PRINTING PRINCIPLES

Offset Printing
Principles
Offset printing is an indirect lithographic printing The dampening system covers the non-printing areas
technology. Offset printing has spread markedly of the printing plate with a thin film of dampening
since approx. 1970. The offset printing technology is solution. This dampening solution (water plus
now the major printing technology. additives) spreads over the non-printing areas. To
achieve good wetting, surface tension has to be
In the offset printing process the printing and
reduced by means of dampening solution additives.
nonprinting areas of the plate are practically on one
level. The printing areas of the printing plate are In extreme cases, reducing the surface tension of the
oleophilic/ink-accepting and water-repellent, that is, dampening solution too much can result in too great
hydrophobic. The non-printing areas of the printing an emulsification of printing ink and dampening
plate are hydrophilic, consequently oleophobic in solution, leading to a situation chemical and physical
behavior. This effect is created by physical specifications of the materials and components
phenomena at the contact surfaces. involved in the process.

Inking Units
During the printing process, a thin film of ink is transferred from the image areas of the plate to the substrate (ink
film thickness on the substrate around 1μm). The inking unit’s function is to provide a constant supply of fresh ink
to the image areas on the plate to maintain a constant inking process. The amount of ink “used up” must be fed
back to the system. There must be an equal balance between ink fed and ink dispensed in order to avoid variations
in the ink density on the printed image.

Dampening Units
Conventional offset printing requires a dampening system to supply a very thin film of dampening solution (approx.
2 μm) to the non-printing elements of the printing plate. Since part of the dampening solution is printed via the
ink, plate, and blanket and another part evaporates, it is necessary to have a constant supply of dampening
solution.

Dampening units have developed from the “dampening roller” used to dampen the lithographic stone. Vibrator-
type dampening systems and continuousflow dampening systems are systems with contact between the
dampening solution pan, the dampening vibrator, and the printing plate. The disadvantage of these dampening
systems lies in the fact that substances (e.g., particles of ink, paper dust) can get from the printing plate into the
dampening solution pan and can lead to contamination.

Printing Unit
The printing plate – an up to 0.3 mm thick THICKNESS
sheet (TỜ IN: PRINTED SHEET, TỜ RỜI, EXCEL: TRANG
TÍNH, TẤM) of metal or a foil (NHÔM, NHŨ
NÓNG/LẠNH, MÀNG NHÔM) – carries the image
elements of the respective color separation. The blanket
is an approximately 2 mm-thick, exchangeable cylinder cover made from flexible (FLEXIBLE PACKAGING) (LINH
HOẠT) material and layers of fabric.

For the proper transfer of ink (TRUYỀN MỰC IN) between plate and blanket and between blanket and paper, a
sufficiently high contact pressure between the cylinders as well as the same circumferential speed of the cylinders
ROLLERS are necessary.

To adjust the contact pressure between plate cylinder and blanket cylinder, which move towards each other at a
fixed (CỐ ĐỊNH) axial clearance NIP, the plate or the blankets are underlaid, a process which results in a 0.05–0.15
mm radial deformation of the blanket. The printing pressure ÁP LỰC IN between the blanket and the impression
cylinder is set according to the nature of the substrate.

Printing Plates
The plates used in offset printing are thin (up to copper in the case of multimetal plates (bimetal 2
about 0.3 mm), and easy to mount on MOUNTING LỚP KIM LOẠI plates). Lightsensitive, photopolymer
the plate cylinder, and they mostly have a aluminum pre-coated aluminum printing plates are now the
or, less often, MULTICOLOR PRINTING, MULTI predominant plates in printshops. The image
FUNCTUON multimetal, plastic or paper transfer is produced via the different properties on
construction. Aluminum has been gaining ground for the surface of such plates after they have been
a long time among the metal-based plates over zinc exposed CHIẾU SÁNG, PHƠI BẢN and developed
and steel. Hiện Bản. The remains of the original light-sensitive
coating or the light-sensitive coating changed by the
The imaging, ink-accepting coating (light-sensitive
effect of light are the ink-accepting (oleophilic)
coating, thickness around 1μm) is applied to the
elements that create the image.
base material. This material is usually a polymer, or
Wash-up Procedures
In the offset printing process, the inking unit, the The impression cylinder may need to be cleaned, if,
printing plate, the blanket on the blanket cylinder, on the one hand, ink has been printed on it by
and the impression cylinder must be cleaned for mistake or, in the case of perfecting (in đảo trở tự
each job change or interruption in accordance with động trên máy, pass: qua máy) if ink set-off on the
operating conditions Điều Kiện Vận Hành and surface becomes a problem.
operating requirements. It may even be necessary to
When changing a job, the ink left over from the old
clean the blanket cylinder during the print run, if, for
job must be removed from the ink fountain, if a
example, paper dust Bụi giấy or particles from the
different ink is to be used for this printing unit, such
paper surface build up đóng bụi on the blanket and
as ink for UV drying (UV dryer) (dryer: hot air dryer,
cause faults lỗi in or defects sai hỏng (e.g., hickeys)
IR dryer: hệ thống trợ khô mực in gốc dầu) or ink of a
during the production run.
different color.
Similarly, the printing plate may also need cleaning
There are automated devices available to clean
during production, if the printing plate’s surface has
inking units and the cylinder surfaces referred to
changed as a result of malfunctions in the
above. They provide technical solutions based on
dampening and inking supply or of faults induced by
various design concepts with differences in
paper-related factors impairing printing quality.
effectiveness, the chemical agents required for
cleaning, and the degree of automation.
RotoGravure Printing
The feature of gravure printing
technology is the image elements are
engraved into the surface of the
cylinder. The non-image areas are at a
constant, original level. Prior to
printing, the entire printing plate (non-
printing and printing elements) is inked
and flooded with ink. Ink is removed
from the non-image (by a wiper or
blade) before printing, so that ink
remains only in the cells. The ink is
transferred from the cells to the
printing substrate by a high printing
pressure between printing substrate
and ink.

Rotogravure printing is used for the economical

production of long print runs. long/short Volume Gravure
printing forms are usually cylindrical. A special feature of
industrial rotogravure printing is the fact that a whole
cylinder (and no plate) is used per color separation. This
means that in a four-color press four separate cylinders
have to be changed for each new job.

RIP RASTER IMAGE PROCESSING, TRAME, SCREEN (Hạt

tram, màn hình, khung in lưới screen printing) In
screening for gravure printing, the image is broken up
into printing elements, the cells, and then the non-
printing elements, the cell walls. The cell walls serve to
guide the blade when excess ink is being stripped. After
doctor blade: dao dạt mực the doctoring process, ink remains only in the cells. If ink were to remain on the cell
walls, scumming would occur in the print.
Flexographic Printing
Flexographic printing is the only letterpress
process that is still showing growth, mainly
in flexible packaging, label, and newspaper
printing. The main feature of flexographic
printing is the use of flexible printing plates
that are relatively soft compared to book
printing plates and enable special ink
feeding.

Using the flexible (soft) printing plate and

the appropriate ink (low viscosity) for the
printing substrate, it is possible to print on a
wide range of absorbent giấy and non-
absorbent metalized-paper, film (màng), foil printing substrates. The low-viscosity ink is transferred to
the printing plate via a roller that is evenly screened with cells, the so-called screen roller/anilox roller
(screen width 200–600 lines/cm, ceramic or hardchromed metal surface).

The rubber or plastic plate is attached to the printing plate cylinder MOUNTING. Ink is transferred to the
printing substrate by the pressure of the impression cylinder. The use of a blade (together with the ink
supply system) on the screen roller has a stabilizing effect on the printing process resulting from even
filling of the cells on the screen roller. With the rubber plates in exclusive use earlier, only a low to
moderate printing quality of solid TÔNG NGUYÊN VÙNG 100% - TINTS VÙNG TẦNG THỨ (<100%) motifs
and rough line drawings could be achieved. For today’s higher-quality requirements, especially in the
printing of packaging, photopolymer wash-off plates are used, such as “Nyloflex” from BASF and “Cyrel”
from DuPont. These allow screen resolutions of up to about 60 lines/cm.
Printing Technologies without a Master (NIP Technologies)

Printing technologies do not require a stable, technologies, in which type is no longer transferred
physical, fixed image carrier and can, in principle, to the paper by impact – as was the case with matrix
generate a different printed page print per print. printers. Instead, a laser sends information to an
This type of process is referred to as non-impact intermediate carrier, a drum with a photoconductive
printing (NIP technology). coating, without impact (non-impact) in the
traditional sense. The latent (nonvisible), charged
The term non-impact is based on early digitally
image stored on this drum is inked with toner and
controlled printing systems where computing
then transferred to the paper.
centers would often print out data using dot matrix
printers. Typefaces for matrix printers of this kind There is, of course, contact between the inked
were controlled electronically and the information (toned) information carrier and the paper during
transferred to the paper via typeforming pins printing, but the information is not transferred by
impacting an ink ribbon. Such impact systems have impact. This process, therefore, is considered as non-
been superseded by electrophotographic impact printing.