Small and small benefits

Versatility and economy, small offset printing presses and digital presses, MARION WILSON told print shop: The future is digital, but at the same time it also requires economical and efficient printing on offset presses, faster than ever before. , easier to operate. Recently, many companies have invested in new types of printing presses, and they have also been watching digital development. At this time, they have chosen to keep up with offset printing because they can meet the needs of users. Slough’s Quickfold company in the United Kingdom is such a company. It was founded as a mailing company 14 years ago. Eight years later, it had an in-plant print to control the entire process. The company has its own graphic design studio that can provide customers with complete packaging. Now there are 18 people in the printing shop. In September of last year, one Heidelberg GTO machine was changed to Yoshiaki's 512H press and Purup Eskofot's DPX direct-working system. Manager James Haigh said that the decision to change to good is based on Ry-Offset Imaging's direct plate-making system as part of the equipment, but also because of its good after-sales service. The main advantage of changing to a direct platemaking system is to save time and increase productivity. It is also suitable for most of the jobs in the factory to be received in digital form, if not at the factory. Although this company already has a digital press for short-lived, printed color booklets. However, Haigh said that replacing a GTO machine with a digital press is not good, because the printing is mainly used for stationery of 10,000 printing/volume printing companies. “Printing with lithographic printing would be cheaper.” Haigh said that the registration of digital presses is not accurate enough to meet the requirements of high-quality job requirements. In July of this year, Brook & Learoyd, a professional manufacturer of commercial printing and graphic design in Huddersfield, installed an AB Dick 9995 offset press, plus a 2340-drum direct polyester system to enhance its short-colour four-color prints. Yield. Sales and Marketing Manager Tim Parkin said: "Our goal is to increase the output of four-color prints from 10% to 50% by the end of this year." Within one month after the installation of the new press, the company was competing It won back two customers by price. Parkin believes that the printing companies that have not yet switched to direct platemaking will eventually find themselves still struggling in the competition. Only the printing cycle speed is very different: “We can make a printing plate from disk within 10 minutes, and it takes only 2 hours to manually develop the film. If the printing plate does not need to be painted, only It will take 4 minutes to get a good version.” When printing the job, Parkin pointed out that he wouldn’t have to spend 80 pounds to buy SRA3 film. There would be plenty of room for negotiating prices. The company closely looked at digital models but invested in the Crabtree Falcon SRA2 and AB Dick SRA3 machines. "Digital technologies will be cheaper and cheaper, and they can be involved at any time," Parkin said. "We will turn at the right time, but now quality is not there, especially overprinting. Now it's the offset printing at 1000. The most economical time.” He pointed out that offset presses are also more versatile and capable of handling two-color prints, while digital presses need to print four-color prints at all times, adding unnecessary costs to the job. Imagelink, Dublin's commercial printer, has both offset and digital presses, and is a way to respond to customers' requests. The operator Ken McCoy explained that the company chose the Leung Ming 525HX to meet the ever-increasing demand for five-color short-run prints with high quality requirements. The number of such jobs is too long and the cost of printing on digital presses is too high. He expressed special satisfaction with the ability to polish on-line and to print five colors at once. “We can now complete, cut, and deliver four- or five-color prints that took three days to complete in three hours.” Not all buyers of small print shops are ready to purchase direct-to-plate systems, many of them Still buy your machine in your own way. However, the practice of providing suppliers with another item on the machine (such as finishing equipment) is increasing, as is the case with T-Snape. The T Snape plant has been in the printing industry for more than 150 years. They have realized that continuous investment keeps pace with the ever-changing technology and are paying close attention to the development trend of direct plate-making systems and digital printing machines. The problem is knowing when to use what method, and manager Dominic Swarbrick said that there is no decision yet, waiting until the price falls to a more affordable level. In Tonbridge's production and commercial printing plant, MCI is a factory that is all Heidelberg equipment. Now it is also turning to direct plate making. It bought the sixth GTO machine last year and also installed the Trendsetter 3230 platesetter to cope with 2500 per month. The demand for 3,500 plates (an average of 200 plates per day). “For us, it's mainly production. We have 40 orders every day to be made from this system, and more and more of them are multiple versions. This means that each press has to print three or four hours an hour. Workmanship.” Marsh believes that turning to computer-to-machine plates increases productivity by 60 to 70%. It also improves the production process and shortens the preparation time for printing. Marsh pointed out that the emergence of direct platemaking means that the skills are now turning to the replication department. It is now easier to recruit computer personnel than people who have plate-making experience.