Download

Ferroelectric Printing Surface 

MAN Roland / pm 

Special ferroelectric 

ceramics 

surface 

Negative 

Charge 

beam 

+ 

Imaging process: 

Changing the orientation of dipole domains 

in a ferroelectric ceramic surface by charging. 

3.000 dpi, 2m/s, Liquid toner. 

Either usage as master (30.000 and more copies) or as masterless (copy “1”) 

process. Introduced 1995, not available, perhaps at DRUPA 2004 

31 

© Hübler 2000 

Institute for Print and Media Technology of Chemnitz Technical University, Germany

Creo‘s Spray-on Process & Agfa‘s LiteSpeed fluid 

Spraying a 

Photosensitive 

coating 

Laser 

beam 

+ 


Spraying a photo or thermosensitive 

(LiteSpeed) coating onto 

the cylinder. Exposing this film layer 

with Creo’s laser imaging 

technology, developing it 

afterwards. 

For the next job, you have to remove 

the imaging layer and to start a new 

coating. 

Offset printing. 

32 



Goss‘ ADOPT CP 

Special Ni surface 

of cylinder 

Laser 

beam 

+ 


Laser induced excitation of a 

Nickel surface in a copper solvent. 

Chemical processing and a total new 

press engineering necessary. 

133 lpi 

Special Cu + solvent 

Special single fluid wet offset 

printing. 

Gapless cylinders. 

Introduced 1997, 

No information on further 

developments since that time 

33 



Inkjet Imaging at pm Institute 

Inkjet 

Imaging 

Head 

+ 


Imaging the surface of the printing 

cylinder with a phase-change inkjet, 

providing the oleophilic structure. 

Offset printing. 

Introduced 1998 

34 



Inkjet Imaging Approach of pm Institute 

Process steps: 

Printing 

cylinder 

1. Inkjet Imaging 

Inkjet 

Imaging 

Head 

+ 

35 





Printing 

cylinder 

+ 

+ 

+ 

Fountain 

solution 


2. Offset Printing 

Inkjet 

Imaging 

Head 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

Offset 

inking unit 

+ 

Blanket 

cylinder 

paper 

+ 

36 




Printing 

cylinder 

Erasing unit 

+ 

+ 

+ 

Fountain 

solution 




Inkjet 

Imaging 

Head 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

Offset 

inking unit 

3. Erasing 

+ 

Blanket 

cylinder 

paper 

+ 

37 




38 


Inkjet 

Imaging 

Head 

Printing 

cylinder 

paper 

Erasing unit 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

+ 

Fountain 

solution 

Offset 

inking unit 

Blanket 

cylinder 




3. Erasing 


next job 

Institute for Print and Media Technology of Chemnitz Technical University, Germany 

+ 

Inkjet much cheaper 

than laser: 

• high imaging speed 

• reduced investment 

but lower resolution 

• 900 dpi

Results of Inkjet Ct-Cylinder 

Offset printed 

dots on paper 

Imaged dot on 

cylinder surface 

39 



The technical problems 

Imaging itself is no problem but a well known technology. 

The main problem is the function layer on cylinder: 

1. It has to be very uniform to exclude image errors 

2. It has to be durable in the offset printing process for 

higher run length 

3. It has to be totally erasable (within a molecular scale!) 

for many job changes to avoid ghost image from the 

job which has run before. 

40 



Demands to Ct-Press Technologies in the newspaper 

• Press concepts adapted to the newspaper production : 

1. New stand-alone press 

2. Additional imprint unit to be combined with traditional 

(perhaps already installed) offset units 

• Real cost (material) and time saving 

Total make ready time 

(erasing, imaging, etc.) 

Quality 

Investment 

Reduced needs in spacing 

max. 5 min (better < 3 min) 

min. 600 dpi S/W (better 1.200 dpi) 

below 400.000 Euro 

Flexible position of the imprint unit along the web width 

41 



Summary 

1. Internal Ct-Plate is not interesting for digital imprint 

applications because of the long changing times (~ 15 min) 

and the plate material costs. It is an intermediate state. 

2. Ct-PRESS is on the way, but today there is no proofed solution. 

3. Now, MAN’s DICOweb has to show it’s advantages in praxis. It is a 

very future oriented concept, but surely not the last version of 

CtPRESS. 

4. The DICOweb today is not a upgrade kit for adding an imprint unit to 

existing presses but a totally new investment. 

Technically, at DRUPA 2004 more usable technologies for 

newspapers could be available, if the manufactures decide 

early to work on it. We have to push their R&D activities! 

42 



Ct-PRINT (DDP Direct Digital Print) 

Toner based processes 

• Electrostatic printing (Laser printer): 

Heidelberg/Danka, IBM, Indigo, NexPress, Océ, Xeikon, Xerox 

+ various office solutions (cluster printing ) 

• Magnetographic printing: Xeikon/Nipson 

• Electron beam (Ionography): Xerox/Delphax 

2 

Inkjet based printing 

• Scitex printheads: Scitex Versamark 

• Xaar Printheads: Barco 

Specialities 

• Elcography: Elcorsy 

B/W or 4 colour: Multiplication of the single colour printing unit with 

various design solutions (collection cylinder or belt, …) 

Adjustments in toner/ink are necessary, but today mostly solved. 

43 



Heidelberg-Eastman Kodak: 

NexPress 2100 

• Electrostatic printing 

• 600dpi, multibit 

• 2100 prints/h 

• Paper 80-300 g/m 2 

• LED imaging 

• Rubber transfer cylinder 

• Solid toner („DryInk“) 

• 4-colour 

44 



IBM: InfoPrint 4000 


• 480/600dpi 

• 436 print/min (A3) 

• Laser imaging 

• Powder toner 

• 1-colour 

• web 

45 



Indigo 


• 800 dpi multi-bit 

• 8,000 print/h (A4) 

• Rubber transfer cylinder 

• Laser imaging 

• Liquid toner („Electro ink“) 

• 4 to 7-colour 

• Sheet fed & web 

TurboStream (sheet) 

UltraStream (Web) 

46 



Océ: Demandstream 


• 600dpi 2-bit 

• 700 print/min (A3) 


• Solid toner 

• 1-colour 

• Spot colour with inkjet imprint 

• web 

Photoconductor 

cylinder 

Selfocarray 

Electronics 

LED 

Cooling 

Carrier 

47 



Xeikon: DCP, CSP 


• 600dpi, 6bit 

• 6000 print/h (A4) 



• 4-colour 

• OEM for Agfa, IBM, MAN, … 

• Sheet fed and web 

48 



Xerox: DocuColor 2000 


• 600dpi, 8bit 

• 60 prints/min (A3) 


• 4-colour (1-colour: DocuPrint with 210 print/min) 

• Sheet fed 

49 



Xeikon/Nipson: VaryPress 

• Magnetographic printing 

• 480dpi 2-bit 

• 1,2 m/s 


• 1-colour (4 colours difficult) 

• web 

50 



Xerox: DocuPrint 900 

• Electron beam printing 

• 600 dpi 2-bit 

• 900 pages/min 


• 1-colour 

• Spot colour possible 

• web 

51 



Electron beam: GEMINI-Process (Delphax) 

Carrier 

RF line 

Insulator 

Finger electrode 

Distance foil 

Screen-Electrode 

- 675V 

- 650V 

PC-layer 

0 V 

„Finger on“ 

„Finger off“ 

• Electrography (former Ionography), 

developed by Delphax 

• Generation of charges (electrons) by RF 

stimulation (Microplasma) 

• Resolution currently limited to 600 dpi 

• Minimum thermal stress because of 

Flash fusing 

52 



Barco: the.factory 

& Scitex Versamark 

• Inkjet-Technology 

• 360 dpi, 4-bit (Xaar) 

• 300 dpi, 2-bit (Scitex) 

• 140 m/min (Xaar) 

• 300 m/min (Scitex) 

• Scalable print width 

• Multi colour possible 

53 



Elcorsy 

• “Elcography” 

• 200 dpi, grey levels possible 

• 4 colours 

• speed 1 m/s 

54 



Elcorsy - Technology 

Elektrocoagulation process: 

• Cleaning - removing untransferred 

ink and paper debris from stainless 

steel drum (anode) 

• Conditioning - applying release oil 

• Ink injection - aqueous pigmented 

ink with electrolytically sensitised 

polymer 

• Imaging - array of electrodes 

(cathode) pulsed to selectively 

electrocoagulate the ink to form 3D 

dots 

• Image revealing - rubber doctor blade 

removes uncoated ink 

• Pressure transfer of ink to web 

substrate 

55 



Features of Ct-Print Technologies 

Today‘s highest 

speed [m/s] 

S/W Quality 

[dpi] 

Investment 

(1 page width) 

[ca. Euro] 

Electrophotogr. 1,1 600 600.000 

Magnetography 2 480 600.000 

Elcography 2 240 1.000.000 

Ionography 3 300 (600) 1.000.000 

Ink jet 5 240 1.500.000 

newspaper 15 1.200 

56 



CtPRINT as Digital Imprint Units in Conventional Offset 

Electrostatic systems can not be used because of: 

1. Low printing speed (1 m) 

2. Complex system set-up which does not fit in the newspaper press 

environment. 

The only toner based system with potential: Electron beam 

(Delphax heads are in the field, but slow and with poor resolution) 

But today it´s a Xerox technology and Xerox has an other focus. 

Inkjet is the future process for digital imprint! 

Cheap ink, simple process. 

But: 

Scitex Dayton is not really interested to enter this market. Their technology 

has the potential for 10 m/s at 480 dpi within two years. But, they have the 

wrong pricing. Xaar might become a hope. 

If some patents run out in the next years, the market gets alive again! 

57 



CtPRINT equipment in a global network environment 

Toner based systems dominate the market because of 

• integrated concepts 

• best quality which is available 

Inkjet has the potential to take a market share. 

The price level is too high with this technology, especially in colour! 

➢ Open the monopoly and improve the competition (NexPress?) 

➢ Change to liquid toner instead of today’s powder toner technology 

At technical level, we will get improvements in resolution and grey levels 

according to the development of computing power in the next years. 

The main problem is the connectivity of the systems to build-up global 

distributed printing resources. 

CtPRINT needs to become an Internet technology! 

(Open Interfaces at the level of production data, but also at work flow process) 

58 



Bringing all together: 

The state of the art picture has a lot of different facets. 

We could expect a dynamic development in the next years in 

all fields of digital printing. 

If you have clear requirements for a certain application, 

it may also today be possible to develop a suitable solution. 

But in the most cases, you do not find a ready solution. 

59

Download

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?