Digital imaging has a big impact on color screen printers

(Digital imaging effects on graphics screen printers) The RIP software package has brought us fine halftone color images in various fields. Looking back to Europe in 1993, more than 90% of color screen printing still uses spot color printing, and less than 10% use four-color printing. But soon, the emergence of various types of software packages, scanning systems, digital equipment, high-speed imagesetters, and RIPs changed the entire printing production process. At present, screen printing can not only produce four-color printing products, but also print more than four colors. At the same time, the customer's requirements are constantly improving. At present, about 70% of wide-format color screen printing uses spot color printing, nearly 30% use four-color overprint, and the proportion of four-color overprint is still steadily increasing. The digital trend means that the color screen printing market is facing the impact of four-color digital printing, and it is now difficult to achieve an almost 30% share. Spot color printing is no longer a hindrance to the barriers of commercial products from screen printing to digital printing. Some ink jet printers can now print directly on uncoated, self-adhesive vinyl substrates, banner vinyl substrates, polyester flags, and silk screens. In the near future, they can also be printed on rigid substrates. . In order to make color screen printing prosperous for a long time, we must maintain a strong competitive edge in the length of the job and the range of substrates. Ink Jet Printing In order to illustrate the problem, we roughly divided the inkjet technology into three main parts: hot instant inkjet printing, continuous inkjet printing, and piezoelectric instant inkjet printing. For short-lived and high-quality color printing, hot-on-demand inkjet printing is widely recognized in homes and offices. It is imaged with a semi-automatic inkjet head and water-based ink. For long live printing, the substrates are limited to low-cost paper and cardboard. Continuous ink jet printing includes Iris Graphics (water-based ink proofing or line drawing) or industrial solvent-based systems such as NUR Blue. This ink jet head has the characteristics of high reliability and long life, but it is expensive. Piezoelectric instant ink-jet printing is the designated choice for real-time technology, typically using piezoelectric crystals or generating shock waves that eject ink droplets. Piezoelectric technology includes many low resolution devices ranging from medium productivity to high resolution to the highest output. Currently, high-resolution piezo heads are found in many wide-format machines, such as Roland CAMMJet, Mimake JV2-130, Mutoh Falcon, Gretag Bellise, and Epson’s own printers. Epson printheads use water-based inks to achieve resolutions from 720dpi to 1440dpi. The exception is Bellise, which uses alcohol-based inks. The output of these devices is high quality but limited to indoor and short-term outdoor applications. Printers with high resolution and high productivity have emerged, and they use some sort of piezoelectric inkjet heads. These inkjet heads also exist in solvent system inkjet devices and are devices that image onto standard media. Other printers are the Salsa2 series from Vutek2360SC, Gretag Arizona, Scitex Novo and PressJet, Nur Fresco, Gerber Orion and NUR. The more durable inkjet heads in these products can last one year or more under normal printing conditions. Later, there was a more expensive and more durable inkjet head, but it had a larger dot size and lower resolution. Companies with this product include Trident, Willett and others. These inkjet heads are mainly used in the trademark, code, and label industries on packaging. Piezoelectric inkjet heads, which are more durable types, are very expensive to develop and purchase. In the part where trademark products have been established, most dealers use a business model that sells inkjet heads and inks to match with machine makers or OEMs. OEMs added "inkjet + ink system" to their own machine. Inks are generally produced and provided by third-party suppliers. It is clear that third parties need to gain their own economic benefits. Correspondingly, machine manufacturers or OEMs need to place considerable price increases on ink costs. Finally, retail or general distributors in each district need to profit from the sale of ink. Because for the new digital presses, the installed infrastructure and the inks used may be very little in conformity with the traditional standards, and the inks will be produced, packaged, and sold on a small scale. The typical situation in the screen printing industry is that the ink is rarely produced by machines and the production has a considerable scale. In contrast, the aforementioned situations are often provided directly by manufacturers or their distributors. This is an open market, and all the gross profit is also relatively low, and the final profit is minimal. The survival and prosperity of the color printing section of the screen printing industry can be attributed to a simple problem, that is, in more than 100 operations, any printing method cannot compete with screen printing or offset printing. Screen printing and offset ink manufacturers were originally outside the digital community and they were particularly interested in digital printing. In such an open market, the most cost-effective retail industry and the best service will certainly become the final winner. In the past year, the real winners were solvent-based inkjet printers with a wide market, with a print width of up to 5 meters. They can be printed on standard vinyl materials, screens, and paper, which of course can affect the screen industry. Moreover, few companies can really carry out large-scale screen printing. This large-format printer sold more than 500 units worldwide last year. In addition, we need to pay attention to wide-format, medium-sized, high-speed inkjet printers. The key feature of these machines is high-resolution printing on uncoated vinyl materials. The latest products in the inkjet printer series are some flat panel inkjet printers that meet the needs of rigid substrates. Developers include Inca (United Kingdom), Perfecta (Switzerland), Sias (Italy), Tampoprint (Germany), Aprion & Scitex (Israel), Durst (Italy), Olec (USA), and the like. Some companies have introduced commercial models, but most are still in the late stages of development or beta testing. Mass production of these machines may take some time. The market for logo printing, rigid panel printing and rigid packaging printing is a considerable and attractive market, and it is not possible to use roller printing machines as an economic starting point. Interestingly, as the industry turned to the application industry, European equipment manufacturers regained a portion of the lost market in the United States and Japan. Will digital printing replace screen printing as the preferred method for producing wide-format color images? From a value point of view, it is almost certain, although this does not mean the elimination of screen printing. Many major screen printing companies have made significant investments in new machines and new technologies, including multi-color printers and UV-curable screen inks, and digital printing for proofing and short live printing. We must also remember that the complex manufacturing process and stringent requirements for inkjet inks determine that digital printing may never be as cheap as screen printing, flexo, or offset printing. Especially for long-lived games, digital printing cannot be cost-effective compared to traditional methods. But in the long run, any lost market share and revenue from screen printing will be supplemented by digital printing. Personally, I expect screen printing to continue. But with the ever-increasing strong competition from digital printing, not all screen printers and screen industry suppliers can survive. Faced with the ever-increasing profits of digital printing, only those companies with vision, flexibility, and adaptability in the digital field can survive.