In order to attract the attention of potential customers, companies use all the means at their disposal. Printing products help to realize these plans. These are business cards, with the help of which contact information is distributed, and posters indicating the direction of movement, and leaflets, which are a direct guide to action.
Printing products are also important during the presentation of the company. In this case, saving on handouts will negatively affect all the information received, spoiling the overall impression of the organization.
Functions of printing products
The catalogs, calendars and booklets offered by the company are excellent material for the presentation of the company. This printed product demonstrates to a potential buyer or customer the capabilities of the company. With its help, the client receives more information about a potential supplier of works, goods or services, about the main directions of its activities, as well as about development prospects. ATin this case, printed products must be made in the corporate style, have corporate colors, etc. At the same time, the higher the quality of the printing, the higher the level of the company it will demonstrate to the client. You should pay attention not only to the stylish design of the product, but also to the quality of each of its elements.
Printing products affect the image of the company. This is one of the main indicators that allows you to assess the status of the organization. If the proposed materials are made using solid printing, they command respect. Poor quality products only worsen the opinion about the organization.
Printing products are needed by the company to make contact with its potential customers and buyers. After all, almost every day they see posters, receive postcards, pick up brochures, etc. This material allows them to report on promotions and new products, as well as make business proposals.
Printing products also serve to enhance the advertising campaign. Representatives of the target group will certainly study the contact information that will be placed on stickers or leaflets.
Certain types of printing products (eg calendars and bookmarks) help create a positive impression of the company. This, in turn, will allow the firm to gain brand loy alty.
But the most important function of printed products is their ability to increase sales. Well-executed advertising campaignwill certainly pay off and bring good profits.
Modern printing methods
Today, printing technology has many different options. And all of them are quite good, differing only in some parameters. In addition, the printing technology using one method or another involves the use of special equipment, which also differs in its characteristics.
To date, the most widely used in the printing business are offset, screen, flat, digital printing and many others. All these technologies are distinguished by high-quality production of finished products.
Stencil method
This printing technology is a method of reproducing texts and graphics that uses a stencil. This is a special printing plate that allows printing ink to penetrate whitespace.
The scope of stencil technology extends to a wide range of activities, from hand-made work to high-tech industrial solutions. At the same time, it is used for the production of both the smallest formats and in the manufacture of large posters, for example, 3 x 6 m. The circulation of such products can also be very different. They can be produced in single copies and produced in large quantities.
The material for using the screen printing method is paper and textiles, synthetic materials and ceramics, products of various shapes (glasses and cans). This technology has its ownvarieties. One of them is silk-screen printing, which uses special metal and nylon nets as a form material, the thread frequency of which is from 4 to 200 threads per centimeter.
Risography is also distinguished from the screen printing method. This is printing, which uses forms made by burning micro-holes to form blank elements. This process takes place using a thermal head.
Flat print
This technology uses forms made from space and printing elements located in the same plane. Flat printing technology uses metal plates. These are single-layer or multi-layer sheets that are covered with a photosensitive layer, and then illuminated through a photoform, which serves as a template. Next, the plate prepared in this way is subjected to electrolytic or chemical etching. As a result of this process, the printing elements become hydrophobic and the blank elements become hydrophilic.
Offset printing
This printing technology involves the transfer of ink to the printed material from the printing plate. Moreover, this procedure is carried out not directly, but using an intermediate offset cylinder. This method is usually used in flatbed printing.
In the traditional method, the ink passes through two rolls before it hits the paper. One of them is a cylinder with a shape. The second is directly offset shaft. Next to the formapply an image. There is a process of development and exposure. The illuminated parts of the form begin to attract water. At the same time, they repel all sorts of oily substances, one of which is paint. These parts are called hydrophilic.
Hydrophobic areas of the form, on the contrary, attract paint and repel water. In this case, the formation of letters and images.
Offset printing is considered profitable in case of orders for large print runs. With a small number of printing products, other options are used. These are new printing technologies that are united under one name - digital. They use equipment that reproduces texts and images directly from files received in the printing house from workstations, and in office practice - from a personal computer.
Inkjet
Very often, companies require the production of printing products in small runs (1-1000 copies). To perform these tasks in offices, printers are widely used.
Inkjet printing technology ensures high quality and resolution of color displays. This is the key to excellent detailing of the received materials.
The printing technology of inkjet printers boasts of its smooth color transitions, which are obtained when displaying a wide variety of graphic elements. It doesn't matter if it's a photo, vector graphics or raster clipart.
Inkjet printing technology printersenjoys great success in photo studios that create large-format printing products. It also finds its application in design workshops. Inkjet image printing technology is used in enterprises developing GIS and CAD projects. No less popular are inkjet printers for the home. With their help, you can not only print texts, but also get colorful photographs, as well as any computer graphics that will certainly please with their high quality.
Types of inkjet printers differ in the multi-color printing system. Inexpensive models are equipped with only two cartridges. One is black and white and the other is multicolor. The latter has compartments that contain three different colors. When coming from special holes called nozzles, the ink is mixed already on the paper, which allows you to give the desired shade.
However, these color printing technologies lack flexibility. The fact is that anyone who has run out of at least one color of ink in the printer has to completely change the color cartridge. In this regard, inkjet printing has been improved. And today, in more expensive printer models, there is a system that provides for separate ink tanks. This approach allows you to replace only used colors.
However, modern inkjet-type printing technologies have a relatively low speed and high cost of printed material produced. That is why such printers are used only for smallloads.
Laser printing
This digital printing technology has significant advantages. It produces sharp prints that are also resistant to light and water.
The printing technology of laser printers implies a compact and precise focusing of the beam. This contributes to the highest resolution displays.
Laser printing technology can significantly speed up the time of the printer. This is due to the rapid movement of the beam. In addition, laser printers print very quietly. This allows you not to irritate or distract others. Also, laser printing technology involves the use of powder toner rather than liquid ink. The cartridges refilled with it do not dry out. Their shelf life, as a rule, is quite a long period - up to three years. This allows such a printer to easily endure some interruptions in work. For example, if the owner leaves for a long business trip, then after returning, he can easily start working further. Such interruptions are not possible with inkjet devices.
As a rule, laser is a black and white printing technology. However, for businesses, there are high-speed printers that output color.
Laser printing technology is a complex and finely organized mechanism. It uses an optical system and static electricity to create an invisible electrostatic prototype of a future print. After that, it is “filled” with toner particles, andthe result is fixed on paper.
Starting to work, the printer drives the charge roller. This element contributes to the uniform coating of the surface of the photoconductor with negatively charged particles. Next comes the printer controller. With its help, areas that form the image itself are revealed on the surface of the photodrum. These zones are illuminated by a laser beam, after which the negative charge disappears from them. Next comes the feed roller. It assists in transferring a negative charge to the toner particles by moving them onto the developer roller. After that, the particles pass under the doctor blade and are evenly distributed on the surface. When in contact with the drum, negatively charged toner fills those areas where there is no such charge. As a result of this process, the printer forms a visible image. It remains only to transfer everything to paper. The image also needs pinning.
First, the printer feeds a sheet of paper onto the transfer roller. Here it takes on a positive charge. After contact with the photoconductor, paper easily attracts particles of toner to itself. They lie on the sheet due to static electricity, but are still loose. The last stage of the laser printing process is the passage of paper through a system consisting of two rollers. One of them heats the sheet with the received images, and the second presses it firmly from below, which helps the toner particles to adhere well to the surface.
For some laser printer modelsdouble-sided printing technology is provided. This is an additional feature that allows you to apply an image on both sides of a paper sheet in automatic mode. As a result, the printing process becomes more economical and the products more diverse. For example, it can be greeting cards and information brochures, student term papers, etc.
The laser printer is perfect for a small office that needs to prepare invoices, copies of contracts, and office documents.
LED printing
Devices that use this technology are great not only for offices, but also for personal use. But, compared to laser printers, these printers are much more economical and affordable. They are more reliable and efficient. In addition, LED printing technology does not split oxygen molecules, and therefore does not emit ozone. Like laser printers, these printers are designed for a significant monthly load. This allows them to be used for the production of large print runs.
LED technology is based on the same principle as laser technology. The only difference is that these printers do not have a directional beam. Instead, the photoconductor is affected by the LED ruler, which is located across the entire width of the device. This design is more compact, less prone to breakage and much quieter.
When using LED technology, the process of "illuminating" the necessary areaselectrostatic field is faster. In this case, more reliable means are used. In this regard, LED printing is considered highly efficient and economical, not only in terms of device maintenance, but also in terms of the amount of funds used to purchase it.
Images on textiles
An excellent gift for the holiday will be a T-shirt with a funny picture or with an inscription. How are they applied?
T-shirt printing technology can be very different. It all depends on the type of image being applied and on the purpose of the finished product. For example, T-shirts for promotions should have a low cost, and those purchased as a gift, as well as for personal use, should maintain quality with frequent washing.
The technology of applying an image to a T-shirt involves the use of a special textile printer that works according to the scheme of an inkjet device. It has a special retractable table. A T-shirt is put on it and moved under the printer. After the drawing is applied, the paint is fixed either in a dryer or under a heat press. However, this technology of applying images to textiles is very laborious, and therefore it is used only for a small batch of products.
When performing indirect printing on the printer can be used:
- sublimation printing, previously carried out on paper with special ink, and then transferred to the fabric when exposed to high temperature;
- Magic technologyTouch, during which the pattern is applied to a special film, and then glued to the item using a heat press;
- thermal appliqué, which is an assembly of one multi-color picture from many parts that are glued onto a T-shirt with a heat press;
- silk screen printing which is an industrial technology.
Each of the above printing methods has its own characteristics, which should be taken into account based on the complexity of the image and circulation, the required quality, the colors and fabrics used, etc.
Making seals
This indispensable attribute of any organization can be performed using one of four technologies. Consider them in more detail:
1. photopolymer technology. The least expensive way is similar production of seals. This type of technology is considered traditional and involves steps such as printing the negative on a laser printer and preparing the material (liquid photopolymer, protective film, substrate and border tape).
Further it is impossible without mounting all the elements in a special device and exposure, both through the negative and from the side of the substrate. At the next stage, the cliche is dismantled from the fixture and washed, the illumination process is repeated and dried. In conclusion, it is necessary to remove the stickiness and cut out the cliche. All these steps take approximately thirty-five minutes.
2. Flash technology. This process involves making stamps with ink mounting.right in the cliché. Subsequently, this will not require the use of ink pads. How is this printing different? The technology includes outputting a layout on a laser-type printer and mounting the desired workpiece on a flash unit. Next is the illumination and direct installation of the cliché. At the end of the technological process, the seal is filled with ink.
3. vulcanization method. Unlike the previous method, it allows you to make several seals at once in one production cycle. With its help, special stamps are also produced, up to A5 format. The cliche obtained by this technology is considered the most durable and has an increased material resistance to ink.
4. laser technology. To date, it is considered the most effective. The essence of the process she proposes is that the original material, which is rubber, is processed using a laser beam, which engraves and cuts the workpiece. The main advantage of this technology is the excellent quality of finished products and their durability. Also, a similar method allows for high production speed.
