, and first start with the use of this technology, and then wait for the opportunity to change from passive to active

nevertheless, digitalization has become a feature of the times and especially the requirements of its cable entry device. Since the computer was introduced into the printing industry, from the initial icing on the cake for prepress design to half of the country that controls CTP Technology (plate making and printing are the two major steps in the process of CTP computer direct plate making technology, and the former is directly controlled by the computer), To become the central nervous system of digital printing system in the era of digital printing, all these are proving that the weight of digital concept in the printing industry is increasing. With the maturity of domestic enterprises, the intensification of market competition after joining the world trade organization, and the increase of labor costs, the demand for digital printing is bound to increase day by day. This requires us to adapt to the trend of economic and social development, comply with the digital development needs of the printing industry, accelerate the comprehensive understanding of digital printing technology, deeply study and master the characteristics and requirements of this technology, control it, give full play to the advantages of this advanced technology, and make full preparations for it to become an important engine for the development of the printing industry in the future