Digital printing machine, also known as universal flatbed printer or flatbed printer, has broken through the bottleneck of digital printing technology, realizing a true printing, no plate making, full color image once completed, is a replacement product of traditional printing machine.
        The concept is macroscopically no problem, but the views of the industry are not the same. In fact, there are no fewer than ten categories of digital presses, but there are two common predecessors behind them to provide technical support and design basis - printers and traditional printing presses.
        Depending on the application, digital printing equipment can be divided into industrial and office digital printing machines (also known as digital printing integrated machines). Representatives of office digital integrated machines are Toshiba, Konica, Ricoh, Canon, Xerox, Oce, etc.; typical representatives of industrial digital printing machines are Kodak digital printing machines, Kemei and so on. According to the above, the predecessor of the office digital printing machine is a digital printer; while the industrial digital printing machine inherits the ink transmission mode and mechanical design of the traditional printing equipment, and truly enables the digital printing machine to realize commercial printing.
         Depending on the source of the technology, the existing digital printing equipment on the market can be divided into four categories.
        1. Digital printing integrated machine (developed by copier technology plus digital technology). The device is transformed from a single output device to a digital input and output device. The device is easy to operate and the working environment is clean. The batch printing service system becomes a reality, and the user is more convenient. The system is low in cost and has strong competitiveness. . These advantages have the potential to dominate the market for office printing equipment.
        2, digital MFP (developed from the basis of printer technology). This kind of printer is the backbone of the current office printing press. The working principle is almost the same as that of the digital printing integrated machine, but since there is no high-speed laser printer core technology (except for Canon and Xerox integrated machines), such machines can only compete with fax machines and ordinary printers.
        3. Digital printing press (developed from printing press technology, digital technology and electronic ink technology). Digital printing machines are the representative products of modern high-speed digital printing equipment.
       4. Large-scale digital printing press (developed by printing press technology plus digital technology and in-machine direct plate making technology).

         From the recent introduction of digital printing equipment, half of them are high-speed inkjet web printers, which is not surprising, because these devices have unique technical advantages. They are faster than most toner printing systems, thanks to inkjet technology, which was not recognized a few years ago. It is widely believed to be used and cost-effective. high.
        During the economic crisis, high-speed digital web presses were one of the few areas where sales continued to grow, even in 2009, when the economic situation was most severe. In 2009, approximately 200 high-speed continuous color printing engines were installed worldwide, and in the first three quarters of 2010, the world's new high-speed inkjet web printing engine almost reached this number.
        Of course, the "engine" and the complete production line we are talking about here are not a concept, because a production line advantage requires two engines to be installed for double-sided printing. Vendors often prefer to sell the number of engines when publishing the number of devices installed, as this will sound more.
        Although we don't know which users like to buy such equipment, the quality and cost advantages of high-speed continuous color printers are very attractive to transactional and direct mail manufacturers; With the increase and the expansion of paper selection, such equipment will gradually enter the publications market and eventually replace the offset printing.
        Most companies use digital printing equipment to print monochrome or spot color products. In fact, digital color printing equipment can also find its place in the market. With the production of a large number of color and monochrome pages on digital devices, market demand has also changed significantly, and has had a certain impact on offset production.
        The second largest area of ​​application for high-speed digital web printing is book printing. With the reduction in the number of books and periodicals, the use of digital printing in this field has gradually increased. The rise of e-readers has prompted publishers to accept the limitations of inkjet printers in terms of quality, format and paper, and printing companies have begun to redesign their workflows for short-run, on-demand printing.
         Direct mail is the third largest application area for high-speed digital web printing, which accounts for about 15% of total equipment installation. The high-speed digital inkjet devices installed in newspaper printing houses account for about 5% of the total installed capacity and have strong growth potential. In addition, newspaper publishers do not seem to have the spirit of courage to try like book publishers.

         At present, the domestic gravure printing industry is looking forward to: a single solvent (easy to recycle), surface printing, printing, compounding, cooking and mixing, all kinds of plastic film are suitable, adapt to any climate (can reduce the production of enterprises) Cost), high speed, medium speed, low speed are suitable, low price, and the gravure ink on the universal scale appears on the market.
        Advice for ink manufacturers
        The printing speed of foreign printing machines is fast, the production environment is relatively standardized, the varieties are large in size and the colors are specific. Therefore, the requirements for inks are limited to high solid content, low viscosity, bright color and strong tinting strength. Most of the domestic low-speed printing presses are mainly used, and the domestic printing presses are uneven and the performance is too large. The products are small in size, various in variety, relatively poor in production environment, and irregular in operation. Therefore, the requirements for the ink are more diverse, and the ink has good adaptability, good fluidity and low price. In addition, due to the operator's mentality, using imported ink, printing problems, choose to adjust the printing press. In turn, printing problems with domestic inks is usually a matter of finding inks and plates.
        Domestic gravure printing machines have poor ink circulation systems (except for high-speed printing machines that deliver ink supply), and many medium and small packaging color printing plants do not even use ink circulation systems. Some operators do not understand the ink-inking rules of gravure printing, and have little knowledge of the performance of inks. The ink dilution is not in place (it is observed that the waste rate of ink is 25%~30% on average, and many small-package color printing factories even waste the rate. 40%~50%). What is more needed is to popularize the basic knowledge education of plastic flexible packaging production technology, as well as the technical services after ink sales.

        First, gravure printing machine
        Domestic high-speed gravure printing machines Since 1993, some companies have invested in development and trial production.
        Looking at the status of several representative gravure presses in China:
        1. The advanced design and structure of the whole machine has various functions of advanced foreign models;
        2, strong configuration: including AC frequency conversion closed-loop vector multi-motor servo synchronous control system, automatic version of the overprint control system, pre-drive automatic docking system, tension automatic control compensation system, industrial computer central control system;
        3. High processing precision and rich design experience;
        4, the installation of high commissioning process quality is low, affecting the performance of equipment;
        5. The quality management level and awareness of the enterprise process need to be improved to improve the overall quality of the machine.
        Second, dry laminating machine and wet laminating machine
        Due to the insufficient technical investment of the products by various enterprises, the grade of domestic dry laminating machine has been low. With the demand of the domestic flexible packaging industry and the high price of imported equipment, the domestic high-speed wide-format dry laminating machine has gradually entered the market, and has played a major role in supporting the production of imported gravure printing machines.
        The domestic high-grade high-speed dry laminating machine has the functions of receiving and unwinding pre-drive and automatic docking, automatic control of each section of tension, synchronous control of speed (tension) of coating head and composite roller, steam heating temperature servo Control functions, full machine programmable control and industrial computer control.
Future development will further increase the speed of the machine and improve the manufacturing precision and stability of the control system. Adaptability to meet the needs of imported gravure printing machines and domestic high-speed printing presses. Wet laminating machines and various substrate coating machines have also been greatly developed. The main direction in the future is to develop solvent-free laminating machine and hot melt adhesive coating machine, high barrier material coating machine.

        Gravure printing carton pre-printing is to pre-print the desired fine pattern on the wide web (carton paper) by using the gravure printing technology before making the corrugated cardboard, and then printing the rolled surface. The paper is then made into a corrugated board production line, and then the die-cutting machine is used to die-cut the indentation into a box type.
        At present, in the international market, some 30% of the total output of corrugated boxes in Europe and the United States adopts pre-printing new technology. With the rapid development of China's paper product packaging industry, in recent years, many manufacturers such as Mengniu, Budweiser, Tsingtao Brewery, etc. have Focus on pre-printing new technology. With the stability of the design and consumption of corrugated boxes for beverages, beer, home appliances and food products, the production of high-grade color corrugated boxes by web preprinting will become the development trend of the packaging industry in the future.
       The difference between paper preprinting and lithographic offset printing production carton
       At present, most of the domestic color cartons use the sheet-fed offset printing pre-printing method. The process flow is: cutting the web into a single sheet of paper → printing a single sheet of offset paper → simultaneously rolling the second layer of the single-sided machine Corrugated board → face paper and single-faced corrugated board on the veneer or veneer veneer → die-cutting indentation molding → nail box / sticky box.
        The process of web gravure preprinting technology is: gravure printing machine printing surface paper roll → cardboard line production cut into three layers (or five layers) cardboard → die cutting indentation molding → nail box / sticky box.
        Why do we need gravure preprinting? There are two main reasons. One is that gravure can easily provide high-quality color prints; the other is that e-engraving technology greatly reduces the production cycle and cost of metal plate rolls, which is close to or even lower than flexo. Moreover, the people in the northwest of China have produced high-speed wide-format paper concave machines, and the price is only one-third of the imported flexographic printing machines. The gravure pre-printing method may be more suitable for the actual situation of China's packaging enterprises.
        In comparison, the printing process commonly used in the past is called “post-printing”, and pre-printing has some obvious advantages compared with post-printing:
        1, can obtain higher printing quality, more adaptable. Pre-printing is performed on a smooth paper surface by gravure printing machine or flexo printing, and compared with post-printing printing using a printing grooving machine on the surface of uneven cardboard, it is possible to carry out beautiful color printing with more layers and more vivid colors. Printing quality will be more stable and reliable.
        2. The corrugated board can be obtained with the highest strength. Since the pre-printing does not need to be stamped after the cardboard is formed, the corrugated deformation and the strength of the cardboard can be avoided. Printing with corrugated board printing slotting machine, because each color printing will make the corrugated board more or less deformed, and the more the number of colors, the greater the influence on the deformation of corrugated board.
        3, high production efficiency, easy to produce management, low scrap rate. Pre-printing has become an important trend in corrugated board printing, especially in high-end cartons, including large and shaped cartons.