枚葉オフセット印刷機の動向─オンデマンド技術と省電力UV─

抄録

In Japan, the number of sheet-fed offset presses using power-saving ultraviolet (UV) -curable ink have been increasing dramatically in recent years. As a result, "on-demand handling" for short-run print jobs and "added-value printing" with varnish coating or special substrates are also increasing. Power-saving UV and light-emitting diode (LED) -UV curing systems are mostly used by commercial printers with no previous experience in UV printing, and these systems are successful innovations for print production, sales, and management. The shift from oil-based ink to UV-curable ink eliminates color change due to drying after printing, and it realizes numerical color management. Decreased paper waste and gang printing reduce cost and improve competitiveness of short-run offset printing. Several in-line systems for print quality management, e.g., automatic registration, defect inspection, and color control, have recently been developed. In the near future, production systems integrating both offset and digital printing will be needed for print orders. This means that on-demand handling of offset printing will be increasingly important.