Analysis of the hottest CTP technology hotspots

Analysis of CTP technology hotspots (Part 2)

III. factors restricting the development of CTP in China

drupa 2000 marks that CTP technology has matured, and a certain number of CTP equipment have been installed in the domestic market. However, so far this year, domestic manufacturers have not introduced them as expected, and many manufacturers are still in a wait-and-see state. There are various reasons for this situation, but our analysis mainly includes the following two aspects: one is the price factor, the other is the change of workflow

compared with traditional plate making, the price of digital plates using CTP technology is much higher, and many manufacturers still find it difficult to bear. After the printing manufacturers using traditional technology turned to CTP, the production process has changed greatly, and new requirements have been put forward for personnel and other aspects. Many manufacturers have not been fully prepared

next, let's analyze the first aspect in detail, the price factor. First of all, let's look at the plate price. We take the lithostar ultra silver salt plate as an example. A 1030mm x 785mm plate plus washing equipment is not all used for the detection of flexible packaging materials. The price of liquid medicine in Hong Kong is about HK 380, the same size of filinga washing liquid is HK 338 left and right, and a traditional PS plate plus washing liquid is about HK $40, So we can see that the price of CTP digital plate is not much different from that of traditional PS plate plus phenanthrene. However, in actual production, it is rare to output film only once. More often, it is to output film, draft, modify, and then output film. In actual production, there may still be the case of turning over the negative or positive image film. The overall calculation result is that the price of the output CTP digital plate is not much different from that of the traditional process plate, or even lower. From the actual experience of many of our customers, we can also see that after the adoption of CTP, the expenditure on consumables has decreased

looking at the price of plate making machine, at present, many manufacturers still believe that the price of plate making machine is on the high side. When printing manufacturers invest in equipment, purchasing printing machines and other equipment accounts for a large proportion of the total investment, leaving little investment in prepress equipment, which is not important. We don't think this should be taken seriously. First of all, from the perspective of printing quality, the quality of printed matter is largely determined by the quality of printing plate. The printing plate quality is not high. Even with the most advanced printing machine, it is difficult to achieve high printing quality. On the contrary, if high-quality digital printing plates are used, even ordinary printing machines can achieve the quality of high-quality printing machines

from the perspective of equipment utilization, the use of CTP equipment is also important to improve the utilization of printing equipment. As we all know, after using CT P, the printing plate is easier to achieve ink balance, more accurate registration, and cleaner layout. With the cooperation of CIP3 documents, the printing preparation time is shorter. According to our actual statistics in customers, we can see how CTP can make full use of today's equipment through the following examples. Suppose that the user has four printing machines, each working 12 hours a day, printing an average of lj6 sets of plates. According to statistics, the average invalid time of printing each set of plates is 30 minutes. These 30 minutes include printing, adjusting the machine, stopping and cleaning during the printing process, etc. The effective working time of one printing machine is 9 hours a day, and the effective working time of four printing LJ machines is 36 hours a day. In order to increase the output, it is necessary to invest in nylon modifiers that can improve the mechanical properties at high and low temperatures. There are two ways of investment: one is to invest in printing machines; Second, invest in CTP. If you invest in printing machines, there are five printing machines, and the effective working hours per day are 45 hours. If CTP equipment is invested, due to the advantages of CTP technology, a monkey named "Jianhui" is like the steel warrior in Avatar. The invalid time of each set of printing plate of each printing machine can be shortened to less than 10 minutes, the effective working time of one printing machine can be increased to 11 hours, and the effective working time of four printing machines is 44 hours, which is the same as the output of five printing machines in the traditional process. However, the capital invested in a CTP is far less than that of a printing press, and the investment in CTP is equivalent to an additional printing press. From this, we can see that for printing manufacturers, the price of CTP should not be the main problem

in fact, after the adoption of CTP, for printing manufacturers, the benefits obtained are not only changes in production, but also great savings in personnel. For one of our users, before CTP was adopted, about 40 workers were needed for manual plate making. After CTP was adopted, only 8 workers were needed. Saving personnel is also of great significance to reduce production costs. Therefore, many users tell us that after adopting CTP, they are "spending money openly and saving money secretly", which is also the reason why many users are happy to buy the second and third CTP after purchasing the first one

another main reason that restricts domestic manufacturers from introducing CTP technology is the change of workflow. Due to the serious environmental pollution and potential quality and safety hazards in the production and sales of ground bar steel, the transformation of this workflow is not only the change of production process, but also the change of management and production mode. At present, the business source of many printing manufacturers is still customers' own film printing. After adopting CTP, they may face the problem of insufficient digital documents. Take the printing of books and periodicals as an example. The traditional way is to finalize the manuscript by the publishing house, find the output center to make the output film, find the drafting company to draft, and take the film and sample sheets to the printing factory for printing. With the continuous development of network technology and electronic publishing technology, this model has tended to be eliminated. The new model is made by the publishing house itself, digital proofing, printing houses receiving documents, outputting printing plates, printing. In this mode, printing manufacturers and publishers need to work closely together to promote. At present, many domestic manufacturers who are sensitive to the market have realized this ratio and have cooperated with publishing houses to jointly build a new publishing and printing model. In such a market environment, it can be said that if printing manufacturers do not actively seek change, and quickly transform to have a new digital workflow, in line with the requirements of network ratio and personalized printing, the future development path will be narrower and narrower

it is relatively simple for manufacturers that already have a prepress department to adopt a new digital workflow, while for manufacturers that do not have a prepress department, it is a shortcut to cooperate with the output center

IV. prospects of CTP development in China

from the above analysis, we can see that CTP development in China has great potential and bright prospects, and the popularization of CTP in the domestic market is only a matter of time. According to our prediction, the total installed number of CTP equipment in China will increase from more than 80 at present to more than 500 by 2006

with the increase of CTP installation, the consumption of digital plates will also rise rapidly. At present, the consumption of digital plates used by CTP equipment is still low compared with that of traditional plates, accounting for about 3% to 97%. However, by 2006, we believe that digital plates will account for a considerable proportion in the plate making industry, accounting for about 11% of the whole market. In fact, now many CTP users have begun the transition process from traditional plates to digital plates. Taking Yangcheng Evening News Agency as an example, this CTP user has begun to fully use CTP equipment in 2001, completely using digital plates, and basically eliminating the use of traditional plates. Most other newspapers using Agfa Polaris system have also recently begun to use digital plates in large quantities, and gradually take CTP as the main plate making production tool. It seems that CTP will play a more critical role in plate making

we believe that both photosensitive plates and thermal plates will coexist in the market for a long time due to their respective characteristics, giving full play to their respective characteristics and meeting the requirements of different customers. We believe that in the future, photosensitive technology will still be the mainstream of CTP in the newspaper industry, while photosensitive and thermal technology will coexist in the commercial printing market. Agfa has been making unremitting efforts and vigorously promoting the development process of CTP with its partners. From the perspective of high technology and practicality, we strive to give full play to the good advantages of digital plates, vigorously promote the practical application of digital plates, and further promote the improvement of printing level and the development of technology in China