GRAPH EXPO 16 is Inkjet Full Throttle!
At GRAPH EXPO 16, leading market players turbo-charge the inkjet explosion with innovative new products and technologies
Wide-format. Signs and displays. Transactional. Books and periodicals. Industrial printing. Labels. Textiles and fabrics. Folding cartons and corrugated. Flexible packaging.
Every year, inkjet technology proves itself suitable, if not ideal, for another class of printing applications. Advances in printheads, inks, substrates, and materials handling systems have allowed inkjet to physically print in high quality on a wider variety of materials at the higher speeds needed for print service providers to meet today’s demand for super-fast turnaround. At the same time, digital printing’s ability to economically produce short and personalized/customized runs has driven demand in inkjet’s direction.
Certainly in the wide-format printing market, inkjet is helping create all-new print applications that had never been possible before, but in small-format commercial printing, the conversation still revolves mainly around analog replacement, although that is changing.
“When we look at continuous-feed inkjet, we’re seeing a lot of offset to digital,” says John Fulena, VP Production for Ricoh’s Printing Business Group (Booth 2035). “Look at the insurance business and high-end benefits books. Once you’d have to print everything offset and then do imprinting separately. The quality of inkjet has gotten to the point now where it’s acceptable.” It’s not just quality, but also the ability to link the print engine with data to produce highly personalized materials. “It’s flexible, it’s customizable, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a run of one,” says Fulena.
New technology is pushing inkjet into new applications, especially those that involve higher coverage. “Magazines, catalogs, high-quality books, and marketing collateral,” says David Murphy, Worldwide Director of Marketing & Business Development, HP PageWide Web Press Division. “It extends across a broad range of commercial print, including new applications that in the past would not have been appropriate for inkjet because of quality restrictions.” At GRAPH EXPO 16, HP (Booth 1825) is announcing four new 30-inch HP PageWide Web Presses powered by High Definition Nozzle Architecture (HDNA) technology, the T390 HD, T390M HD, T380 HD, and T370 HD.
Inkjet has always been about substrates, and the ability for inkjet to print on offset stocks is also driving the number of inkjet-friendly applications. Last year, HP introduced a Bonding Agent to expand substrate compatibility, and this year, Canon Solutions America (CSA) (Booth 1500) has introduced its ColorGrip, an inline paper conditioning step that increases the number and types of media that can be run through high-speed production inkjet systems, including the Océ VarioPrint i300.
“What’s exciting for us is the enhancements we’ve made to the i300 and the breadth of medias we are printing on,” says Mal Baboyian, EVP of Canon Solutions America.
“ColorGrip has made a spectacular difference. Customers are going to see dramatically improved quality, but also the ability to print on offset stock that reduces the cost of the paper by some 10 to 15 percent over inkjet media. When customers and prospects come into our booth they’re going to be astounded by what inkjet can do.”
The same forces that have been driving interest in inkjet in other aspects of commercial printing are now pushing it to new frontiers, such as packaging.
EFI (Booth 1349) is active in virtually all of these spaces—except for high-speed production inkjet for commercial printing—and is talking up the announcement of its Nozomi platform, a single-pass LED inkjet technology which is said to reach speeds up to 75 meters (246 feet) per minute for corrugated packaging printing.
As companies like EFI expand into these different markets and applications, bringing the full gamut — or even a representative sample — of equipment offerings is not logistically possible. So this year, EFI is taking a different tack and rather than showcasing the heavy metal, the company is focusing on what those machines actually produce.
“We like to tell the story with applications and actual printed products, so we’re only bringing one printer that’s targeted to commercial printers, the HS1625 hybrid,” says Ken Hanulec, VP of Marketing for EFI’s Inkjet Solutions.
Be it wide-format, small-format, commercial print or specialty printing, the same drivers are propelling inkjet into the forefront of technology introductions and adoptions.
“There’s a bigger call for distributed manufacturing and a short-distance supply chain,” says Hanulec. “You should be able to do really short runs, order online, order a large number of unique jobs that are very customized and personalized, have almost no inventory, and you should be able print what you want, where you want it, and get it where you want it.”
That statement could apply to virtually any aspect of the printing industry today, and the shift from analog technologies like offset will only become more acute. “As the quality of inkjet technology rises, we’re seeing a lot of offset applications move over to inkjet,” says Ricoh’s Fulena. “How is inkjet affecting offset? That’s a bigger discussion today than it’s ever been.”
As inkjet moves full speed ahead, look for many more of these discussions.
“We’re crossing a threshold that will take this technology further into the commercial space,” said HP’s Murphy.