Past, Present and Future of Lithography

Experts believe that in the 21st century, there will not be much change in the form of printing, but it will be faster and more convenient. The vast majority of inventions in the 20th century were obtained by scientists with untiring efforts and experiments, but the birth of offset printing was an exception. Its discovery was accidental: In 1905, a paper-handling worker named Ira w. Rubel discovered during printing that when the printing plate was in direct contact with the blanket cylinder enclosing the blanket because the paper was not fed in time, the blanket cylinder The print on the paper is clearer than the paper print. After this, although many people have contributed to the development of offset printing in machinery, this accidental discovery by Rubel is still the essence and key to the birth of offset printing. With the development of technology, offset printing technology has also made great progress. For example: automated printing, computer-to-plate (CTP), waterless offset printing, etc. The development of these new technologies has provided new forms and a broader market for offset printing in the 21st century. In order to promote the second revolution of offset printing, many authoritative people in the printing industry focus on the overall development of technology and industry, so offset printing has a broader development prospect. First, improve offset productivity In the past decade or fifteen years, almost all offset printing technology improvements have focused on how to increase printing output. Because the unit cost of production is equal to the output in a given period of time divided by the cost. Therefore, people think that there are two ways to increase productivity and reduce waste. In the past, the productivity of offset printing was improved by increasing the printing speed, but the limit of the rotation speed of the drum was 15,000 sheets/hour, so this method has certain limitations. In recent years, many new technologies have emerged, such as: shaftless drive, automatic ink supply system, automatic blanket cleaning system, automatic plate change technology, direct printing, and waterless printing, which have greatly improved productivity. In addition, when designing a printing press, you should also consider how to increase productivity. Because a concisely designed printing press can reduce investment, simplify operations, and ensure the long-term development of offset printing. Second, fully automated operations In the past few years, some companies have used cutting-edge technology in the company's workflow. The entire workflow includes: two Creo laser imagesetters, thermal resin plates (traditional printing and waterless offset printing), direct image printing presses (Hydberg Speedmaster DI), FM screening technology and high-fidelity color technology. These new technologies make the products of higher quality, lower prices and more attractive to customers. The future industry is a fully automated industry. In the printing industry, server-based electronic pre-proofing is the basis of the entire automated process. Direct printing will be in an important position in the near future, so people should remember two words - DI (Digital Imaging) direct printing. In addition, in the entire production process can not be completely separated from people's participation, because only the prepress, printing and CIP3 technology organically combined from the macro, can bring more lucrative benefits for the company. 3. People in the traditional pre-recession printing industry believe that in the next few years (up to 2002), electronic pre-proofing, CTP technology and direct printing will completely replace traditional offset printing. After digital printing was created, it immediately swept the world, and some people thought that this printing method would replace offset printing. However, this idea is not realistic, because from the current situation, about 90% of the high-precision prints are still done by offset printing, and by 2001 this number will remain at 80%. Due to the high cost of various digital printing methods, it is limited to special markets. For example, businesses below 400 sheets can be printed on demand. But its market share is also growing, from 10% in 1998 to 20% in 2010. At the same time, however, the market share of offset printing is declining: 46% in 1997 fell to 42% in 2002. For some print products with low quality requirements, such as forms, menus, brochures, black and white documents, offset printing may increase, but its growth rate is far from making up for the overall decline in offset printing. Looking into the development of offset printing technology: CTP will become an industry standard, thermal and digital media will be popularized, and small laser imagesetters and direct offset presses will increase. Waterless printing, FM screening and high-fidelity technologies will enable offset printing to control high-quality printing. Fourth, control the color For offset color control, relying only on standards such as CIP3 is impossible to fully realize the automation of the offset printing production process. Because different prints have different requirements, for example, when printing cross-page drawings, the color of each page often changes due to changes in daytime or evening and other various factors. Therefore, people with rich experience are required to take control of the machine. Production control requires judgment based on experience, so induction training is indispensable. In the future, the decision makers and managers of printing companies must have a variety of capabilities. This requires the training of more printing industry experts, requiring them to have computer knowledge, network technology, Internet communication knowledge, and visionary management skills. There are many variables in the digital future. In short, a person who knows how to print and has digital consciousness can play a role in the next century. With the development of printing automation, the number of operators required has gradually decreased, so personal training is not so important. Looking into the future of lithography, it will be presented in a beautiful, efficient, and fast printing mode and will exist for a long time!