Digital Printing Postpress Technology

Postpress is still the main obstacle for digital printing companies to produce ultra-short-press on-demand printing.
Whether you like it or not, digital printing is now ubiquitous, and it will form an ever-growing new field of print production. After a period of time, in a market area such as direct mail, digital printing is even more dominant due to the influence of key factors such as changing images; in other words, the ability to increase the inherent value of printed materials is to enable them to communicate with end users. The requirements are precisely matched and variable data is generated during one production.
At the Drupa exhibition two years ago, many systems were still unsatisfactory in terms of output quality, speed, or flexibility. But these two years have undergone great changes. For example, Indigo and Xeikon have at least doubled their output speed in the latest generation of products, and some products have even higher speeds.
These devices can also be printed on a wider range of substrates. However, all these improvements are only in digital printing. Here we will discuss the post-press processing for digital printing, and related operations. This is an area that has never been noticed.
First, the cracking phenomenon when folding There are many reasons for cracking when folding. First, customers who use digital printing tend to want a smooth finished product. Strong colors on the product are often formed by thicker colorants or digital ink layers. These two points are very unfavorable for the postpress printer. Currently, dirt picking and appearance of streaks are not major problems, and the cracking phenomenon that occurs during the folding process is the most important problem (especially for those toner-based systems, the large amount of water loss during the drying process, and Cracking does not occur in the texture direction of the material when folded). For this reason, some companies have developed some auxiliary devices to reduce the occurrence of cracking. For example, Morgana has launched the AutoCrease unit and the crease assist device for MB CAS folding machines. These two products are represented by the British company Smyth-Horne. .
Second, speed matching problems The second problem that hinders the widespread use of digital printing is the mismatch between the speeds of digital presses and post-processing equipment. The speed of digital presses continues to increase, but the speed of post-processing equipment has changed little. However, there is now a corresponding solution. For the off-line production process, there is currently a Duplo System 4000 folding machine, which folds the A4 format medium-weight paper into the A5 format, including light edge trimming operation, and can produce 4,200 booklets per hour. The system is regarded as the fastest existing sheet-fed book making system currently on the market. In addition, the Digi-Stitch System 2000 is said to be the fastest online saddle stitcher in on-demand printing applications, producing 8,220 booklets per hour.
The Digi-Stitch System 2000 is manufactured by Integrated Binding Systems and was used in conjunction with Océ's DemandStream 8090 digital press. In addition, the product can automatically change the number of pages in the file, allowing each manual to be different, but it can still be produced sequentially.
Third, the interface standard The third problem is that each printing company hopes to combine the mechanical, electronic and manufacturer's unique performance specifications. This is exactly what the Digital Color Postpress Automation Consortium wants to solve by establishing an industry-wide interface standard. In New York, Rochester Institute of Technology R & D company to the call, many companies become a member of the association, including Agfa, Duplo, Mathias Bauerle, IBM Printing Systems, Indigo, Heidelberg, NexPress, Plockmatic, Scitex Digital, Xeikon, and Xerox and so on.
At the same time, manufacturers of digital presses are also constantly developing more rational relationships between suppliers/partners. Xerox is the first company to introduce this concept and has reached agreements with many partners. The company’s Just in Time Product documentation solution combines hardware and software from Xerox, Horizon International, Standard Finishing Systems, and Inspectron. The goal is to show how to produce a single product from different printing processes. The prints are automatically combined to create a customized, personalized file that meets the need for personalized production in a variety of offline environments, such as using a PC. In order to achieve this, all post-processing instructions for the job must be successfully obtained and transferred using Xerox's DigiFinish Coordinator in the form of job ticket barcodes.
These instruction instructions are scanned into the system by the post-press processing operator, and the entire workflow can then be automatically set up according to the required post-press processing style, paper size, stitching arrangement, folding position, and appearance trim size. The instructions also contain data on how to combine different devices or materials in order. The actual file structure is set by an offset stack assembly housed in a standard DocuFeed 150 magazine and can be passed down one by one. A Horizon VAC-100DF vacuum collator is then instructed to provide a color cover or any other insert in order to complete the document. An Inspectron camera reads the test points on each page to ensure that each page or signature can be placed in the correct order, while another camera tracks the manual until the manual is out of the system to ensure closed loop file integrity .
Fourth, binding books printed on demand Xerox company also pays great attention to the production of on-demand printed books. Book Factory's products are aimed at book manufacturers who want to enter the short-run printing market. The product can produce a book with 300 pages and colored covers per minute. The production process includes digital printing, spine grinding, the application of hot melt glue and the use of a CP Bourg BB2005 adhesive bonder. Then the book was sent to the three sides and it was the one that most affected the speed of production. Secondly, there is a Book Shop system. According to Xerox, the system can provide a small number of books, or even fewer books, which is very cost-effective for personal publishing. The binding equipment here also includes the RCI unit provided by Ribler. According to the introduction, the touch screen and the smart splint of the device almost do not need to be adjusted. It may even be possible to produce books without any preparation time. The splint is placed flat when opened.
Other similar products include the hardcover production system from On-Demand Machinery, which can be combined with Premiere's computer-controlled top hot foil stamping machine from Flesher. This combination can complete digital printing and bookbinding hard ridge books in less than three minutes at a cost of less than $3.
Xerox is not the only manufacturer that believes that the book on-demand market has great potential. IBM Printing Systems, Inc., Océ, and Xeikon can also connect their equipment to the digitally controlled finishing systems provided by CP Bourg, Horizon, and Hunkeler. Another noteworthy product is BookNet, which was developed by Aprion. Although it is not yet on the market, it will be the perfect combination of printing and binding units. It is said that it can produce a 600-page thickness in 10 minutes. , color cover books.
5. More automated operations currently have so many developments and impressive predictions in the digital printing market, and according to the American Association of Publishers, the e-book market is expected to reach $2.3 billion by 2005. This is why there are so many manufacturers developing digital products.
Heidelberg has not only introduced the Ti40 Prolin, a barrier folding machine featuring a small footprint and high flexibility, but also introduced an Oem (from CP Bourg) offline splicer capable of producing 4,000 products per hour. / Manual Maker, and semi-automatic Bindexpert that can handle 120 to 150 books per hour. There are also two glue trays that can be used interchangeably for dispersing and hot-melt adhesives.
Wohlenberg introduced a similar binding product, QuickBinder, and earlier Digi-Cut A3 format cutter, which can cut 40 times per minute, and can also choose online or offline CIP3 connection (can speed up the preparation speed) the way.
Bielomatik is also worth reviewing. The company not only introduced Bielobind, which is based on "very precise die-cutting and gluing technology," but also introduced Bookmaster 360. These constitute a set of fully-automated bookbinding lines installed in accordance with print or prepress data and can process soft and hard book envelopes from very short to medium print volumes, including liquid dispersion gels, liners, plugs, and books. Shells, heat seals, stencils, hot foil packaging and other processes.
6. New suppliers now have companies that specialize in providing services to the book binding on-demand market. One of them is Book-in-Hand in the United Kingdom. The company's Doubleback system has reached the test production stage. It has functions of binding, adding books, and one-time finishing. It can handle about 200 books per hour. This is also true of SRS, formerly known as Profinish, a bookbinding toolkit manufacturer.
To date, SRS has developed an automatic three-edged edger, a cover machine, and a bookcase production line, all of which can be interoperated and controlled via a networked center console. As a result, the data related to orders and products can be transferred for automatic preparation and equipment operation. The system currently has only prototypes. It can transfer 10 revolutions per minute and complete the conversion from square to circular spine books within 30 seconds. With the realization of these functions and expectations one by one, the demand for post-press digital printing is increasing. The scaling down of technologies and the addition of some automatic functions have also become one of the makers of some products that catch up with popular products.