Short-cycle on-demand printing requires efficient post-press processing equipment, bookbinding machines, folding machines and thread-locking machines that work online are important manifestations of the automation of post-press equipment.
To meet the market requirements of on-demand printing, it is not only a printing machine that is easier to install and easier to operate. If the corresponding post-press field does not receive the necessary attention, make it common with pre-press and printing processes. Development will affect the improvement of the overall printing efficiency.
The new design needs of the printing market require a mechanical design concept. The new mechanical design concept requires changing the machine design mode, improving information technology, and connecting the thread locker, binding machine and folding machine through the network: automatic assembly and control technology enables remote management Can be achieved, reducing the workload of operating workers.
JDF came into being. JDF is a data transmission format of one terminal port and another terminal port, which has brought a huge impact to the printing industry and has been generally accepted. Compared with prepress equipment and printing equipment suppliers, postpress equipment manufacturers are not so active in the CIP4 organization, but major postpress equipment manufacturers such as Wohlenberg (Wohlenberg), Martini (Muller Martint) Heidelberg (heidelberg) is one of the important members of CIP4, they are committed to the realization of perfect JDF goals.
The concept of JDF is: when a magazine, brochure, book or picture album is in the production stage, its parameter information can be preset in the machine, which can save production time. The most important thing is that if all the parameters are set in advance, then there is no need to re-enter the value, you can avoid entering wrong data information. The powerful functions and advantages of JDF in the post-press field are reflected in the following aspects.
Customers can understand the production situation at any time through JDF
JDF is sweeping, developing, and dynamic information. It can centralize execution information and step information. It can find data from the control center at any time and provide customers with the information they need at any time. For example: the production schedule of printed products, production planning and cost accounting have become more accurate. And the customer can know the information he needs at any time, which makes the relationship between the printing enterprise and the customer closer.
However, to some extent, some functions of JDF cannot be fully applied in the field of post-press processing and other process networking. Different companies around the world are frantically trying to add the JDF design concept to the design concepts such as saddle stitching, paper cutter, and binding machine.
Among them, Scenic Software's UpFront software puts a key element in the JDF workflow, which can arrange how the products to be printed are printed on the machine, and how to make the folding machine and the binding production line obtain the full-page printing data information. The PPF (print production format), which is defined in order to integrate the workflow of the upstream and downstream supply chain of printing, is also called "print production format" and has been well used in the software.
Paul Verwilt of Scenic Software ’s Belgium office stated that PPE printing production formats can be applied to post-press equipment such as cutting machines, pagers and saddle stitching machines, and some of our customers use UpFront software and Martini ’s Amrys control system. Connected, and we also connected it with Heidelberg's saddle stitch binding machine for testing: we and a US customer can feel that the production time has been shortened significantly during the test.
Martini uses the post-press processing line stored and set up by Amrys, which is ideal for matching with JDF. When printing companies receive repetitive printing tasks such as magazines or standard format books, the system can effectively shorten the preparation time. Especially in short-run printing, the binding line needs frequent shutdowns to make preparations. This system can realize automatic fund accumulation. Ma Tiankun believes that when there are more than three tasks in each link, it can be considered that the payment of this facility is very worthwhile.
Application of JDF in digital printing
In the field of highly automated digital printing, there are often many different tasks to be performed within an hour. Therefore, talking about the waste of paper between two printing jobs is already a common problem; especially in the traditional post-press processing production line, it will waste more printed matter in order to get the final product.
How to reduce waste is currently a concern of many digital printing companies? The use of digital workflow is much less waste than the traditional post-press production line, which can reduce waste to a minimum. Therefore, it has become one of the current urgent needs of the market to concentrate the functions realized by different machines in the traditional post-press processing on a digital printing machine, so that it can produce brochures, spiral binding and even soft-surface binding. It is also one of the most concerns of post-press equipment suppliers.
To break this traditional post-press production method and establish a new post-press production method requires a process; especially to integrate pre-press, printing, and post-press as a unified effective line also requires a time transformation process. This means that digital printing presses need not only mature and professional digital printing equipment, but also digital post-press processing and production equipment that can be matched with digital printing presses. The Swiss manufacturer HUKELER has been a leader in this field in recent years. Over the years, it has been committed to providing customers with increasingly mature system solutions that reflect the influence of digital products.
Before the advent of digital printing, there was almost no need to add an automatic control device in the post-press processing system, because the production cycle was long, and there was little motivation to drive post-press processing to be more efficient. Because there will be some natural errors in the production process of post-press processing, it is often required that we use tools to make some minor adjustments to the post-press equipment, which must waste a lot of time. In order to improve production efficiency and meet market demand, digital printing, especially in personalized digital printing, guarantees the overall importance. Therefore, replacing the trial and error method with an automatic device allows the operation to maintain very high accuracy at the beginning, which is very important for digital printing.
Hunkerler does not do all the work on its own. In Japan, Horizon and Screen Co., Ltd. jointly developed the JDF interface between the booklet maker and the binding machine for prepress and Horizon. The i2i program developed by the company has become a CIP4 standard interface, so that any machine connected to a department can be controlled and operated by a general console. Such a skilled operator can start the machine and monitor the overall production progress of the printing job, which can reduce a lot of loading and unloading work. In this way, only a skilled operator is required to control and operate all production equipment, while unskilled operators can do some ordinary installation and unloading work, greatly improving printing efficiency and saving printing costs.
JDF is more widely used
JDF usually represents a complete concept, such as a fully integrated post-press processing line, not at the expense of a post-press processing link. Instead, JDF helps customers solve problems by providing a complete post-press processing solution.
Horizon has expanded its traditional core business of small systems, and developed to develop and apply more large-scale equipment. This means that the company has shifted its perspective, and the company has started to produce new equipment systems that challenge the traditional concepts of the past. For example, in the traditional today, how should or how should the binding machine operate, and now the binding machine should be What it looks like. This new design concept of post-press equipment brings the impact to the post-press department like CTP technology brings the impact to the pre-press department.
Advanced post-press processing equipment has gradually replaced a large number of manual repetitive operations, which has brought a leap in productivity development, which has also prompted some printing plants to introduce some post-press equipment. Increasing market demand requires the automation of post-press equipment, because manual operations can cause relatively many errors. In particular, paper stackers, shrink packaging machines, etc. need to reduce manual operations to reduce the number of employees in the workshop. The most important thing is that automated production equipment can ensure that products are sent to the next production process in a timely manner.
Prinect workflow in Heidelberg
Many manufacturers can only use their products to correspond to a certain part of the workflow, so they must conduct interoperability tests with products supplied by other companies. And Heidelberg provides all series from pre-press to post-press. The focus of the current work is to debug the entire line of products according to the JDF workflow, and then connect and debug with other company products. It has been reported frequently in this regard.
Heidelberg Prinect Infinite JDF workflow can connect all the work, it can be quickly installed on the ST400 saddle stitcher and Stanl folding machine. For the paper cutter, if it can be connected to the Prinect network, the recommended solution is compucut-an unconnected console connected to the paper cutter, and then connected to Prinect and Prinance-MIS application. These processes are carried out under the control of the post-press information system. The system server accesses the data required for the next process, and the required settings are also loaded at the same time. The waste of all work and the number of actual work will be fed back to the MIS to obtain more accurate cost calculation and production control.
Heidelberg ’s ST400 rider can provide a complete, accurate and complete production process. ST400 rider can start working two minutes after receiving the data. The difference is not only in the effective reception of data, ST400 Qiding Wang has also made great progress in technical design. The ST400 uses a servo engine to set the mobile position and can be directly driven. The digital control frees the saddle stitcher from the constraints of the drive shaft. This technology is currently widely used, especially in the application of web printing presses. Using this concept, other similar technologies can be applied as needed.
Stahl folding machine gradually adapted to this technology, its server can repair deformed printing plates and printing thick paper. The correctness of this concept has already been explained, and Heidelberg will also extend this concept to other post-press processing systems.
Other thoughts about this application are also very extensive, and this number will continue to grow. It's just that you can find it when you need it. From the perspective of reducing waste, the operator can decide to produce only a single page, and the machine's response is also very sensitive.
Obedience is the key
Obedience is the key to the future development of post-press processing technology. Obey the instructions of JDF, obey the need for short preparation time and zero waste. Applying these postpress systems to digital printing and long commercial printing is not a problem, because the needs are the same.
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