Since the introduction of CTP equipment in the printing industry, it has been fully on the right track after several years of running-in and has completely replaced the traditional PS plate-making technology, playing a pivotal role in the production of the printing industry. Of course, it also brings many benefits to printing products and also allows us to see the time benefits, quality benefits, cost benefits, and management benefits created by CTP technology. the
1. benefit in time
As the competition in the printing market continues to intensify, the production cycle is getting shorter and shorter, and the time requirement is particularly important. In actual production, customers often require that the entire production process of the job be completed within 7 to 10 days. In this case, With the CTP process, customer requirements can be met. If the traditional film process is used, it may delay the delivery time, damage the interests of customers, and cause losses to the enterprise. Print production times are reduced overall through the use of digital workflows. Based on the 7-day production cycle for an order, it takes 3-4 days to complete the order from the beginning of the order to the printing. In addition, the current bank card printing process is becoming more and more complicated, which requires the production organization to arrange reasonable allocation. As the preparatory work for printing, in terms of plate-making speed, compared with traditional plate making, CTP plate-making speed can be increased by more than 3 times, eliminating the manual work of film output, washing, drying, overprinting, dirty spots on printing plates and film edges. Trimming time. Especially in proofing work, it is particularly prominent in proofing work. According to the characteristics of short proofing work, tight tasks, complex process, and many color sequences, timely use of CTP plate-making technology can output plates in the shortest time, and more than 20 printing plates It can be completed in less than 3 hours from document production to plate output, which wins valuable time for subsequent processes and ensures timely completion of proofing products so that the enterprise remains invincible in the market competition.
2. quality benefits
Quality is the foundation of enterprise survival. Any enterprise cannot ignore this point, and printing enterprises are no exception. Judging from the comparison before and after the introduction of CTP equipment in the industry, the quality obsolescence index of the enterprise is decreasing year by year, from 9% in 2005 to the current average quality control of about 6.5%, this alone can save the enterprise more than 70,000 pieces of PVC per year Raw materials, that is to say, under the same production conditions, more than two million card bases can be produced every year, and the economic benefits are evident. As the main breakthrough point of quality control, printing has benefited from the continuous improvement of printing plate quality. Compared with the previous PS plate-making technology, the biggest advantage of CTP plate-making technology is reflected in the stability and accuracy of its dots. The whole process is not affected by human, environmental, or other factors, and is completely under the automatic control of the computer, which ensures color control in the printing process. Consistency is a good solution to the problem of uneven product color. Secondly, the cutting-edge equipment with an output accuracy of 3000-5000dpi ensures the high simulation of the dots, makes the tone and level of the product more obvious, restores the product image information to the maximum extent, and wins a good reputation for the company in the market.
In addition, CTP technology directly presents graphics and text on the printing plate through light energy and heat energy, avoiding plate-making defects caused by film factors and dust, and is cleaner and clearer than ordinary PS plate outlets. At the same time, the reduction of the process avoids many variables caused by the cumbersome traditional process, which provides a guarantee for high-quality printing.
3. Cost-effectiveness
The introduction of CTP equipment meets the high-precision quality requirements in the printing industry. From the perspective of enterprise product quality, the continuous improvement of product quality also reflects the continuous decline of raw material costs, and various production auxiliary costs are also gradually decreasing, which truly realizes the economic value of CTP technology.
CTP technology saves processing costs such as film, developing, and fixing, and reduces the amount of waste ink, paper, and the dampening solution used in trial printing; the high stability of CTP plate-making can well control the waste rate in the process of plate output. Compared with traditional PS plate making, the invalidation caused by overprinting, developing, dirty plates, and other factors has been significantly improved, which greatly saves the cost of plate materials.
From the actual printing point of view, the balance of water and ink on CTP machine printing is faster. Generally, only 20 to 50 sheets of overprinted paper are needed to achieve the balance of ink and ink, while printing on the machine with film printing requires at least 100 sheets of overprinted paper. From this point of view, the consumption of printing paper has also been reduced a lot. Therefore, the operating cost of the CTP process is lower than that of the traditional film process.
In terms of manpower, the difference is also obvious: using the traditional plate-making process requires at least 10 people, but now it only needs 6 people. It seems that the input cost of the plate is high and the price of the machine is high, but considering the benefits brought by time and quality, the labor cost saved, and environmental protection, it must be a good deal.
Thanks to the high printing durability of CTP plates, it should be an effective cost-control method for CTP plate recycling. Judging from the current corporate CTP plate recovery rate of 5%, it can save tens of thousands of yuan in economic costs for the company every year. And with the continuous improvement of plate recycling work, the recycling rate of plate materials will continue to increase, thereby better saving the production cost of enterprises.
4. management benefits
CTP technology adopts digital workflow in an all-round way to realize "RIP once, output multiple times", that is, once a RIP interprets the file into a vector format and forms a dot array, the data can be stored on the hard disk and output multiple times, which is convenient and quick and can achieve on-demand printing. In addition, the digital workflow makes use of electronic file management, which avoids the problems of file confusion and error-prone in the past proofing production.
All-digital process management can not only eliminate the influence of human factors, but also digitally transmit information, quickly discover and solve problems, and ensure the efficiency and safety of the entire system. At the same time, it also meets the customer's need for a systematic and comprehensive solution, such as printing, proofing, and allowing last-minute modifications in any link of production.
5. Digital proofing
Use CTP technology to realize digital color proofing, so that we can proofread the manuscript and confirm the color before output, to ensure that the color of each job is consistent with the color of the standard proof, and provide product proofs through digital proofing instead of the previous sample card reporting. This not only saves the consumption of raw materials such as plate materials and paper in the process of producing sample cards but also provides powerful time for the production department to ensure that other products are in production.
CTP technology realizes the digital operation of color separation, plate making, copying and even printing in traditional crafts. Especially in the proofing production of credit cards, a product often needs to produce a lot of films, and the application of digital proofing solves this problem. In the past, the success rate of proofing was low, and it often failed to achieve the desired effect for the customer. The file needed to be adjusted, and the original film had to be reprinted every time a change was made. After using CTP technology, it is only necessary to change the electronic file, which greatly improves Response speed and work efficiency.
Huida Print-All Technology company is an advanced and professional manufacturer of producing printing plates, mainly selling CTP, CTCP, and PS plates as well as offering ODM/OEMs, especially for the offset. For more information, please click the official website link here: https://www.huidaoffsetplate.com/.