Technical advantages and influencing factors of waterless offset printing process
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The waterless offset printing plate has unique performance and can print high-quality printed matter without using fountain solution, which can improve printing efficiency and avoid environmental pollution. Waterless offset printing is a lithographic method that does not require dampening fluid, prints with special plates and special inks. Foreign research on waterless offset printing technology began in the early 1970s. Since the 1990s, waterless offset printing technology has gradually embarked on a path of rapid development. In recent years, as a mature technology, waterless offset printing has entered the commercial application stage in foreign countries. Some enterprises in China have adopted waterless offset printing technology, but more enterprises still lack understanding of waterless offset printing. Waterless offset printing is still in doubt.
Technical advantages of waterless offset printing process
Waterless offset printing has the incomparable superiority of traditional offset printing. With the waterless offset printing process, it is not necessary to use fountain solution when printing, so there is no headache and ink balance problem. For traditional offset printing processes, ink balance is the key, and water control is the least accessible technology in offset printing. At present, the quality of many printed products in China does not meet the requirements. The common reason is that the paper is deformed due to water offset printing, which leads to inaccurate overprinting and the imbalance of ink. Waterless offset printing Because the fountain solution is not required, the degree of paper deformation is reduced, and the color overprinting of the printed product is more accurate. Waterless offset printing does not involve water, avoiding the problem of ink emulsification in traditional offset printing, speeding up the drying speed of the ink, reducing the dot gain, and better the dot reproduction effect.
Waterless offset printing requires high precision for offset presses. Therefore, waterless offset printing can print more stable dots, higher mesh lines, and good color stability. In addition, since the waterless offset printing has no dampening solution, the corrosion to the machine is small, and the pollution to the environment is also reduced, which is environmentally friendly.
The waterless offset printing substrate has a wide range of materials, which can be printed on paper, plastic, metal and other materials, but has high requirements on the surface properties of the printing material. With the commercial application of waterless offset printing technology, there are thousands of printing factories in the world that have adopted the waterless offset printing process.
Factors affecting the development of waterless offset printing
Although waterless offset printing technology is constantly evolving, its development speed is far less than people expected. The main reason is that some key technologies have not been solved, such as sheet, ink, temperature control, etc. These factors have affected the development of waterless offset printing.
1. Plate
The plate is the main consumable in printing production, which directly affects the production cost. The printing plate is the core of waterless offset printing. The waterless offset printing plate is different from the PS plate. The surface of the waterless offset printing plate is similar to the flat gravure plate. It has simple operation, good image reproducibility, high printing density, bright colors and printed products. Good quality and other advantages. However, it is difficult to handle, and the printing durability is subject to the operating conditions and the environment of special printing.
2. Ink
Waterless offset ink is different from ordinary offset ink. Specially formulated waterless offset ink has the characteristics of low viscosity, high viscosity, large thixotropy and stable performance. The study of waterless offset inks is a technical difficulty. It is more complicated and more difficult to develop waterless offset inks than to develop water offset printing inks. At present, the waterless offset inks used in China are mainly imported and the price is high. As technology advances and competition intensifies, the cost of plates and inks will fall, and more and more printers will switch to waterless offset printing.
3. Temperature control
Users only need a one-time investment, improve the structure of the machine, and install a cooling cycle device to solve the temperature control problem. From the actual application situation of most printing enterprises in China, it is feasible to convert the existing water offset printing machine into a waterless offset printing machine. However, it is worth noting that different colors of ink react differently to temperature changes and require control of the temperature of the different printing color sets. 4. Other factors In addition to the above factors, there are many factors affecting the development and promotion of waterless offset printing.
(1) Price competition and production cost affect the development of waterless offset printing
Production costs are critical to the manufacturer. Whose cost is low and who is competitive. According to statistics, there are more than 80,000 existing printing factories in China. So many printing manufacturers compete for the printing market. In addition to playing quality wars, they are fighting price wars. The current printing price is close to the bottom line of the cost, and the wages of workers are constantly increasing, the profit margin of manufacturers is getting smaller and smaller, and many poorly-printed printing plants are facing bankruptcy.
The price of waterless offset printing plates and inks is relatively expensive, plus the cost of the printing machine temperature control system, the total cost is higher. For general prints, it is obviously not necessary to use waterless offset printing. Although the preparation time required for waterless offset printing is short, the rate of printing waste is low, and sometimes two or three sheets can be printed to obtain qualified prints, but the speed of traditional offset printing equipment is also fast, and the latest type of sheetfed offset paper is used. It takes only about one hour to print about 5,000 pieces of printed matter. Waterless offset printing can be readily available, and traditional offset printing is not inferior. It can be said that at this point, they are already at the same starting line.
(2) Requirements for the quality of printed products affect the development of waterless offset printing
Quality helps to gain a competitive advantage, and existing customers should be stabilized and new customers added. As far as the quality of printed products is concerned, due to the advancement of traditional printing technology, especially the mass popularization and promotion of alcohol dampening printing equipment in recent years, the quality of printed products has been greatly improved. Therefore, the purchase of waterless offset printing equipment is not a very urgent thing for the average user, which is an important reason why the waterless offset printing cannot be quickly popularized. However, waterless offset printing has the potential to increase color stability and reduce consumption. With the continuous improvement of people's living standards, the requirements for the quality of printed products will also be improved, which is more favorable for the promotion and application of waterless offset printing.
(3) Market impact of the development of waterless offset printing
As an emerging technology, waterless offset printing takes a long time to open up its own market, and it is possible to have a place in the market like traditional offset printing. From a market perspective, if a technology does not have an absolute advantage, it is difficult to gain a foothold in the market. Taking the Chinese character input method as an example, although many kinds of input methods were invented later, there are still few that can compete with the five-stroke input method. Similarly, traditional offset printing has already occupied a large market share, and it is not easy to get a piece of waterless offset printing.