Since 1998, the world PS version has undergone major changes. Taking Polaroid Light as an example, its output reached 18 million square meters, when its traditional PS version was only equivalent to 80% of its total output, while the other 20% of production was a thermal plate. According to reports, the production of its thermal version is equivalent to 5% of the US usage. This change is related to the digitalization process in the printing industry. The desktop color publishing system in the 1990s has achieved considerable development in developed countries. In 1995, at the beginning of the promotion of CTP technology (Computer to plate), due to its immature laser light source technology, infrared, visible laser, thermal and ultraviolet CVT plates coexist. Even so, the CTP technology still has a strong advantage, such as concentration of exposure energy, automatic control by the computer, and accurate exposure positioning, etc., occupying an increasingly large market share in the PS version field. By the year 2000, the world's largest printing exhibition, the Ruba exhibition, 3,500 CTP systems have been in operation worldwide. In the developed countries, the production of CTP plates has accounted for about 1/3 of the total PS plate production.
CTP technology is an inevitable process of digitization in the printing industry. With the development of computers and laser technologies, traditional laser image-setters can be improved into CTPs, and direct-to-print plates can be realized from computers, eliminating the need for intermediate films. The key here is the two aspects of the laser light source and the minimum photoreceptive energy needed for the PS version body. Since 1995, laser technology has made great progress. The CTP system produced abroad can completely carry different types of laser light sources as required to meet the needs of users. For example, companies such as AGFA, Dainippon, and Barco have introduced a variety of light sources suitable for different media. For laser light sources, stability, reliability, ease of system integration, long life, and increased laser power are the most important. In 2000, a new type of UV laser light source appeared on the market. It was developed by a Japanese company. According to reports, the life of the laser light source has reached thousands of hours, and it is also relatively mature in technology. When this light source was launched in 2000, it had a tremendous effect. It is understood that almost all foreign CTP manufacturers have adopted such light sources on their own devices. Increasing the sensitivity of the PS version has also become the key to the development of the current PS version. At present, the imaging exposure of the CTP plate in the market is mostly less than 100mJ/cm2, and many high-sensitivity CTP plates have reached the μJ/cm2 level. Generally, the imaging exposure of the traditional PS plate in China is more than 300mJ/cm2.
Compared with developed countries, China's PS version has a large gap in performance and variety. In 2000, more than 98% of the total output of the PS version in China was the traditional PS version (level products in the 1970s). Although the annual consumption of CTP plates has reached more than 5 million square meters due to the technological progress of the newspaper industry, due to the lack of corresponding incentives and mechanisms for the development of new products in China, it is impossible to manufacture plates that are compatible with foreign CTPs and lose their basics. This market. From the perspective of the traditional PS version, in order to meet the need for high-quality printing, the PS version of foreign countries has grown toward high performance, mainly in three aspects: high resolution, due to the high speed of computing technology. At present, 1500 lines/inch cable can be produced, usually 175 lines/inch in China. The purpose of improving high-precision screening is to improve resolution, reduce moire, and increase saturation and sharpness. At present, the mainstream of high-precision printing in foreign countries is 400 lines per inch. This imposes higher requirements on the grain and resolution of photosensitive materials;
For the newspaper industry, the number of prints in one edition is often as high as 200,000 prints or even 500,000 or more. The current general domestic print strength is less than 100,000; the direction of high sensitivity will promote the conversion of traditional PS to CTP media. . With the advent of special CTcP technology, the traditional PS version can be used for CTP output. This is undoubtedly a boon for the traditional PS version. By the year 2000, in terms of production capacity, China has entered the world's largest producer of PS plates, with an annual output of more than one-tenth of the world's total output, and an output value of 1.5 billion yuan, initially forming a number of domestic PS plate production bases. Basically meet the needs of the domestic market. However, we must soberly realize that China's accession to the WTO in 2001 was a foregone conclusion. All PS countries in the world are optimistic about China's big market. At present, various protection policies formulated at home can no longer protect existing PS versions. In the market, if China's PS version of the manufacturing industry wants to maintain the existing domestic market, it will only improve its own quality. The first is to change the miniaturization of production. At present, the largest PS plate production base in China is Henan Dijiao, with an annual production capacity of over 10 million square meters, but compared with developed countries, there are still many gaps in scale and management level, especially production technology. Together with the Starlight and the Torchlight, the annual output of the top three PS manufacturers in China has reached 50% of the total domestic output, accounting for half of the country's total. The inevitable result of miniaturization is decentralization. Domestic production of 45 million square meters is completed by about 30 large and small enterprises. The average annual production capacity is mostly below 1.2 million square meters.
From the business point of view, most companies do not achieve the scale effect, and almost none of the profit development space of the enterprise itself has created a vicious cycle of backward technology, backward equipment, and small scale. From the point of view of environmental protection, all domestic companies that are harmful to the environment are ordered to cancel or transfer them, and the environmental pollution in their production and use is strictly limited. Due to backward technology, on the one hand, the domestic environment pollution in the production process cannot be improved as quickly as possible, and at the same time, the pollution during product use is beyond control. The State Economic and Trade Commission has already taken note of this issue and is amending the statistical content of traditional GDP (gross national product). Blindly pursuing economic growth and ignoring the environment are problems that have occurred in many countries in the past. The price is too high. When the pollution is rectified and the environment is rectified, the price paid then far exceeds the benefits. (To be continued)