Three major development trends in China's post-press packaging market

　World-leading computer-aided 3D design workstations, modern management and MRP systems, excellent supply chain management systems, and highly qualified innovation centers… This is not a pre-press company, but a genuine post-press binding and packaging machinery manufacturer—Germany's HORAUF company. For a long time, the pre-press field has been considered a high-tech industry, while post-press, as the downstream process of printing, has been considered the least automated link in the industry chain. However, today, with the repeated baptism of the digital wave, all this is changing.
　　
　　Recently, a reporter interviewed Zhu Kejun, the executive vice general manager of HORAUF (Shanghai) Machinery Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Germany's HORAUF in China. As the head of this internationally renowned post-press industry leader in China, Zhu Kejun stated that the equipment manufacturing and application level of products in China's post-press field is rapidly improving. In terms of importing foreign equipment, it is gradually shifting from simple imports to domestic assembly, showing significant progress in improving efficiency, automation, and the application of digital technology, and exhibiting three major development trends: diversification, digitalization, and reduced labor.
　　
　　Don't think that books, stationery, and packaging belong to different industries; they share commonalities in production. In recent years, with the rapid advancement of technology, "one machine, multiple functions" has enabled the production of three seemingly unrelated products using the same equipment. Zhu Kejun explained that this is possible, on the one hand, due to the superior technology platform of foreign machinery, and on the other hand, this trend of "one machine, multiple functions" is also a response to the domestic market's demand for cross-border production.
　　
　　This is the biggest difference from the foreign market. Due to the high degree of market segmentation and clear division of labor in foreign markets, after foreign equipment is introduced, it should be developed on its original equipment technology platform to create supporting and additional devices suitable for the domestic market based on domestic market conditions and customer needs. Zhu Kejun repeatedly stated that for binding and packaging enterprises, buying a piece of equipment is not just about speed and efficiency; more importantly, it must be able to achieve product diversification. This places higher demands on the multi-functionality of post-press equipment.
　　
　　Taking Germany's HORAUF company as an example, after entering China in 2008, it specifically created a series of high-speed casing machines with the characteristics of "specialized and multi-functional" to meet the market demand in China for "large order volume and diverse product types." The so-called casing machine is equipment mainly used in the production of high-quality outer casings for hardcover books, stationery products, and boxes. "Specialized" mainly refers to the high speed and stability of the equipment; the greatest advantage for customers is the improvement in production efficiency and output. "Multi-functional" refers to the expansion of the application scope of traditional casing machines. Zhu Kejun recalled that in the past, most domestic traditional casing machines could only be used to case hardcover books, and initially, they were mostly made using manual and semi-automatic equipment. Only in recent years has there been a gradual transition to using some domestically produced equipment. Now, the application scope of casing machines has expanded across industries. It can not only be used for hardcover books but also for notebooks, diaries, folders, photo albums, calendar stands, and various packaging products, and it operates under a fully automated process. Users can freely choose according to their needs. As long as various optional devices are added to the original machine, a casing machine capable of cross-industry production of various casing products is born.
　　
　　From Observation to Popularization
　　
　　How Much Longer for Digital Post-Press?
　　
　　"From the initial attention and budding stage of the digital post-press concept to more and more people discussing it, from equipment exhibitions to people starting to buy and use it, it only took three to five years." Although the digitalization process of post-press is still lagging behind pre-press and printing, Zhu Kejun believes that for the complete production process of printed products, when there is a need for equipment upgrades and renovations, each link will be connected from beginning to end, and post-press can also be understood in the end. Although it is the last link to be penetrated, it also means that there is greater potential for future development. Post-press involves a wide variety of equipment and packaging forms, so the overall digital upgrade of post-press equipment will be more diverse, and the process will be longer.
　　
　　At the same time, Zhu Kejun pointed out that although both pre-press and post-press are digital, the meanings are different in different links. Simply applying the digitalization of pre-press...