Almost all printers involved in digital printing have this feeling. The market demand for rapid printing is very large. Many customers even consider time as the only factor when choosing a printer. Those printers with strategic vision can see the amazing productivity that new technologies can bring, and they are also the beneficiaries of the huge business opportunities brought by digital printing. In the late 1990s, after the advent of laser printing technology that used electrostatic ink-absorption principles to print images, this novel computer-controlled plateless printing equipment quickly gained market acceptance. Time is the best touchstone, and all signs can be attributed to the fact that a printing company with pioneering and innovative spirit is willing to accept any available printing technology in order to better serve customers. Below we will introduce several printers that combine offset printing and digital printing to develop comprehensive business. The digital printing equipment used by these printers covers almost all the mainstream brands on the market, and according to their respective production experience, they have put forward many insights and suggestions. The time they adopted digital technology varied from a few months to more than 25 years. All companies have made achievements in the field of digital printing while maintaining a stable offset printing business. Digital printing combined with traditional offset printing to provide users with one-stop service Those printers who have become accustomed to doing business in the traditional offset printing market cannot help but ask, what made them decide to install digital printing machines? (1) Crawford Printing Company, located in Burbank, California, is managed by a pair of father and son. Three years ago, they purchased the Hp Indigo 3050 and S2000 digital printing presses. Manager Jerry Crawford said: "We buy digital printing equipment to meet the various needs of customers, and do not want to say something like 'Sorry, we can't do this business'. In the past, due to equipment problems, the company was The short-volume business such as birthday invitations, real estate advertisements, and securities notes cannot meet the needs of users. The company's introduction of digital printing machines is to get out of this dilemma. HP Indigo press 3050 (2) Jason Tews, the head of the Graphix Products printing company in Chicago, said that as early as 5 years ago, they began to use two Canon CLC5000 color digital printing machines for commercial printing, which prompted them to "transform" completely because of the company's urgent Some jobs that need to get rid of their hard work must be transferred to other digital printing companies. Canon CLC5000 (3) David Abbott, the head of Abbott Printing Company in Maitland, Florida, found that in the past, because there were no digital presses, the company lost a large number of short-form color printing businesses, and many of their old customers very much hope that they can Provides one-stop service for all kinds of printing jobs. Now, Abbott has used Kodak NexPress 2500 digital printing machine for 3 months. The machine has the fifth generation imaging module and glazing function. The digital printing service provided by the customer has won unanimous praise from customers. Kodak NEXPRESS-2100 Using digital printing equipment to achieve rapid printing (1) Unlike other companies, the head of Western Graphics, Timothy Keran, said that the company invested in digital printers because they "all started by pursuing speed." This printing plant in St. Paul, Minnesota is lined with 7 high-end monochrome and color printers, as well as two Xerox iGen3s high-speed digital printers that have been working for them for 12 years. "Our company is known for its speed, and our signature is fast printing," Timothy said proudly. (2) In 1998, when Erik of Midtown Printing bought a DI printing machine, hoping to increase the output of the company's four-color printing business, he was questioned and even teased by friends around him, but it turned out that Erik was right of. When the company started to get some small-volume jobs, but demanded high-speed jobs, the only DI printer was clearly out of pocket, so Erik purchased the Hp Indigo TurboStream color digital printing machine in 2001 and early 2005 I purchased the Xeikon 5000 color digital printing machine. In 2006, I planned to purchase a 20-inch-by-29-inch Komori Spica offset printing machine at the Graph Expo to realize the effective combination of offset printing and digital printing. Komori Spica offset press (3) Commercial Communications, located in Hartland, Wisconsin, is the only company that uses digital printing equipment as its main force. People liken the company to a digital horse-drawn offset printing car. The offset printing business they undertake basically adopts Digital printing is complete. In fact, since they purchased the Xerox 9500 digital press in 1982, they have never increased their investment in traditional offset printing equipment. Today, the company has a huge digital printing unit consisting of 24 Xerox and Océ digital presses, including an Océ VarioPrint 6250 ultra-high-speed digital press. According to reports, whether it is sheet printing or web printing, the company can effectively combine traditional offset printing and digital printing technology. Through this "bundle package", it saves a lot of production and management costs for their customers. . [NextPage] Problems that should be paid attention to when investing in digital printing equipment Western Graphics' Keran corrects some people's wrong thinking that digital presses do not require pad preparation and other pre-press preparations. In fact, when Keran switches from the frequently printed 14-inch by 20-inch format to other sizes, it takes about 20 minutes Adjustment. Keran believes that the 20-minute adjustment time is actually similar to the time required for traditional offset printing, so when investing in digital printing, this time cost should be taken into account. Erik, head of Midtown Printing, pointed out an issue that is easily overlooked: Unlike traditional offset presses, the consumables of digital presses include not only toner and paper, but also a large number of consumable parts such as doctor blades, doctor rollers, and polishing cloths , Imaging drum, and special tape. Only if these costs are included in the investment plan, can investors objectively compare digital printing with traditional offset printing. Now, people have a full understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of digital printing and offset printing. For example, in terms of color accuracy, if an accurate Pantone color matching system (PMS) is required, then offset printing may be more appropriate. However, according to Professor Frank Romano of the Rochester Institute of Technology in the United States, some digital printers have been able to use digital printing machines to obtain better Pantone colors than offset printing technology, while some digital printing equipment in the CMYK color space can only approach some customers in general. Adhere to the required spot color accuracy. Crawford believes that the current paper format is no longer the resistance to the promotion of digital printing. Facts have proved that it is now 8.5 inches by 11 inches. That is to say, to use offset digital printing to replace the quadruple offset printing equipment and Does not affect productivity, because the turnaround time of different jobs in digital printing is very short, and the printing speed is also very fast. In fact, in order to meet the various needs of customers, many suppliers have provided a full range of paper solutions. It should be said that most digital printers now have no restrictions on paper. So, how does it perform in terms of color? We often have this kind of experience. When we compare digital prints with offset prints, people generally say that digital prints are "a little glamorous." In fact, this is not all a bad thing, because for printers, "a little glamorous" to customers may be considered "more vivid." In addition, digital printing does not use traditional ink, so there will be no dot expansion. Many people think that the reason for the rapid promotion of color digital printing is mainly the collective promotion of printing equipment vendors, but Hegwood of Commercial Communications believes that digital printing is now widely accepted in the market, and it is likely to be widely used in color desktop printing equipment. Related, because people have gradually accepted the quality and color of digital printing. What you earn is the value of time At 12 noon, Crawford received a job that printed a 12-page half-fold booklet via the Internet. The customer requested that 250 copies must be printed at 5 pm. The five-hour delivery time was very tight for traditional offset printing, but Crawford father and son But without panic, NexPress 2500 can handle all the processes of reading documents, printing proofs, printing, cutting and so on within 1 hour. Erik of Midtown Printing Company exclaimed: "Thanks to digital printing technology, it allows us to calculate the time of printing jobs in minutes." Keran also believes that the advantages of digital printing in terms of production efficiency are obvious: as long as the prepared input file format is appropriate, the final product can be printed immediately using digital printing. Because digital printing has the characteristics of one-time molding and immediate use, the output is a clean and dry finished product, which can be "directly put into a folder" without having to be transferred from the printing workshop to the binding workshop. It is very suitable for those printing jobs that need quick turnover. For example, printing starts at 7 a.m., and the expedited job to send the finished product at 11 a.m. is very suitable. Many customers even consider time as the only factor when choosing a printer, so long as they can work as soon as possible or on time, they can accept more money. Abbott Printing Company recently received such a business. A customer needs to print 3700 copies of 8.5-inch by 11-inch advertising printing jobs. Abbott provides two solutions: one is to use Heidelberg offset printing machine for traditional offset printing, and the other is With Kodak NexPress 2500 for digital printing, digital printing is more expensive than traditional offset printing by $ 500, but the customer did not hesitate to choose digital printing because he can get the advertisement he wants overnight. Unit costs that cannot be ignored In terms of cost, offset printing has a distinctive feature, that is, the larger the amount of printing, the lower the cost; while digital printing is to print the price of each copy is almost the same, which often becomes an obstacle to digital printing is not recognized. Keran pointed out: "Despite the advantages of digital printing, if the operating costs of iGens cannot be effectively reduced, we will still use it selectively." For fast printing jobs with small print volume, the cost is not a problem at all, because in the case of small print volume, digital printing is a more economical method of offset printing than offset printing. However, Keran reminded that because the "print volume-unit cost" relationship of digital printing is a straight line, when the print volume reaches about 1,000 sheets, the economic advantage of digital printing begins to decline compared to traditional offset printing. However, printers can gradually realize the new printing method by guiding customers to realize the advantages of digital printing. Digital printing is a real "on-demand service" in the printing field. Because for customers who have printing needs, digital printing has created a "reliable guarantee management" business model, that is, before the actual printing, the customer's demand for any printing is variable. The biggest advantages of digital printing are flexibility, high efficiency and low cost. For example, a customer in Crawford had requested that before printing 8000 manuals, 500 copies should be printed and distributed at a commercial exhibition that was about to attend. When the 500 copies were printed, the customer suddenly found that all 12 pages in the manual needed The change, it is good to use digital printing, so that the content of 8000 manuals have been revised as required, which is difficult to achieve with traditional offset printing. People think that digital printing cannot get a good discount for bulk business. Hegwood and many printers engaged in digital printing do not agree with this. Hegwood said: "Although the cost of each printed product is fixed, it is not difficult to give a certain discount when the customer's small work accumulates to a certain amount." The perfect partner Now, what kind of relationship should digital printing and traditional offset printing maintain? In fact, digital printing has driven offset printing to become a very common phenomenon. Many printers have both digital printing and traditional offset printing services, both of which can promote each other. The best case is given by Abbott: Now, 10% of his NexPress digital press business is replacing the business that should be done by offset printing in the past. Most of Abbott ’s short-run printing business is not because the company has digital printing capabilities , Will definitely be lost. Seizing the business is seizing the customer, and has the digital printing capabilities. This customer's other printing business needs are naturally firmly grasped. Western Graphics ’Keran said:“ Having two business capabilities at the same time allows customers who originally bought digital printing services to also purchase offset printing services, because customers appreciate this one-stop service. If customers find that we are in Flexibility and outstanding performance in the digital printing business tend to naturally rely on our offset printing service capabilities. " Digitization is not to squeeze out the traditional offset printing business. Only these six printing companies have installed or will soon install new offset printing equipment, which is an excellent proof in itself. Tews said Graphix Products' latest six-color Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74 printing press is now on its way to the factory. Abbott Printing purchased a five-color Heidelberg offset press in April 2006. According to Keran, Western Graphics plans to order another six-color half-open sheetfed press to enhance the equipment lineup. The most impressive thing is that Midtown Printing bought a 20-inch by 29-inch Komori press at the Graph Expo held in October last year. Erik said that since they used the Xeikon 5000 to continuously complete short-form jobs such as posters of 18 inches by 24 inches, various long-form jobs with larger print volume and larger format have come one after another. . In this case, they have sufficient reasons and the need to "go against the tide"-invest in traditional offset printing equipment. Xeikon 5000 Equipment maintenance issues It is not an exaggeration to think of digital printing and offset printing as two sides of the same coin, but there are still some technical differences between the two technologies. This also determines that the two technologies cannot be replaced by each other, but maintain their respective development trends, especially Investors are more concerned about which printing equipment will be shut down frequently due to higher failure rate, so the answer is undoubtedly the digital printing machine that was born soon. Although in response to the survey "Are you satisfied with the services provided by equipment dealers", all six printers gave high marks to their suppliers' timely response and thoughtful service in times of crisis. But as Keran said: “You have to get used to meeting technicians often. Belt breaks, toner build-up and other operational problems can all shut down digital printing equipment. Since we have 7 digital printing machines, call a service technician Problems are resolved frequently. " Over the past seven years, Commercial Communications has been accustomed to buying parts from Xerox and its OEM manufacturers to repair monochrome DocuTech printers. Coincidentally, Abbott said that he chose NexPress 2500 because it allows users to maintain and replace parts to a greater extent than other digital devices. Lessons to learn Hegwood pointed out: A traditional printing house cannot be transformed into a digital printing house overnight. The construction of basic equipment is very costly and time consuming. He believes that for small and medium-sized printers that lack digital printing capabilities, it is too late to compete with those experienced printers that introduced digital printing equipment a few years ago. So the best way for these companies is to acquire existing digital printing companies that are already taking shape. One suggestion given by Tews: The price for purchasing digital printing equipment should be an all-inclusive price. This price must include all services, parts and labor costs brought by digital printing equipment. Graphix Products ’two CLC 5000 printers have almost changed parts now, but have not incurred any costs. This is because the company had already calculated this part of the service into the total price of the goods when it negotiated the device price with Canon. Tews recommends that you do not use the traditional calculation methods of traditional offset printing equipment in the past. It is best to include all the factors required to maintain the efficient operation of the operating equipment. Crawford believes that offset printers must spend at least six months to learn how to produce and sell digital prints. People must realize that digitalization will bring about new document management problems and material handling procedures. For example, printed pages containing variable data must be placed in a reasonable order, and each printed sheet in the short-form job must be taken seriously and no errors can be made. Crawford suggested a new way to think about printing. Keran mentioned some details, such as short-run printing jobs best from the local. For customers who are far away, the cost advantages of short-form digital printing almost disappear, because transportation costs and time must be taken into account. Those printing houses that are accustomed to serving traditional customers will realize that they will carry out short-term digital printing business. It is best to stick to the principle of proximity, and avoid staying close to each other. When Keran was asked whether Western Graphics would abandon offset printing, he said: "They are coexisting and mutually reinforcing relationships. Digital printing is not the enemy of offset printing, but its good partner." In fact, not only printers believe that digital printing and traditional offset printing are a coexisting and win-win relationship. Offset printing machinery suppliers will not give up the "short version printing" piece of cake. Komori recently added the Speedy automatic plate change system to the Lithrone LS29 press, which can replace four plates in 150 seconds, allowing users to efficiently complete short-run printing. Similarly, Heidelberg has developed the latest Anicolor ink supply unit and dampening technology for its Speedmaster SM 52 offset press. It is said that it can complete color matching within 20 pages and complete all pre-press preparations in just 7 minutes. With the continuous integration of the two technologies, the prospects of the printing industry will be more exciting and rich. [NextPage] DI printing bridges the gap between offset printing and digital printing Ten years ago, Neil and Frances Courtright founded NeFra Communication Center in New York. The company with 24 employees replaced the original four-color offset press with a Presstek 5334 DI press in May 2006. Neil Courtright said that DI printers can make our turnaround time faster and the output quality better. Frances Courtright said: "There are hardly any orders we can't take right now. Whether customers print one page or 5000 pages, we can meet their needs through different equipment combinations." NeFra especially loves the waterless offset printing technology of the Presstek 5334 DI printing machine, which can greatly reduce the drying time of double-sided printing. The traditional four-color printing equipment requires 1.5 hours of work to complete, it only needs 15 minute. DI presses are generally suitable for jobs with 300 to 20,000 prints. Less than 300 jobs can be printed on Nefra's digital printing presses. Digital printing presses and DI printing presses complement each other instead of simply competing. They all serve customers' specific needs. Currently, about 15% to 20% of NeFra's revenue comes from the business generated by DI presses. NeFra customers also give high marks to the service of DI presses. For example, a design company submitted an urgent shipment of 3,000 cards at 10 a.m., and they were willing to pay an expedited fee to print with the Xerox 6060 digital printing press to ensure that they could get 500 cards that day. Brian Courtright said: "We finished the proofing and printing with a DI printer at 12:30 that day, but if using traditional offset printing, it may take 2 days. A hybrid printing method In December 2005, Mallard Press of Illinois installed a KBA Genius 52UV offset press. The compact Genius 52UV offset press is the world ’s first waterless, inkless UV sheetfed offset press. The main purpose of the purchase of the machine is to expand the original equipment lineup including Xerox and Canon high-speed digital printing machines. By introducing this new printing machine, it provides customers with variable data and short-run printing services. The company's president, Bob Gay, found that digital printing equipment is not economical and efficient after more than 2,000 copies, and more than 5,000 jobs are more suitable for offset printing. In addition to meeting the short-run production of the factory, this Genius waterless offset press can also bring superb printing quality-it can achieve 300 lines / inch resolution on any substrate. Hybrid printing is the best solution for variable data printing. The Genius 52 UV offset printing machine can be cured in an instant and there is no limit to the length of the paper, so people can use it for color printing first, and then enter the page into a monochrome digital printing machine for variable Data printing. Digital printing technology has its own market, and no matter what kind of work is printed by a commercial digital printing machine, it can be profitable. Digital printing is not as advantageous as offset printing in the two extreme printing markets, high-end and low-end. In addition, for offset printing equipment, experienced operators can diagnose and solve the problems that occur, and once the digital printing press "stuck", it may only have to ask a professional product engineer to help. The digital transformation of printing companies does not necessarily require the elimination of offset printing. In the past year, 4 of these 6 printers have installed, ordered, or planned to order new offset printing presses. The development of offset printing business and digital printing go hand in hand is the strategy of current printing companies. Nowadays, differences in color quality, paper suitability, and even unit cost are no longer the focus of deciding to choose offset printing or digital equipment, and production efficiency is an important reference for deciding to choose. 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