Analysis of advantages and disadvantages of digital printing

Digital printing proofing has four major advantages over traditional proofing methods:

1. Fast response

With its fast proofing, digital printing machines can increase the speed of responding to orders and take the lead in shopping malls. At present, the competition of printing enterprises is intensifying, the processing price has dropped, and the profit space has decreased. The customer puts higher requirements on printing companies in terms of cost, response speed, quality, and service. Which company first takes out the sample will take the lead and get orders. Increasing the speed of proofing will undoubtedly enable the company to win among many competitors.

2. Reduced costs

The use of digital printing machine proofing can replace some of the original work that must be done on the rotary screen and flat screen printing machine, no need to occupy the machine time. Generally playing a kind will often occupy a machine 3-4 hours, if the customer is not satisfied, it will be repeatedly modified, resulting in a great waste of production capacity.

3. Good proofing effect, high customer acceptance rate

Digital printing and traditional printing belong to different systems, and many professional and technical personnel are concerned about the effect of proofing with digital printing machines. Traditional printing cannot achieve such an effect. In fact, this kind of worry is unnecessary. At present, in order to solve this problem, domestic companies have organized the best domestic technicians to conduct in-depth research and find solutions. This program uses software to adjust the digital printing proofing effect, so that the traditional printing machine can completely achieve the proofing effect in production. From the color point of view, since the color gamut of the paste used in the traditional printing is wider than the color gamut of the digital printing ink, the color effect of using the digital printing machine can also be completely simulated by the conventional paste.

4. Wide range of application

At present, the inks that can be used for proofing are active inks, acid inks, and dispersed inks (transfer printing). Direct ink-jet printing with disperse inks is still in search of suitable inks. In the customer's sample, if it is a paper draft or an electronic manuscript sample, it can be directly used for digital proofing after color separation processing. The traditional printing machine can completely complete mass production according to the proofing effect.

If the sample is a swatch, you need to explain to the customer some characteristics of the digital printing, and change the proofing mode after receiving the customer's approval. In particular, companies must consider the ability of customers to accept new things. For some of the more conservative customers, the use of traditional proofing methods is still more secure. Only when digital proofing becomes the mainstream of the market, recommend digital printing proofing to these customers is appropriate. . This process will take approximately 2-3 years in the country.

Digital printing technology and traditional printing technology are two kinds of printing mechanisms that are completely different in printing. Therefore, the use of digital printing machines needs to have a running-in period with customers. From the point of view of the process, the company's internal proofing and production systems must also have a run-in period. If it is possible to develop a set of process standards, so that companies quickly introduce digital printing proofing system, recognized by customers.

Digital printing technology is still to be improved. The disadvantages of digital printing technology are mainly reflected in four aspects:

(a) Slow printing speed.

Efficiency is money, and the speed of printing can greatly benefit the company. At present, the fastest digital inkjet printer can print at speeds of up to 150m2/h, but it is still far behind conventional printing machines and needs further improvement.

(b) Higher ink costs.

Although digital inkjet printing does not require screen printing, the total cost of small-scale production is lower than that of conventional printing. However, the price of the ink used is much higher than that of traditional printing dyes and pigments. Therefore, after a certain printing length is exceeded, the ink price will be higher. The cost of stimulating digital printing makes it surpass traditional printing. Future ink prices need to make reasonable adjustments to promote the development of digital inkjet printing.

(c) The combination of old and new technologies.

At present, digital printing technology is continuously improving, and the printing speed is also accelerating. However, there is still a long way to go to catch up with the speed of traditional printing machines. Therefore, the use of time-saving digital printing machine for proofing or small-scale production, and then with the traditional printing machine for mass production, will be the basic pattern of the textile printing industry in the coming period of time. The combination of old and new technologies is still difficult and requires further breakthroughs.

(d) Color accuracy

Compared to the traditional printing of spot color printing, that is, each color is individually prepared with color paste, and the color accuracy of the computer can be achieved through the computer's color measurement and color matching system. Even if a certain color paste is deviated, it will only affect one color. The digital printing is CMYK mixed printing, all colors are mixed by four-color ink, a little extra influence such as the difference of ink, the difference between the print heads, the small changes in the environment during printing, will affect the color after a The accuracy of the series colors. Therefore, the color accuracy of digital printing is slightly worse than traditional printing.