On October 21, the Digital Imaging Association presented a round-up of the technology showcased at Print 09 in Chicago in September.
Presenters Brad McDonald, Brad Wallans and Doug Picklyk from the DIA Board of Directors reviewed the iron, the software and the hot picks from the show. Dave Morrow of Apple also gave us some of the finer points on Apple’s new Snow Leopard OS.
Hot markets in the thawing economy
Brad McDonald, with Presstek Canada, has kept a careful watch on printing potentials for 2010 and 2011. He shared his findings with attendees, dividing $200 billion print business potential into four categories: robust, moderate, flat and negative. He cited the broad range of vertical markets and identified the electronics, entertainment and gambling/wagering sectors as robust, with five business sectors at the moderate level, six at the flat level and 11 at the negative end of the scale.
Snow Leopard
Apple Canada hosted the evening. Dave Morrow of Apple introduced the technical portion with a demonstration of Apple’s latest O.S. upgrade – Snow Leopard.
Mac OS X is renowned for its simplicity, its reliability and its ease of use. So when it came to designing Snow Leopard, Apple engineers had a single goal – to make a great thing even better. They searched for areas to refine, further simplify and speed up. In many cases, they elevated “great” to “amazing”. Attendees at the meeting were able to see some of the enhancements first hand and were impressed. Snow Leopard was released in August 2009. If you haven’t already investigated it, you should. You’ll be amazed by the price for an upgrade – $35 – and even more amazed at its robustness.
Following the Apple presentation, attendees were able to hear an in-depth synopsis of the products demonstrated at the show that offer good opportunities in the current economy.
The software
Brad Wallans reviewed a number of software technologies. As computer-assisted manufacturing comes off the drawing boards and into the plant, these technologies are data-driven. Getting information in a timely manner has always been a necessity in the printing industry, but getting it right and fast is now a requirement.
At Print 09, he took a look at some of the MIS vendors and how they have approached computer-assisted manufacturing. His conclusion was that most have done a great job of putting the information together in a meaningful dashboard approach, streaming only the relevant content to the viewer based on their login profile information. Said Wallans: Hi Flex, Prism, DIMS, EFI, Avanti and Techniques Integrated have all done a good job of their dashboard. Several – EFI Pace and HiFlex among them – have taken this to the next level by offering this information on handheld devices, like the iPhone and Blackberry.
Also notable is increased integration between the MIS and productions systems. New products like Flex technologies from Soft Solutions go beyond just streaming data from collection terminals to the database. Furthermore, continued interest in the automation of production planning was evident in the release of Lithotechnics Metrix Server, allowing MIS to share these resources corporate-wide – setting up print parameters and ganging options.
Bringing the print buying customer into the production process through web-to-print technology was demonstrated by the usual suspects, but some new twists in this “me too” business have started to emerge. What Wallans found notable among those is that Printable is repositioning themselves as a marketing services product, taking on companies like Mindfire and crossing the threshold into PURLs and social media.
Responsive Solutions showed the new version of its marketing services toolkit (a.k.a Web2Print system) that allows dynamic document building through their portal using the built-in InDesign Server and is nicely wrapped around their user-friendly e-commerce storefront. Some emerging technologies like Interlink One showed fully integrated marketing solutions that unify all marketing communications under one umbrella.
Serious business
The big news at Print 09, said Doug Picklyk, is that it started with the low attendance but by the end of the week-long event, the show drew a total 28,678 attendees (including exhibitors and attendees) and 18,999 actual verified attendee/buyers. Of the 680 exhibiting companies, 126 were first-time exhibitors. The mood wasn’t dismal, but it was serious and, repeatedly, vendors on the show floor confirmed that attendees who were there came with buying intentions.
Picklyk went on to review some of his own top picks as showcased by the perennial exhibitors:
Heidelberg CEO, Berhard Schreier, opened his Print 09 address saying, “I want to sell you confidence in our industry.” He positioned Heidelberg as more than a press manufacturer, highlighting consumables, software and consulting expertise. On Heidelberg’s centrally-controlled Prinected booth, the company featured a 10-colour Speedmaster XL 75 with simultaneous plate changing, inline colour and register control, running at up to 18,000 sph.
Fujifilm’s Inkjet Digital Press, kept behind ropes, showcased a four-up sheet size, using water-based ink, prints 1200 dpi (with four-level gray scale capability) and up to 2700 sheets per hour. An infrared drying system means printed sheets are ready for finishing. Fuji also featured the Inca Onset S20: 156 print heads spanning the full print width, speeds up to 2690 sq. ft./hr. or 50 full bed sheets/hr. (123.6” × 63”) in satin, semi-gloss or gloss finishes.
KBA reportedly achieved $25 million in sales, including 13 presses. The show was the North American premiere of the 23 × 29-inch six-up KBA Rapida 75, and the company was breaking make-ready records with its 8-colour Rapida 106 41-inch press, printing 17 four-over-four colour jobs (500 good sheets each) in one hour.
Komori highlighted the KHS-AI (artificial intelligence) software on its 6-colour 41-inch Lithrone SX40, improving make-ready time and reducing waste. Also on display was the first viewing of a 5-colour version of the 29-inch Spica 29P and a six-unit LSX 29.
Print 09 was the North American debut of the 42-inch Ryobi 1050 showing a 6-colour on the xpedx booth, which is significant for Canadians since xpedx Canada will now be selling the full line of Ryobi presses. Also from Ryobi was a six-up 756G UV press with LED curing.
Xerox showed an iGen4 220 Perfecting Press – two iGen4 110 presses running in tandem. With in-line spectrophotometers, the system keeps running if one engine shuts down. New also was the 8002/7002 series with speeds of 70- and 80 ppm and new low-gloss toner for a smooth matte. The in-line spectrophotometer measures test patches that provide data on the press performance – Automated Color Quality Suite (ACQS), which automates previous manual tasks such as system calibration and spot colour matching.
Presstek was the place to look for the newest DI technology. The company’s booth featured its 52DA-AC press that combines the power of DI printing with the capabilities of in-line aqueous coating.
Kodak’s equipment-free booth lit up the north entrance of the exhibit hall. The company was reaching out to the live audience and virtual viewers through its K-Zone, a Letterman-like talk show set, streaming live interviews online and recording for later viewing. Kodak particularly showcased its inkjet press, Stream technology, now called Prosper.
The highlight of Konica Minolta’s booth was a private previewing tent for an all-new printer. Kept under wraps from the general public, the few details released include 80 ppm colour device, expected to be released early next summer, boasting enhanced image quality, wide range of media options, long-run stability with a solid design, all at a value.
Although not actually on the show floor, HP launched its newly-named HP T300 Color Inkjet Web Press, the 30-inch wide, roll-fed colour inkjet production device along with a reseller alliance with Pitney Bowes. New white ink was announced for HP Indigo technology (available 2010) and also launched was the HP Indigo W7200 roll-fed dual-engine design capable of 240 letter-size, 4-colour ppm.
Front and centre on Agfa’s booth was the :Dotrix Modular digital UV inkjet press, featuring a new Express Mode increasing productivity by 35 per cent, up to 6300 ft/hr. The company was also showing a new 6-colour extended gamut for the :Dotrix, allowing it to match 90 per cent of all Pantone colours, targeting the packaging market.
The transaction document printing space is going over transpromo, but the significant development at Print 09 was the addition of MICR on devices. Oce JetStream inkjet, InfoPrint Systems’ MICR version of its 5000 ink jet press, the Xerox Nuvera 200 and 288 MX Perfecting Production Systems with MICR technology as well.
Following the presentations was a prize draw for PrintLink’s new book: HR Bible for the Printing Industry: A How-To-Guide for Profitable Hiring. Rob Ens was the lucky winner.
