David Savastano, Editor03.13.17
The trends that we have seen in recent years – the growth of packaging and digital printing and the decline of the publication and commercial markets – are clearly increasing. Our annual North American Top 20 Report continues to show these changes.
These trends are global. Our March/April edition also features European editor Sean Milmo’s annual European Ink Review. His feature, which begins on page 20, covers a range of topics, from raw material supply worries due to the recent fire at Huntsman’s titanium dioxide plant in Finland to trends from drupa 2016.
One of the most notable trends from drupa are the alliances between the leading conventional printing press manufacturers and their digital counterparts.
For example:
Heidelberg and Fujifilm developed FIT (Fujifilm Inkjet Technology) that appears in the latest Heidelberg presses.
KBA is collaborating with HP on a corrugated inkjet press and with Xerox on a digital B1 sheetfed press for folding carton.
This is quite a change from the past, when the sheetfed press leaders initially stayed away from digital printing. Their thinking at the time was that digital would not heavily impact sheetfed printing, and tried to come up with their own solutions. Partnering with experts in digital printing rather than trying to reinvent the technology makes more sense.
This evolution is also occurring in the printing industry, as converters look at ways to implement new technologies. Flexible and printed electronics is an area of significant promise. Now that the nascent industry is overcoming the initial overhyped expectations, it is finding interesting niches such as smart packaging, sensors and wearables, in-mold electronics, and many others.
For ink manufacturers, the conductive ink and paste market is estimated at $2 billion, with new opportunities emerging. The Conductive Ink Report, which starts on page 54, looks at some of the latest innovations in the field. For printers and ink producers alike, developing new opportunities is critical to the future.
These trends are global. Our March/April edition also features European editor Sean Milmo’s annual European Ink Review. His feature, which begins on page 20, covers a range of topics, from raw material supply worries due to the recent fire at Huntsman’s titanium dioxide plant in Finland to trends from drupa 2016.
One of the most notable trends from drupa are the alliances between the leading conventional printing press manufacturers and their digital counterparts.
For example:
Heidelberg and Fujifilm developed FIT (Fujifilm Inkjet Technology) that appears in the latest Heidelberg presses.
KBA is collaborating with HP on a corrugated inkjet press and with Xerox on a digital B1 sheetfed press for folding carton.
This is quite a change from the past, when the sheetfed press leaders initially stayed away from digital printing. Their thinking at the time was that digital would not heavily impact sheetfed printing, and tried to come up with their own solutions. Partnering with experts in digital printing rather than trying to reinvent the technology makes more sense.
This evolution is also occurring in the printing industry, as converters look at ways to implement new technologies. Flexible and printed electronics is an area of significant promise. Now that the nascent industry is overcoming the initial overhyped expectations, it is finding interesting niches such as smart packaging, sensors and wearables, in-mold electronics, and many others.
For ink manufacturers, the conductive ink and paste market is estimated at $2 billion, with new opportunities emerging. The Conductive Ink Report, which starts on page 54, looks at some of the latest innovations in the field. For printers and ink producers alike, developing new opportunities is critical to the future.
