Electronic ink in digital printing

Digital Printing Features

Digital printing is composed of a combination of graphic and textual prepress processing systems and digital printers. Although it still needs prepress processing as with traditional printing, digital files, pages, etc. processed need not be output immediately. It is digitally stored in the system or transmitted through the network to a remote location and finally printed out according to the customer's needs. The digital printing workflow is generally as follows: Before printing, the optical conductor plate is fixed on the printing cylinder. A computer-controlled laser scans the printing cylinder to form an electrostatic latent image on the printing plate. Then, the electronic ink of the corresponding electrostatic latent image portion on the light guide plate is sprayed on the printing cylinder. In this case, the latent image portion absorbs the ink and the non-image portion is not sticky. The ink rotates the printing cylinder and the color image is transferred to the transfer roller. Repeating the above process for the other three color images forms a complete color picture on the transfer roller. Finally, the four color images are simultaneously used to complete the print production process from the transfer roller to the substrate.

Since digital printing is a fully digital production system, digital processes run through the entire production process from the input of information to printing and even post-press processing to bookbinding output. It integrates the entire prepress, printing, and postpress process. From a system control point of view, it is a "seamless" all-digital system. The digital information it accepts can be digital files or images transmitted over the network. It is digital information carried by other digital media (such as optical disk, etc.). From the perspective of the structure of the world's printing industry in the last century, print publications accounted for 75%, and non-print publications accounted for only 25% of the market. With the advent of the digital and networking era in this century, the market for printed publications and non-printed publications will greatly increase the demand for on-demand printing. Digital printing is an important way of copying and disseminating information. As with other methods of information dissemination, it will inevitably move toward full digitalization and networking. The market share of electronic publishing and online publications will multiply, and the market share of printed publications will slow down or decline.

Electronic ink plugs wings for digital printing

Digital printing indicates the development direction of the printing industry, and the application of electronic ink makes it even more so. Electronic ink is a new type of ink suitable for digital printing. It contains charged liquid ink particles that can electronically control the position of printed particles in digital printing. Because the electronic ink particles are very small (usually only 1 to 2 microns), so that when printing can achieve higher resolution and light Huai degree enhance the sharpening of the image edge to form a thin image layer. Compared with traditional inks, electronic inks generally have the following advantages

1. High brightness, high definition and durability

This is easy to understand. Manufacturers use the same components as traditional inks and only charge inks to make electronic inks. Therefore, electronic inks read similar to inks traditionally printed on paper but have high brightness and contrast when matched to paper and can Has a 180 degree viewing angle.

2. Strong printability

Electronic ink can be printed on textiles, paper, plastics, and many other materials, and it can be applied to almost all materials. The liquid crystal display is displayed on the glass, but it is heavy and fragile and the electronic ink can be displayed on the plastic surface, which makes it ultra-thin and elastic and not brittle. Nowadays, electronic ink has been added to the standard basic color CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color gamut base color orange, purple so that the color reproduction capability is much higher than the original four color based on the color reproduction capabilities in and PAN Ding ONE compatible Indig. Spot color system; Opaque white coating of colorless printing materials: Acts in various fields such as fluorescent inks. The use of electronic ink in digital printing is a relatively successful push for Indigo's color digital presses, which provides a unique combination of features based on its own color digital press technology and operation. Indig. The printing presses all use electronic ink (ie, Indig's unique liquid ink). Indig. The digital color printer has a good adaptability and an easy-to-operate electronic printing system that enables it to have both professional quality and high performance in traditional lithography. Indig. The use of patented electronic ink technology enables a variety of paper to show excellent color images, so that your desired graphics and data can be perfectly rendered in the paper's original adaptability; in addition to its computerized image processing The process does not require any negatives, plate making, proofing, and pre-press typesetting adjustments. It is truly digital, networked, and on-demand printing services. Indig. After receiving the pre-printed system-made electronic file, the printer first performs RIP processing on the data, then uses a laser imaging system to form an image of the light grid point on the imaging board, and then the ink jet device ejects the electronic ink onto the image and then transfers the image to the blanket. Finally, the blanket is transferred to the print media. If four-color printing is performed, the paper is rotated around the pressure roller and CYMK four-color overprint is performed in sequence. It is worth mentioning that Ind heart. The patented electronic ink can achieve 100% transfer so that only one set of rollers can be used to achieve four-color overprint and the cleaning blanket process is eliminated. Ink ink printing can be completely recycled and reused, printing ink saturation can be achieved without feathering dots and outlets to expand its inking and dot network conditions than traditional printing is more ideal. Digital printing technology coupled with electronic ink, etc., showed more advantages than traditional inks to make the printing market even more expanded. Compared with traditional ink printing, printing with electronic ink has the following advantages.

1. Edge sharpening and sharpness

Since the electronic ink adopts the same composition as the conventional ink and only the charged ink, the electronic ink reads similar to the ink traditionally printed on the paper, but the brightness and contrast are higher than the conventional ink when matched with the paper. From the high-magnification results, it can be clearly seen that the image formed by the electronic ink has a sharper degree of sharpness than the image formed by the electrostatic copying dry powder, and this advantage is more obvious when the continuous tone image is printed. The sharpness of the electronic ink image is sharper at the edge of the intermediate tone or finely printed text image. In addition, since the tiny particles of the electronic ink and the electronic ink particles can be transferred in a printing manner, a 100% transfer effect can be achieved, so that the image of the electronic ink is very clean and the background is not contaminated, thereby further improving the image. Sharpness.

2. Dot gain and color consistency

Dot enlargement refers to the tendency of printed continuous blended line images to spread under embossing. Use Indig. Digital color printers can effectively control dot gain. Indig. The printer has excellent correction capabilities so that the printed dots can be within the required range. In addition, Indig. The press automatically adjusts the optimal density (such as the darkness of the appearance) and the dot size to ensure that each print has a consistent color effect.

3 image smoothness

The quality of offset printing lies in the uniformity of the image, not the smoothness of the image. A typical electrostatic dry-powder printer or copier can only output images of the same smoothness irrespective of the material of the paper, such as smoothness (for example, solid dry powder coverage) and brightened areas (area with no dry powder coverage) in dark areas. . And Indig. The printing press uses electronic ink printing to match the smoothness of the image to the substrate. Like traditional offset presses, it can produce effects ranging from rough to dull to high brightness. In actual operation, according to the different figures and the smoothness characteristics of the offset press, the comparison shows that the ideal smoothness of the electronic ink can basically meet the requirements of various papers other than super-glossy paper. Electronic inks are superior to lithographic inks for medium smoothness papers (but lithographic inks are more advantageous in the ultra-smooth paper field).

4. Color difference

Electronic inks can be printed according to international color standards. All of these standards are based on the standard basic colors of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Lithography uses different ink formulations according to different standards and electronic ink uses only one set of colors for different standards. Electronic inks electronically adjust the concentration of ink (color concentration) to suit different needs. The special properties of the electronic ink and the charging characteristics of the ink determine its unique function on a four-color basis. In addition to printing the four-color basic color, the electronic ink of the spot color system expands the color gamut to a color gamut that cannot be achieved by the four-color basic color. The spot color ink system can perform six-color printing imaging using a primary transfer technology.

5. Instant drying

Because the electronic ink cures when it is transferred to the substrate, the finished product will leave Indig. The printer is dry. Electronic inks can be cured without emissions without further drying. At the same time, the electronic ink only needs 1000C when drying, and the relatively low temperature makes the substrate not be heated, damaged or curled.

6. Do not fade

Due to the pigment particles encapsulated in the electronic ink plastic resin, the chemical components of the pigment are prevented from being oxidized or affected by moisture, especially under intense sunlight ultraviolet irradiation. Therefore, electronic ink is more advantageous in this respect than traditional offset inks.

7. Strong printability

Electronic ink can be applied to almost all materials, it can be printed on textiles, paper, plastics and many other materials. In addition to conventional printing, electronic ink will also cooperate with the emerging changes in the field of printed electronics and the entire publishing industry to further expand the field of printing to create a higher quality and faster printing world.

Source: China Printing Chemicals Network