Green, digital, intelligent and integrated" is the inevitable trend for printing companies. The future is bright but in what direction should printing companies go?"

The grand opening of the 9th Beijing International Printing Technology Exhibition took place in Beijing on the 9th of May 2017. At 11 a.m.on that day, CRON Beijing Printing Technology Co., Ltd. Opened their exhibition with a press conference and Q&A for a group of journalists. CRON showed the Group's four major core products, namely: the EZcolor intelligent printing system, H model CTP, CRON digital flexo imager and Emerald low chemistry plate.

The exhibition booth covered an area of 400 square meters.

1. The future of intelligent printing – The EZcolor intelligent printing system made its impressive debut.

At exhibitions - from drupa 2016 to ALL IN PRINT - the EZcolor intelligent printing system has already attracted worldwide attention. At the Beijing International Printing Technology Exhibition, CRON made a surprise appearance with a ready-to-go product.

The core of the EZcolor system consists of a digital ink supply and an expert database. The expert database automatically calculates the quantity of ink required for each ink zone and drives the digital inking system to feed a precise amount of ink, according to the printing speed. Combined with CRON’s high precision CTP imaging system and precision punch register mechanism, EZcolor enables one click print without intervention, to easily achieve the ISO12647-2 print quality color standard.

EZcolor offers the following benefits through automatic print color management:

• Printing to international standards is made easier and printers can avoid the quality problems associated with color differences.
• There is no need for color adjustment and make-ready time is reduced to 10 minutes or less.
• There is no need to clean the ink duct during operation and color units can be changed quickly.
• Paper waste is reduced by 90% which also means savings in ink.
• A sealed ink duct prevents the ink drying out and reduces additional ink waste during cleaning.
• Efficiency is improved and energy consumption is reduced.
• Color matching no longer relies on operator experience. Labor cost is reduced.
• Compared to traditional open style ink ducts, a sealed ink duct system has less VOC emissions.
• Savings in paper and ink are a big contributor to environmental protection.

EZcolor optimizes quality and cost efficiency through the transformation of the offset printing press, making offset printing competitive with digital printing at 20 copies. Thus for jobs over 20 copies, offset is significantly more cost-efficient than digital printing.

At the exhibition, EZcolor was installed on a Shinohara 924 press with LED-UV printing. LED-UV printing has the advantage of quick drying, high quality, no powder spray, no ink rub-off and so on. The audience was considerably impressed with the trouble-free printing.

2. The CRON H model - the best choice for high-end printing

The H model is an important part of the CRON intelligent printing solution, with integrated automatic loading, paper removal, built-in on-line punching and plate stacking combined into one convenient package. All of this allows the CRON CTP to run in an automatic, unattended mode. The unique CRON side-gauge system allows punching accuracy to within 0.01mm. After the plate is loaded on press, printing can start immediately without the need for registration alterations.

Output resolutions range from 2400 dpi to 5080 dpi. With 1%~99% dot capability the CRON CTP can support a range of high-resolution screens, for example AM, FM and FAM.

3. CRON HDI

CRON’s HDI CTP features a high power, precision multi-laser system which can produce a wide range of resolution outputs, including 4000 dpi, 4800 dpi, 5080 dpi and 9600 dpi. The HDI's dot quality is "perfect". The HDI series accommodates a wide range of requirements, from labels to high-end cosmetics packaging.

HDI technology is derived from the development experience gained from the manufacture of more than 5000 CRON offset CTPs, maintaining the same "high quality, high stability" features of CRON CTP. CRON HDI is compatible with all types of Flexo and Letterpress plates ensuring maximum flexibility and profit for customers.

4. Eco pioneer - Emerald low-chemistry plate

In addition to developing more intelligent printing, for many years CRON has also been committed to researching and developing ‘green’ printing technologies. At the show, Emerald low chemistry plates were produced by JIMU, a branch company of CRON. Emerald plates use negative imaging and have a more stable dot, better ink transmission, higher printing resistance and bring savings on printing ink between 10% - 20%. Emerald needs no chemical rinse, making it the first choice for green printing.

5. Workflow Solutions

CRON is committed to bring the best solutions to its customer base. As well as close cooperation with Founder, CRON is also cooperating with Kodak for the first time. Kodak Prinergy is a powerful prepress rip and workflow system. Combining the Founder rip and Prinergy with CRON offset CTP and CRON HDI flexo, means customers will be able to take advantage of the best prepress solutions available.