Are you ready for digital printing

Are you ready for digital printing

think carefully before investing in digital technology, and think of every detail

how can you know that your enterprise is ready to shift from offset printing to digital printing

for many companies, the installation of digital printing machines is driven by the demand for variable data printing from shorter edition printing businesses or printing customers

change in concept

in addition, the shift to digital printing also requires a great leap in concept. The shift from offset printing to digital printing means a major cultural change for many printing enterprises, far beyond the reduction of ink use, noise-free and the production of shorter printing operations. For many newcomers to digital printing, new technology also brings many new terms that are difficult to understand

Chris Matthews, the Southern Sales Manager of Heidelberg digital mass printing company, recalled a conversation between a customer and a salesperson: "the customer asked, 'what does PDF mean?' and the salesperson replied: 'piddy Diddy Fiddy (wandering, cheating and mischief)'. And the customer seemed to accept this statement."

matthews also told the story of another printing enterprise (which may be fictitious), which once asked whether the monochrome digimaster 9110 printing machine could print in color. The answer, of course, is that 256 gray levels of any color can be printed

Mr. Bernard Niemoeller, marketing manager of Di printing machine in the UK, currently suggests that printing enterprises ask themselves three questions before entering the field of digital printing: can they save a lot of money in business protection? Is the amount as high as the carrying capacity of the printing machine? Can employees be as flexible as printers? Does the sales team have the courage to sell services, not just printed products

hard experience

even the salesperson can't deny that it was a hard experience for the company to buy a digital printing machine for the first time

for those enterprises that do not want to enter digital printing, direct imaging printing machine (or di printing machine for short version printing) is a good choice. Although these printing machines cannot provide the advantages of one sheet printing or variable data printing, they have more flexibility than other offset printing machines, and the preparation time before printing is shorter

Mr. efrem Lieber, vice president of sales of pressek, an American digital imaging supplier, believes that at present, interest in di printing machines is gradually increasing. 2000 Di printers have been installed worldwide

"95% of these printing machines are implemented using pressek technology, and we are very proud of it. Our market share is increasing every quarter, whether in plate sales or the installation of plate making machines."

pressek also said that because many printing machine suppliers 7. The demand of film and foil materials for experimental machines: Di printing machines can be supplied, printing enterprises have a wide range of choices. In contrast, some existing digital printing machines are usually incompatible, and their technologies are completely different, such as based on inkjet, electrostatic copying or laser and so on

huge difference

lieber said, "our customers have reported to us that the shift to di printing machine has brought great changes to their printing operation, mainly in terms of time, cost and waste."

"the chemical development process that used to be necessary keeps the printing cost high. In addition, there are transportation, storage, treatment and cleaning, as well as some waste caused by errors. In short, if there are many steps in the production process of a product, the chance of human and mechanical errors also increases."

"at the same time, the later the error occurs in the production cycle, the more operation steps are required for rework."

then, what questions should a printing enterprise ask itself if it decides to choose a more mature digital workflow instead of a di printer

"the answer is the market." Paul bridge of Eden litho company in Edenbridge said that the company used Xerox and Xeikon printing machines. "This is a huge cultural change for any printing enterprise. The most important thing is to understand your market, and many enterprises are not good at it."

huge expenditure

"the cost of digital printing has fallen a lot, but it is still a large expenditure. But some printing enterprises may collapse because they do not use digital printing, or they may cause huge waste because of their wrong use."

"as far as our company is concerned, although we used to copy documents, which is not much different from digital printing companies, we never carried out post press processing in the enterprise before installing digital printing equipment."

bridger added, "the problem now is cost, not quality."

"in the past, I bought a Xeikon because its printing quality was better than Indigo's, but now both are the same, and xeikons' cost efficiency is higher."