Drupa 2008What Kind of a Show Was It?

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Print’s global supermarket—drupa 2008—has closed itsdoors after what exhibitorsand attendees alike have

characterized as a highly successfultwo-week run in Germany’s 19 building,Düsseldorf Fairgrounds. Now thereviews and interpretations as to whatdrupa was really about—what it reallymeans for the future of print—areflooding the trade press, Web newslet-ters, and blogs.

This article reflects the PrintComConsulting Group’s perspective ofdrupa technology, only mentioningspecific products to illustrate the use oftechnologies and their impact on thedirections of print. At drupa, PrintComhad four teams of associate consultantssearching out the print impact of tech-nologies in several market segments.Views of individual members of theseteams were not always in agreement.This report is an interpretive summaryof the overall findings of those teams.

Covering everything from prepressto press and postpress, as well aspaper and other substrates, drupa his-torically sets the stage for the nextround of printing industry technologychange. Drupa is the technology incu-

bator and concept testing ground for aglobal range of suppliers and theirprinter customers.

Advanced technologies and theirnew product implementations shownat drupa most often first become avail-able in North America at the followingGraph Expo and sometimes not until ayear and a half later at the U.S. globallyoriented “Print” show.

Pre-drupa hype and analysts’ fore-casts predicted that the 14th drupawould be the “inkjet drupa.” And inmany ways, it was. But it was more.Much more! Drupa ’08 was the “Tech-nologically Diverse drupa.”

Drupa technology included virtuallyall of the printing processes used glob-ally to communicate ideas, educate,promote, instruct and to colorfullyclothe packages as well as to entertain.The technology reflected the old adagethat “there is more than one way toskin a cat.”

The technological diversity of drupa’08 reflected the dynamically changingrequirements of specific market seg-ment applications as well as national,regional or local cultures; marketing;and business environments. The almost400,000 visitors to drupa were not a

Attendees represented global splinter groups witha variety of market requirements to satisfy. Andthey saw the diversity of hardware, software andconsumables that could meet those requirements.

BY WILLIAM C. LAMPARTER

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homogenous group. Drupa printer attendees repre-sented global splinter groups with a wide variety ofmarket requirements to satisfy. And they saw thediversity of hardware, software and consumables thatcould meet those requirements.

It was the evolving innovative improvements fortraditional offset lithography versus an emerging (butwith many still in the concept demonstration stage)high-speed, improved quality, full color inkjet thataroused the highest levels of interest and speculation.As inkjet moves closer and closer to offset speeds andarguably has commercially acceptable quality formost applications, the primary differentiators betweenthe two processes are offset’s more favorable eco-

nomics for long runs of static printing and digital’sability to print full color personalization or individu-alized products and an economic advantage in pro-ducing very short runs.

With a minimum of pre-drupa hype and show floorglitz, offset lithography commanded the show goer’sattention with a proliferation of innovations pushingsome of the 2004 drupa models toward the edge ofobsolescence. Continuing improvements and entirelynew press platforms are creating offset productiontools that are more productive and more flexible withthe ability to create unique products.

Lithographic economic run lengths have droppedto lower levels while pushing higher practical run

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length limits, permitting sheetfed offset to competewith static digital, short-run printing and offset webwith gravure at long runs. Analog press developmentsemphasized the continuing focus on waste reduction,faster run speeds, quick changeovers, improved andautomatic color control, better perfectors, improvedinking systems, touch screen controls, virtual proofingon the console and inline finishing options such ascold foiling, embossing, diecutting, and a variety ofcoating options that enable the on-press productionof unique product differentiating effects. The bottomline is the creation of sheet and webfed lithographic

presses that are more productive, more flexible withthe capability of producing unique products, and thatrequire an increasing capital investment.

Heidelberg retained its traditional “king of the hill”role at drupa filling two large halls with both newand substantially updated equipment. Replacing thesold-off-to-Goss web offset line was a wide range ofpackaging equipment including the introduction ofVery Large-format (VLF) machines up to 64 incheswide designed for both commercial printing andpackaging applications. Matching the new largepresses was a new range of platesetters. With this VLFentry, Heidelberg joins KBA, long the VLF leader withpackaging printers.

New Heidelberg sheetfed press features includedIntellistart, which permits the press to be prepared forthe next job while the first one is printing, andWallscreen, which gives the pressman an overview ofthe printing process with dynamically depicted func-tions including ink zone displays. Heidelberg’s on-press Spectrophotometric color measuring systemwas upgraded with an increase in measurementspeed and the ability to be operated by a touchscreen. The ability to customize a press line to meeta printer’s specific application requirement wasemphasized by Heidelberg, including the addition ofnew perfectors and on-press finishing options suchas UV coatings, double coating units, cold foil appli-cation, and presses that can be equipped with a flex-ographic printing unit before the offset units.

And that’s just one example. Ryobi, best known for

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With an appreciation for print’s rich heritage and a vision for the future, drupa2008 had something for everyone in the graphic communications industry.

Heidelberg retained its traditional “king of the hill” role at drupa filling twolarge halls with both new and substantially updated equipment.

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its smaller format presses, previewed a new 40-inchpress, joining an already crowded field. Promisingstrong pricing competition, the new entry will includesuch features as double diameter impression cylin-ders and transfer drums; movable shell-type skeletontransfer drums that enable the use of a wide range ofpaper thickness; a quality control system and semi-automatic plate changers. It is a full featured pressthat Ryobi expects will first appeal to its smallerformat installed base of printers and then to theeconomy minded that nevertheless have a need for alarger format.

More interesting than its 40-inch press entry waswhat Ryobi called a “concept product,” a UV curingsystem that replaces conventional UV lamps with UVlight emitting diodes. LEDs provide UV curing with70 percent to 80 percent less power consumptionthan lamp-based systems. The LED array has a longerlife than traditional bulbs, which are expensive toreplace. A scattering of other manufacturers were alsoprobing the use of UV LEDs, some saying it shouldbe available now and others saying it’s not ready forthe market. In any event, PrintCom analysts believethat LEDs will obsolete the traditional UV curing bulbby the next drupa.

KBA featured a large scale digitally networkedprinting plant, showing the potential benefits of inte-grated automation.

The most unique sheetfed development came fromGoss and the web side of the business with a 28-inchby 40-inch offset perfecting web/sheeter specifically

designed for the high volume sheetfed market. Goss’sinnovative approach is a blanket-to-blanket simulta-neous perfector web using M600 Foila press units thataccommodate multiple weight coated stocks run intoa new sheeter by Vits, delivering at the rate of 30,000two-sided printed sheets per hour. Using sheetfedoffset inks the press performs very much like asheetfed press. Like many sheetfed presses, the equip-ment includes automated presetting; closed loopmonitoring; fully automated plate changing; and indrupa demonstrations, produced high quality output.Press color capacity can be increased by adding addi-

IPA President Steve Bonoff at drupa with IPA member, Nicky Milner (far left), Transcontinental,and Garry Knespal (far right), secretary of Graphic Arts Services Association of Australia.

Representing Ryerson University at drupa are Chris Kular, Abhay Sharma,Ian Baitz, Manfred Breede, Martin Habekost.

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tional perfecting units. It is expected to be priced soas to be competitive with a long perfector. For theprinter considering a long sheetfed perfector, in somecases one of the new ultra-wides or for a printer withhigh volume two-sided sheetfed work, Goss’ new 600Foila, is a “must-look-at-before-you-buy” product.

For the offset printer who came to drupa to seewhat’s new, it was the “offset technology innova-tion drupa.”

But no matter what you came to drupa for, youcould hardly avoid the inkjet buzz. There were 27companies showing inkjet machines from the slowestand light production variety to the heavy duty fastestavailable production machines—some available nowand others scheduled to be commercial late this yearor in 2009. In addition to these machines for the tra-ditional commercial printing page-oriented market,there were a host of inkjet machines for the wide-format market, which focuses on products such assigns, posters, billboards, car wraps, building wraps,fabric printing and products that once upon a timewere the exclusive domain of screen printing. Put alltogether, there was inkjet splattered all over drupa.Twenty-seven companies (listed in the sidebar) weredoing the splattering.

The array of commercially available inkjet presses atdrupa emphasizes the maturing of the process. Theshowing of high-speed, improved quality, not-ready-for-market inkjet products struggling to come out ofthe drupa technology incubator is a harbinger of thepush that inkjet will make over the next four years todiscourage toner-based from moving up-market,while at the same time attempting to move into tra-ditional offset territory.

At drupa ’08 there were numerous digital produc-tion developments accruing across color and mono-chrome equipment. PrintCom consultants identifiedthe following trends and advances as most importantin the development of digital printing processes:kOutput speed increases combined with productivityimprovements resulting in higher levels of throughputand improved economics—for example, Xerox con-tinuous feed twin duplex equipment using toner-based flash fusing running 300 fpm monochrome and225 fpm process color; Screen’s True Press Jet familyrunning up to 209 fpm in color; and similar equip-ment from InfoPrint Solutions, which uses the sameengine with different software and the Océ family ofhigh speed inkjet equipment. kThe showing of high speed commercially acceptable

quality prototype and concept inkjet equipment fromKodak, Fujifilm, HP, and others with equipment thatwill not be available until 2009 or 2010, i.e., the nextgeneration of digital print equipment that opens upmarkets and the opportunity for innovation not yetavailable to digital printing. kThe announcement of three 20-inch by 29-inch orthe so-called B2 size sheetfed digital presses—a sizefirst for sheetfed digital. Two are inkjet from Fujifilmand DaiNippon Screen with both promising deliveryin 2009. The third is quite different in that it is elec-trophotographic and is known as the QPress made byJadason Enterprises from Hong Kong, China. Thepress is made for the Chinese market but Jadason wasat drupa looking for export distributors.

Taking into account the 27 companies showinginkjet products, the level of the currently availableproducts and what is in the pipeline to come pro-gressively over the next 18 months is what led themajority of PrintCom consultants to dubbing the Düs-seldorf supermarket the Inkjet Drupa.

Nevertheless, offset proponents noted that as ofdrupa ’08 lithography was still the dominant process,offering a plethora of continuing innovation and sev-eral fundamentally new platforms with many of themavailable now. Conversely, they noted with few excep-tions, the real inkjet breakthrough advances that willchallenge offset in the volume markets, will not begenerally available until next year or later. Digital pro-

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The Inkjet Buzz At Drupa

No matter what you came to drupa for, you couldhardly avoid the inkjet buzz. Put altogether, therewas inkjet splattered all over drupa. The following27 companies were doing the splattering:

Agfa MGIAtlantic Zeiser MimakiCanon MiyakoshiDomino NipsonEpson OcéFujifilm OlympusHewlett-Packard Punch Graphix/XeikonImpika/Panasonic Ricoh Printing SystemsInfoPrint ScreenJadason QPress ToshibaKodak XaarKonica Minolta XenniaKyocera XeroxLexmark

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ponents countered with the fact that many offsetsheetfed printers also operate toner digital presses.They postulated that as drupa’s inkjet developmentsbecome commercially available, the processes willmove both downstream and upstream.

Recognizing that there are a few narrow “high-speed,” full color inkjet systems now available but veryfew installations—and with offset-rivaling-inkjet sys-tems still under development—drupa was dubbed bysome as the Concept Inkjet Drupa. Experience, theysaid, shows that many drupa concepts and technicaldemonstration products often take longer than toutedto come to market and some never make it. However,the proliferation of high-speed, good quality inkjetpresses, some now becoming available with severalmore on the horizon, PrintCom consultants believe, isa harbinger of a continuing shift from offset to digital.Every printer needs to be aware of the impact andopportunities offered by the new generation of inkjet,toner digital and the new generation of offset. Andthat makes Graph Expo a must-go-to!

All of today’s processes have one technology that isa common critical core, the glue that makes it work—information technology, the software. Software is thebrains and is an integral part of workflow and leadsto systems integration with its handmaidens, man-agement information systems and, at least from asupplier’s perspective, JDF/JMF. At drupa the majorityof equipment suppliers claimed JDF compatibility.

Heidelberg demonstrated the ultimate in total net-working and integration by linking all of its some 80products including some non-Heidelberg devices viaa high-speed backbone to a central data server facilitycapable of sending and receiving information to eachof the devices on display. You had to look close toreally see it but it was the most comprehensive inte-gration demonstration ever put on by a supplier.Under Heidelberg’s influence, Europe leads the worldin JDF-based partial and full integration. However,even in Europe the number of operating plants thathave bought into JDF/JMF beyond basic ink fountainkey setting is very limited.

But it was an American firm, Cox Target Media(producers of the well known blue-enveloped ValPakdirect marketing coupon strips) that walked off withthe top prizes in CIP4’s International Print ProductionInnovation Awards. Announced at drupa, Cox earnedfirst place for best process automation with CIP4 andtwo second places in the categories of “improvementof product quality and customer reactions” and “best

cost/benefit analysis and increase in efficiency.” Thenew Cox facility is the most highly automated andfully integrated printing plant in existence with Gosswebs and Muller Martini finishing. For a quick lookat the facility, go to www.coxtarget.com/vmc, thenclick on “manufacturing process video” tab in upperright corner.

And there was more—new workflows, better MIS,a new generation of postpress equipment andincreasing emphasis on digital print postpress inte-gration and, of course, lots of good information min-gled with hype about going green.

Drupa proved that the technology for print to eco-nomically produce innovative products is availableand will continue to get better. But printers mustexamine the tools in the light of their changing cus-tomer requirements. The next place to do that will beat Graph Expo in October.

The Executive Outlook Conference, to be held atMcCormick Place on Saturday, October 25, 2008, theday before Graph Expo opens, is designed to helpattendees sort it all out and provide a roadmap toGraph Expo where drupa’s concepts are expected tobe turned into commercial reality. Conference atten-dees will learn about the hot markets and with theannouncement of the 2008 Must See ‘ems technologyand product award recipients, the latest informationon the technologies that will assist printers in meetingthe changing requirements of today’s competitivemarketplace. Detailed conference information andregistration procedures will be found on the GraphicArts Show Company website www.gasc.com orwww.graphexpo.com.

Drupa presented lots of goodinformation mingled withhype about going green.Some even called it the“green drupa.”

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