What possibilities can ink-jet printing bring to the publishing and printing industry? -- Interview to Tian Jing, chairman of Zhiyiharmony Technology

2024 can be said to be a year in which the unknown and the certain coexist, hope and loss mingle, and the new and the old alternate repeatedly. In the past year, we have witnessed the changes of The Times and also felt the ups and downs of the industry. We saw the lively scene of the exhibition and activities, we also heard the voice of many enterprises in the industrial chain, "breaking volume", "going to sea", "new quality productivity", "high-quality development" and so on once became the industry keywords.

In the great changes of The Times, we are all exploring and seeking in our respective fields with faith. It's hard to say this year will be better, but you always have to have a head. Review and outlook is the annual tradition of China printing and packaging network, this year, we invited ten industry guests to look back with you, talk about the new trend of 2025 development. This article is the sixth.

At the 2024 Shanghai Book Fair, a unique book appeared in the booth of China Renmin University Press, and the readers who came to find the "History of China Hidden in the Palace" at the edge of the book, the facial features of the characters "All nations come to the map" are vivid and vivid, and the cover is connected with a unique charm. The book sold 489 copies on the first day of the fair. The "Looking for you" of the booth of Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, the cover is mercerized cloth, the pattern of the mouth is consistent with the cover, the delicate printing of the mouth, and the color is completely consistent with the pattern on the cloth, the fluency and unity of the whole book make this book show the same texture as silk - high-grade but restrained and implicit......

Once, most of the special cover books were in the cover, cover, spine, layout, paper, binding form, etc., or in the bronding, UV, convex and concave processes to play innovation, and now the book edge has become a beautiful landscape of special cover books. In addition to subverting the traditional cognition of readers, ordinary readers may not be aware of the work of inkjet technology behind non-contact printing.

Inkjet printing machine is "starting a fire" trend, Beijing Zhiyiharmony Technology Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhiyi tech" or "Zhiyi") quietly entered the bureau, with the pioneer attitude of China's book edge aesthetic printing machine, the first to launch the "bookfish" book edge printing machine, set off the "book edge aesthetics" trend in the publishing and printing industry. After that, it officially released its P9 digital inkjet rotary press in early November 2024, allowing book printing plants to truly realize on-demand printing.

If there is only one more seat in the "inkjet printing feast", there is nothing new. However, when I opened to Zhiyi tech website, I saw that this company, only established in 2021, participated in the drafting of a number of national standards including "book and journal inkjet digital printing press", and became the deputy leader of the Chinese digital printing Equipment Working Group (SAC/TC192/WG4). It is also a member of the China printing Machinery Standardization Committee and the China Printing Technology Standardization Committee, more than surprised is a question.

There are questions, not only the author, but also colleagues. At the special exhibition of Hangzhou Book Market in October 2024, some insiders advocated the "book edge aesthetics" for the Zhiyi tech, and were very puzzled: "How did the equipment engage in the art exhibition?"

At 2pm on December 27, 2024, the author made an appointment to visit Tian Jing, the general manager of Zhiyi tech, and arrived at the end of CRRC Beijing Zhihui Port Park on time by Internet taxi. After arriving at the end, the author first saw the silver-gray engraved word "to a technology" and the one-house courtyard with a gray exterior wall. At first, I was very surprised. The entrance to each room is covered with yellow wood decks that write "Guizhu", "Variation", and "Guizhu", much like a tea room...

Are you in the wrong place? It's not the wrong way.

When I met Tian Jing, the general manager, after her introduction, I knew the meaning behind the name of each room. "Time" is Tian general office and customer reception room, from "the mean" "the mean of the gentleman, the gentleman and the time", "knowledge", "Cheng" are reading rooms, laboratories.

Tian Jing has studied traditional Chinese medicine, Chuangzi, Zhiyi tech regardless of the company name, strategic planning, corporate culture, R & D service concept behind the thought guide, each space has the name of Chinese studies.

The company name "to one" comes from "Zhuangzi · Zizhen" : "When it is also, Yin and Yang and quiet, ghosts and gods do not disturb, four times to festival, all things do not hurt, the group does not die, although people know, no use, this is called to one".

The connotation of "Zhiyi" is reflected in its six layers of "intentions" [Note 1] connotation, and its first layer of intentions is the bottom layer, that is, "research and development and manufacturing" - "from 0 to 1", that is, innovation, discovering demand and realizing new demand, and then accurately positioning the market to develop target products, that is, "Zhiyi"; It means that the company pays attention to research and development and innovation ability, and always maintains the ability and motivation of development; The concept of "0 to 1" runs through its entire research and development, production, operations and service processes. In Tian Jing's view, Zhiyi technology is also a team that can achieve new product development from software to control, to ink supply, to machinery, and to product planning, "from 0 to 1" independently.

"Neutralization", the original text from the mean of the mean, "anger, sorrow and joy have not been issued, called in; Hair and all in the section, the sum of... In harmony, the position of heaven is how, and all things are how."

"Zhiyiharmony" represents Zhiyi tech to maintain "from 0 to 1" R & D power and innovation... Mind in the atmosphere and "neutral", in order to achieve "all things."

This is not arty, is a kind of internalized in the heart of the action guide, and even landing goals, since its establishment, Zhiyi tech is so planned, is also doing so, until August 2024, to achieve the company's first 3-year plan of "from 0 to 1" goal, is moving towards the second 3-year plan "from 1 to N".

"Zhiyi" has "Dao", that is later. It was founded because of "unexpected and necessary events". Tian Jing spent 16 years of her youth in Founder Electronics, and worked for 8 years in the industry's prestigious Weiyu Group, serving as vice president and director. In 2021, the strategy of Weiyu Group should focus on the main business. Under this opportunity, with the support of Weiyu Group and the Board of Directors, the inkjet research and development project incubated by Weiyu Group for four years (including the bookend printing press) will be clearly separated from the group and sent to Tian Jing to re-form the team. In this way, under the clear handover of intellectual property rights, Tian Jing led the ten technical backbone in the team to establish Zhiyi tech to start again.

The origin of the "Bookfish" project is that Tian Jing and her team are moved by the beauty of "book edge printing" and believe that they can also move others; She knows more clearly that their team is a team that can make products "from 0 to 1", there are many companies in the world that can do inkjet printing, but like this team, it is rare to be able to control, supply ink, machinery, and product planners from software, even if the world's top 500 companies that operate products according to this logic. A lot of the underlying foundation will have to be done by other teams. The formation of such a team is a result of many opportunities, and now it is valuable to move forward clearly with the equity structure of high-tech companies.

Discovery and planning:

Creating needs and identifying problems

Innovation, is to follow the trend of inkjet printing "gods carnival"?

In Tian Jing's view, the inkjet printing market is indeed the air, but the world's top 500 level HP, Canon, Ricoh, Konica Minolta has developed ceiling equipment on this track, domestic listed companies, startup products also have their own characteristics, she rational analysis: "If our entry is just to add a supplier of inkjet printing presses to compete in the market, our chances are not good." It's already been done, and it's done well, so what unique value can you offer?"

"If our team just started, ran to the mainstream track, was carried by it, and became a team with scale, it may also make money, but the team's characteristics are lost, and it will not go far." Tian Jing said.

In Tian Jing's view, there are many unmet needs in the world that can be realized by inkjet printing, and the team can develop a product that is not available in the world from 0 to 1.

In the printing of a book, there are cover printing, interior printing, and edge printing. Book edge printing is exactly "notch". Although the "bookfish" was not successfully hatched before, it has a unique beauty, is a product that is not available in the world, and the market has never been developed. Tian Jing also firmly believes that "book edge aesthetics" will eventually be accepted by the publishing house. TZhiyi tech entrepreneurship, the "bookfish" project can also allow the team to find the soul of the team in the research and development experience of new paths, new thinking, new scenarios, new combinations, and difficulties.

Look at the on-demand printing for internal text printing, although there are many domestic and foreign manufacturers in the market, there are many problems. For example, there are many problems in the adaptability of on-demand printing on paper, and the landing of high-speed equipment in reality. Pods need to apply digital paper, and small Pods need multi-specification paper matching, which leads to high capital occupation. In reality, the POD production speed is not high, and the mainstream loose binding POD and its loose page core production are difficult to connect with the automated binding production process at the back end. Even if the width, adaptability, efficiency and other performance of the inkjet equipment are good, in the inkjet control system, ink drying, paper platform, software system and many other systems in the coordination often do not reach the ideal state, and then can not land. In addition, the development of POD is also plagued by problems such as pulling wire, back penetration, not enough black, and not good enough flatness.

The development of a large digital inkjet rotary press that can solve the above problems has also become Tian Jing's plan.

"Bookfish" book edge printing press project and large inkjet printing press, the two seem to be very different products, but they are for the same type of customer base - book printing plants, printing and publishing application scenarios are exactly familiar to the team; Moreover, the text paper of the book is relatively unified and standardized, and the consistency of raw materials is very high, which is friendly to research and development.

With the concept of "from 0 to 1", Tian Jing runs through the reality and the future, new needs and new plans, and the team takes small steps to grasp the rhythm of research and development and promotion of the printing press at the same time, leaving more time for the team to calmly develop large-scale P9 inkjet digital rotary printing press from the structure and the bottom layer. This team has 20 years of experience in inkjet printing research and development. Focusing on the future inkjet printing has 20 years of development space, with 3 years to re-organize the technology of the past 20 years, re-open all the inkjet printing technology chain, and build a larger R & D structure, which can support a broader application scenario and market opportunities in the future.

R&d and Application:

Innovative breakthrough subversive process

In the assembly workshop, the author understands the production process of "bookfish". Taking the A4 book "book edge printing" production process as an example, when the operator puts several book blocks into the "book edge unit", the operator uses the book edge as a reference surface to achieve a full clamping (to avoid book size errors) → Then the operator feet the clamping position to achieve a one-click reset → then, The operator operates in the graphical operation interface (graphic framing, color management, etc.) → Then, the 4-station fixture cycles to achieve efficient work → Finally, the printing bit completes the graphic printing. The whole process can be completed in minutes by one operator.

Book edge printing machine is small, involving book finishing, printing, both post-press finishing and digital inkjet printing technical requirements. The field of digital printing is extremely difficult, and there are many underlying technical difficulties involved. For example, book edge printing should achieve "rushing" up and down, but also "rotating", and the control board should have signal docking; Book edge printing also has unique application characteristics, "the color management of the cover and the color management of the offset paper side print pattern should be highly consistent." Neutral gray was originally difficult to express in print and prone to color skewing."

Tian Jing took a sample book to the author to see, the edg of the neutral gray expression and the cover is very close.

This is a team "from 0 to 1" original completion, from Weiyu to one, eight years of continuous R & D iterations of the product, in the color management software, up and down rush, 4 station cycle, etc. There are many innovations or patents, with the printing surface as the reference surface to rush and put back, the whole flip to the printing position for the book edge printing method, which solves the traditional inkjet method. Poor printing quality due to volume size error; The self-designed 4-station cycle fixture design realizes the synchronization of book up and down, surface cleaning and printing, and reasonably and effectively improves the production efficiency; Self-developed intelligent printing software, built-in typesetting template easy to achieve book edge printing document typesetting, frequency modulation screen technology and book edge printing ICC standard source to ensure stable color output, graphical operation interface also achieve color and image WYSIWYG...

The "Bookfish" book edge printing machine has the competitive advantages of high precision, high efficiency, zero waste and easy operation, and its registration and color chasing function allows editors and readers to have no limits on the book edge design, the information value and design expression of the beauty of the book edge; Its patent can ensure that the quality and color of the first book printed by the "bookmouth fish" are completely consistent with the 10,000th and 100,000 books; Its equipment production capacity can also meet the stable completion of a single volume of 1.6 million orders, so that the industrialized production of bookend printing in book printing factories has become a reality; Its application extends to personalized printing needs such as notebooks, notes and photo albums...

However, the interlocking promotion has made the "book edge aesthetics" only "look beautiful" for a long time. Weiyu era, "book edge fish" only sold 20 units; After starting Zhiyi tech business, Tian Jing led her team to visit publishing houses one by one at major book fairs and publishing industry events, from editors to chief editors, and even distribution, visiting more than 200 publishing houses, all of which were rejected. Maybe the editor never thought that "book edge printing" was not beautiful, but... To apply it, the publishing house needs to communicate (with the author), redesign, (the publishing department) to review the price, (the printing center) to implement the cost, and round by round.

The turnaround appeared in the 206 publishing house visited by the team, which was after the end of a BIBF copyright fair, Tian Jing met Cao, then president of the children's bureau of Tsinghua University Press, and contributed to the "No headache story Composition Class" becoming a "test of the water". Coincidentally, President Cao knows the book very well and also knows the author (after President Cao communicated with the author about the idea of this bookend printing, the author recognized and liked it very much), and almost one person opened up the whole chain. ...

With one, there will be two, three, and then have a chain effect of "an editor affects an editorial department, an editorial department affects a publishing house", "a book affects a series of books, a publishing house affects a publishing house".

Under the continuous promotion of the Marketing Department led by Cui Yifan, the marketing director of Zhiyi Technology, it deeply participates in various activities of the publishing industry, and adopts the promotion method of live broadcast and short video "book edge printing" in the domestic publishing industry. Many publishing houses, such as Social Sciences Academic Press, Renmin University of China Press, China Workers' Press, Yilin Press, Cultural Development Press, Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press, have applied book edge

The "book edge print" activities that attract readers' attention are held in book fairs, cafes and bookstores around the country. Readers' love drives the application of publishing houses; Bookend printing also enables heavy creative producers (such as Beijing Qilianheide), forming two application cycle chains from "readers → publishing house → printing house" or "printing house → publishing house".

Overseas business layout gradually expanded, overseas customers in the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Egypt, Malaysia, South Korea, especially the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland; Domestic customers are distributed in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, South China, East China, including Yatu Shi, Artron.com, Shengtong, Love, Shanghai Xinhua, Zhejiang Xinhua, Jiangsu Phoenix, Shandong Yunjie and other large book printing factory. "Bookmouth fish" is especially popular with printing companies in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places where there are more foreign orders, and many printing companies have specially set up processing centers. One busy customer has seven "bookfish" devices.

It is relying on the "bookfish" equipment sales, and other short-term custom equipment, R & D income and other income, equal to the cost of R & D of the technology's own products, to meet the basic operating expenses of this R & D team in the early stage of business, so that the team more calmly, focusing on three years to carry out the research and development of large-scale digital inkjet rotary press...

So, what kind of products does the research and development of Zhiyi tech team bring to the industry? What problems are solved?

Unlike the current inkjet printing press, which is mostly sold to fast printing shops, or a fast printing center is built in the printing plant to connect with the book printing plant, the P9 digital inkjet rotary press is oriented to the book printing plant rather than the fast printing shop. This is an inkjet rotary press that can adapt to traditional paper, reach a printing width of 890mm, and reach a high-speed and stable production of 165 meters per minute. Based on the complete independent intellectual property rights owned by Zhiyi Technology in multiple directions, it solves the joint development, collaboration and matching problems of inkjet control system, ink drying and paper platform, software system and other systems. Solved many problems of on-demand printing in the field of text printing mentioned above. Tian Jing regards it as a business scenario integrated into practice, large-scale and mass production, and the book printing plant truly realizes the equipment for on-demand printing.

In view of the mismatch between the actual production speed and the high-speed propaganda, Zhiyi tech adopts its multiple redundancy printing technology, which can achieve no problems in the production and printing process, and its double speed printing technology can achieve good ink and paper drying at the same time to achieve the actual production speed of 165 meters, and these are independent core intellectual property rights.

For the coordination of software systems, the software systems of Zhiyi technology are completely independently developed from RIP, to patchwork, to color management screening algorithms, and job queue management. The software is combined with the printing control system, and the difference management between the nozzle is realized based on the waveform of a single nozzle.

To solve the paper problem, Zhiyi Technology has developed a dedicated digital printing platform for the characteristics of inkjet printing, which can support all papers such as 38 grams to 120 grams of plywood paper, rice paper, 50 grams of dictionary paper, 47 grams of newsprint; Support 440mm-940mm format printing paper width, to achieve high-speed stable production of 165 meters.

In response to the drying problem, the ink developed by the Zhiyi tech, combined with the waveform and printing control system and software algorithm, has achieved instant drying without back through, sufficient blackness at 165 meters, and has obtained a number of international environmental protection and safety certifications.

By the end of 2024, P9 digital inkjet rotary printing machines have successively settled in Xinjiang Xinhua Printing Co., LTD. (3 sets, one monochrome, one two-color, one four-color), Hefei Xinan Color Printing Packaging Co., LTD. (1 set), and Shanda Printing (1 set). Xinjiang Xinhua three equipment only needs one person to operate, to achieve two teaching seasons 24 hours full load operation, non-teaching season even if the equipment for a long time power outage, can immediately resume production, to open the book soon into the high-speed 150 meters of production, and stable operation, the whole volume production is not interrupted, no need to clean the nozzle. More importantly, the publishing house fully recognizes the printing quality at high speed, from the font to the line, from the blue field to the large area of the flat screen, the flatness consistency of the black text, and the flat speed of the dry paper binding.

From 0 to 1, and then from 1 to N, it is Tian Jing's calm, careful, steady and orderly thinking about the development of Zhiyi technology from reality to future development. Her planning direction is "3 3-years" :

The first three years, from 0 to 1 to complete the complete opening up and construction of the underlying technology, P9 digital inkjet rotary press, a product with a global technical height, as a starting point, truly realize the underlying technology from software to control to board, the whole process of full original research and development, open up, collaboration, and build a larger framework for the future. This step has already been completed in August 2024.

In the second three years, the process of implementing "two products" from 1 to N. The "bookfish" has achieved "from 1 to 100" and is going to "from 100 to 10,000". Bookfish faces a large number of publishing houses around the world, and the original intellectual property rights are the passport, which can be "held high and hit" for global business layout, so that it can become a globally respected product. P9 in order to really land in the country, widely used, at least 20 installed capacity to verify its stability; There are also many opportunities for the internationalization of P9, its core algorithm has applied for global patents, and European, American and Japanese patent applications are also planned. Finally, let to one technology into a large-scale production, sales, service company. To this end, expanding the team and using venture capital are also in the plan.

At the same time, in the second three years, Zhiyi   technology to screen five to six new, meet the three conditions (" real unmet needs in the market, need for original technology and capabilities, there is a massive market demand ") technology direction, by the end of the second three years, lock in one or two tracks.

In the third three years, it is hoped that the first technology will enter a real "blue ocean" with technical barriers and massive markets.

"We planned that it would take ten years for the business to take the first step, and I thought there should be an opportunity." At least our first three years, which were the most difficult and uncertain, were well done." Tian Jing said.