Benny Landa says he is ‘very close’ to perfecting his Nanographic printing technology after going back to the drawing board on the $250m project.
The digital printing pioneer says beta testing on the S10 press, likely a B1 carton press version with inline coater, will begin in the second half of next year, with potential customers first invited to the company’s Israel headquarters in March to see it in action.
Landa completely re-engineered the press and scrapped the original late 2013 shipping date following feedback from the presentation at drupa 2012, where printers were unimpressed with the control layout location, and the prints were not up to scratch.
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In a blog post on the Landa website, the Indigo inventor admits the technology is long overdue and perfecting it is taking more time, and money, than they had predicted.
“As exciting as the drupa 2012 models were, they were not exactly what the customers wanted,” he says.
“Folding carton converters wanted inline coating. The big touchscreen user interface – although universally loved – needed to be at the delivery station. And operators needed more convenient access to the machine’s inner workings.
“The second reason is that we had to improve print quality. Although most customers at drupa were able to appreciate the fundamentals of Nanography – the sharp dots, the ability to print-on-any-paper – print quality defects masked many of its remarkable attributes.
“Eliminating these defects too turned out to be a time-consuming challenge, especially as this work had to be done in parallel to the massive machine architectural changes.”
Now after 1000 man-years of work and a predicted $250m spend by drupa 2016, Landa says he is ready to show B1 print samples to potential customers and is building a sales and service operation.
The company also doubled its stand space at drupa 16 to 2600sqm, and has released a video of its 800sqm beta press assembly area, which can be expanded to 1600sqm when production ramps up – big enough to build six presses at the same time.
Landa says the new fully-loaded S10 weighs 30 tonnes, three times heavier than the model shown at drupa 12, and includes a Komori transport system, an EFI front-end, a coating unit, and AVT inspection technology.
The redesigned press cockpit still has the famous huge touchscreens, but is now located at the rear of the press rather than on the side.
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The Nano technology is designed to combine the best of offset and digital, producing offset quality print at offset speeds, but with no plates, no makeready, no waste, and variable data.
The range of models envisaged includes B3, B2 and B1 sheetfed presses and two web presses, although the firm has chosen to focus on the B1 device as this was the most popular with potential customers.
Landa persuaded 423 printers from around the world to stump up $10,000 each for a place in the queue after his drupa 12 presentation.
Offset press manufacturers have been more cautious, although virtually all of them have signed up to be partners.
In June he secured a €100m investment from specialty chemicals group Altana to finance the engineering and production ramp-up of the presses, and he was recently named Israeli Entrepreneur of the Year.
Benny Landa was the inventor of the Indigo digital press, launching it at Ipex 93 and eventually selling it to HP for $800m eight years later.
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