Design and market influences Flashcards
What is quality assurance?
The process through which the designer actually states what quality they want the product to have when it is finally made
What is quality control?
The measures that are put into place to ensure that the quality standards are met at critical points of the manufacturing process
What is the production line?
A set of machinery required to make a product from start to finish
What are the four production processes?
One off, Batch, Mass, Continuous
Describe one-off production
1 made, easy to set up and change, very high individual cost, low cost of setting up production process, very high cost of making individual item, used to make sculptures and paintings
Describe batch production
1-10,000 made, adaptable process (easy to change), machines expensive to buy and set up, medium cost of production process, medium cost of making individual item, used for books and perfume bottles
Describe mass production
10,000+ made, cost of individual item is low, even more expensive to set up than batch, used for cars
Describe continuous production
Millions made, easy to make the same item cheaply to a very high standard, cannot change if demand fails, very high cost of production process, very low cost of individual item, used for paper production and black packaging
What are the three main stages of printing?
Pre-press, print, finishing
What is involved in pre-press?
It is the stages needed before actual printing can take place: check artwork, colour separation, add quality control measures, plate or screen production
What is involved in print?
It is the process of actually printing the design: quality of the paper/card checked, how many colours are needed
What is involved in finishing?
It is any additional processes required after the main printing: adding special effects, die cutting, adding binding
What are the process colours?
Cyan, magenta, yellow, black
How can the process colours be represented?
CMYK
How can you achieve fluorescent or metallic colours in printing?
Pre-mixing special colours to use instead of CMYK system
How do you keep the printing quality the same?
Using registration marks, colour bars and crop marks
What is the registration mark?
A very clear mark about 10mm across of a circle and lines, which is used to check if the printing plates are aligned
What is the colour bar?
A small strip of the process colours (CMYK) printed outside the actual image to check the density of the four other colours
What are the crop marks?
Two lines found at each of the four corners of a page which tell the printer where to crop or guillotine the printed image
What are four other measures that can be taken to ensure printing quality is maintained?
Using tints (percentages of the process colours found in the colour bar), densitometers (measures the density of any colour), guillotines (a large and powerful blade used for the final cut to the printed sheet) and making a bleed area (a 3mm extra area at the edge of a printed image which allows for slight misalignment by the printer when cropping an image)
What are the five methods of printing?
Offset lithography, flexography, screen printing, gravure, laser
How do the methods of printing vary?
Cost, quantity, quality, surface printed onto
What are the uses, advantages and disadvantages of offset lithography?
Most widely used method of printing today, used for newspapers and magazines, most common method, high quality, fast, expensive setup cost
What are the uses, advantages and disadvantages of flexography?
Used for packaging, corrugated boxes and shopping bags, very fast, good quality expensive setup cost
What are the uses, advantages and disadvantages of screen printing?
Used for t-shirts and big posters, good for short print runs, can print on absorbent surfaces, cheaper than other processes, not as good quality as the other processes, slow
What are the uses, advantages and disadvantages of gravure?
Used for high-quality magazines and stamps, best quality print, very fast, very expensive setup cost
What are the uses, advantages and disadvantages of laser?
Used for one-off items (e.g. documents), immediate printing, no setup costs, very expensive individual print
Describe the steps of offset lithography
The plate to be printed is coated with a type of grease and is rinsed, dampened with water and coated with ink. The ink only sticks to the parts of the plate that are not wet with water (the oil and grease does not mix with water).The plate is fixed to a cylinder, paper is fed through and the image is transferred onto the paper.
Describe the steps of flexography
It uses a relief image and thin, flexible printing plates made of rubber or photopolymer. The image on the plates is produced by a photographic process and the inks are quick drying thin liquids. This allows it to print on materials such as cellophane, polyethene and metallic firms.
Describe the steps of gravure
The image to be printed is made up of small holes sunk onto the surface of the printing plate. The cells are filled with ink and the excess is scraped off the surface, then a rubber covered roller presses paper onto the surface of the plate and into contact with the ink in the cells. The printing plates are usually made from copper and may be produced by engraving or etching.
Describe the steps of screen printing
The screen is made from a fine mesh material fixed to a wooden frame. A stencil is laid on the mesh and ink is forced through the cut-out shapes onto the paper below.
