What should we think about digital printing?
Time：2022-08-11 From：
From 2020 to the present, whether it is the impact of the epidemic, changes in the market and technology, or changes in the current economic environment, policies, and upstream and downstream industries, all have had a greater impact on the label printing industry, and label printing companies are facing greater challenges in production and operation.
In this article, the author focuses on digital printing, and discusses the development and changes of this technology in the field of label printing in recent years from the perspectives of application status, application thinking, and future development, hoping to give some inspiration to industry colleagues and find a better development direction.
Application Status of Digital Printing
From the perspective of equipment manufacturers, in the field of label printing, the current digital printing is showing a trend of flourishing, contending and vigorous development.
On the one hand, domestic digital printing equipment manufacturers have accelerated their deployment. By continuously optimizing and integrating their own technical advantages and international leading technical resources, they have quickly launched many new products that are more suitable for the Chinese label market and user habits, and have performed well in product update iterations. Ability to update faster than expected.
On the other hand, international digital printing equipment manufacturers have also accelerated research and development and launched many more down-to-earth equipment after years of deep cultivation in the domestic label market, giving Chinese label users more choices.
From the perspective of customers, with the widespread popularization of digital printing equipment, most label customers have recognized the digital printing method, and have a clearer and more accurate understanding of the capabilities and limitations of digital printing equipment. It also becomes more reasonable and effective to use.
At present, many label customers have introduced digital printing equipment to enhance the core competitiveness of the company, optimize the future development direction, and lay a good foundation for the long-term development of the company.
From the perspective of market factors, due to the impact of the epidemic, it is particularly important for label printing companies to upgrade their digital production processes. To some extent, this has also promoted the rapid development of digital printing in the label printing market, as shown in:
First of all, during the epidemic, the biggest feature of the label market is the increase in the uncertainty of production factors, and shortening the entire printing process can minimize this uncertainty. We know that one of the more prominent features of digital printing is that it can shorten the printing process, and has the characteristics of "short, flat and fast" production, which is very suitable for the ever-changing control impact during the epidemic. For example, when personnel and logistics nodes are reduced or even disappeared due to epidemic control, label printing companies receive urgent orders. If traditional printing methods are used, the company will struggle. However, due to the characteristics of the printing process, digital printing can be used with less labor. With the help of its flexible and changeable technical applications, it can provide customers with timely printing services in a short time, so as to minimize the impact of epidemic control.
Secondly, as the millennial generation has become the main force of consumption in the market, personalization, customization, and informatization have become new trends in consumption. These new trends in consumption are reflected in label orders, which are manifested in more and more short orders and shorter delivery cycles. At the same time, the requirements for anti-counterfeiting, traceability and informatization of products are also increasing. For traditional printing equipment, it will become more and more difficult to meet such market demand, and the characteristics of digital printing equipment are catering to these new market trends. In other words, under the influence of the epidemic, consumer demand has become more fragmented, which has also accelerated the formation of the market trend of "short, flat and fast" labels, and the pace of digitalization is gradually accelerating.
Thoughts on Digital Printing Application
With the widespread application of digital printing, many companies want to achieve more product application innovations through digital printing, but there is a misunderstanding here: can more application innovations be achieved with only one digital printing device? ? Many people do not know. In addition, in recent years, the concept of "digital + traditional" combined printing has become more popular in the market, but people have different understandings of its meaning. Therefore, in response to the above two points, the author would like to express some of his own views and opinions here.
1. Thinking about Applied Innovation
When it comes to the application innovation of digital printing, if we only focus on the process of printing, we can only partially supplement the deficiencies of traditional printing, and it is difficult to achieve application innovation in a real sense. If you want to truly realize application innovation, the correct concept should be that the three parts of prepress, printing and postpress must be digitalized, that is, in addition to realizing digitalization in printing (digital printing equipment), you must also realize digitalization in prepress digitalization (order management digitalization, rationalization) and post-press digitalization (print finishing, classification, post-processing, etc.), only when the digitalization of the entire printing process is achieved, the ways for label printing enterprises to apply innovation will become more abundant.
For example, the digitalization of pre-press can realize the management of fine orders, such as whether the order is profitable? If it is not profitable under the current conditions, which printing process can be profitable through optimization? Can the delivery date meet the needs of customers? If there is an accident, how should the delivery risk be avoided? Which orders are produced by traditional printing methods, and which orders are produced by digital printing methods will have a better total profit... These are the advantages of pre-press digitalization, which can avoid mistakes in the order receiving process of label printing companies, predict risks in advance, and do to be as scientifically circumvented as possible.
Another example is to achieve digital printing, that is, to use digital printing equipment to print orders suitable for digital printing. Through digital printing technology, it can reflect the core values of label printing enterprises (such as quality stability, originality, etc.), avoid single price competition, and enter the real Quality competition, so as to ensure the sustainable development of label printing enterprises. Similarly, digitization after printing, in addition to ensuring the delivery date, is also crucial to the production management of small batches, multiple varieties and high value-added orders.
In short, the digitalization of the whole process means that at any production node, the inherent mode under the traditional mode can be broken through, and the application innovation with practical significance can be formed. Of course, for the target market, traditional industrial labels have strict requirements on production standards, and there may be many difficulties in realizing digital transformation. The target market that is easier to achieve is the fast-moving consumer goods label market. The label demand in this market changes rapidly and the cycle is short, which is very suitable for the characteristics of digital printing equipment. In addition, if you can use the professionalism, process and standardization of digital printing industrial production to enter some commercial printing fields, the goal of quick profitability will be easier to achieve.
2. Thoughts on "digital + traditional" combined printing
Regarding the "digital + traditional" combined printing method, the author believes that it is first necessary to clarify its basic concepts. If it is to add a digital printing unit to a traditional printing machine or to add a traditional printing unit to a digital printing machine, it is also called hybrid printing. The author thinks that this method is not a reasonable development direction. The reason is simple. The principles of digital printing and traditional printing are different, and the inks used are also different. It can be said that it is very difficult to achieve matching printing quality and printing speed on the same printing material. Of course, if it is a simple mutual complement, it is another matter. For example, adding traditional spot color units to digital printing equipment or inkjet coding units to traditional printing equipment is still feasible in terms of technology, but if you want to achieve a higher degree of mixed printing, the author thinks it is very difficult.
If the "digital + traditional" combined printing is understood as a label printing company that has both digital printing and traditional printing methods, which can enrich the printing methods of the label printing company, the author thinks it is a more realistic and optimal combination. Through digital management, label printing companies can give full play to the advantages of digital printing and traditional printing, integrate the order production management of label printing companies, and achieve the best production mode.
In addition, combined with the previous ideas, the post-press processing technology also needs a combination of traditional printing and digital printing. In terms of post-press processing technology, the author personally thinks that it is best to realize the offline independent process. Although it can be combined online at a certain production node, the author still recommends the offline method in general, so that the two aspects of digital printing and traditional printing can be fully utilized. The biggest advantage of the process. Of course, if modular combination can be achieved, for example, when designing each subsequent processing module, it is ideal to consider the connection and coordination of each module to realize the free combination of various functional modules (including digital printing and traditional printing). The way is also the way to maximize the benefits.
The Future of Digital Printing
At present, digital printing is still in the stage of technology accumulation. Simply put, digital printing equipment can meet the needs of certain label production fields and become "printable".
As far as the technology itself is concerned, the next step in the development of digital printing needs to be upgraded to the level of "printing well". This requires equipment manufacturers to consider the compatibility of ink and printing materials in addition to studying hardware specifications. The ink should have good enough compatibility with the printing material to be able to meet the dual requirements of printing speed and printing quality. Regarding the compatibility of inks and printing materials, it is a two-way problem. When promoting digital printing equipment to the market, in addition to the performance requirements of the printing equipment, it is also necessary to conduct a large number of tests on the printed matter under various conditions (such as printing quality, weather resistance, adhesion, etc.). Manufacturers can introduce more printing materials for digital printing to meet these standards, so that digital printing equipment and digital printing materials can be introduced to the market at the same time and develop together. In addition, among many digital printing technologies, inkjet printing will be the future development direction of digital printing because of its simple structure and strong scalability.
In terms of standards, many current printing standards are based on traditional printing methods and are not suitable for digital printing. Therefore, in order to encourage the continuous development of digital printing, it is imperative to formulate printing standards suitable for digital printing. This standard needs to uphold the essence of printing, remove unnecessary and unsuitable indicators, start from the most primitive and basic needs, meet the basic needs of the market, and encourage the development of digital printing.
From the perspective of the market, according to market determinism, that is, the market trend determines the development trend of equipment manufacturing. I believe that with the fragmentation of market demand, digital printing will definitely continue to flourish. This is a business law.