The development of automation technology in the field of post-press processing

With the increase of printing speed, the post-printing processing cycle is also required to be shorter and shorter, which puts great pressure on professional companies engaged in post-press processing services. This pressure is then passed on to the production of post-press processing equipment. Business. Due to lack of skilled workers and other reasons, some authoritative sources believe that automation technology is crucial for post-press processing equipment. The use of automation technology has two purposes: to increase production speed and reduce costs. John Porter, a division manager at LDR International, believes that the use of automatic folding and automatic paper cutting equipment in the bookbinding shop will have a smaller effect on productivity as compared to the press shop. In recent years, materials handling operations have been improved through the use of electronic loaders, automatic filers, automatic loading and unloading machines and other equipment. The automatic paper cutting technology has been rapidly developed in recent years, including the promotion of the CIP3 protocol to achieve operational process control. However, Porter personally believes that there are still some problems in the automatic paper cutting technology, mainly because the paper is not a completely stable material, and the paper cannot maintain its original size after the printing process. Porter believes that there is a misunderstanding in the programming of some automatic paper cutting machines. That is to say, there are too many functions that are attempted to achieve, resulting in operational and software problems. At present, LDR company is trying to simplify the control software of the paper cutting machine. The makers of binders and saddle stitchers are using computers to set up machines. In the past, users had spent about 90 minutes to complete the setting of a three-sided knife cutter on a bookbinding machine. Now they only need to spend 15 to 20 minutes. The application of automation technology in folding machines is also very noticeable, but there is still a cost-economic problem. Because the time required to set up the origami machine is short, although the use of automation technology can have some productivity-enhancing effects, it is not enough to offset the increased cost of automation. Porter believes that the automation of stacking paper is very beneficial because most folding machines now run faster than machines that remove the product from its end. Steve Astins, vice president of MBO America, also noticed the development of automation technology for postpress equipment. As people need faster machines and more and more automation and management information system (MIS) information, equipment manufacturers need to adopt the latest technologies in their products. Of course, these products also need to be reliable, User-friendly, as far as possible to meet user requirements. MBO's latest product series increases machine speed by 15%, while also offering the following features: reduced machine preparation time, operator alert information, MC control management and data reporting system based on BDE board, control of single page The monitoring and suction length, optimized feed control, high speed VIVAS paper feed and alignment for large format papers, Rapidset printing with 65 kinds of preset puzzle solutions, MPC large folding illustrations and more. Kolbus American used computer-aided measures for the preparation of equipment to make it faster to put the machine into production. The company is currently in a leading position in this area. The user communicates with a programmable logic controller (PLC) through a personal computer to implement a human-machine interface. The human-machine interface is a screen, just as it is to use a personal computer on the desk. The machine is fiber-optic controlled and the user can move the control panel to any location in the shop. Heidelberg Postpress believes that the preparation of the machine should be as quick and easy as possible, and should not be too much of an operator's skill. The company uses computer technology on a horse-riding stapler to graphically point out the preparations you need to make. In terms of paper cutters, the company added a device called Transomat that can automatically stack cut materials. The company believes that the loading and unloading of paper is also a very important link in the binding factory. The transfer system for folding machines and saddle stitching machines also has a lot of room for development in terms of technology. For example, the following two new technologies: in terms of folding machines, The transfer system of the printed book can guarantee good folding quality. The erected book sticker allows the operator to go down the machine and operate it more easily. In terms of the stapler, a device similar to the Rima stacker is used. This device is located at the end of the saddle stitcher and transfers the book to a suitable place. The operation is very simple and can increase the speed of the machine. Automation and flexibility are the two areas that Quad/Tech International (QTI) Company attaches the most importance to. Many customers require equipment to avoid manual handling of high-strength material handling operations as much as possible, so the company has developed a number of material handling equipment, such as continuous paper feeders, stacker machines, etc., that are dedicated to binding factories. Many sophisticated control systems are used on these machines, such as PLC or computer control, quality control sensors, etc. Another area of ​​application of automation technology is the mechanical binding machine. With the increasing use of loose-leaf plastic binder binding and double-loop spiral binding, Spiel Associate is developing and producing more machines that meet these requirements, including automatic plastic screw inserters. This machine can increase the production speed to 700 copies per hour, while the manual production rate is only 100-150 copies per hour. In addition to faster and more complete functions, the development of post-press processing equipment has the following trends. One trend is to provide simpler, more economical, office-friendly machines to meet the needs of fewer prints and high quality requirements. In order to meet this requirement, Duplo produced the world's first automatically set book/folder DBM-250. For tasks with a low number of prints, it is important to implement automatic setting and switching that saves time, increases speed, reduces waste, and improves efficiency. In the past, it took 10 to 15 minutes to switch jobs every time a new task was performed. Now, the DBM-250 switching task takes less than one minute. The automatic setting function helps to reduce paper waste and ensure quality. In addition, the flexibility of the equipment is also very important. The machine should be able to perform a variety of operations on different materials (NCR, copper plate paper, 10 lb paper, etc.). Another development trend is that more and more post-press processing work is done directly by commercial printers rather than by professional post-press processing factories, which can shorten the printing cycle, reduce transportation costs, and ensure quality. Therefore, post-press processing equipment used online with printing machinery, such as a folding machine for use with a web printing press, has emerged.