Digital Inkjet Printing has live show with leading players demonstrating technological strength of latest innovations.
The 13th edition of Hunkeler Innovationdays recently concluded at Lucerne, Switzerland was held on Feb. 25-28. The exhibition at the Messe Luzern featured nearly 100 suppliers and over 6,500 total attendees.
Production inkjet printing press manufacturers, digital embellishment and postpress equipment suppliers and software, consumables and substrate companies, all came together under the motto, “Success with Automation” to showcase automated end-to-end digital production workflows. There were over 40 production solutions running live focused on diverse applications ranging from commercial printing to book manufacturing, marketing collateral, direct mail production and transactional printing etc.
Key digital printing press manufacturers included Xerox, Canon, Ricoh, HP, Konica Minolta, Screen and Xeikon among a host of many other leading players. Hunkeler, Horizon, Muller Martini, Meccanotecnica, Böwe Systec and GUK/Mätthias Bäuerle also demonstrated their finishing solutions. Many were showcased in line with digital presses to present end-to-end production capabilities of the solutions.
Ricoh presented its new Ricoh Pro VC70000 inkjet press featuring speeds of up to 150 meters per minute and new drying technology, among others. In addition, the Ricoh Pro V20000, Pro VC40000 and Pro C9200 were also showcased. On show were direct mail pamphlets produced on offset Arctic G-Print matt 100 grams per square meter printed at 150 meters per minute and finished by Zalsman – the first European operation to install a Pro VC70000 system.
The Ricoh Pro V20000 on show produced up to three different variable formats and run lengths of short run, mono books, on UPM Fine 90 grams per square meter. The live roll to stack demonstration was completed on a Hunkeler Generation 8 cutting line and finished offline by Muller Martini. A pre-printed roll-to-roll thin print pharmaceutical application on Delfort Polar Bright 50 grams per square meter was finished offline by a Hunkeler and GUK buckle folder line.
Screen demonstrated mailing jobs with the Screen TruePress Jet520HD at web speeds of up to 150 meters per minute. The full-colour printing system was shown in twin configuration for printing on front and back. Shown were either roll-to-roll production from a UW6 to an RW6 or from the roll to the sheet stack. In stack production, the presentation consisted of cross cutting the product in a CS8 cutter, job separation in a SE8 offset module and delivery of the stacks via an LS8 delivery.
Canon: Uses the Emotional Power of Print
Canon showcased the Océ Océ ProStream 1000 continuous feed inkjet press, the Océ VarioPrint i300 sheetfed inkjet press and the Canon imagePRESS C10000VP sheetfed toner press as well as introduced the Océ JetStream Graphira. More important however, was its approach on how using the emotional power of print can help customers develop and achieve business success. Nowadays it is “not enough to talk to service providers”, says Peter Wolff, Vice President PPP EMEA Commercial Printing, Canon. “Therefore, the company does more and also talks to the customers of customers in order to educate and make everyone aware of the possibilities digital print offers. High-value enhancements enable new services, applications and business opportunities that reflect in improved profits.”
To demonstrate print’s leading role in any multichannel marketing campaign, Canon produced printed promotional communication and merchandising assets to support the coffee table book ‘Speed’. It demonstrated in a visually compelling manner how brand owners and content publishers can fuel emotion with print.
Peter Wolff concludes, “At Hunkeler Innovationdays, we’re here to fuel our customers’ vision of how automation can be part of their business success story. Our close collaboration with expert partners such as Hunkeler creates intelligent end-to-end solutions that are critical to improving efficiency and profitability. More importantly, automation is enabling new business models that allow our customers to be more creative and offer exciting new products and services that address changing market dynamics, from a single ‘book of one’ to completely individualized mailers that redefine contemporary direct marketing.”
HP presented roll-to-roll production on its HP PageWide Web Press T240 HD at a production speed of 150 meters per minute. It carried out on-the-fly roll changes on new RS8 roll splicer. In addition, the new TR8 turret rewinder was employed at the booth that was developed for web speeds of up to 250 meters per minute. Non-stop roll changes of a wide variety of paper weights ranging from 50 to 216 grams per square meter were carried out. The new features enable an increase in productivity of up to 30 percent compared to manual roll changes, depending on print speed and paper weight.
Xerox showcased its end-to-end solutions that bridge the physical and digital. In addition, the Xerox Trivor 2400 High-Fusion inkjet press, the Xerox Brenva HD production press could be seen. Xerox brought its new Rialto inkjet press to Lucerne. The roll-to-cut sheet platform for high productivity included a speed boost option that increases its output by 33 per cent, bringing total production speed to 64 meters per minute. Combined with the automation of integrated workflow tools, such as Xerox FreeFlow Core, and personalization software, the company offers print service providers an entry to inkjet printing by offering cut-sheet, roll-to-cut and continuous feed presses.
Xerox also proudly brought this year’s Hunkeler Innovationdays Show Daily, hot off the press with the happenings of the day before. Using Xerox Freeflow Core, dozens of individual PDF pages were arranged as a single signature booklet for the printer and paper configuration. The file was also pre-flighted to ensure proper colour management is applied and the file is properly optimized. Unique bar codes were imposed in the bleed space of pages to ensure the Hunkeler and IBIS equipment could apply the appropriate finishing specifications for each booklet. FreeFlow Core sent the files directly to the Xerox Trivor 2400 High Fusion (HF) Inkjet Press, running at 50 meters per minute with Color Hike at 1200×600 resolution.
Xeikon showcases the power of dry toner
Xeikon showcased high quality large format coffee table book cover and dust jacket production with the Xeikon CX500 five colours roll-to-roll configuration. The Xeikon CX500 helps printing operations around the globe address key market trends in the printing industry. Offset quality books covers and dust jackets for JIT book production is one of the many challenges this platform can handle, but it’s a particularly interesting one. “Running full speed high coverage image content on thick standard stock while keeping maximum resolution is an interesting value proposition,” says Dimitri Van Gaever, Market Segment Manager at Xeikon. “But basically, in any application segment where consistent high print quality is critical, there is high demand for reliable and affordable production platforms, and that’s where our dry toner technology comes in.”
“We are excited to show how dry toner complements inkjet solutions in the production environment of a broad array of high quality, high value and high coverage applications,” Van Gaever continues. He adds: “We are already seeing this approach works well for our customers and HID is the perfect show to further demonstrate the possibilities.”
Xeikon CX500 delivers an unbeatable quality vs productivity ratio. It runs Xeikon’s Cheetah technology, designed specifically to cope with higher speeds and ensuring a reliable and proven printing quality with 1200 dpi 4bps and proprietary screening libraries.
Konica Minolta: Creativity helps shape customer thinking
On Konica Minolta’s show stand, its successful AccurioLabel 190 digital label press, developed & manufactured in Europe in cooperation with Danish company Grafisk Maskinfabrik (GM) was the key highlight. This all-in-one digital toner press with integrated web guiding system, quality control area with viewing lights and possibility to connect to in-line finishing equipment now has over 250 installations across the globe.
Another highlight were live demonstrations of the fourth generation AccurioPress C83hc cut-sheet print engine using Konica Minolta’s high chroma toner, that produced photo quality printing with high colour saturation and sharper colour reproduction. This included the Integrated Colour Control unit IQ-501 which maximises production time through features such as automatic front-to-back registration and automatic creation of printer profiles.
Konica Minolta Europe’s Head of Market Development Mark Hinder presented latest print samples from the AccurioJet KM-1 B2+ UV inkjet digital cut-sheet press. It incorporated a new UV ink, high-performance inkjet heads and system processing technologies together with unique Dot Freeze Technology. Known as DFT, it overcomes one of the fundamental challenges of inkjet printing – uncontrolled ink dot movement that reduces print quality and workable materials. Konica Minolta’s print embellishment offerings were also showcased, in addition to customer success stories. Impressive print samples with tactile and shining effects from machines such as the MGI JETVARNISH 3DS were also on display.
Charles Lissenburg, General Manager, Professional Print Division, Konica Minolta Europe Business Solutions, explains: “Printers today require ideas and business tools to help them capture these new market opportunities and grow their profitability. At Konica Minolta we have made a commitment to supporting these critical demands, anticipating customer needs in advance, and turning them into innovative solutions through a collaborative, partnership approach, which we believe sets our customers off on an ideal strategic and technological footing for success. Our mission is to help customers show the potential of digital printing and embellishment to produce highest results and increase productivity and profitability.
Inkjet printing, especially high speed production printing was a key show at Hunkeler Innovationdays 2019. Productivity enhancement, technology upgrade as well as automation throughout the production workflow were the key attraction and topics of discussion between the technology providers and visitors. The technology certainly made its mark. The next Innovationdays will be held Feb. 22-25, 2021 in Lucerne, Switzerland.
