The new pioneer Xeikon company in the development of dynamic digital printing machines is currently in a bad situation and is unlikely to have anything new. Punch International, which supplies components to Xeikon, is acquiring Xeikon; Manroland is still the largest original equipment manufacturer (OEM). At present, Xeikon's DCP 500D is still the largest size variable data printer, with a web width of 520mm and unlimited cutting size.
Indigo's XB2 sheetfed printing (B2 format) is a challenge for Xeikon's DCP 500D press. Like Xeikon, Indigo’s current focus is on the business as it will be acquired by HP (Hewlett Packard). This is undoubtedly a serious challenge for Heidelberg. Heidelberg has been closely watching the huge success of Hewlett-Packard's office equipment and wide-format printing market. Today Heidelberg must face the strong competitor Hewlett-Packard Company in the field of commercial printing.
In the coming years, the "digital plain printing" and "completely variable" printing markets will develop in parallel, each meeting different market needs. Even the next generation of dry powder presses, such as the NexPress 2100 or Xerox iGen 3, cannot be used as an alternative to the Komori Lithrone 20 or the Heidelberg Speedmaster 50. Xerox has different views on this.
What is certain is that ink jet printers will have major breakthroughs in speed, print quality, and mechanical structure simplification, and can completely replace offset presses. The key point of the ultra-fast ink jet printer is a page-wide inkjet array. When the substrate is continuously passed underneath, the printing width can be the same as the width of the substrate. Developers of high-speed inkjet printers (such as Scitex Digital Printing, Xaar, and Spectra, etc.) all configure inkjet arrays of the above width.
Saturn Technologies is better than Schenex Digital Printing Technology (Scitex Digital Printing) is technologically superior to its VersaMark family of presses (including printers capable of printing all blind phone calls). The company turned from monochrome to color technology and challenged its monochrome color laser printers from Oce, IBM and Xerox with its Vantage (avant-garde) color inkjet printers. Mr. John Godwin, Head of European Sales, said: "A Vantage press can replace three high-end laser printers. The next five years of major developments will be reflected in the shift from laser printers to inkjet and color printing. ”
Mr. Miki Nagler, President of Aprion Corporation, is full of confidence in the development prospects of the full inkjet printer. He believes that the cost of single page printing ink jet printer is lower than the flexographic and offset printing quality in the same quality, but the printer may still choose the digital printing machine. He said: "I think we will see this situation in another 7 to 10 years. By 2010, people will be able to make the cost, quality and productivity of ink-jet paper printing reach the level of current offset presses."
Developing Xaar in the right direction is also considering the same thing. The company exhibited at the IPEX Expo is a continuous page width print head with a grayscale scale, and commercial printing quality has been greatly improved. Agfa has teamed up with Kyocera, a franchiser of Xaar, to develop inkjet printers with grayscale inkjet heads.
Barco’s Dotrix branch exhibited at the IPEX trade show was the factory web-fed inkjet printer. This machine uses a grayscale inkjet head (manufactured by Toshiba Corporation) based on the Xaar technology. The SPICE (primary-pass color inkjet engine) inkjet system is used as an inline overprinting apparatus on a narrow web press. At present, Ma Andy has used the SPICE inkjet system on a composite flexo digital label printer, which is scheduled to be officially launched at the LabelExpo Label Technology Exhibition in September this year.
Mr. Stephen Temple, Head of Technology at Xaar, said: “We think the right direction is to complement the advantages of other printers rather than replace them with inkjet technology, which is an interference technology. It is always through a market area. In order to introduce a new technology, people will see this new technology and say, "Speed ​​and print quality are not up to standard and the price is too high. "But the new technology can use specific market areas to get predetermined technology development features. The printing market is large and there are many areas. So I think that inkjet printing technology can be developed in some areas with regard to cost and print quality." Offset, flexo and screen printing technologies compete for the degree of live work.
Spanish ceramic pigment developer Ferro Enamel Espanola used Xaar inkjet heads to print glazed patterns on ceramic tiles on its Keraset inkjet printer. Mr. Temple said: “Two years ago there was no expectation that there would be such a printing technology. However, this is one of the most successful technologies for applying the Xaar inkjet head.”
Mr. Klaus Spiegel, head of sheet-fed printing equipment at Heidelberg, doubts whether inkjet technology will completely replace offset printing. “Perhaps at a certain time in the distant future, and only within a certain market area, it can replace offset printing, because offset printing has a great competitive advantage in terms of the cost-to-cost ratio of large print volumes.” However, Heidelberg does have inkjet technology. very interested. In February this year, the company announced an agreement with Spectra to jointly develop "a new generation of printing equipment." Spectra launched a page-width printed piezo head at Drupa International Printing Technology 2000. This printhead is displayed on a Quickmaster 46 press with a VDP921 320mm wide overprint print head with a resolution of 600 dpi. The printing speed is about 100 meters per minute. Heidelberg has an inkjet array device with a width of 102 cm in its laboratory.
Ink jet printers equipped with page width inkjet array devices do not require the use of complex roller and ink roller combinations commonly found on offset, flexo, or gravure machines, but must be equipped with high precision feeders. Mr. Shreel, president of Heidelberg, understands this. He said: "We can produce and develop very advanced paper feeders. We are not worried about the future development of inkjet technology, because if this technology is suitable for high-speed printing, we also have corresponding countermeasures." Simon Eccles