Cheng Dong, Deputy General Manager of Suzhou System Machinery Co. Ltd.陈东 苏州西斯特姆机器有限公司常务副总经理

　　Inkjet technology is a digital printing technology with both strengths and shortcomings, particularly for the ceramic industry. In terms of technology, there are restrictions on its volumes of glaze and ink. Here I want to warn all ceramic enterprises: with regard to inkjet printing, not only the equipment needs to be upgraded; more importantly, the supporting design resources need to be upgraded. The difference between this technology and traditional technology is that it needs far more time for design processing and colour preparation than traditional printing technology. For instance, Champion Ceramics purchased a set of technology from us in January last year for the floor tile section. Afterwards they have made large investment of personnel training for this machine, including sending onsite technicians and designers to be trained in our headquarters; meanwhile, local Chinese personnel of our company have also received considerable training in Europe. We do this so as to turn Suzhou into a supporting base for inkjet printing technology, for the good application of inkjet printing machine needs to be supported by good after-sale technical support. Domestic manufacturers have purchased a large number of machines, but few of them can make ceramic tiles reaching up to European level. This shows the significance of continuous technical support.

　　Inkjet technology has some problem eg. it is weak in expression of red. Firstly, its has requirement for fineness of ink, and when the fineness is smaller, the reflectivity of colour particles weakens; secondly, red material is in itself weak at colour development, which has worsened this problem.

　　Inks are normally provided by suppliers, and there is little room for manufacturers to make adjustments afterwards. And during operation it depends on the volumes of glaze and ink of various manufacturers, in effect the volume of ink. Manufacturers normally spay around 8g ink distributed on an area of 300 x 300, which is a very small amount. So after the firing, the colours are basically very faint. The machine of System can spray around 24g, three times more than other companies and it is a matter of fineness and stability. For stability, the size of nozzle is a key factor. Another solution is to use double row nozzles to spray at the same time. If there are 4 sets of nozzles, use the latter 2 sets to spray red so that the colour overlay. But you have to considerate in advance whether to buy 4-row nozzles or 6-row nozzles, for the cost will be higher. Besides, there are differences between equipment made by different manufacturers.

　　Inkjet technology was merely a solution supporting and parallel with basic printing, and it is not a matter of replacement. Inkjet technology has its own characteristics in digital and rich images. It enjoys an advantage in treating certain special rustic tiles, but it also has its own restrictions in terms of cost and production scale. So this is a process of continuous integration.

　　I think the greatest breakthroughs of inkjet technology in 5 years will be breakthroughs in speed, specifications and precision. Also there will be improvement in auxiliary materials.

　　喷墨技术是一种数码喷图技术，它本身有优点也有缺点，特别在我们陶瓷行业。如果从技术上讲，它的施釉量、喷墨量都有局限性。这里我想提醒所有的陶瓷企业的注意：喷墨打印，不仅是设备需要提升，更重要的是背后设计资源的提升。这个技术跟传统技术不一样的地方就是它在图案的处理、色彩的准备上需要的时间远远大于传统的印刷技术。我举个例子，冠军陶瓷在去年一月为地砖部分买了我们一套技术，之后他们为这台机器投入了大量的人员培训，包括派现场技术人员、设计人员到我们总部进行培训，同时我们公司本土的中国员工也在欧洲接受了大量的培训。这么做的原因是要把苏州变成喷墨打印技术支持的一个基地，只有良好的售后技术支持，喷墨打印机才能得到良好的运用。目前国内厂家买了这么多的机器，但市面上能够做出欧洲水平的瓷砖还寥寥无几，这就是连续的技术支持的重要性问题。

　　对于喷墨技术来讲，确实存在色系不足的问题，红色的表现是个弱点。第一是喷墨技术对于墨水细度有要求，细度小了之后，颜色颗粒的反射度就会减弱;第二，红色材料本身又很难发色，于是就加重了这个问题的产生。

　　墨水基本是由各个供应商提供，各厂家在这之后调整的空间不是很大。操作中就取决于各家的喷墨量和施釉量，实际上就是喷墨量的大小了。一般厂家基本上喷墨在8克左右，分布在300*300的面积上可以想象时非常少的，经过烧制之后基本上颜色就非常淡。西斯特姆的机器能到24克左右，是别的公司的3倍，这还是一个精细度和稳定性的问题。选择的喷嘴的大小，是决定稳定性的关键因素。还有一个解决方法，就是双排喷头同时喷色，有四组喷头的话用后两组来喷红色，那就叠加了，但是需要提前考虑到是，买四排喷头或六排喷头，成本会上去。另外，各家的设备都有一些区别。

　　喷墨技术与原有的印刷技术不是谁取代谁的问题，喷墨有自己的数码、图案丰富性的特点，对一些特殊复古砖的处理方面也较有优势，但是在成本、生产规模等方面也有它的局限性，所以说这是不断融合的过程。

　　以五年为限，我认为喷墨技术最大的突破会在速度、规格和精细度，以及辅助材料的提升上。