Like printer suppliers, post-press processors are also striving to provide consumers with more effective processes and equipment. In many post-press processing equipment, folding machines are an ordinary stand-alone machine for printing companies, or are they the value-added printing weight? Let's take a look at the actual situation of the supply and demand market for the folding machine.
Separation of the two camps
Under the market segmentation, the folding equipment presents a diversified development trend. The equipment supplier will provide a series of folding machines or a folding machine with multiple options to satisfy the users in the market segmentation. Many needs. In China's folding machine market, domestic brands have a considerable market share. A large number of domestic brand manufacturers, such as Beiren, Shanghai Zihong, Hunan Xinshao and Shengli Weiye, have led the market. Some of them have even carried folding machines. Go abroad and push products to the world. On the other hand, some international brands stabilize the high-end market with leading technology, excellent products, rich product lines and personalized solutions, such as the familiar Heidelberg Starr, MBO, and Japan’s Zhengrong. The high-end level of current folding technology development is also an international brand that is currently used in China.
Wang Huaizhu: China's folding machine manufacturing industry has been developing from the 1950s to the present. From the initial development of blade-type low-speed machines to the combination of gate-knife and full-barrier high-speed machines, from the development of manual paper feeding to automatic paper feeding, folding speed, The quality level has been continuously improved and the folding function has been continuously improved. Folding is the key process of postpress processing, and its efficiency restricts the production efficiency of printing and postpress. With the diversification of post-press processing technology, the complexity of page folding patterns, and the new situation of shortened publishing cycles and accelerated processing speeds in recent years, the market has put forward new requirements for the function and use of folding machines. In order to meet the various needs of users, each folding equipment manufacturer is still actively developing various folding machines with excellent performance.
Li Yongqiang: In a sense, the folding machine reflects the development of folding technology. At present, the folding machines on the domestic market mainly include two kinds of grid knife hybrid and full-barrier. Barrier hybrid folding machine is generally used for large-scale, conventional format of the general book folding; full-barrier folding machine is mainly used for processing commercial, packaging printed matter, such as brochures and other specifications of folding products, small The small instructions in the pharmaceutical packaging, as well as maps, posters, full-barrier folding machines, hence the name "universal folding machine", are recognized in the market as stable and advanced folding equipment, and are currently on the market. Most high-end folding machines use full-folding folding.
At present, the mainstream of domestic folding machines is a grid knife hybrid folding machine. Nowadays, domestic high-grade grid knife hybrid folding machines and full-barrier folding machines have made great progress. The main manifestations are: commonly used PLC and frequency conversion speed control, human-machine interface display and other new technologies, and the timely introduction of electricity Control knife folding machine. In the production, there are fewer and fewer applications of mechanical knife folding machines, and electronic folding knife folding machines have begun to replace them.
Analysis of consumer psychology
After years of development and accumulation, printing companies have developed their own operating characteristics and have accumulated capital. Whether it is prepress, printing equipment or postpress equipment, once a printing company has a real need for equipment purchases, it seems that it is adhering to such a "rule" - "the best is the best", mapped to the folding machine, The same is true.
Mr. Liu: Taking the market as the forerunner, market demand is the leading factor in the purchase of folding machines by most printing companies. For them, the post-press processing equipment is in an auxiliary position, and basically it will not directly generate profits. In addition, the purchase of posterior equipment such as folding machines is mainly based on the market demand and combined with the company's own. Business structure, capital reserves and other actual conditions, choose the right equipment.
At this stage, there are many small-scale printing companies mainly engaged in binding books and books. Due to limited funds and low profits, companies are reluctant to spend large sums of money or have insufficient funds to purchase more highly automated folding machines.
In contrast, for some large and medium-sized printing companies, their funds and technical strength are strong, and the demand for new technologies is very urgent. When buying folding machines, they will pay more attention to their production capacity and stability, so they are more inclined to Select high-end equipment. Of course, there are no shortages of forward-looking parties who have used the special processing method of folding links to realize the value-added of printed products from the post-press date.
Mr. Huang: The price of imported equipment is usually about three times that of domestic equipment, and even higher. For us, the capital investment pressure is too great, and domestic equipment has the advantage of localized service. So we chose a domestic brand of folding equipment a year ago. At this stage, due to the joint impact of the economic environment, our factory intends to stabilize in the past two years. We will not consider any purchase of equipment for the time being, so as to ease the pressure on policies, funds, costs, and the market. In the local area, many companies share the same ideas with us.
Mr. Li: Our factory mainly prints commercial jobs. The turnover rate of the folding machines is very high. The equipment is basically running at full capacity every day. For us, the speed of the folding machine is not enough, and production stability is equally important, which is related to the working efficiency and quality of the folding machine. For production stability, we mainly examine the adaptability of the folding machine to various paper operations. The customer's demand for the paper used in printed matter is more and more diversified and more and more demanding. It is often used in a batch of jobs. Several types and quantities of paper, and even customers can provide their own paper, this requires the folding equipment has great strain and adaptability.
If the company's financial conditions allow, the amount of business is sufficient, coupled with the job requirements for processing accuracy, I personally recommend that commercial and packaging printing companies choose imported brands of folding equipment, fully take into account the future of sustainable development.
Can't underestimate the gap
The gap between domestic brands and international brands is not only unique to folding machines. Along with the overall improvement of China's machinery manufacturing industry and the reserve of R&D forces in the printing industry, we are pleasantly surprised to see the achievements made in the research and development and product innovation of folding machine manufacturing over the years. Some people say that we can't see the difference is the biggest difference, and we can't see the crisis as the biggest crisis. We need to find a gap in our achievements. Only when we recognize ourselves and identify our own problems and cruxes can we develop. . Therefore, the following pertinent interviewees' opinions are particularly worthy of attention.
Wang Huaizhu: China's folding machine manufacturing industry has developed rapidly in recent years, some products have reached the international advanced level, but in technology and function mostly remain in the fold level of the book, its automation, diversification and intelligence from the international advanced level With a certain distance, we must work harder to improve and continue to move closer to the international advanced level. We must conscientiously study the advanced international technologies, make up for our deficiencies through exchanges, improve the manufacturing level of our folding machines as soon as possible, and enter the advanced world as soon as possible.
The trend of the development of future folding technology is highlighted in two aspects: First, the form of folding machines has become increasingly diversified and complicated. It has already broken through the concept of folding only signatures; second, the function of folding machines The more advanced, the more automated and intelligent. Such as plastic line hot book folding machine, micro-folding machine, multi-functional automatic folding machine and modular folio hybrid folding machine, is not only a very typical advanced folding type, but also very in line with China's national conditions and development needs.
Li Yongqiang: With regard to the actual situation of book binding in China, there are already tens of thousands of domestically-made folding machines of various types distributed in various types of printing companies across the country, and have become the main equipment for post-press processing. For conventional folding requirements, domestically-manufactured equipment is fully capable, such as parallel folding and cross folding. However, once faced with various types of paper and changing design requirements, compared with imported equipment, the versatility of domestically produced equipment is obviously insufficient, and R&D and manufacturing capabilities are weak.
Mr. Huang: At present, for domestically demanding jobs such as books and magazines, domestic folding equipment is sufficient, but commercial printing usually requires high quality and efficiency. In some cases, domestic equipment still does not meet the requirements. Even if it can be achieved, problems such as wear of parts and machining accuracy cannot be underestimated.
Take folding machine's core component folding roller as an example. Whether it is a fence folding machine, a knife folding machine or a hybrid folding machine, the higher the accuracy of the folding roller itself, the higher the folding accuracy. The two domestic brands of folding machines we used have revealed the problems of low folding accuracy and fast folding roller wear. For the problem of low folding accuracy, we need to make up for it in the daily production with the help of technical means. Once the folding roller wears out, it must be replaced in time. The processing quality problems and subsequent maintenance costs that may occur during the period require our own payment.
Mr. Li: From the aspect of product quality and performance, there is still a gap between the existing domestic folding machines and the world advanced level. Looking at the folding machines of famous international brands, the design and manufacture of many core components are in place. For example, Feida of Heidelberg Stahl Folding Machine and folding roller of MBO folding machine are very good in the industry. In terms of function expansion, international brands offer more choices such as closing the door, injecting glue online, tearing cutting, punching windows, and even on-line sticking and inkjet printing. Not to mention the level of automation, intelligence, and integration of products.