A Review of the Development Trend of Printing Machinery in the 1990s

Since the 1990s, with the use of sheetfed offset printing presses, international printing machinery design and manufacturing standards have taken a big step forward. Heidelberg, Germany, Roland, KBA, Japan Komori and Mitsubishi have all introduced their own new generation of representative models. Compared with the previous generation of models entering the market, the new generation models have the following characteristics: 1. The speed has been further improved. The original organic machine speed is generally 10,000 prints, and new models can reach 15,000 prints. 2. The pre-adjustment time before printing is greatly shortened. The pre-adjustment time of the original organic replacement job is generally about 2 hours, while the shortest pre-adjustment time of the new machine in the fully automatic control state is reduced to 15 minutes. 3. The actual productivity of the machine has been greatly improved due to the increase in the machine's operating speed and the reduction of the prepress time for the machine to limit the production efficiency. Relevant printing practice shows that the new model has doubled the production efficiency of the old models that were only shipped five or six years ago. 4. The degree of automation has been greatly improved. The automatic control of the old model mainly focused on the automatic adjustment of the ink and register system, while the new model realized the full automation of the entire printing operation and operating system from paper handling to printing. Some people claimed that the printing press entered the era of "fool machine." In this respect, people know more about the automatic control system for printing presses, which is Heidelberg's CPC plus CP Tronic system and Roland's Pecom system. The increase in machine speed, the shortening of pre-printing time for the pre-press work, and the increase in the production efficiency of the corresponding presses are inseparable from the increase in automation. 5. It is the high precision of mechanical structures and mechanical systems that are compatible with high speed and high automation. People often only notice the role of electronic, optical and computer control systems in promoting machine speed and improving machine efficiency. Actually, the design level of mechanical structures and mechanical systems and the improvement of manufacturing precision also play a decisive role. The new generation of presses has adopted a mechatronic system with a simple mechanical structure and high precision, and its mechanical system continues to develop with simplified structure, high precision, light, electricity, liquid, gas, and computer automatic control. 6. In order to ensure good printing quality and high reliability of the printing machinery under high-speed operation, a new generation of presses has made great breakthroughs in design theory and design concepts. This is mainly reflected in the overall layout of the printing press, the paper feeding system, the inking and conveying system, the transmission system, the register adjustment system and other auxiliary devices. Thanks to the advent of the new generation of models and successful operation, the equipment produced five or six years ago quickly became obsolete. The printing companies that had just purchased the old-generation models at that time already felt that these devices could not adapt to the fierce market competition. In the face of this reality, the printing companies that have already purchased and those who are pursuing the purchase of next-generation equipment are considering the next step. How long will the current new generation of equipment be popular? They worry that the new generation of equipment will soon be Is the replacement of more advanced models replaced? In other words, will more efficient presses emerge in the market in the next few years? Such fears cannot be said to be unreasonable in the rapid development of science and technology today. The main competitive advantage of the new generation of sheet-fed offset printing machines lies in the two aspects of actual running speed and pre-press prepress time. First, let's see if the speed of a sheet-fed offset press will increase further to 18,000 impressions or 20,000 impressions. According to relevant analysts, further increases in speed are possible, but doing so will greatly increase the cost of the machine without giving the machine greater advantage. At this time, the printer will consider using a web press. As for pre-press pre-adjustment preparation time, it has now reached a relatively low level of about 20 minutes. Even if you shorten it by 50%, there are only 10 minutes. It would be irrelevant for a print that requires two hours of printing, or a saving of ten minutes, compared to reducing the original two-hour prepress preparation time to 20 minutes. From a print quality point of view, a new generation of presses will not be more challenged. The waterless printing method has higher printing quality, but it has not yet reached the popularization stage. The use of waterless printing has higher printing quality, but it has not yet reached the popularity stage. The use of waterless printing only requires the replacement of the printer's ink delivery and water delivery systems, and the new press has the ability to use a waterless printing inking system. Therefore, it can be said that a sheet-fed offset printing press already has the ability to use a waterless printing inking system. Therefore, it can be said that sheet-fed offset printing has entered a phase of relative stability and consolidation, and printing companies need not worry that the popular models will soon become obsolete. However, is there a way to print more than a single sheet offset? This is also a question people are considering. The first thing people think of is digital printing. The digital printing industry may pose a certain threat to certain printing methods. Digital electronic transmission, for example, has already taken the form of large batches of agents for printing. Form printing is rapidly shrinking. However, the short version of fast digital printing machines represented by Xeikons and Indigos has not yet become a competing object for sheet-fed offset presses. At best, it is only a supplementary means for sheet-fed offset printing presses. Digital printing press promotion digital printing can accept jobs with very few prints or even 1 product, but such prints are rare. Instead, web offset may pose a threat to sheetfed offset. However, from the point of view of print volume and cost, there is currently no web offset press model capable of squeezing out sites that belong to sheet-fed offset printing in the near future. The computer direct press (Computer to press) represented by the Quickmaster DI46-4 press is actually the application of plate making technology on lithographic offset printing. Its features are the use of a computer to control the laser directly on the printing press. Scanning plate making, school proofing with waterless offset printing, and short color fast printing. The print quality is still slightly inferior to traditional offset printing technology. In terms of printing volume and cost, it can be used as an additional model of offset press. With regard to the electronic and computer control technology of printing equipment, Roland's Pecom printer control system is unique in that it combines press control, production organization and production management. Its electronic equipment control cabinet adopts the double side arrangement of the unit, and the first layer on the outside of the wall panel of the US and the unit is an electronic control device, and the inner layer is a mechanical device and a corresponding lubrication system. This arrangement is not only more convenient for the maintenance of the printing press, but also eliminates the jagged handle on the outside of the machine. If there is a problem with the circuit board of one of the units, the corresponding circuit board of the other unit can be used for troubleshooting or troubleshooting. The Pecom control system operates in an operator-friendly language. The data is displayed in different colors according to the nature of the monitoring object: Blue is an optional item, and green, yellow, and red indicate the importance or urgency of the project, respectively. Use less symbolic means. The system uses a driver software that can always be upgraded to ensure that a new generation of offset presses will not be left behind as quickly as before. However, overemphasis on comprehensive electronic and computer control can also have adverse factors. Because every additional control, such as UV drying, dusting, automatic plate, automatic cleaning, etc. must occupy the system space. If the user does not purchase an auxiliary device, its control point will be idle, and the user has to pay more for the purchase cost. Therefore, some printing presses choose a variety of design methods in the morning to avoid the emergence of large electronic and computer control devices. In the overall layout of the machine, new types of machines have applied ergonomic design principles. In the past, the focus was on the compact structure. The station’s design concept turned to emphasize the human factors and coordination of human-machine relations, and paid more attention to the safe and comfortable working environment, convenient operation, and low labor intensity. Roland waives the use of its consistently adhered roller-less two-color unit arrangement on the new Roland 700 machine and uses a more flexible three-roller monochromator arrangement. Some of the company's new web offset presses reverted from the original model's 260-280mm diameter to the earlier 300mm, which is by no means a simple dimensional change and rigidity requirement. It reflects the selection of the above new design concepts, and at the same time Helps to improve the quality of the imprint; in order to make the printing machine more adaptable to the paper, the double Beijing Duck Roll provides a common choice for the imprinters; the printing device rolls with the “seven o'clock” arrangement for the first Heidelberg company. The new movements produced by other companies now including Roland and KBA have also adopted a similar arrangement, which ensures that the transfer of paper is completed after the imprint is completed. Roland Company abandoned the roller transfer method established by the same printing press, and actually developed a new "figure" transfer machine. The biggest point of this kind of transfer device is that it adopts any adjustable air flow control so that the paper does not come in contact with any component during the retransmission process. There was also an unexpected gain in doing so, which made it easy to install UV drying units directly between the units. When the sheet-fed offset press is at the 10,000-press hour speed level, different companies adopt different design principles for the delivery mechanism, and they enter Heidelberg's rotating drum-type delivery teeth, Roland's rotary eccentric swing-type delivery paper. Teeth, as well as Miller's friction wheel and Haley's pneumatic paper feed over-feed mechanism. When a new generation of 15,000-speed models was introduced to the market, the centering and hem-handling papers appeared to be the common choice of different manufacturers. This gave full play to the advantages of the hem-type delivery mechanism for high-speed, large-format, and high-precision positioning. . The KBA shuttleless batch feed mechanism has the highest transfer speed among various address mechanisms in the original generation of models, reaching 15,000 sheets per hour. Now, the company's new type (RAPIDA105) also uses a swathe. Paper mechanism. For many years, one of the research objectives in the manufacture of web offset presses was to eliminate the long axes of rotation between the units, the so-called "coaxial transmission technology." Interestingly, Roland Corporation installed a long driveshaft with gimbal adjustment function between its new model (Roland700) units to balance the load of each unit transmission, improve transmission accuracy, and reduce transmission errors. Of course, this phenomenon can not be understood as "this hill can see the mountain high"! The current trend in the development of web offset presses is still to increase the degree of automation, increase the speed and simplify the structure. For machine manufacturing companies, their ultimate goal is to meet the actual needs of printing companies. Due to changes in the print market, printing companies have increased their demand for small and giant web presses. High-end commercial printing companies are pursuing higher printing quality, flexibility in folding and shortening of print preparation time. They hope that the web presses will have the functions of automatic plate change, negative juxtaposition, and automatic replacement of folding folios. Publishing and printing companies are pursuing higher printing speeds and prints per unit time. Due to the presence of grooves in the rubber and the plate cylinder, the printing device of the conventional web printing press may generate vibrations upon printing, and in severe cases, the ink may appear on the printing product. The use of cylinder-lined blanket cylinders may avoid this disadvantage. This cylinder rubber liner and the roller set together rely on pneumatic or hydraulic tension technology, has more applications abroad, the country has not yet developed. Another new kind of roller between the grooveless and the wider grooved roller is the slit roller. As the groove of the roller is reduced, the printing area is increased, the paper is saved, the printing plate can be replaced, and the speed of replacing the blanket can be increased. The machine is running more smoothly. For users looking for high speeds and reduced paper consumption, consider choosing a slit or seamless roll press. Compare the seamless and narrow seam technology: The seamless drum has no rollers, it has high rigidity under small diameter, small deformation, and quick replacement of the rubber lining (less than 30 seconds). When the roll width changes, the corresponding roll liner can be replaced at any time. However, the cylindrical rubber liner has a high cost and requires a large space for storage. The printed matter may have slack or convex bulges and affect the quality of the printed product. In severe cases, it will also cause internal stress on the plate, which may cause the plate to crack. The blanket used for the slit drum can be flattened, has a small footprint, low cost, and good printability. Therefore, some manufacturers believe that the development of slit drum technology is promising. In order to overcome the shortcomings of the conventional plate cylinder and the seamless blanket cylinder, Roland is developing an offset printing technology that uses both a sleeve type rubber liner and a sleeve type plate. With this "sleeve type" offset printing technology, the size and position of the plate cylinder are