The leading international trade fair for print and cross-media solutions drupa kicks off with a new strategic focus this time, a shorter eleven day schedule, a new look, and greater frequency running every three years.
Set to open at the end of this month under the motto touch the future drupa says it is placing the industry’s innovative power centre stage, and providing a platform for future technologies.
The focus is especially on next-generation and highlight themes such as print, packaging production, multichannel, 3D printing, functional printing and green printing. The 2016 drupa is operating in a different environment from the shows that have preceded it for the past sixty years, as the print industry undergoes profound structural change, and the digitalisation of everything is well underway. Helping printers how to move forward in this new environment is the purpose of drupa, which like all exhibitions is facing new pressures to show it relevancy.
However there is little doubt that with the range of exhibitors and the educational activities a visit to drupa should be on the agenda of every forward-thinking print business. These days the question is not which new piece of iron should I choose, it is more about which type of business should I have, how can I run it best, how can I recognise and tap into growth markets, how can I optimise my investments, how can I find a niche and own the market?
According to drupa the complete spectrum of print and cross-media exhibits and topics will be represented. Such a comprehensive 360° view of the entire industry is provided by nobody but drupa. Printers making the long trip to Dusseldorf will have graphic representation of how the industry is changing. The biggest stand will no longer be Heidelberg but HP.
Companies that provided office printers at the turn of the century such as Fuji Xerox, Konica Minolta, Ricoh and Canon will now have huge stands showing a dazzling array of commercial print solutions which include not only getting the toner on paper, but will be about connecting with the market, driving business development, optimising workflow to minimise human intervention. Digital press developments will be writ large, with inkjet printing the main game in town.
Virtually all the main offset press manufacturers will be showing co-developed inkjet presses. Heidelberg will have its B1 sheetfed inkjet Primefire 106 press co-developed with Fujifilm. KBA will its Rotajet inkjet press co-developed with RR Donnolley, and its 2.8m wide corrugated inkjet press co-developed with HP. Ryobi will have a liquid toner press developed with Myakoshi, manroland will be showing solutions co-produced with Oce, Komori will have both its Impressia 29 B2 sheetfed inkjet press co-developed with Konica
Minolta and a B1 sheetfed inkjet press co-developed with Landa. Xeikon will have a liquid toner webfed press, HP a battery of more than 50 liquid toner presses for a ballooning number of applications.
And then there is Landa itself. Four years after making such a splash at drupa with his nanographic technology promising offset speed and offset quality in a digital press he is back with a stand twice as big, a slimmed down press range, and promise that the presses that you can order at drupa will be ready in 12 months’ time.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking there is no offset printing though, while it is true that the heavy metal stands will not be as large as in previous years all the players will be there and all with further enhancements to their kit, with inline and automation the watchwords. If you don’t need variable data then offset presses are becoming competitive with digital even in the short run markets, with makeready times coming down all the time, while having the offset speed and quality.
The mega trend at drupa 2016 will be Print 4.0 as Claus Bolza-Schünemann, chairman of the drupa committee and chairman of the board at Koenig & Bauer AG explains, “Print 4.0 enables individualisation and personalisation in digital printing. In the face of highquality packaging and the rapidly diversifying range of solutions in industrial and functional printing this digital networking of machines and systems offers the solution and guarantee for efficiency and competitiveness. Print 4.0 is the mega trend at drupa 2016. This is clear even at this early stage.”
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