Small-format offset press, as its name implies, refers to a small offset press with an effective printing area of less than 520×360(mm). At present, the most common one refers to the small offset press with A3 format.

In the early 1990s, the development of the traditional small offset press reached its peak, and the light, monochromatic and multifunctional small offset press became the main model in the short-run printing market, with an annual global installed capacity of more than 6,543,800+100,000 units. During this period, there were more than 65,438+05 offset press manufacturers in the world (excluding China), among which Heidelberg, Levi and Hamada were the most prominent manufacturers.

Then after a period of time, small-format multi-color offset presses began to develop, and many manufacturers came up with their own mature two-color and four-color small-format offset presses. Since the mid-1990s, the small-format offset press market has changed rapidly, and many manufacturers have been strongly impacted by the rapid development of new technology revolution, especially the progress of computer technology, copying technology and scanning printing technology. High-speed printers, high-speed copiers and digital all-in-one machines have been widely used in the field of office light printing, which can copy printed materials for customers at high speed, conveniently, cleanly and at low cost. Light monochrome small offset presses have been hit in the international market. Many manufacturers' sales of small format offset presses have declined, and some have to face reorganization or bankruptcy.

In the development of small format offset press in the past ten years, only Heidelberg Company, Levi Company and Hamada Company have maintained a certain development, and all three companies have made a transition from the original monochrome small format offset press to the multi-color small format offset press with more than two colors and the digital direct printer with mechanism version.

Compared with the advanced technology in the world, the development of small offset printing machine technology in China is not shrinking, but further expanding. Especially in the field of small offset press, we still stay at the level of international small offset press development ten years ago. In foreign countries, the production scale of small monochrome offset press is shrinking, and the field of short version rapid printing is developing in the direction of digitalization, multicolor and high automation of traditional offset press. However, China's small offset press industry is still at the low level of monochrome machines, killing each other, and the number of manufacturers has increased from 10 to more than 40, which is four times the total number of small offset press manufacturers in the world.

The technology of small offset press in China all comes from abroad. So far, no enterprise or research unit has been able to independently design and develop small offset press. From 1976 Yingkou Huaguan (formerly Yingkou Copying Machine Factory) to the formation of the first small offset press in China, it shows the unique prosperity of the development of small offset press in China under this specific historical condition.

In China, there are many kinds of small offset presses, and their technical sources can be divided into two modes, namely, Japanese mode and European and American mode.

The technology of small offset press comes from three channels:

1. Buy or introduce a complete set of manufacturing technology (all drawings, complete assembly, debugging and inspection process, including some special tools, fixtures and equipment). Only two manufacturers in China can do this: Yingkou Huaguan and Weihai Hamada.

2. We only buy foreign product drawings and parts, and do not provide complete assembly, debugging and inspection technology and equipment. There are also two manufacturers in China.

3. Purchase foreign prototypes, copy surveying and mapping drawings, or obtain drawings with manufacturers of imitation surveying and mapping through various abnormal means for manufacturing.

Compared with the same type of small offset presses in developed countries, most small offset presses in China have a certain gap in internal quality and performance stability, processing accuracy of parts, quality stability of the whole machine, etc., except for manufacturers that introduce a full set of technologies, such as Weibaitian and Yingkou Huaguan.

At present, China's small format offset press can be divided into four categories: desktop offset press, monochrome offset press, multifunctional offset press and heavy commercial offset press.

Desktop small offset press

Desktop small offset press is a kind of desktop small offset press with simple structure, low performance and not strict requirements for printed matter quality. The main purpose of the original design is office use. In foreign countries, desktop offset presses have been almost completely eliminated, and only Japan's China Eastern Airlines is still producing a small number of 820 small desktop offset presses.

At present, at least eight enterprises in China are still producing small desktop offset presses.

Monochrome light small offset press

Monochrome light small offset press is a kind of light monochrome printing small offset press, with relatively simple structure (compared with pure commercial printing press), but high printing quality, good quality and performance, high speed, convenience and quickness, and simple and practical operation. The original design is high-grade office light printing, and some customers also use it for short version fast monochrome commercial printing.

In foreign countries, only a few manufacturers, such as Japan's Lebi, Hamada, China Eastern Airlines and the United States, are still producing light monochrome small offset presses.

There are only a handful of domestic manufacturers and products producing light-colored monochrome offset presses, among which YK 1800 series of Yingkou Huaguan still maintains mass production. From history to now, Yingkou Huaguan has always occupied an absolute advantage in light monochrome offset press, and no manufacturer can compete with Yingkou Huaguan. So far, Yingkou Huaguan 1800 offset press has been put on the market for more than 20,000 sets.

Multifunctional small offset press

Multi-function small offset press is an expanded function based on light monochrome small offset press and according to the demand of printing market. For example, a conventional belt bridge can be added to realize registration printing, a two-color head can be added to realize two-color printing, and a numbering unit can be added to realize numbering (vertical and horizontal), hole pressing (vertical and horizontal), resin printing, cutting and other functions. It can realize high-quality fast monochrome printing and meet the multi-functional needs of users. Multi-function printing machines are generally used in the field of rapid commercial printing of short editions.

In foreign countries, multifunctional small offset presses are also classified as optical monochromators. At present, almost all small format offset press manufacturers are producing this kind of equipment, among which the most famous ones are Youbi Company and Hamada Company.

At present, the well-known manufacturers of multifunctional small offset presses in China market are Tian, Yingkou, Weihai Printing, Beireneryin and Beijing Duoyuan. These five enterprises occupy 80% of the domestic multifunctional small offset press market.

Heavy commercial small offset press

Heavy-duty commercial small offset press is a commercial small-format printing machine, which has the structural characteristics of a large-scale printing machine. It adopts the Feida paper feeding structure of continuous paper feeding, especially the paper feeding structure adopts the paper feeding tooth row, which has fast printing speed and good printing quality and can meet the needs of multi-functional users. It is the most ideal equipment for rapid printing of commercial short editions.

At present, only Heidelberg in Germany, Levi in Japan, Hamada in Japan, Shinohara in Japan, Rota in Germany, and Adas in the Czech Republic produce heavy-duty small-format offset presses, which are high-end printing presses.

There are not many domestic manufacturers producing this kind of high-grade heavy-duty printing machine.

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Advantages and disadvantages of small offset press with horizontal paper feed and vertical paper feed

Horizontal paper feeding and vertical paper feeding are two paper feeding methods of small offset press. For large offset presses with specifications above quarto, the domestic and foreign models are horizontal paper feeding, and there is no difference between horizontal paper feeding and vertical paper feeding. Why? If the vertical paper feeding structure is adopted, on the one hand, the three rollers will be thickened and the processing will be difficult, which will lead to the unbalanced center of gravity of the equipment and affect the performance of the machine; On the other hand, the paper feeding length is too long, which is prone to pleating, stretching deformation and tail flick. Due to the weakness of horizontal paper-feeding offset press in rigidity, processability, life, stability and speed, and considering the characteristics of eight small offset presses, such as small size, simple three-roll processing, short paper feeding length of eight sheets, slight stretching deformation and tail swing not affecting the quality of printed matter, and large ink path arrangement space, vertical paper-feeding offset press appeared. For decades, vertical paper-fed small offset press has become the main force in the small offset press market because of its reasonable structure, fast and flexible, convenient operation, good stability and long service life, and has been recognized by customers.

In recent years, with the continuous development of the fast printing market, not only large printing plants, but also small, medium and individual printing plants are using fast printing equipment. The small-format offset printing press market has experienced a rare prosperity, and the market demand is increasing. However, due to the influence of the traditional structure of large offset presses, some printing customers in society hold the view that offset presses with horizontal paper feed are better than offset presses with vertical paper feed, which is actually very one-sided. From the structural characteristics of the machine and the user's use characteristics, horizontal paper feeding and vertical paper feeding have their own advantages and disadvantages.

For small offset presses with the same specifications, compared with small offset presses with horizontal paper feed, small offset presses with vertical paper feed have the following advantages.

First, the structural rigidity of vertical paper feeding is stronger than that of horizontal paper feeding.

Horizontal feed offset press is much wider than vertical feed offset press. For example, according to the principle of moment, the length of the shaft on the offset press is increased, and its rigidity is greatly reduced, so the service life of the small offset press with horizontal paper feed is longer than that of the offset press with vertical paper feed (except for the small offset press with heavy commercial use).

Secondly, the manufacturing cost of vertical paper feeding is lower than that of horizontal paper feeding. As far as the long axis of offset printing machine is concerned, doubling the length will definitely cost more than twice as much as machining manufacturing. Judging from the small offset press on the market at present, excluding the low-grade and low-priced horizontal feed offset press, the price of horizontal feed offset press with the same quality and performance is generally 20% to 100% higher than that of vertical feed offset press, and the user's use cost is higher.

Third, the printing quality of vertical paper feeding is better than that of horizontal paper feeding (except for small commercial offset presses), mainly in the following two aspects;

Printing pressure, because the length of rollers and cots of horizontal paper-fed offset press is much longer than that of vertical paper-fed offset press, the rigidity problem brings insufficient pressure, so the printing effect of vertical paper-fed offset press is better than that of horizontal paper-fed offset press.

Ink balance, because the length of water roller and ink roller of horizontal feed offset press is increased, the effect and time of fast ink balance are not as good as that of vertical feed offset press, so the actual printing effect is worse than that of vertical feed offset press.

Fourthly, vertical paper feeding is better than horizontal paper feeding. Affected by the quality of household paper, if the edge of the paper is bent due to the long length when feeding horizontally, the paper feeding effect may be bad, while the paper feeding vertically has relatively little influence because of the narrow paper feeding width.

Fifth, the plate paper for vertical paper feeding is smaller than that for horizontal paper feeding. Small offset press with horizontal paper feed needs to clamp the edge of cardboard when loading paper, which causes a certain degree of paper waste (there is no zinc oxide plate-making machine suitable for horizontal paper feed specifications at present), so the user's use cost is higher than that of small offset press with vertical paper feed.

However, for small offset presses with the same specifications, compared with small offset presses with horizontal paper feed, small offset presses with vertical paper feed also have the following disadvantages:

Firstly, because the roller of vertical feed small offset press is thicker than that of horizontal feed small offset press, the time for vertical feed small offset press to walk a piece of paper is shorter than that of horizontal feed small offset press, so the speed of small offset press is improved. Picking apricots and climbing beer 5? Pregnant? What happened to acetylene emperor? Hey? The glue has faded, and it is called \' River \'? Where did the singer come from? 10,000 rpm, 6-7 thousand rpm is enough for normal printing.

Secondly, when small offset printing machines are overprinting in color, there will be tail flick. Because the paper feed in the horizontal direction is short, compared with the vertical direction, the tail flick phenomenon is relatively light, so the general overprinter color is more accurate. However, due to the characteristics of small offset presses, especially monochromators, high-precision color printing cannot be realized (real high-precision color printing requires commercial offset presses, especially offset presses with more than four colors), so the slight tail swing phenomenon of small offset presses does not affect the printing quality of general color overprinting.

Thirdly, the paper will wrinkle in the printing process after it is wet, which is a common problem of offset press. Compared with vertical paper feeding offset press, horizontal paper feeding offset press is not easy to wrinkle, which is related to the direction of paper cutting. Generally, horizontal paper feeding is based on horizontal stubble, so the paper is straight and not easy to wrinkle, while vertical paper feeding is based on forward stubble, so the paper is weak and may wrinkle. If the paper is wet, the pleating phenomenon will be more obvious.

The above are the advantages and disadvantages of horizontal feed offset press and vertical feed offset press. From the comparison, it can be seen that the vertical feed offset press has more advantages than the horizontal feed offset press, especially in terms of cost performance. It is one-sided and incorrect to arbitrarily say whether the horizontal feed is better or the vertical feed is better. Yingkou Huaguan Offset Press Co., Ltd. has added many additional devices to its series of offset presses in view of the shortcomings of small vertical paper-feeding offset presses, such as the rolling brush device to prevent the tail from swinging, the paper feeding structure with air suction belt, and the front and rear drying devices to prevent the paper from being wet and discounted in the printing process. To make the vertical paper-feeding offset press more suitable for the needs of diversified markets, help customers reduce costs and solve practical problems in printing. Judging from the development trend of international small offset press, vertical feeder and horizontal feeder are popular in the world at present. Different customers choose their own products according to their own needs, and no one says which model is better than which.

Yingkou Huaguan Offset Press Co., Ltd. is the industry leader of small offset presses in China, and has put nearly 40,000 small offset presses on the market for more than 20 years. Judging from our customer base, most of them are suitable vertical paper-feeding offset presses. Especially in recent years, in order to meet the needs of some domestic customers, horizontal paper-feeding offset press has been developed. Our aim is to develop a series of small offset presses with different needs according to the requirements of customers.