High-Speed Inkjet Printing, Breakthrough! Breakthrough!

Introduction: With strong advantages in high-speed and non-contact imaging, high-speed inkjet printing technology not only broke the speed barrier compared to traditional offset printing, but also is more flexible than conventional digital printing. Today, high-speed inkjet printing has gradually gone through the “conceptual stage” and become the focus of the printing industry, more and more heavyweight printing equipment suppliers and printing companies are engaged in the field. Although it is still a bit of an exaggeration to say “who wins the technology, wins the world”, but it has at least become a strategic battleground. As a vital digital printing technology, high-speed inkjet printing is sure to become an important weapon to define a new pattern in the printing industry.

Market Insight

High-Speed Inkjet Printing Expects Breakthrough

As an innovative technology that transforms the printing industry, high-speed inkjet printing maintains a high profile in the past year. Even though it is still not in full blossom in China, it is delightful to see that, thanks to the joint efforts of equipment manufacturers and printing companies, high-speed inkjet printing has made certain progress in equipment R&D and enterprise applications.

Let’s first take a look at equipment R&D. After drupa 2012, manufacturers of high-speed inkjet printing equipment strengthened the R&D efforts on high-speed inkjet printing technology. They either introduced new high-speed inkjet printers, for example, Canon introduced Niagara, a high-speed inkjet sheet-fed printer, on Print13; or made further improvement and enhancement on existing models, for example, Konica Minolta introduced the brand new B2-size sheet-fed on Print13 and Ipex2014.

Analysis and Research on High-Speed Inkjet Printing Market

In 2013, high-speed inkjet printing technology embraced rapid development. It has not only become a major focus of the media, but also the star of exhibitions. More and more companies on the market start to consider investing in high-speed inkjet printing equipment. Meanwhile, many manufacturers devote considerable R&D efforts to develop new products. In fact, most of the inkjet printing equipment still uses the paper-feeding and motor system of conventional printers, while grafting digital inkjet nozzles and the control system. Digital front-end adopts the DFE system in order to achieve perfect combination of traditional and digital printing, and solve the problem of uneven quality for large-size printing using static digital printing equipment.

Profit Prospect of High-Speed Inkjet Printing in China

High-speed inkjet printing has made considerable progress in foreign countries, and occupied a significant market share. However, the rapid development trend of high speed inkjet printing has not been witnessed in China. Last year, only a few printing companies purchased high-speed inkjet printers, which are mostly used for publication printing on demand, and the profitability is not optimistic. So, why is the development pace of high-speed inkjet printing so slow in China? And how should Chinese printing companies make profit through high-speed inkjet printing?

-Adapt to the value chain of high-speed inkjet printing, and innovate the profit model.

-Focus on tapping the customer resources of conventional printing, and expand communication channels.

Equipment Frontier

The Fascinating World of High-Speed Inkjet Sheet-fed Printing Equipment

The field of ink-jet printing is dominated by high-speed inkjet printing equipment. The rapid development of inkjet printing technology brings digital printing into the era of high-speed and large-size. Compared to the high-speed inkjet web printing equipment, high-speed inkjet sheet-fed printing does not show obvious advantages in speed and size, but is particularly outstanding in print quality. With rapid progress, it is now comparable to or even exceeding the quality of offset printing, breaking the long-term monopoly of static digital printers.

Domestic Inkjet Printing Equipment Has Entered a New Stage

In early years, China was once world-renowned for its four great inventions. In the last century, Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee were awarded the Nobel Prize for their inventions respectively. In 2012, the Chinese writer, Mo Yan, won the Nobel Prize for Literature — the first ever to win the Nobel Prize for Literature on the Chinese mainland.. However, during the entire industrial revolution in modern times, no major industrial invention by China can be found. The good news is, since the inception of reform and opening up, China’s innovative technologies emerge one after another. Even in certain technical areas where we lag behind the western countries (such as mobile communications, green energy, high-speed railways, etc.), the development pace has been speeded up. Inkjet printing technology is a commendable technology, and China has now started a new journey in the R&D of inkjet printing equipment.

 “Soft” Power Fuels High-Speed Inkjet Printing

The investment in the high-speed inkjet printing system is by no means as simple as the introduction of hardware equipment. The integration of software systems is much more comprehensive and complicated. The software system integration of high-speed inkjet printing is generally based on its technical characteristics and business models. Printing companies which intend to introduce high-speed inkjet printing systems expect to achieve the following objectives.

(1) Enhance existing services capacity of the company; realize a full range of services from short- to long-version and to on-demand printing through complementary effect of traditional printing and digital printing.

(2) Reduce the cost pressure from printing, warehousing, logistics, raw materials, labor etc., to increase profit margins.

(3) Establish the new business model, take comprehensive lead in technology, service and marketing, and become an industry leader.

User Perspective

The Establishment of High-Speed Inkjet Printing Production Line

After drupa 2008, high-speed inkjet printing technology gained growing attention from the industry. The manufacturers have launched various high-speed inkjet printing systems. How to choose the systems has become a common concern among printing companies.

Establish High-Speed Inkjet Printing System

1. Establish high-speed inkjet printing systems based on application requirements

2. The planning of system processes

3. Printing cost control

4. Post-printing equipment and production management automation

Notes for Investment in Hardware and Software

1. Data processing capability of the ink-jet printing system

2. Equipment upgrade and replacement

3. The compatibility of paper media

Opportunities and Challenges for High-Speed Inkjet Printing Technology in the Label Market

In recent years, with increasingly diversified marketing approaches for food, daily chemicals, household appliances and other products, as well as the rapid development of supermarkets, logistics and other industries, the development of the label market presents new changes, including shortened the delivery cycle of label printing; increased varieties of labels and decreased print volume; increasing demand for personalized information; and higher requirements for environmental protection......These changes has effectively promoted the application and development of digital printing technology in the label market.

Due to its unique characteristics, inkjet printing technology is not only capable of short-order printing, personalized printing and variable data printing, but also printing on materials with curved surface, when the printing area is not on the same level. Also, the print size can be flexibly expanded. Inkjet printing has become the most promising digital printing technology in the label market. In recent years, major manufacturers of inkjet printing equipment have also launched their own label inkjet printers to meet market demand. However, high consumables (such as inkjet ink) costs and relatively low production rate have become the main “bottleneck” that constraints the industrial application of inkjet printing equipment.