Digital printer

A digital printer integrally incorporating a prepress mechanism and a printing mechanism and adapted to form an image on a printing plate on the basis of image data and then print the image on a printing sheet using the printing plate, the digital printer comprising:

• at least one plate cylinder having a number of printing regions formed on its periphery for two or more print colors, the plate cylinder for holding a plurality of printing plates;
• a plurality of ink supplying devices for supplying predetermined ink to the printing plates held on the printing regions of the plate cylinder, the ink supplying devices being used in the printing process;
• a rotatable blanket cylinder in contact with the plate cylinder and having a number transferring regions equal to the number of printing regions formed on the plate cylinder, the rotatable blanket cylinder for receiving the ink transferred thereon from the printing plate, the blanket cylinder being used in the printing process;
• a rotatable impression cylinder in contact with the blanket cylinder for transporting a printing sheet on the periphery thereof and transferring the ink from the blanket cylinder onto the printing sheet, the impression cylinder being used in the printing process;
• a printing plate supplying mechanism for supplying blank printing plates to each of the printing regions of the plate cylinder;
• and
• a prepress mechanism for recording an image corresponding to a print color on a plurality of the printing plates supported by a common plate cylinder, the prepress mechanism being commonly associated with the printing plates held on the plate cylinder.

A digital printer integrally incorporating a prepress mechanism and a printing mechanism and adapted to form an image on a printing plate on the basis of image data and then print the image on a printing sheet using the printing plate, the digital printer comprising:

• at least one plate cylinder having a number of printing regions formed on its periphery for two or more print colors, the plate cylinder for holding a continuous printing plate having a number of recording regions equal to the number of printing regions formed on the plate cylinder;
• a plurality of ink supplying devices for supplying predetermined ink to the recording regions of the printing plate, the ink supplying devices being used in the printing process;
• a rotatable blanket cylinder in contact with the plate cylinder and having a number of transferring regions equal to the number of printing regions formed on the plate cylinder, the rotatable blanket cylinder for receiving the ink transferred thereon from the printing plate, the blanket cylinder being used in the printing process;
• a rotatable impression cylinder in contact with the blanket cylinder for transporting a printing sheet on the periphery thereof and transferring the ink from the blanket cylinder onto the printing sheet, the impression cylinder being used in the printing process;
• a printing plate supplying mechanism for supplying a blank printing plate to the plate cylinder, the blank printing plate being the continuous printing plate;
• and
• a prepress mechanism for recording an image corresponding to a print color on the recording regions provided on the printing plate, the prepress mechanism being commonly associated with each of the recording regions on the printing plate.

A digital printer, comprising:

• a support device on which at least one blank printing plate is disposed;
• a single prepress mechanism which records an image on each of the blank printing plates to produce exposed printing plates;
• at least two plate cylinders on which at least one of the exposed printing plates is disposed;
• a delivery mechanism which delivers the exposed printing plates to each of the plate cylinders from the support device;
• at least two pigment sources each of which provides pigment for disposal on areas of one of the exposed printing plates corresponding to the image thereon;
• at least two blanket cylinders adapted to respectively contact corresponding plate cylinders and receive the pigment therefrom;
• and
• an impression cylinder operatively engageable with all the blanket cylinders, the impression cylinder having at least one printing sheet disposed thereon for receiving pigment from all the blanket cylinders.

A digital printer, comprising:

• a printing plate source for storing blank printing plates;
• at least two plate cylinders on which at least one of the printing plates is disposed;
• a delivery unit through which at least one of the blank printing plates is selectively transferred to one of the plate cylinders from the printing plate source;
• a common prepress mechanism which records an image on each of the blank printing plates to produce exposed printing plates while the blank printing plate is delivered by the delivery unit;
• at least two pigment sources each of which provides pigment for disposal on areas of one of the exposed printing plates corresponding to the image thereon;
• at least two blanket cylinders adapted to contact at least one of the exposed printing plates on the corresponding plate cylinder and receiving the pigment therefrom;
• and
• an impression cylinder operatively engageable with all the blanket cylinders, the impression cylinder having at least one printing sheet disposed thereon for receiving pigment from all the blanket cylinders.

A digital printer, comprising:

• a plate cylinder having an outer surface on which a blank, single sheet, printing plate is disposed;
• a prepress mechanism which records at least two images on regions of the blank printing plate to produce an exposed printing plate;
• at least two pigment sources each of which provides pigment for disposal on one of the regions of the exposed printing plate corresponding to the image thereon;
• a blanket cylinder adapted to contact the exposed printing plate on the plate cylinder and receiving the pigment therefrom;
• and
• an impression cylinder operatively engageable with the blanket cylinder, the impression cylinder having at least one printing sheet disposed thereon for receiving pigment from the blanket cylinder.