by Vladimir ROSHCHUPKIN, journalist

Last year in Moscow there was an international R&D conference "Electrography: Past, Present and Future".

It was attended by representatives of different centers of the Russian Academy of Sciences, major Russian and foreign companies manufacturing equipment and consumables for digital printing and also their dealers and distributors.

This has been the third international meeting on this subject. Its sponsor-organizer was the Russian journal Industria Tsifrovoi Pechati (Digital Printing Industry), Moscow. The journal is sponsored by the Academy of Engineering Sciences named after A. Prokhorov, Moscow State University of Polygraphy, Scientific Research Institute of Electrography, and companies of the BULAT Group.

The Conference agenda covered a broad spectrum of theoretical and applied problems of electrography. Addressing the participants, a leading expert of the RAS Institute of Physics named after P. Lebedev, Prof. Sergei Maximovsky, Dr. Sc.

(Tech.) stressed that the latest digital polygraphic machines, as different from their predecessors, need no printing plates which is their indisputable advantage. But the physical principles of their operation make it impossible to boost their productivity. In the expert's view this snag can be eliminated by developing machines on what experts call the

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light-hydraulic effect which was discovered in 1963 by Acad. Alexander Prokhorov, a Nobel Prize winner. The idea consists in producing a powerful acoustic pulse in liquid at the moment when it absorbs a short laser pulse. The application of this effect has made it possible to develop what is called direct laser printing technology which led to the idea of developing digital polygraphic machines with a productivity increased many times over.

At the same time the conference participants also focused on some very practical issues. Many speakers stressed that the universal tendency has been and remains an increased demand for multifunctional units combining the possibilities of a color printer, copier-duplicator, fax, etc. This being so, a large segment of the world market is occupied by digital equipment with printing rates of more than 20 pages per minute. One such compact device - CLC 3200 (Canon, Japan) was demonstrated to the participants. Its operating rate is 32 pages per minute and high quality of performance with resolution of 600x600 dots per inch is achieved by using some most advanced technologies. Thanks to an improved polymer toner the laser prints are produced with a mat, or molded surface (as in offsets).

Interesting presentations were made by foreign conference participants including delegates from the Coates Electrographics, the AEG Electrographic GMBH and from DELACAMP Aktiengesellschaft.

The conference offered its Russian and foreign participants an excellent opportunity for a direct exchange of manifold information and experience. Specialists working on new high-tech methods of electrography were offered an excellent opportunity to acquaint themselves in detail and "at close range" with the latest fundamental studies in polychrome digital printing and representatives of firms producing machinery, equipment and consumables were offered an excellent opportunity to "show off their goodies to good effect.

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