Tech Alert 2001 Topic Presentation (Part 2)

Technical Alert 2001)

(III) Moderator: Bruce Tietz, Technical Consultant, GATF Online Solutions

Manufacturer team members:
Thomas Leibrandt, Presstek Corporation; Mike Fox, United States Screen Company;
Doug Goertzen, Croix Angel Company


User team members:
Jim Carroll Rastar Digital Media, Bruce Robinson Excel Printing and Imaging Company;
Ron Kendig, Xerox Corporation; Wally Chmura, Komori Corporation; Joerg Daehnhardt, Bruce Tietz, head of Heidelberg USA, started the panel discussion with a series of questions. The first question is for the manufacturer team, and then ask the user of direct imaging printing.

CreoScitex's Dong Goertzen's speech focused on the laser diode shutter system, which is part of CreaScitex's SQUARSpot technology. Goertzen discussed the accuracy and resolution of the technology. In addition, Goertzen also said that the future of CrtoScitex is its own SP non-printing process, which directly sprays heat-sensitive paint onto reusable Materials.

Presstek's Thomas Leibrandt emphasized the reliability of the Presstek imaging system, noting that the company sold 150,000 units in the past seven years and the return rate was only 3%.

Mike Fox believes that the biggest benefit for users of the screen companies is that they can use very cheap media, and that the screen products used in the screen are a traditional humidification system. The printer can use a lot of traditional inks, so it can be used. A lot of paper.

When asked what questions these customers are most concerned about, the answers are varied. Some doubts, direct imaging printing will not be a short-lived technology. Some want to know whether using this technology can bring profits to themselves. Mike Fox gave his own answer. He said that the technology of the screen is perfect. If the customer purchases screen equipment, they only need to complete 3 or 5 orders per day (assuming 1000 orders per order, two open, four colors ) You can recover your investment. If you finish 4 orders each day, you will already start making profits.

From the perspective of the user group's speech, the reasons for users accepting direct imaging printing technology are diverse: they can increase the print output and increase efficiency without increasing employees; effective ways to stand out from the current competition; and only because they believe in direct imaging. Printing is a general trend. Users generally agree that the direct imaging printing equipment purchased by them has achieved the desired results. Some of the existing problems are focused on prepress, as well as the training of personnel who are proficient in computers and can operate direct imaging presses. Some of the users involved in the discussion started to engage in digital workflow very early, and some were later. Some users' expectations are more realistic. For example, he said that if a user has already prepared two- or four-shot films, they can actually start printing on the corresponding presses immediately. However, if they are not ready, of course they must be completed first. jobs.

After completing the above discussion, each digital imaging press manufacturer predicted their respective technological trends.

CreoScitex sees the future in its own SP non-version technology. Goertzen hopes that the technology will be put into commercial use within two years and expects it to become a powerful force for the development of the printing industry within two to five years.

Presstex's priority is the use of a polyester reel version to ensure clean imaging services every time. According to Leibrandt, Presstex plans to develop in two directions. One is to resolve the digital version's limitations and to encourage flexographic manufacturers to produce products with imaging above 2400 dpi. The other direction is the development of thermal technologies.

The current goal of Adast is to develop waterless technology because the printing plate is up and the water is carried onto the paper, which often causes errors during the printing process. Here, Leibrandt immediately changed the subject, saying that his company's printing press did not even have a humidifier, so it would not cause the above problem.

For the question of which manufacturer's products must be best presented to the audience, Bruce Tietz replied very cleverly that direct imaging printing technology is still a very new technology. Without maturity and stereotypes, it is hard to say who is the best. Some of the current differences exist for different users to meet user needs.

(d) Moderator: Greg Bassinger, Head of GATF Process Control and Preucil Printing Analysis Laboratory

According to a PIA survey, 9% of the printers surveyed provided users with some form of digital photography services in 1999, and this figure was opened to 14% in 2000. Greg Bassinger said that this data shows that digital photography has been increasingly recognized by the printing industry. Bassinger followed up with a survey on digital photography done by the AGTF for the 2001 Tech Aletr conference.

The contents of the GATF survey on digital photography will be part of the GATF research and technical report series, published by GATF Press. In this technical report, various types of cameras in the survey will be introduced and samples taken by these digital cameras and film cameras will be displayed.

It is not surprising that the survey's feedback was dominated by catalog printers (40%). However, from the perspective of the composition of survey respondents, the proportion of ordinary commercial printers has risen, accounting for 32%, and the remaining 28% of the respondents are image design companies, prepress suppliers, and those who have provided scanning services in the past and now provide digital data. Photo service provider. In addition, this survey is only for those who have professional digital cameras.

The survey shows that 40% of the respondents have only 2 years or even shorter experience in digital photography. More than 50% of the respondents only started to provide this service in the past two years. When asked why these companies use digital cameras to provide services, some expressed their intention to promote the formation of a complete digital workflow, and some to accelerate the entire workflow and shorten the time to meet customer needs. Bassiger expects more companies to provide digital workflows to meet customer needs. Of course, the original intention of not being able to adopt digital photography will shorten the construction period and save a lot of expenses. So how do users react to these digital photography services? The survey shows that the customer's satisfaction is high. If 5 is a total score, the service score is 4.3 points.

In this survey, the types and numbers of digital cameras owned by each surveyed object were collected. The data shows that: 49% of the respondents have multi-lens digital cameras, 45% of the respondents have single-lens, single-chip cameras, 23% of the respondents have single-lens, multi-chip digital cameras, and 29% of the respondents have three-wire Scan the camera (usually used for high resolution files with extremely high color fidelity). 17% of the respondents have multifunction digital cameras.

When it comes to which type of digital camera will be given priority in the next purchase, 34% of respondents choose single-lens, single-chip digital cameras, 25% choose single-lens, multi-chip digital cameras, 25% prefer multi-function cameras, 12% select multi-lens digital cameras, and 5% choose to scan type digital cameras.

Bassinger pointed out that only 56% of the investigators considered the issue of return on investment when making a purchase decision, and most of them were calculating their own return on investment. In addition, the survey data shows that 55% of respondents believe that digital photography is a profitable service, 37% think it is a customer service that attracts customers, and less than 5% think it is a loss-making business. Bassinger believes that since 37% of companies already provide digital photography as a customer service, the 55% of businesses that want to take advantage of it will undoubtedly be under great pressure.

Investigations have also been made on the charges for digital photography services. About 42% of the feedbackers who provided traditional camera services and now provide digital cameras have stated that the fees are unchanged, 20% indicate that they have increased their charges, and 30% indicate that they have reduced their charges. It is worth mentioning that 88% of those who increased their fees and charges increased by 10% or more.

One of the most interesting details of Bassinger's presentation was to send 3 different pieces of paper to each audience. There are 6 versions of the same image on each piece of paper. Bassinger lets everyone guess which one on each piece of paper. The picture was taken on film and scanned by a PMT drum scanner. Only a handful of people in the audience were prepared to give the correct answer quickly. The paper was scanned with paper powder, granules, over-saturation, and film. The scan was the worst on these papers. Immediately afterwards, Bassinger told the audience how each image was taken and analyzed the differences in the details between the images on each sheet. Then it introduced in detail the digital camera chip, software and other knowledge. Finally, everyone at Bassinger pointed out that not all digital cameras have the same effect when shooting various types of photos, and some digital cameras have significantly better results than others.