Interpretation of the hottest next generation netw

Next generation company technology interpretation (Part 1)

let's imagine: when the customer sends the manuscript to the printing plant through the Internet, the printing plant's management information system (MIS) starts processing, and sends a notice to the customer service personnel and the prepress department that N68 precision machine tool hydraulic oil can be used, and the work order can be filled out automatically. According to the data on the job order, the ink key on the printer is preset automatically. Similar preset work can also be carried out automatically after printing, packaging and delivery. There is no need to re-enter data in the whole workflow. At the same time, the MIS system of the printing factory collects statistical data in production, such as the material and time consumption of the operation. Based on these data, an accurate list can be drawn up. The printing factory knows well where to manually adjust some consumables according to experience, and has a good grasp of the operation efficiency of the factory

the key to this utopia is the core of the networking of the printing industry: all equipment in the factory can "communicate" with each other. Due to the rapid development of technology, at present, some functions of this ideal web printing have become a reality. MIS on the market can be automatically dispatched; The printer can automatically download ink key presets for each job; The post press system can automatically process according to the operation parameters in the original

now, equipment manufacturers are committed to developing a fully open system that will work seamlessly with the systems of other equipment manufacturers. Equipment manufacturers believe that if this becomes a reality, printing plants will enjoy more automation in their production links and know the operating efficiency of the factory like the palm of their hand

ppf, JDF and cip4

"the only feasible way to improve the marginal profit of printing plants is to reduce costs. The most effective way to reduce costs is to minimize downtime and improve automation." Christian cerfontaine, marketing director of Manroland, said. "The concept of CIM system is very good. It can collect and store all production information, and provide production information to other components in the network at any time. Printing plants do not need to input data repeatedly, and handwritten work orders can also be discarded."

cip3 is the predecessor of CIP4 (integrated international collaboration of prepress, printing and post press processing), which can provide general parameters of production equipment for equipment manufacturers. The printing production format (PPF), which attracts the attention of foreign material enterprises at its Asian aluminum event, is an open and standard format that can exchange data in different systems. Jim Mauro, prepress product manager of Heidelberg prime, said, "the success of PPF lies in its ability to" communicate seamlessly "prepress data with printers and post press equipment. The defect of PPF format is that it cannot collect production data and report to MIS system."

mauro describes networking as "connecting different software and machines through a conventional communication portal, so that these systems can easily exchange data in both directions." He also said that although the network appeared in the printing industry as early as the 1980s, the early systems were closed and "separate"

at the "Seybold conference" held in Boston in 2000, adobe, Agfa, Heidelberg and Roland jointly launched the job description format (JDF). This job description format is electronic, open, extensible, job driven, and based on XML framework, which can transfer job information or metadata from one system to another. Mauro said that this format makes the seamless workflow of MIS system from production to delivery possible. "JDF enables different products from different manufacturers to be integrated." Mauro also explained that the intention of developing this format is to enable printing plants to use various independent workflow solutions

cip3 finally accepted JDF, which became CIP4. Since then, CIP4, a "cross party" organization, has held various meetings with its members to promote this document format. At present, 150 equipment manufacturers and printers worldwide have become members of the organization

Lian has become the focus of the demands of equipment manufacturers

the graph Expo held in 2002 can be described as a rainy day and a windy building. At the exhibition, the concepts of JDF and CIM emerged

at the exhibition, Shanghai Debao launched prime. This is a solution based on cip4jdf, which can connect prepress, printing and post press systems

the interactive interface between Roland 500 printer of MAN Roland and the MIS system developed by printcafe company has also been established. The JDF file from MIS can provide pre-set operation parameters and colors for the printer. It is said that the pecom (processing electronic control, organization and management) system on the Manroland printing machine was also developed by printcafe, and its core is the job information format (JMF) file

Komori showed how the Hagen OA job management system of printcafe transferred job data from Komori k-station job data collection software to the printing machine. Komori also held an activity with Cleo and printcafe to visit the CIM operation of johnsbyrne printing plant. The printing plant, with an asset of US $20million, is mainly engaged in commercial printing, and its system was upgraded to fully integrated in 2002: valuation, scheme formulation, prepress production, digital eye proofing, CTP, prepress production data, printing and post press processing are integrated through the MIS system. The network is based on open standards, such as PDF, ICC file and JDF. It adopts the synapse insite software of Cleo to submit the manuscript through the Internet. The workflow is integrated into Cleo's yinnengjie workflow management system and printcafe's Hagen OA MIS. It can transmit the work order information to Komori printing machine through cip4jdf interface

a live show of JDF workflow was also held at the Seybold conference held in San Francisco in 2003. The activity works in a simulated real production workflow environment, connecting all links from design to printing with JDF. The highlight of the graph exp exhibition from import to self production held in the autumn of 2003 is also JDF related products

the storm should really come at the drupa exhibition in 2004. Jackie hudmon, general manager of Komori imaging systems, said, "the 2004 drupa exhibition will be a place for JDF to show its talents." According to reliable sources, many equipment manufacturers participating in the exhibition are busy about whether their products are compatible with JDF

mauro said that Heidelberg's price product suite is an integrated workflow that can serve "all printing links". "Through the prime system, all data of order planning, order processing, job tracking and job processing can be exchanged."

since the drupa exhibition in 2000, individual products in the prime system have been introduced to the market one after another. The products of prime include: Prince management system, signaling, prime Printready system, metadimension star rip, prepresinterface (prepress interface, which can provide cip3ppf data for printing machine online and preset ink keys), cp2000center printer control, autoregister (automatic registration), imagecontrol (image control, which can determine the spectrophotometer of the image and text area of the printed sheet) Axiscontrol (color spectrophotometer for color code), compucut (computer cutting), fcs100/compufold (computer folding), fcs100/compustitch (computer binding), imagesmart/smartboard

at the graph Expo in 2002, Heidelberg launched the prime Printready system with a high profile. It is said that this is the first PDF workflow system based on JDF standard. Printready adopts a client/server architecture, which can directly drive the workflow according to the module. The module has planned the processing required when the job comes in. Users can modify and customize the processing steps of each job through the Printready system, and then the server automatically processes the job according to these steps. Printready system can deal with trapping, color management, addition, etc. Files from Printready need to be processed by metadimension star rip or delta workflow

MAN Roland's pecom

MAN Roland is also a member of CIP4. Christian cerfontaine, marketing director of Roland, described the pecom system as a magic weapon connecting all production modules of Roland. Pecom can connect the Manroland printer with the operation data

in pecom, the jobpilot module creates, and organizes electronic job tickets, allowing printers to preset more than 100 automation projects on the Manroland printer, which can also print live parts at the same time. Through jobpilot, users can use job ticket information to create factory standards for each job, which can be used in subsequent processing

at the same time, pressmonitor module can provide remote and real-time windows, which can go directly to the printer. The user can view the status of the printing job or retrieve the printing production data of the completed printing job. Jobpilot and pressmonitor won the InterTech technology award issued by GATF in 2002

pecom also has a prepresslink module, which can automatically download cip3ppf ink key settings to the printer while printing other jobs

Komori's k-station

Komori's machine is sold together with Komori's management system, which can be directly connected to the printer console. The printing factory can realize some simple functions, such as downloading the digital ink key data to the printer console in cip3ppf format. Many factory users said that Komori's k-station is PC based software that provides a "window to prepress" connection and is already compatible with JDF. K-station is reported to be able to connect 16 Komori printers and provide production data of each printer at any time