The development of printing technology in the past

The development of printing technology in the past half century 1.4

the rise and fall of printing> Section IV the rise and fall of letterpress printing

letterpress printing is the oldest of several printing methods. In the decades of contemporary Chinese printing history, relief printing has experienced a tortuous path from small to prosperous, reaching its peak and then declining

printing> I. flat press printing

the flat press printing machine has a relatively simple structure and small volume. The plate table of the printing plate is flat, and the platen for placing paper is also flat, such as disc machine, square box machine, etc., so this type of machine is collectively referred to as flat press printing machine

in the 1950s, the number of flat presses accounted for the absolute majority. Due to the small size of this kind of machine, it can only print some parts below the Quarto, which is not suitable for printing books, newspapers, periodicals and other large format printing materials. Because of its small size, simple structure and slow printing speed, it mostly adopts manual paper feeding. When printing, the printing plate table is fixed, and the impression plate is closed to the printing plate table. When the platen is opened, the operator is quick sighted and handy. His left hand quickly takes out the printed sheet from the platen, and his right hand quickly puts the paper to be printed into the regular box of the platen. When the platen and the platen are pressed together, the printing ink is transferred from the printing plate to the paper to complete one printing. Repeat this operation over and over again

although the printing speed of this printing method is slow, its printing pressure is high, and the pressure of the imprint plate on the plate stage takes a long time, so the ink color printed is fuller, the impression is clearer, and the printing quality is better, which is its advantage. In relief printing, this kind of small flat press has always occupied a certain market

with the progress and innovation of technology, the flat press printing machine with manual paper continuation is gradually replaced by the flat press printing machine with automatic paper feeding. People call this kind of horizontal platform automatic paper feeding printer "horizontal flying" and vertical platform automatic paper feeding printer "vertical flying". Until the 1980s, this kind of flat press printing machine was still widely used by printing houses. In the field of packaging and printing, flat printing is the main printing method for printing various small pieces of printing such as trademarks, instructions, packaging cartons, etc. In the field of book printing, it is the main printing method for printing book covers, color inserts, and fine printed matter

printing> II. Circular flattening printing

for large format printing such as books and newspapers, it is necessary to use a large table circular flattening printing machine. The platen is still flat, but the imprinting device is roller type. When the embossing cylinder holds the paper and rolls on the plate table, it contacts with the plate table and applies pressure, so the ink on the plate is transferred to the paper to complete printing. For example, platform machine, two rotation (formerly known as mili machine) printing machine, if the flat printing platen is face-to-face contact pressure with the plate table, then the circular printing platen is line contact pressure with the plate table. Obviously, because the round press type printing is pressed in rolling, the time of pressing is shorter than that of the flat press type, and its printing speed is certainly faster

before the 1950s, due to the limited capacity of China's self-produced printing machinery, the number of circular press presses owned by printing plants was very small. According to statistics in 1950, the six administrative regions of the country have only more than 1200 offset and above round press type printing machines, which are mainly used to print books and periodicals. In order to meet the needs of the publishing and printing industry, the Shanghai People's railway factory trial produced a two rotary relief printing machine in the early 1950s. Since then, this kind of machine began to equip a large number of book printing plants. From the 1950s to the mid-1960s, with the development of the book printing industry, the rotary press, especially the two rotary press with automatic paper feeding, has always been the main type of letterpress printing in book printing plants

printing> III. circular printing

from the development history of embossing method of relief printing machine, it starts from flat flattening, to circular flattening, and then further develops to circular flattening. The printing speed has also developed from low speed, medium speed to high speed

rotary printing, commonly known as rotary printing. The plate cylinder is round, and the impression cylinder is also round. During printing, the embossing cylinder holds the paper and rolls relative to the printing plate cylinder. During rolling, the ink on the printing plate is transferred to the paper to complete printing. For example, single-sided rotary printing machine, double-sided rotary printing machine, web rotary printing brush machine and newspaper high-speed rotary printing machine

two types of printing machines, flat press type and round press type, make reciprocating motion on the platen during printing. At the end of each journey, the speed of the platen should be reduced to zero, and the speed of the next journey should start from the zero value of the real-time test gauge. Due to the huge motion inertia of the platform, the improvement of the machine running speed is limited. The characteristic of round pressing is that in printing, both the plate cylinder and the impression cylinder rotate in a circular direction, which can greatly improve the running speed of the machine. The flat press printing speed is generally 1000 ~ 2000 printing time, the round press printing speed is generally 2000 ~ 3000 printing time, and the round press printing speed can reach 15000 printing time, which is almost 5 times of the round press printing speed. The improvement of printing speed is based on the improvement of machine automation. Without exception, all rotary presses adopt automatic paper feeding and receiving mechanisms, and the high subsidies have driven the explosive growth of the industry with a compound growth rate of more than three times, greatly improving the automation level

after the 1970s, with the increasing publication and circulation of books, periodicals and newspapers, large-scale book, periodical and newspaper printing plants were increasingly equipped with rotary printing machines, making them the main type of books, periodicals and newspapers printing

circular press rotary printing machine is divided into sheet fed rotary machine and web fed rotary machine according to its paper feeding mode: sheet fed rotary printing machine, which is generally used to print books and periodicals with large volume; Web wheel transfer printing machine is generally used for printing newspapers and books. Sheet fed rotary printing machine is divided into single-sided rotary printing machine and double-sided rotary printing machine. Web printing machine is divided into book printing and newspaper printing. The latter is also called newspaper high-speed rotary printing machine, and the printing speed can reach more than 20000 printing hours

the sheet fed rotary printer will fold pages after printing. The web printing machine inputs web paper, which must be cut into recyclable sheets of paper products after printing. Therefore, the web wheel transfer brush machine is generally equipped with a broken sheet folding device, and the final output is the folded book post

printing press from small to large, from prosperity to decline> IV. relief printing press from small to large, from prosperity to decline

Warring States policy · Qin CE three "says:" the sun moves, the moon is full, and things are prosperous, then decline ", which means that things in the process of development, even if they reach the peak, they do not thrive forever. The road of letterpress printing for more than 40 years also illustrates this truth

in the 1950s, the number of small and medium-sized flat presses in relief printing machines occupied an absolute majority. At that time, the number of large and medium-sized book and newspaper printing plants was still small. For the vast majority of small printing plants, simple and small flat presses were more suitable for the needs. After the 1960s, with the development of the scale of the printing industry, medium-sized relief printing machines with round flattening are playing an increasingly important role in large-scale book printing plants. In fact, the development of letterpress printing industry is mainly driven by book printing. In order to meet the needs of book printing and publishing, in the mid-1970s, large-scale book printing plants successively used the rotary printing machine of round pressing type, which made the main model of book printing to a higher level. At the same time, newspaper printing is also gradually using web newspaper printing machine

v. the reasons for the decline of letterpress printing over the past 40 years, what is the reason for the change of letterpress printing from prosperity to decline? There are both internal and external causes of objective conditions

table statistical table of the percentage of relief printing output in the national total output of lithography and lead printing in book printing for more than 40 years

year total production of relief printing and lithography (ten thousand reams) production of relief printing (ten thousand reams) production of lithography printing (ten thousand color reams) production of relief printing in the total output (%)