Printing technology differences:

Unlike web offset printing technology,  digital printing technology has print bars or nozzles to spray toner or liquid ink using electrostatic techniques, rather than exposed plates.  Digital printing is more useful when lower quantities are needed or when each piece needs a unique code, name, address or image (i.e.. data driven).

Print repeat and web finishing:

Web offset presses usually have a fixed print repeat (cutoff), while digital web presses have a variable print repeat; this makes it more challenging for inline finishing operations such as perforating, die cutting, gluing and cutting in registration with the printed image. For example, Kodak Prosper 6000 has a variable cutoff up to 54”, while HP T400 has a printable frame length between 11 and 72 inches.

In these circumstances, you must calculate the number of images you can fit within the press frame while minimizing waste. Since there is no fixed repeat in digital printing, virtual cutoff size or image length may change from job to job.  The good news is, for direct mail, the level of variable repeat becomes more manageable since the finished product length has to fit into the mail system.  Therefore, variable data becomes more important than variable length for direct mail.

For digital web finishing applications, GWF has developed a perfect solution for variable cutting that responds to today’s web finishing requirements. Please refer to Variable Digital Camming Rotary Cutter “VCC.”