Greg Hrinya, Label and Narrow Web Associate Editor09.24.15
Printing industry leaders gathered at Graph Expo 2015 to showcase their latest technologies, and many digital inkjet providers marveled at the evolution of inkjet technology. The printing process has become more sustainable, more popular and costs less to invest.
Graph Expo, held from September 13-16 in Chicago, IL, USA, is a comprehensive trade show aimed at companies operating in the digital, inkjet, offset, flexo, gravure and hybrid markets. The exhibition was also co-located with CPP Expo. The event provided a stage for press conferences, discussions, displays and networking. One of the hot topics surrounded the newest developments in the inkjet market.
HP highlighted the first day with a press conference exploring two of the company’s recent developments: HDNA technology and inline priming. HDNA (High Definition Nozzle Architecture) is a printhead technology that runs at a 33% speed increase with a resolution of 2400 nozzles per inch. Although originally designed for PageWide Web Press customers, Eric Wiesner, VP and GM, HP PageWide, believes that this technology will affect all printing industries, including labels and packaging.
According to HP, the benefits include better color, improved shadow detail and improved economics. There is a wide product range for this technology, with applications including graphic communications, packaging, decorative and functional. The evolution of smart technology, like 3-D printing and printed electronics, has contributed to the functional nature of printing. Kyocera has also seen its KJ4B-Z printhead heads fire at 64 kilohertz, which is equivalent to 64,000 drops of ink per second for each ink nozzle.
By expanding into inline priming, HP hopes to lower ownership costs for its customers and help print “sophisticated” pages, labels, brochures and more. The company cites 20-50% media cost decreases, and one of its customers, RotoMail, explained how HP inkjet technology “saved them millions of dollars” and offered a fully automated process.
Avi Basu, director of market and business development, explained how the HP Indigo line of digital presses has helped the label industry, specifically. In addition to automated color management and application versatility, he described how EPM (Enhanced Productivity Mode) and HP SmartStream Mosaic have benefited the label printing industry.
“Staying with the team of this platform investment, many of our customers have continued to reap the benefit of these platforms,” Basu said. “Indigo, in particular, is the market leader for high-value added applications, and this line continues to meet the demand of our customers with even more, even better.”
Basu explained how the company’s printing capabilities enabled Bud Light to print 200,000 unique, limited-edition Festival cans available at 2015 Mad Decent Block Party music festival events, making Bud Light not only the first beer, but the first brand in the U.S. to use HP SmartStream Mosaic for mass customization. “You can create images where no two are the same, so this is essentially a collector’s item long after the beer is gone,” said Basu. “It is a shrink sleeve application printed on an Indigo. This is how one brand adopted digital technology to do their summer festival.”
Due to the short-run nature of the technology, projects are possible in flexible packaging, labels and shrink sleeve applications.
From a technical standpoint, Kodak has seen the inkjet process develop from continuous to drop-on demand. Continuous inkjet shoots a steady stream of droplets that are directed onto or away from the paper with an electric field. Drop-on demand inkjet (DOD) shoots individual droplets onto the paper as needed, using either thermal or piezoelectric technologies to fire droplets.
Kodak’s technology is designed to reduce streaking and improve quality, all while running at fast speeds. “One of the key benefits of the continuous system is the type of fluids you can use,” added Owen. “In drop-on demand systems, if you’re not printing often enough, the ink will dry up in the nozzle. Just like at home, if it doesn’t print right, you have to go through clean cycles and spitting out expensive ink to get that nozzle to open back up. You can’t do that in an industrial setting. The advantage to us, particularly in the label industry, is that we’re able to work on a much broader range of substrates, which I think will have a direct benefit in the labels space. We’re seeing that already.”
Kodak installed its first DOD technology in 2009 and has since installed over 1,300 units. “The new nozzle is comprised of a built-in, solid-state heater that can cycle at something greater than 400 kilohertz, and in the world of inkjet, cycling at 400 kilohertz means that one nozzle can create 400,000 droplets per second,” explained Eric Owen,” worldwide vice president, sales and marketing, Enterprise Inkjet Systems Division, Kodak. “One printhead generates billions of droplets of ink per second out of the nozzles, and it does it with this heater by pulsing on and off.”
The company offers a Legacy line and its latest Prosper technology. According to Owen, the company maintains 40% of the market share when it comes to inkjet components. The Legacy line is continuous inkjet technology whereas the Prosper line is designed to jet emulsion onto film. The Prosper features improved transport, drying and writing systems.
InfoTrends, a worldwide market research and strategic consulting firm, stated that companies are now experiencing profits with inkjet printing. In addition, the industry has experienced significant growth since 2005. Companies like Canon, HP and Ricoh have been instrumental in developing the technology.
According to Jim Hamilton, group director at InfoTrends, cited a future forecast of 14% growth. Due to this technology’s success in larger markets like books and mailers, the company believes those results can translate into the narrow web industry.
“Major brands and not major brands are trying to figure out how to best use this technology in a way that makes sense,” added Basu.
EFI hosted a press conference at Graph Expo where the company focused on the changing printing industry landscape, along with highlights of its newest products. In addition, EFI collected nine “Must See Em” awards at Graph Expo, adding to its five-year streak of winning the most awards at the show. Over that timespan, the company has received 44 first-place nods.
The event allowed EFI to discuss its new Fiery HyperRIP, a DFE platform that the company claims is the world’s fastest. New color management, T60 automatic workflows, and EFI DirectSmile Cross Media and Productivity Suites were also displayed.
Guy Gecht, CEO of EFI, discussed his vision of the industry, and he used several off-beat examples to illustrate how much the industry is changing. Printing has gone beyond labels, brochures, mailers, magazines, etc., as companies are now experimenting with printing on objects like guitars, shoes, flip flops and even coffins.
While some companies are consolidating are experiencing static returns, EFI recently hit its 3,000th employee. Gecht explained that the company is committed to growth and willing to reinvest profits back into EFI. He stated that 15-20% of the company’s revenue has been earmarked for research and development. On July, 2015, EFI acquired Matan and Reggiani, as well.
Gecht believes there is a “window of opportunity” for the printing industry with the utilization of inkjet technology. According to the EFI CEO, the printing industry will see a total page reduction by 2024, but digital pages will grow by 98.5% in that same time frame.
“If you’re not moving forward and adapting with the technology, evolving your business, you’re going to be out of business,” said Gecht. “The window of opportunity has gotten to a place where we can print on anything, especially with inkjet technology that doesn’t touch the material.”
To put this industry into perspective, online advertising accounts for $170 billion. That figure is 25% of the print industry. Technology is taking shape more quickly than ever, too. Radio took 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million, while the Internet took four years and Facebook needed just two.
“At the end of the day, it’s really not about EFI or Kodak, it’s really about customers that drive us to do better,” added Gecht. “They rely on companies like us to give them what they need to face the pressure of their business.”
Graph Expo, held from September 13-16 in Chicago, IL, USA, is a comprehensive trade show aimed at companies operating in the digital, inkjet, offset, flexo, gravure and hybrid markets. The exhibition was also co-located with CPP Expo. The event provided a stage for press conferences, discussions, displays and networking. One of the hot topics surrounded the newest developments in the inkjet market.
HP highlighted the first day with a press conference exploring two of the company’s recent developments: HDNA technology and inline priming. HDNA (High Definition Nozzle Architecture) is a printhead technology that runs at a 33% speed increase with a resolution of 2400 nozzles per inch. Although originally designed for PageWide Web Press customers, Eric Wiesner, VP and GM, HP PageWide, believes that this technology will affect all printing industries, including labels and packaging.
According to HP, the benefits include better color, improved shadow detail and improved economics. There is a wide product range for this technology, with applications including graphic communications, packaging, decorative and functional. The evolution of smart technology, like 3-D printing and printed electronics, has contributed to the functional nature of printing. Kyocera has also seen its KJ4B-Z printhead heads fire at 64 kilohertz, which is equivalent to 64,000 drops of ink per second for each ink nozzle.
By expanding into inline priming, HP hopes to lower ownership costs for its customers and help print “sophisticated” pages, labels, brochures and more. The company cites 20-50% media cost decreases, and one of its customers, RotoMail, explained how HP inkjet technology “saved them millions of dollars” and offered a fully automated process.
Avi Basu, director of market and business development, explained how the HP Indigo line of digital presses has helped the label industry, specifically. In addition to automated color management and application versatility, he described how EPM (Enhanced Productivity Mode) and HP SmartStream Mosaic have benefited the label printing industry.
“Staying with the team of this platform investment, many of our customers have continued to reap the benefit of these platforms,” Basu said. “Indigo, in particular, is the market leader for high-value added applications, and this line continues to meet the demand of our customers with even more, even better.”
Basu explained how the company’s printing capabilities enabled Bud Light to print 200,000 unique, limited-edition Festival cans available at 2015 Mad Decent Block Party music festival events, making Bud Light not only the first beer, but the first brand in the U.S. to use HP SmartStream Mosaic for mass customization. “You can create images where no two are the same, so this is essentially a collector’s item long after the beer is gone,” said Basu. “It is a shrink sleeve application printed on an Indigo. This is how one brand adopted digital technology to do their summer festival.”
Due to the short-run nature of the technology, projects are possible in flexible packaging, labels and shrink sleeve applications.
From a technical standpoint, Kodak has seen the inkjet process develop from continuous to drop-on demand. Continuous inkjet shoots a steady stream of droplets that are directed onto or away from the paper with an electric field. Drop-on demand inkjet (DOD) shoots individual droplets onto the paper as needed, using either thermal or piezoelectric technologies to fire droplets.
Kodak’s technology is designed to reduce streaking and improve quality, all while running at fast speeds. “One of the key benefits of the continuous system is the type of fluids you can use,” added Owen. “In drop-on demand systems, if you’re not printing often enough, the ink will dry up in the nozzle. Just like at home, if it doesn’t print right, you have to go through clean cycles and spitting out expensive ink to get that nozzle to open back up. You can’t do that in an industrial setting. The advantage to us, particularly in the label industry, is that we’re able to work on a much broader range of substrates, which I think will have a direct benefit in the labels space. We’re seeing that already.”
Kodak installed its first DOD technology in 2009 and has since installed over 1,300 units. “The new nozzle is comprised of a built-in, solid-state heater that can cycle at something greater than 400 kilohertz, and in the world of inkjet, cycling at 400 kilohertz means that one nozzle can create 400,000 droplets per second,” explained Eric Owen,” worldwide vice president, sales and marketing, Enterprise Inkjet Systems Division, Kodak. “One printhead generates billions of droplets of ink per second out of the nozzles, and it does it with this heater by pulsing on and off.”
The company offers a Legacy line and its latest Prosper technology. According to Owen, the company maintains 40% of the market share when it comes to inkjet components. The Legacy line is continuous inkjet technology whereas the Prosper line is designed to jet emulsion onto film. The Prosper features improved transport, drying and writing systems.
InfoTrends, a worldwide market research and strategic consulting firm, stated that companies are now experiencing profits with inkjet printing. In addition, the industry has experienced significant growth since 2005. Companies like Canon, HP and Ricoh have been instrumental in developing the technology.
According to Jim Hamilton, group director at InfoTrends, cited a future forecast of 14% growth. Due to this technology’s success in larger markets like books and mailers, the company believes those results can translate into the narrow web industry.
“Major brands and not major brands are trying to figure out how to best use this technology in a way that makes sense,” added Basu.
EFI hosted a press conference at Graph Expo where the company focused on the changing printing industry landscape, along with highlights of its newest products. In addition, EFI collected nine “Must See Em” awards at Graph Expo, adding to its five-year streak of winning the most awards at the show. Over that timespan, the company has received 44 first-place nods.
The event allowed EFI to discuss its new Fiery HyperRIP, a DFE platform that the company claims is the world’s fastest. New color management, T60 automatic workflows, and EFI DirectSmile Cross Media and Productivity Suites were also displayed.
Guy Gecht, CEO of EFI, discussed his vision of the industry, and he used several off-beat examples to illustrate how much the industry is changing. Printing has gone beyond labels, brochures, mailers, magazines, etc., as companies are now experimenting with printing on objects like guitars, shoes, flip flops and even coffins.
While some companies are consolidating are experiencing static returns, EFI recently hit its 3,000th employee. Gecht explained that the company is committed to growth and willing to reinvest profits back into EFI. He stated that 15-20% of the company’s revenue has been earmarked for research and development. On July, 2015, EFI acquired Matan and Reggiani, as well.
Gecht believes there is a “window of opportunity” for the printing industry with the utilization of inkjet technology. According to the EFI CEO, the printing industry will see a total page reduction by 2024, but digital pages will grow by 98.5% in that same time frame.
“If you’re not moving forward and adapting with the technology, evolving your business, you’re going to be out of business,” said Gecht. “The window of opportunity has gotten to a place where we can print on anything, especially with inkjet technology that doesn’t touch the material.”
To put this industry into perspective, online advertising accounts for $170 billion. That figure is 25% of the print industry. Technology is taking shape more quickly than ever, too. Radio took 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million, while the Internet took four years and Facebook needed just two.
“At the end of the day, it’s really not about EFI or Kodak, it’s really about customers that drive us to do better,” added Gecht. “They rely on companies like us to give them what they need to face the pressure of their business.”