The Future Trend of Postpress and Bookbinding Technology (II)

color

For the past eight years, the printing industry has accepted two-color multifunction digital presses, but its success is not simply to replace the two-color lithography press. New features of the device include: short version, personalized (key). Reducing paper costs and improving print quality are the future direction of digital presses.

Today, short-run color printing is calculated in small quantities - 500 sheets. The minimum standard is determined by the cutting machine. Cutting 500 at a time is the most practical and economical. Although we cannot predict the future based on the current details, we can see that many color digital printing opportunities reduce the number of short-run editions to 5 to 10 copies. When printing presses can be economically printed, the sheet-fed color post-printing technology will face challenges that can be cut, folded, and indented without the need for human manipulation. This technology is expected to be realized in the coming years.

Color and bicolor

Color digital printers cannot print two-color products economically as two-color printers. Therefore, in the next three to five years, two kinds of printing opportunities will move toward consolidation, and equipment with a collating machine will ensure the integrity of the printed sheets. The digital color press of the future will have a revolutionary breakthrough in quality. At the same time, it will increase investment in the on-demand books production market.

Where to go?

In electronic imaging black-and-white and color printing technology, speed, quality, and web flexibility will be enhanced. The future of post-press processing equipment will be even more powerful. In the next three years, we expect to print ISBNs on multifunction digital presses, which will reduce costs by up to 10%. In addition, more than 60,000 non-printers and publishers also use digital presses. At the same time, this technology provides a choice of business models that can be selected for either discrete or centralized production. Waiting for another two years, we can see that in bookstores, paperback books are printed and bound.

Stamping and embossing: Pioneering in postpress

Although bronzing technology has greatly improved in speed over the past decade, technology is not the only factor that affects hot stamping, embossing, and postpress processing. These four important areas are worth talking about. The first three are directly related.

Printers need to do more than just printing to remain competitive; accordingly, postpress processors no longer rely on the trade market for survival; postpress processing is diversified to accommodate more users; rotary stamping machines are printers and postpress Processors have opened up new markets.

Printers and Postpressers

In the field of sheetfed printing presses, the perfect six-station printing press with foil stamping replaced the second and fourth presses. This has a direct impact on the post-press processors. Traditional post-press processors rely on printers. In the past, many post-press processors had never even had their own pillar customers. Instead, they were only bronzing, embossing, or other post-press processing for the printer's products. As printers purchase equipment with additional processes (which can be printed and processed), post-press processors must face customers directly.

In the rapid pace of development today, there are more and more commercial printers and post-press processing. As the post-press processors directly face the end-users, the post-press processing market has expanded considerably, and buyers can obtain satisfactory results from post-press processing. For the current commercial post-press processors, it is necessary to maintain the current users of the printers, but also to expand the direct consumer groups, to the post-press processing, and many post-press processors have made changes. The goals of printers and post-printers are the same - to expand business - sometimes converged and sometimes independent. However, the final result is the same - a larger post-press processing market.

Diversification: A step to growth

Printers strive to provide consumers with more efficient processes and equipment, as do post-press processors. Over the past few years, many post-press processors have added processes to their equipment. UV glazing, laminating, folding/gluing, and even printing operations in post-press processing have increased the competitiveness of post-press processing.

Rotary stamping

Rotary bronzing and embossing and stamping have opened up new markets. There are mainly two ways of rotating gilding: (1) Narrow web reel bronzing. (2) Sheet-fed hot stamping.

Narrow Web Rotary Bronzing

Narrow Web Rotary Gold foil stamping unit used in gravure printing machines. With the development and speed of bronzing technology. Gravure printing presses have been able to produce at low cost and high speed. The market for narrow-web roll bronzing is very broad. Especially for instant printing, such as trademark and cartoon printing. Large quantities of labels can be incorporated into decorative processes in narrow printing, such as bronzing and embossing, which require little additional cost. Hot stamping and embossing are no longer expensive for consumers who need to process high-volume prints. Narrow web reels have opened up the market and attracted more attention. At the same time, it also poses a threat to sheetfed printing (such as trademark printing of wine), but the development of bronzing and embossing will facilitate the development of the printing market.

Sheet-fed hot stamping

Sheet-fed hot stamping is performed using a roller up curve mold. Although it does not print and bronze online like the narrow web bronzing, it is still faster than standard pattern printing. This is beneficial for mass production of cartoons, greeting cards, book covers and other similar items. The more mature the process is, the more familiar it is, and the faster the business rises, the more favorable it is for the improvement of the status of postpress processing.

Bottom line

Post-press processing has been different, and it has necessarily changed. The increasingly fierce competition and increasingly mature technologies are the inevitable result of market expansion. However, it is necessary to pay attention to gradual and orderly progress, and the graphic and post-press processors are preparing to do the pilot.