Digital duplicator (risograph)

Digital duplicator is a printing press using screen printing. Sometimes referred to as "risograph", the name of the company Riso, specializing in the production of these devices and has become one of the first in the Russian market. ^[1] The first duplicator was also created by Riso in 1980 in Japan. ^[2]

Application

A duplicator is used in the printing industry for printing small quantities of paper products. In terms of productivity, it is comparable with average offset machines, and in terms of cost per impression, with print runs of more than 100 identical copies, it is cheaper than copies made on electrographic copiers. Usually, without loss of quality, about 2000–3000 prints from one master film are guaranteed. In practice, with a well-adjusted apparatus, a circulation of about 10,000 is attainable.

Risography (printing method)

Risography is one of the varieties of screen printing, relating to the methods of operational printing.

Risography - printing with the use of a printing form made by burning a thermohead of microholes in a mold material (master film) to form printing elements. Risography is used for rapid reproduction on monochrome or multi-color paper (full color printing is not possible). This method is cost-effective when printing products in small runs (from 20 to 1000 copies.). With a strong magnification, you can see that the strokes on the print are made up of dots and resemble dashed lines. Paper documents or files can be used as originals. Risograph allows the use of both white and colored paper, mainly used offset paper without a coating density of 80 or 160 g. The use of coated paper is not recommended.

Printing on risograph is produced with a resolution of up to 600 dpi.

The risograph (Duplicator, Copiprinter) is an environmentally friendly, fast and economical equipment that can be located in any room.

The copied original is placed in the built-in duplicator scanner. Inside the machine, before printing, a form is automatically created by burning through the head with holes in the master film (usually of a polymeric material). The form automatically stretches on the printing cylinder (drum). From the inside of the drum, paint comes in that permeates the inner layer of the master film and is applied to the paper through the holes in the mold.

It is possible to print in printer mode using the interface processing the job sent from the computer.

Currently, the market leaders of duplicators produce models equipped with two drums, allowing for one pass to print in two colors with high accuracy of combination.

Consumables for printing

• The paint is a water-in-oil emulsion with the addition of a dye. Typically, manufacturers offer a standard small set of colors, but if necessary, you can order a special color (usually Pantone).
• The master film is a film on which the holes in the mirror image are burned in accordance with the copied image.
• Paper. It must be uncoated, otherwise the paint will not be absorbed into the surface and will not dry.

If you need to print in a color other than the main one (or print in several colors), an additional drum is used. Using one drum for printing with different colors is extremely inefficient - a lot of washing work and long downtime of equipment make this procedure practically unacceptable.

Major manufacturers

• Riso
• Ricoh
• Duplo

Segmentation

• Segment 1 - printing on paper up to A4 (210 × 297 mm)
• Segment 2 - printing on paper up to B4 (250 × 353 mm)
• Segment 3 - printing on paper up to A3 (297 × 420 mm)

Primary consumers

Consumers of this product is important to the ability to quickly and inexpensively print runs from several dozen to several thousand copies. Traditional users of duplicators:

• Educational institutions
• State institutions
• Religious organizations
• Organizations providing professional printing services (for volumes when the offset machine is impractical to use)
• Breeding units in large enterprises

The advantages of the digital duplicator

• High print speed (60–120 copies per minute)
• Low cost of a print at big circulations in comparison with an electrographic photocopier. It is economically justified to print on duplicator print runs from several dozen copies to a few and tens of thousands ^[1] .
• The ability to print on paper with a density of 45 to 210 g / m² (in the RZ and EZ series from Riso, with a special paper feed unit up to 400 g / m²), as well as on envelopes, uncoated self-adhesive paper, on self-copying paper.

Duplicator manufacturers

• Riso (company website)
• Ricoh (company website)
• Duplo (company website)

see also