The recent outlook of digital color printing faces the era of the fourth revolution

Electronic photography

Electrophotography known as electrophotography and electrophotography has been widely used in plateless printing. It was invented for Chester Carson in 1938 and developed by Xerox in the 1950s for photocopying. By 1970, it was first used as a Xerox 9700 flexible photocopier in digital printing systems.

The protagonist of electrophotography is a photoconductor. First apply a corona charge to its surface in a dark place. To the image of the projected light there, the charge on the photoconductor disappears where it hits the light, and an electrostatic latent image appears. Then, dry or wet powder with opposite charge is applied to the area to form an image. This image is transferred to the substrate and fixed by heat or solvent vapor and other methods. Light sources used for copying include ordinary incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps, strobe flash, etc.

The main body of electrostatic printing uses laser or LED light sources to print out digital data from the computer. Among the digital color printing systems of electrophotography, there are currently used, experimental, and published ones. The specific expressions are as follows: Indigo E-Print 1000, Xeikon DCP and OEM users (Agfa, IBM, Barco), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Digital 2, Toray color printer, Scitex Spontane, Xerox Docucolor 40, T / F Systems, other colors Copy system, various laser color printers.

Digital printing machine with electrophotography

Indigo E-Print1000 is an electrophotographic method that uses laser imaging, uses special liquid powder, and has the same structure as monochrome offset printing using a printing plate, that is, it has a printing plate, a blanket, an impression cylinder, a paper feeding device, and a paper receiving device The printing machine is 800dpi, which can solve 6-color printing. It has a printing speed of 1000 sheets per hour for 4-color printing.

The most unique point of E-Print is the use of electrostatic ink and heating blanket in the image transfer system. Electrostatic ink disperses micron-sized pigments in thermoplastic resin and is diluted with mineral oil.

Immediately after laser irradiation, it acts on the photoconductor and transfers it to the heated blanket. The ink that has melted on the blanket, that is, the pigment and resin, is transferred to the cooled paper and fixed. Although the adhesion of electrostatic ink to paper is an important factor, paper can be printed without treatment.

Indigo introduced a new system that improves quality and can extend the life of consumables. Such as extending the life of plates and blankets, improving the boxing structure of electrostatic inks, and Oneshot Color web printing machines for labels, packaging, construction and decoration materials, etc. The so-called OneShot is the integration of 4-color or 6-color images on a blanket and transfer to paper at once to obtain printed products. Its registration and corresponding web have been improved.

Xeikon DCP -1 (Belgium) is an electrostatic web printing machine with 8 units, which can complete double-sided 4-color printing at a time. Exposure to the photoconductor in the printing press is performed by LED, and the image is obtained with the resolution of 600dpi. The intensity of the light spot changes in 64 steps. According to their respective strengths, Agfa's dry two-component toner is applied. The printing speed is 1050 sheets per hour.

The image is composed of a single-line network cable, adapting to the demand of color material, and the line width can be continuously changed. Each color is printed at different screen angles. Xeikon's engine is used by Agfa Chromapress, IBM3170 digital printing press, Barco printing press, etc.

The new second-generation Xeikon DCP / 32D was released in 1996. It is composed of new hardware, software, consumables, etc., which improves quality and productivity, and reduces costs. After improved toner and developer, etc., after improving the operating conditions, the toner consumption is reduced by 10-20%, and the life of the developer also exceeds the A4150 before the improvement. The depth of the toner has also been improved, and the production cost and maintenance cost have been reduced. Its effect has also increased the life of the drum by 200,000 times or even 300,000 times.

Color copy and digital printing system

The color photocopier is used to make several partial monochrome prints or 4-color color copies. If this type of photocopier is controlled by a color server, it becomes a short-lived digital color printer (less than 500 sheets). The earliest used as a digital color printing machine was the Canon CLC500, after which the PS controller was installed. Xerox published the 5775 color copy system in November 1991, and was introduced by Agfa, Canon, Minolta, Xerox, etc. in 1993.

In 1995, Scitex introduced the Spontane color copying and digital printing system, and T / R introduced Micro Press 312. Xerox released the DocuColor 40 digital printing system in 1996. The basic tone is basically the same, but the high-speed color photocopier is transformed into a printing press. A3 paper can print about 40 pages per minute.

T / R Micro Press 312 is equipped with the 2, 3, or 6 engine of Canon 360PS electrophotographic laser color printer. It consists of 133MHz Pentium PC (currently increased to 200MHz) of WindowsNT, Harlequin RIP, OPI software, etc. PressDirector to start. The system has a unique software called Automatic job passing. This is a software that appropriately summarizes the output from each printing unit according to the work requirements.

In addition to the color copying and digital printing systems mentioned above, there are other copying devices that are also used for digital color printing. As devices with color servers, there are, for example, Agfa XC315, Canon CLC550 / 700, CLC800 with 400dpi single drum, CLC1000 with 31ppm (single side) with 4-roll engine, Minolta CF900, Ricoh NC5006, Xerox 5775, Majestic & Regal 5700, etc.

The earliest laser digital printing system was the Xerox 9700 handy printer published in 1978. After that, IBM 6670, 3800 laser printer, Kodak 100/150/250 high-speed electronic printer, etc. were successively published. The printers are all monochrome, belong to the low-power products below 300dpi, and the operation speed is also limited.

In 1989, Xerox published DocuTech at 600dpi, which can process 279x432mm files at a speed of 135 sheets per minute. Almost during this period, Kodak introduced 1392 LionHeart. This is a 300dpi 92ppm power supply for electronic printers.

The pioneers of 4-color laser printers are Canon, Hewlett-Packard, QMS, Tektronics, etc. From around the end of 1995, including the OEM engine, various new laser color printing systems were released, and the Apple Color Laser Writer 12 / 600PS with Canea HXLBP engine installed, which is a 3ppm (color) and 12ppm at 600dpi (Monochrome) device, and Canon 360PS with EFI Fiery XJE controller 600dpi, 3ppm (color) etc.

The Hewlett-Packard Color Laserjet is basically an engine loaded with Konica. At a speed of 300dpi 2ppm (color) and 10ppm (monochrome), a 4-color image is formed on the image cylinder, which is transferred onto the paper at once Equipment for obtaining color images.

The IBM Network Color Printer installed the Canon P320 and 600dpi color laser printer introduced as an engine in 1996. It is equipped with a 100MHz EFI Fiery XIE controller and Adobe PostScript Level II.

Any printing system using electrophotography has three boundaries.

(1) There is attenuation in the charged potential on the photoconductor, and the time of exposure and development has a great influence on the image density.

(2) The behavior of the toner is very complicated, so far unknown, and the characteristics have changed due to the batch production of toner, and the cost has also increased accordingly.

(3) The use of liquid colorants? Ventilation is required due to the dispersion of colorants into volatile organic compounds.

Due to the above restrictions and the high price of electrophotographic color proofing systems, electrophotographic color proofing equipment other than Kodak Signature supported by Kodak has been withdrawn from the market.

Inkjet printing

Inkjet printing occupies an extremely important position in digital printing. Compared with other digital printing, technology is not complicated, and the equipment is simpler than printing and copying. Because of its printing quality, color adaptability, cheap consumables, and no noise, it has been widely used.

Like the above, ABDick (Videojet) and Mead Digital were the pioneers of digital printing in the 1970s. But when using these devices, because of the need for a large-capacity memory and a computer with a large processing capacity, it has greatly pushed the actual use. At present, the memory of the Gigabit Information Group has become ordinary, the processing power of the computer has been significantly improved, and the use of inkjet has finally become a reality.

There are basically two types of inkjet

(1) A continuous inkjet type in which ink droplets are continuously generated to form an image while being biased.

(2) An ink drop on demand type corresponding to a signal to generate an ink drop.

In the case of continuous inkjet, there are three types of continuous inkjet that split the flow of liquid ink into small ink droplets and apply a charge to make it biased.

(1) Refers to the type in which the ink droplets that received the electric charge are deflected according to the required position on the paper, and the unnecessary ink droplets are returned to the ink tank for recycling.

(2) Refers to the type in which uncharged ink droplets rush onto the paper, and the charged ink droplets are sent back to the ink tank for recycling.

(3) It means that all ink droplets are charged, and the type is controlled according to the bias caused by electricity.

ABDick Videojet is of type (1), and Mead Digital is of type (2). In addition, the Hertz device used by Scitex / IRIS Graphics and the color proofing system of Dupont are used by type (3).

There are also two types of drop-on-demand models. That is, devices that use the piezoelectric effect and thermal inkjet types, and printers that use piezoelectricity, apply voltage pulses to the crystal with piezoelectric effect to promote pressure on the image head. Epson printers that use this pressure to promote the discharge of ink droplets are of this type.

As for the thermal inkjet system, there are two models, namely (1) foam jetting; (2) using the corresponding changes of solid ink.

For foam jet printers, a heating resistor is attached, which vaporizes the liquid ink to produce ink and steam that rush towards the surface of the paper. Canon and Hewlett-Packard color printers use this principle.

As for the types of corresponding changes in the use of solid inks, a heater that dissolves solid ink in bulk form is attached. The droplets are formed by heating and ejected by the vibration of pressure. The ink droplets collide with the paper and then return to the solid phase to form an image. In this system, Tektronixs is the best of this technology, which can obtain the quality similar to laser printers at low cost for any paper.

The leading manufacturers of inkjet printers are as follows:

Canon is the undisputed leader in the inkjet color printer market. More than 2 million inkjet printers have been exported to the world, and most of them have been converted into color printers. At the same time, its engine is provided to other printer manufacturers via OEM.

Epson America (Torrance, CA) and its series of stylus printers have become leaders in implementing piezoelectric effect technology. Together with Deskjet, Hewlett-Packard (HP) has become an expert in the field of drop-on-demand thermal inkjet printers. Since Tektronixs published Phaser 340 in 1995, it has played a leading role in inkjet printers that use corresponding changes in solid inks.

Spetra (Hanover, NH) is an advanced enterprise that provides printheads and pigmented rechargeable inks using piezoelectric technology. It is widely used with the following devices. There are 8 kinds of rechargeable inks, such as 2 kinds of cyan and magenta, 3 kinds of gray, and Polaroid Dryjet Digital Proofer using yellow ink, 54-inch large color printer Lasermaster, and high-speed (85-650fpm) film packaging line Markem example.

The UV-curable inks for inkjet were developed for the use of MICR, textiles, wall paste materials, and printed markings on printed materials. The prices of these printers are all below US $ 10,000, and some of them are under US $ 5,000. According to the improvement of image quality and speed, it has surpassed the laser printer, and has a considerable share in the market of short-type live and on-demand printing and variable information color printing.

In recent years, Silicone Kitchen Tools were introduced into the market. What makes these silicone products different or more advantageous than the others? Why should we use silicone kitchen tools? Is it safe to use these products? 

Silicone Cooking Utensils have high-heat resistance. It can withstand very high heat (some manufacturers claim heat resistance of up to 6000 Fahrenheit). If you're using silicone turners or whisks in cooking, you don't have to worry that it will melt when you accidentally leave it in the pot for a while.

 Silicone Cooking Utensils are stain-resistant. This is because of the non-porous characteristic of silicone. So that it doesn't retain odors or colors when you use it for stirring deep-colored food like tomato-based food products. Have you experienced how difficult it is to remove spaghetti sauce stains on your rubber spatula. This also lends the silicone products to easier cleaning or washing. 

Silicone cooking utensils are rubber-like. This makes them very user-friendly when dealing with non-stick surfaces. It cannot scratch or damage non-stick cooking pots and pans as wooden or metals spoons do. This flexibility makes it as useful as the rubber spatula in scraping clean those cake batter off the mixing bowl. 

Silicone cooking utensils are non-corrosive and hard-wearing. Food grade silicone are very safe to use in any type of food. It does not react with food or beverages, or produce any hazardous fumes.  This means that it will probably last longer than the other Kitchen Utensils

Silicone cooking utensils are safe to use. In The Safe Use of Cookware article by Health Canada, it is mentioned  "There are no known health hazards associated with use of silicone kitchen tools."
Looking at the above-mentioned qualities of silicone kitchen tools, I think you will get your money's worth when you consider purchasing these items for use in your kitchen.

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