The terminator of roller printing: ceramic inkjet technology

The progress and innovation of ceramic printing technology is an important thrust for the development of modern ceramics, providing technical support for the diversification and individualization of ceramic decorative effects. Since the rise of the modern ceramic industry in China in the 1970s, ceramic printing technology has experienced three revolutions. The first revolution was screen printing technology, the second revolution was roller printing technology, and inkjet printing technology was called ceramics. The third revolution in printing technology. Every revolution in ceramic printing technology has led the development trend of the ceramic industry and brought a huge response.

In 2013, the Guangzhou Ceramics Industry Exhibition was the first to set up an “Inkjet Printing Technology and Application Achievements Zone”. A number of events and forums were held around inkjet printing technology. Chemical companies launched ink-jet assistant color frits and inks in order to keep up with The rapid development of inkjet printing. In the market, inkjet products are even more popular and popular.

Step by step toward slightly replaced roller printing

Roller printing technology was once the world's most advanced ceramic printing technology. Its promotion and application accelerated the arrival of the second revolution of ceramic printing technology. Roller roller printing machine has two kinds of screen roller and rubber roller. Screen roller has been widely used in the ceramic powerhouse Italy in the early years, and the introduction of our country is basically an upgraded version of the rubber roller, which was later used by many companies. It is reported that in the ceramic industry, from the individual appearance of roll printing to universal acceptance and production applications, it took only about 10 years.

Compared with the screen printing that promotes the first ceramic printing revolution, roller printing is a kind of flexible printing. The breakthrough lies in the fact that it can realize the printing of concave and convex surfaces, overcome the limitations of the plane printing, and thus make the surface level of the brick more abundant. The simulation of nature is higher.

In the era of rapid changes in science and technology, roller printing technology has been the impact of another technology - inkjet printing. Inkjet printing is a major innovation in ceramic printing technology, completely subverting past printing technology. This is a non-contact, pressure-free, non-printing printing technology that can be printed by inputting information stored in an electronic computer into an ink jet printer. It has the common features of digital printing without printing, enabling variable information printing.

In addition to the advantages of high efficiency, convenience, and versatility, ink jet printing technology will eventually replace the decisive factor of roller printing technology with low production cost. According to statistics, the ink utilization rate is as high as 98%, with little waste and cleaner and more environmentally friendly. With a daily production of 8,000 square meters of tiles, the use of other printing methods requires about 4 to 5 tons of glaze, while ink-jet printing requires only one and a half tons of ink.

According to industry sources, when the price of ink is 220,000 per ton, the cost of ink jet printing is the same as that of roller printing. The current production cost of ink jet printing is lower than that of roller printing.

A pottery owner told reporters that two or three years ago when the rise of ink jet printing, roller printing gradually went down. Now, with the popularization of ink jet printing technology and the reduction of production costs, roller printing has gradually become a trend in many ceramic manufacturers. Superseded by the fact that new production lines are currently using inkjet technology, only some of the old production lines are still following the traditional technology of roller printing. He believes that replacing ink jet printing on behalf of new technology is an inevitable trend of development.

"Printer" Wins "Copier"

Roller printing in the printing of a layout can only produce a suit and must be mass production, consumers can only passively accept the ceramic tile color provided by the company, in the lack of personalization. According to industry insiders, the traditional ceramic printing technology is like a copying machine, and the texture effect is very similar; while the ceramic ink-jet printing realizes the change to the printer, and it can realize the random production and small-volume production at any time, satisfying the diversity of consumers and Personalized needs.

From the second revolution to the third revolution in ceramic printing technology, inkjet printing has beaten roller printing in at least five areas and achieved breakthrough development.

1, breaking the print version of the roller limit. It can be arbitrary, not limited by the number of editions, all the colors in a single print, greatly enhancing the richness of color and layering, giving the tile a beautiful color beauty.

2. Break the limitation of plane blanks. Through inkjet printing technology, the flat tiles can be converted to any uneven, irregular surface. The use of inkjet printing technology can easily complete the work, thus giving the tiles a perfect three-dimensional effect.

3, breaking the restrictions of repeated textures. And roller printing gives us the same or almost identical texture effect. Inkjet printing technology can not only produce tiles of the same texture, but also can make tiles of different textures at the same time, giving each tile a different texture. Rich in the diversity of tiles.

4, breaking the traditional production time limit. From the design output - screen production - printing - firing, at least 3 days; roller printing, at least 2 days; and inkjet printing, from the design output - inkjet printing - firing, only need In 3 to 4 hours, the production efficiency has been greatly improved.

5, to break the limitations of tile design. Can be commonly used marble or a variety of wallpaper, etc., but also can be photographed on the street to take pictures of the scenery, draw natural, more realistic texture.

Zhou Chunrong, sales manager of Porto Tile, once worked in ceramic production management. In a conversation with reporters, he said that the revolutionary innovation of inkjet printing technology has huge market potential and development space in many industries including ceramics instead of roller printing. It has become very clear that it has become the market leader for the traditional printing technology represented.