Trade ShowAugust, 2014

Nicholas Hellmuth

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Our favorite products which we noticed exhibited 6It helps when the photos in print samples are adequate resolution 6Most uninspiring technology display: Wimpy Backlit 8Best booth structure design 9Best Booth Wall Decoration 12Overhead booth logo display 12One of my favorite logos at FESPA 2014 14Really nicely designed booth accessory Excellent examples of Applications 15Innovative Printers 16UV-Cured Printers 17UV-Cured Printers: Industrial 17UV-Cured Printers: Normal Signage 21LED-cured UV can handle more substrates. 23UV-Cured Printers: Medium 23UV-Cured Printers Desktop Sized 23Mimaki 24Fujifilm 25Colorific 26Solvent Printers 26Latex Ink Printers 27Sepiax Ink Printers 29Water-Based Printers 30Water-Based Memjet 30Label printers 32Flatbed cutters 32Textile Printers 33Largest booths, only textile printers: d-gen and MTEX 34Largest booths, only t-shirt printers: Kornit 35Industrial printer brands for textile: MS, Reggiani 36New textile printers: Fieldstar, FTEX 37Surprising appearance: Hollanders, Zimmer 38Chinese textile brands: ATEXCO, Homer, Locor 39Italian textile brands: ATPColor, La Meccanica, MS, Reggiani 40Best textile product: linen-like polyester fabric by Premier TextilesReggiani 41Innovative product: highly stretchable fabric by Endutex Germany 42Sublimation onto 3D Objects 43T-Shirt Printers 44Printheads in general 45Being open and honest about what printheads your printer uses. 46Color Management 48RIP Software 48MIS Software 49Web to Print Software 49

Media, roll-to-roll 50Media & Substrates: 51Multi-dimensional 51Media & Substrates: Thick, Rigid 51After-market inks 52Laminator Tables (ROLLSROLLER and competitors) 54Inkjet Applications: Giclee 62Inkjet Applications: Fine Art Photography 62Printers for Giclee and Fine Art Photography 62Photobookstoshowcaseyourfineartphotography 62Scanners for giclee and décor: 63Cruse and METIS brands were both at FESPA 63Applications for Wide-Format Inkjet Printers: 64Wallcoverings as an example 64Toner Printers & Desktop Printers 66Digital Presses 663D Printers at FESPA 67Trade Magazine booths 68My favorite trade magazines at FESPA 69Expo organizer Booths 70Distributors 70LED Signage 70Traditional Signage (Channel letters, etc) 70Attendence in General 72Comparing Munich compared with other cities 73as venue for FESPA 73Venue: Munchen expo center 73Venue: Munchen vs Hamburg vs Duesseldorf vs 74Berlin vs Koln 74Issues to resolve 75Nice features 77Helpful map 77Nice catalog is at no cost 77Nice Press room 77Great meals in Press Room 78Friendly aspects of FESPA 78Almost no screen printers whatsoever 78BENEFITS of an international expo compared with 79local expo 79Essentially everyone speaks English 80Comparing ISA with SGIA with Graph Expo 81What does FLAAR do at an Expo? 82We also study why some companies do not succeed 84Press Conferences and Evening Events 85Closing Observations 86Pride to be at FESPA 86Closing images 87Focused FLAAR Reports 87

*All items on this page are hotlinks.

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The HIGH SPEED wide-format expoIf you wished to report the one feature, the one tag, the one buzz word of the entire expo, I would name this The HIGH SPEED wide-format expo.

Efi featured high speed (and especially LED curing benefits). Durst wasshowcasinghigherspeeds.OceandFujifilmhad largermachineswithhigherspeed (in most cases due to having lots more printheads, sometimes twice the number).

A good visual example of this “HIGH SPEED” focus was the SCREEN dedicated flatbed.TheirTruepressJetW3200uvHSwastheirhighspeedmodel.

Of course the alternatives are lower cost (because fewer printheads, hence slower speed). So there is still a market for lower cost options, but the big-name brands(Durst,efi,SCREEN,Fujifilm,Oce(Canon)areallgoingforspeed).

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Our favorite products which we noticed exhibited:

CanonDreamLabo5000 system (favorite ofNicholas; the advanceswith efi hardware andsoftware are covered in a separate UV TRENDs report)

Linen fabric which is actually polyester (favorite of Pablo)

MatanprintsampleswereimpressiveaswellasnewUVprinterfromDurst(Speed)plusefiVUTEk (the compact one: does not take up too much space).

Honeycomb but plastic and cutter of two head (Elitron), Endutex material.

It helps when the photos in print samples are adequate resolution

Manufacturers and distributors spend a fortune to rent a booth, ship in their equipment, and then they showcase fuzzy or low res photos. Photos which do not have the pixel count to be covering an entire wall.

And these weak photos are supposed to make us want to buy the printer which printed this image?

Already in 1997 we had a 24 megapixel camera (tri-linear scanning back from Better Light). By 2000 we had a 48 megapixel version. Today we have a “35mm” DSLR with 36 megapixels. Yes, a good photographer does not need fancy equipment, but…. If you are going to enlarge your image to cover the entire wall of an expo booth, it might be wise to use a high-res image.

Here we show an image of such high resolution that it blows again any (and all) 35mm DSLR cameras. This is a camera so old it barely exists today: Hasselblad with a Leaf digital back. But Israeli technology (the back) is remarkable. We even have images similar to this, printed by a Durst Rho at the Durst factory demo center many years ago and kindly shipped by Durst all the waytoourofficeinGuatemala.

Impressive Matan print samples at FESPA 2014.Elitron new material exhibited at FESPA 2014.

Example of FLAAR high resolution images. “Ceiba Aesculifolia Flower”

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At ISA a few weeks ago two booths each had wimpy weak images on the materials they were trying to sell: a German company and a Korean company. To be polite we don’t list the brand or show the frankly inadequate material.

At FESPA Digital there was not time for me to inspect media, cutters, or laminators (for this reason we had a team of four people). But what I did notice was lots of weak saturation backlit (and other see-through materials): in many booths.

If you are going to print backlit and feature it in your booth, be sure that your ink or image or material is well printed. Realize that some printheads simply are not very good at producing well saturated colors that pop on backlit (or the printer operator is not taking the time to set the RIP software options carefully).

So if you, as printshop owner or manager, are at an expo to buy a printer, be sure its printheads, its RIP, and its ink can produce a powerful image for your clients. Be sure to test this aspect in case the printer manufacturer cleverly avoids exhibiting this downside to their brand.

Ten years ago it was very clear that thermal printheads produced more saturated (more colorful) backlit than piezo heads (which in those years meant Epson printheads). So HP in particular, thus ColorSpan, and Encad tended to produce noticeably better backlit.

In various booths there were backlit prints which were a tad weak. And in the metro stations (unrelated to FESPA), there were real-world backlit signage which were pathetic.

Of course even with thermal printheads you can produce a wimpy backlit if you use the wrong settings in your RIP software. I have no way to know which printhead did these pathetic backlits in the subway station. But I would rather use these than show all the examples from too many booths.

All printers are really good at some applications, are okay at other applications, but are simply not perfect for other materials or applications. Thus it might be advisable to showcase what your printer is good at, and be realistic at what another technology can do a tad better.

Best booth structure designThe MultiCam CNC router booth had a minimalistic appearance that was actually rather unique: a complete structure featuring the posts and banner frames, but devoid of anything else. The exhibit itself was appropriately matched (empty).

In artistic circles, minimalism is considered chic.

Considering the number of booths filled with (sorry) left-over packaging and garbage, thisMultiCam booth was clean as a whistle.

Most uninspiring technology display: Wimpy Backlit

MultiCam booth.

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Chemigraf had a dramatic booth design. The KIP booth is innovative both at European expos and in the USA.

In the separate FLAAR Report on booth architecture, we discuss such good booth designs as the PAPIJET KISCO booth and the surprisingly large FOTOBA booth.

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Best Booth Wall DecorationNormally we single out a really dramatic wall decoration, but there was no booth here in this expo as impressive as the booth of Global Imaging Inc (Novus) at the recent ISA 2014 sign expo in Orlando.

Overhead booth logo displayWe have a full analysis of booth overhead decorations. We discuss which schemes are successfulandwhicharenotagoodidea.HereIshowtheoverheadrectangleforefiVUTEk.And the traditional size and shape employed over the booth of SCREEN.

SCREEN booth.

Eckart wall booth.

CHROMO INK logo.

One of my favorite logos at FESPA 2014

SinceIlikeplantsandanimals,thegraphicdesignsItendtoenjoyarethoseofflowersandcreatures. Here is a logo (CHROMO INK) and a design (Eckart ink company) which were among my favorites at FESPA 2014.

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Excellent examples of ApplicationsFUJIFILMhadanentirewallofapplications.ManyoftheseFUJIFILMapplicationswereverywellconceived.

Really nicely designed booth accessoryI always enjoy cute cartoon-like characters. Here are several which looked nice.

Samples exhibited at FESPA 2014.

Fujifilm applications wall.

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Innovative PrintersThe most innovative printer was the one using an atypical ink. We cover this remarkable printer in our separate in-depth reports. These in-depth reports have a lot of photos, and since many corporatee-mailsystemsdonotallowanyfileover5MBtobereceived,wecan’tputeverythinginto one PDF (so we have many separate in-depth reports, on textile printers, inks, media, UV-curedprinters,MEMJETMEMS,etc.

UV-Cured PrintersUV-Cured Printers: Industrial

Most printers are understandably focused on signage. These we list in signage categories. But herewe list thesignificantly fast throughputprinters. Inwide-format jargon, thesearecalled“industrial” printers. I prefer to reserve the word industrial for printing on specialized materials ortrulyindustrialapplications,suchas3Dforms(Mimakiexhibitedsuchaprinterfourorfiveyears ago; not a “3D” printer, but a printer for round objects).

I would consider printers for glass, metal, and ceramics as an industrial printer.

But printers which are really fast, and have special feeding front and back, these are simply high-throughput signage printers. They are printing on normal sheets and “boards:” they are not printing on any industrial materials.

ThebestexamplesatFESPA2014offast-throughoutUV-curedflatbedswere: •HPScitex10000, •Inca(inFUJIFILMbooth), •EfiVUTEkHS100

HP exhibited their HP Scitex 10000.

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Asecondclassificationoffaster-than-past-years-throughputwouldbethenicenewCanonOceArizona6170XTSandthecomparableFujifilmAcuityF.Theprintheadcarriagehassignificantlymore printheads, hence the wider path and overall faster speed. However loading is manual (but you can load one end of the printer while it is printing at the other end).

Thiemeisapotentialindustrialprinter,thoughsmallerboardsizethantheDurst,efi,IncaorHPScitex.

The HP Scitex FB500 would not be accepted by many analysts as “industrial.” This is a mid-range signageprinter; it is not an industrial printer: definitely not in speed; definitely not infeedingsystem,anddefinitelynotreallyforprintingonindustrialmaterials.

The INDUSTRIAL PRINTER sign of HP was facing a true industrial printer at one side (HP Scitex 10000) and a host of industrial printers across the aisle in the Durst booth. If you compared the HP Scitex FB500 with any of these, you would see and understand why the sign INDUSTRIAL PRINTER was not a very clever idea (since it drew attention to the lack of industrial aspects).

Fujifilm booth.

New Canon Oce Arizona 6170 XTS.

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A colleague in the printer industry (in Texas) was just about to buy an HP Scitex FB700 about 3 yearsago;hesaidwhentheyfoundouthewasalsolookingatanefiVUTEktheHPsalespersondroppedtheprice…significantly,buttheprintshopwentaheadaboutboughttheefiVUTEkand was really happy with the results.

Inotherwords,exaggeratingthepotentialofaprinterusuallybackfires.HPScitexFB500andFB700 is ok for mid-range, but it is far far from being industrial.

UV-Cured Printers: Normal SignageSCREEN is distributed by KISTERS in Germany. This would be a high throughput system.EFI,Durst,Oce,Fujifilmalsomakehighthroughputprinters.

HP booth at FESPA 2014. SCREEN exhibited their UV- curing printer this year at FESPA.

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Banding should not be acceptedIt was a surprise to see banding on a $300,000+flatbedprinter.

To be polite we do not list the brand in public.

We have not visited the Inktec factory in three or four years, so are not able to comment on their several new models of their JETRIX printers. As soon as we can get back to their factory we can add new discussion of this excellent Korean technology.

LED-cured UV can handle more substrates.

LED-curing is used for most entry-level UV printers with Epson printheads (since an Epson DX head is so slow the LED can sure the ink more or less ok). But at the high end, primarily EFI has focused on featuring LED curing in their printers. At mid-range, Mimaki is mostly using LED-curing, though three years ago theyhadtoaddafluorescent-shapedlamptothefrontoftheirflatbedtogetanactualcuring.Buttheirflatbedstodayarethreeyearsmoreexperienced.

UV-Cured Printers: MediumThis is new category to help us keep track of the different sizes and shapes. “Medium” is a size reference, usually approximately 1x1 meter, or 1.2 x 1 meter. Anything smaller is desktop sized;anythinglargerisnormalflatbedsize.

There were about three medium sized printers from China; one was rebranded.

UV-Cured Printers Desktop Sized

Lots and lots and lots of desktop sized printers. We cover every brand and list every model in our UV-Printer TRENDs report.

Mimaki

Mimaki booth.

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Fujifilm Colorific

ThenicearticleonSOLVENTUV,inIssue2ofFespaDaily,totallymissedtheFujifilmprinterwithSUVink.Wasthisarticlewrittenbeforetheexpostarted?(FujifilmlaunchedtheirSUVinkat FESPA).

Solvent PrintersMimaki was about 50% UV, SUV, 10% textile printers, and perhaps 40% eco-solvent or Latex.

Until I see an MSDS and have an in-person discussion with an ink specialist, it is safest to classify most latex ink as a solventized water based ink. Whether HP latex ink has more solvent than Mimaki would be an excellent question. It is notable that no trade magazine has done such a lab test.

There were many solvent printers at FESPA, including lots from China. Most of the Chinese printers were rebranded, but if you attend APPPPEXPO in Shanghai this Julyyoucaneasilyfind theoriginalbrand(however it is safer to buy from your local distributor than risk buying from the factory in Asia).

Fujifilm booth.

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No Ricoh booth; so no Ricoh Pro L4160 latex ink printers. At ISA their booth was far to the end of everything. Latex printers (other than HP) will not be successful merely because they exist. PR releases are not what will make an impact either. Until Ricoh really enters the world of wide-format, it will have a marginal position, which is ironic since it is precisely Ricoh printheads which are very popular: Ricoh, Konica Minolta, and Dimatix Spectra are the serious printheads for serious printers.

Epson DX printheads are used for entry-level.

Mimaki had a latex printer in their booth, but with so many other models it did not seem to really be featured.

Only in the HP booth was latex really featured. The new generation of entry-level HP Latex 310 series is a helpful improvement. People with earlier models must feel a tad left out, but at least the newer models try to overcome issues of fading, weak color gamit, excessive curing temperatures, etc.

Latex Ink Printers

HP Latex 310. Mimaki JV400-160 LX

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Sepiax Ink PrintersIt was nice to see Sepiax ink printers back at a trade show, but this is precisely the issue: to be successful it is essential to be at 100% of the key expos every single year, year after year.

Skipping expos is what was one of many causes of general dismissal of this nice Sepiax ink in past years. Working only on Epson DX heads was the even more noticeable issue. Needing a really sophisticated heating unit meant that no normal Roland, Mutoh, or Mimaki could use this remarkable ink properly. And being inpractical to print on the most common signage material: PVC vinyl, is one of several reasons why not one single printer manufacturer was willing to make a special printer to handle this ink.

It is ironic that precisely in an era when “industrial printing” is a real fad, that an ink which works best on industrial applications is still barely visible.

Graphics One (GO) in California is one of the few companies in the world that has stood with Sepiax ink the entire time.

Now that Sepiax has been sold, and thus more under the control of one of the consortium partners, Marabu, I hope this ink can eventually restore itself to serious consideration from the industry. But it was effectively “hidden” in the booth and although if you knew it was there you could study it, I bet 80% of the people walking on the aisle had no idea what this printer was doing there.

ThenewinkiscalledMaquaJet,acleverplayonwordsofMarabuandAquaJet.

Water-Based PrintersCanon, Epson, and HP had water-based printers (most ink chemists do not really accept latex ink as truly “water-based”). So even not counting latex as true water-based, there were still several traditional water-based printers at FESPA.

But Epson has moved more into solvent printers (away from water-based). Only Canon has focused primarily on water-based. HP is more focused on its line of latex printers.

Water-Based Memjet

Xerox had 100% Memjet printers, so their nicely designed booth was 100% focused on Memjet technology and Xerox’s experience with producing the feeding and production aspects.

But now there is serious competition from other printheads, and other printer manufacturers. All the brands using Memjet technology will need to really ramp up positive results.

One downside of Memjet is that it can only handle dye inks, which fade rather quickly. The new HP single-pass printhead technology can handle pigmented ink, which gives it an immediate advantage.

RTI, Canon Oce, and Gongzheng all had their Memjet-powered printers at work. The only one missing was Xante, which suggests that their printer is not intended for signage. We cover Memjet pros and cons in separate FLAAR Reports, though presently we are so busy studying trends in UV-cured and textile printers,thattheseotherreportscomeoutfirst.

FESPA 2014 entrance.Xerox booth.

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Label printersThere may have been some desktop sized Memjet label printers but since this class of printers was 98% BS for ten years (all talk, all promise, all PR claims), we do not take them seriously at the moment. I would need to be shown a label printing company who has several such label printers and is happy with them.

I spoke with one distributor who said he dropped Memjet label printers several years ago because they were not what they promised to be. However if this technology has improved, I would be glad to evaluate it.

There was one large label printer in the booth of Triangle INX, the NW140. This used Xaar 1001 printheads.TheUV-curedprintersbrandedbyNeolt(andmadebyanItalianengineeringfirmowned by Triangle) also use Xaar heads. Otherwise, 98% of the UV-cured printers around the world no longer use Xaar heads. Everyone uses Konica, Ricoh, Dimatix Spectra, or Seiko. Oce still holds on to Toshiba Tec. Dilli and Handtop offer Kyocera in one model.

Flatbed cuttersInnovation is what counts. Precision and quality help, but graphic design is also essential. With flatbedcutterswhatIalwaysenjoyseeingisthebeesandspidersandmonsters.Hereisabeeorflyin(Ibelieve)theGCCboothwhichsuggestsitisnotfromaflatbedcutter.

WehaveseparateFLAARReportsonflatbedcuttersandCNCrouters.

Xerox booth. Flatbed cutters were present this year at FESPA 2014.

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Textile PrintersPablo Martinez of FLAAR Reports is currently attending ITMA Asia, a giant textile trade show in Shanghai. So we will have a lot more to say about textiles this summer (plus there will be many textileprintersatAPPPEXPOinearlyJuly,alsoinShanghai).

But there were plenty of textile printers at FESPA, more than any signage expo anywhere in North America (actually more than all signage expos put together in the USA). Maria Renee Ayau of FLAAR Reports covers textile printers and textile inks and attended FESPA in Munich every single day.

The textileworld isgrowingata rapidpace, this reflectsonFESPAby thegrowingnumberof textileprinter, textile inks, fabrics, transferpaper,andfinishingequipmentcompaniesthatexhibited at the show.

A few years back only a couple of companies exhibited a small textile printer in their booths, and screen-printing companies mainly occupied FESPA Fabric. This year there were only a few screen-printing companies, about three. Everyone else was doing textiles with wide-format inkjet (or desktop sized inkjet for T-shirts).

Largest booths, only textile printers: d-gen and MTEX

Pablo Martinez at Hongsam booth exhibited at ITMA Asia 2014.

d-gen booth.

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Largest booths, only t-shirt printers: KornitIndustrial printer brands for textile: MS, Reggiani

Kornit booth.

MS and Reggiani booth at FESPA 2014.

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New textile printers: Fieldstar, FTEX Surprising appearance: Hollanders, Zimmer

FTEX booth.

Hollanders booth.

Zimmer booth.

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Chinese textile brands: ATEXCO, Homer, Locor Italian textile brands: ATPColor, La Meccanica, MS, Reggiani

Atexco booth.

Homer booth.

ATPColor booth.

La Meccanica booth.

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Best textile product: linen-like polyester fabric by Premier TextilesReggiani Innovative product: highly stretchable fabric by Endutex

Germany

Premier Textiles Reggiani.

Endutex booth.

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Sublimation onto 3D ObjectsWith our background in architecture (including interior design) and decades of experience with archaeology and museums (hence artifacts), we are interested in “3D printers.”

Curiously there were almost zero 3D printers at FESPA 2014. What was 3D was primarily thermo-formedintheboothofefiVUTEk(wetendtospendmoretimeintheefiVUTEkboothsince we have been to their factory many times and hence know their managers and staff).

When I saw other items which I thought were 3D printers, I was told they were for “3D sublimation.” I rarely notice such equipment but when SGIA comes around I will look for them. I assume these machines are for dye sublimation onto 3-dimensional objects.

Expos are good to attend precisely because you always discover something new and a bit different.

T-Shirt PrintersT-Shirt printers were well represented and so we have a separate FLAAR Report to show every T-Shirt printer booth, every brand, every model, and every kind of ink and toner.

On the last day of the expo one of the managers of a large T-shirt booth came to introduce himself (as I was in the aisle near his booth; most of our meetings are precisely when people come out of their booth to introduce themselves and ask how to have a mention in a FLAAR Report).

Turned out the company was in Greece, a country I enjoy visiting. I have lectured at several printer events there a decade ago. As soon as we visit the factory of this company we can write aboutthebrandnameandtheirspecificproducts.

Efi booth. Kornit printing samples.

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Printheads in generalThe key to improved products, faster speed and more reliability, is what printhead brand and model you select, and what ink type for this printhead. In other words, printheads and inks are the foundation of advances in our industry.

Printheads that clog are not a good idea. Printheads that wear out are not always popular due to replacement costs. And printheads whose price-per-head (and/or price per nozzle) are too expensive are sometimes priced out of the market.

We enjoyed visiting the Xaar headquarters in Shanghai for two years in a row and also appreciated the Xaar team taking me to visit printshops throughout China which used their heads.

But today 90% of the printer brands in China use Konica Minolta, Dimatix Spectra, Ricoh, or Seiko printheads. Only Oce and one or two others use Toshiba Tec. Since Xaar are used mostly for in-line ceramic printers we have not been brought to any factories (for solvent, UV or other inks) which use Xaar heads.

As soon as we can inspect the headquarters and demo rooms of another brand, we can add discussion of that head. But in the meantime, we do keep track of which printer factory uses which heads.

It is a traditional game in the industry to hide the brand and model of the printhead. One original reason was to keep competitors from knowing what to copy.

But any and every Chinese manufacturer already knows what printhead is in every printer brand and model of every other country.

Another ruse is that “we are not allowed to identify the printhead.” (rather silly excuse).

There of course are the companies which claim “we make the printheads too.” The only companieswhomakeprintheadsareFujifilm(they own Dimatix Spectra) and Ricoh and Epson, HP, and Canon.

One company assembles printheads into their own array and adds sophisticated electronics which indeed makes them better, but the “printhead” itself is from Spectra or Ricoh.

Honorable mention is deserved for companies whose brochures clearly list the brand and model of the printheads in their machines:•Handtop(veryclearlylisted,brandandoften the exact model).•Docan•DYSSmentionsmodelfromwhichyouwouldknow the brand.•Flora(RTZ)•VISIONTECH,brand(Epson),butnotmodel.•Plusotherswhichwementioninthespecial

reports on UV or solvent or textile

The following did not list their brand, but immediately provided the brand name when we asked:

•EfiVUTEk•InkcupsNow•Plusotherbrandswhichwelistinspecialized

reports

XAAR booth.

Being open and honest about what printheads your printer uses.

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It was surprising to see Mimaki launch two new printers still with Epson printheads. A Mimaki distributor told me that even as a Mimaki distributor he had a hard time obtaining DX heads for older models. Keep in mind that Epson stated openly and clearly what we were aware of all along: Epson wants the entire eco-solvent and dye sublimation market to itself (just like many years ago it effectively prohibited Mimaki, Mutoh, and Roland from continuinginthefineartphotography,giclee,proofing or any other water-based market).Epson wanted this entire market for itself.

But as Canon water-based printers got better (and they kept launching newer iterations as new model numbers), and as HP had acceptable water-based HP Designjet Z-series available, the market for photo and giclee for Epson diminished. Head clogging, lack of significant speed, and weak backlit wereprobably the most discussed potential issues of Epson printheads of these past generations (DX 4, DX5 in particular).

So starting a few years ago Epson entered the eco-solvent market with the GS6000. This turned out to be a good machine (evidently manufactured by Mutoh, in Japan). I havespoken with a print shop in USA who bought several Epson GS6000 and he really liked them, so much that he bought a new generation Epson SureColor eco-solvent printer.

Sadly these Made-in-China, low-bid “SureColor” printer systems are nowhere near the mechanical or functional standards of Mutoh’s factory for Epson Stylus Pro series (or whatever other factory in Japanmay have been used by Epson in past years, before Epson jumped entirely to a Chinese factory).

Most UV-cured printers use Ricoh or Konica Minolta or Dimatix Spectra printheads. Oce and one Chinese factory use Toshiba Tec heads. EfiVUTEk usesSeiko heads.Onlyone manufacturer at FESPA was featuring Xaar printheads in a wide-format printer , the “Triangle” printers.

These are made by the same Italian factory which made for NEOLT. But NEOLT printer division is barely functional any more, so the Triangle booth was showing the two new printers with no NEOLT branding whatsoever. But half the people in the Triangle INX booth were from Italy.

I noticed only one person from Triangle USA. Things at this European expo created a very different kind of booth than in the days of Ken Kisner (whose family strated Triangle). Ken Kisner now works elsewhere.

Color ManagementBarbieri had a booth with a knowledgeable and hospitable staff. They have many new models but since our visit to the Barbieri factory and corporate headquarters was many years ago, we do not yet have hands-on experience with their models for 2014.

RIP SoftwareEfiFierywaspresentintheirboothalongwithVUTEk printers.

Caldera had a large, fully-stagged, and very busy booth. I also visited the booth of Onyx to speak with Kevin Murphy, President and CEO of ONYX Graphics, Inc.

Wasatch tends not to have any booth but the President, and the key Latin America manager and European manager were all at the expo.

ErgoSoft, ColorGate, SAI all had booths. Efi booth.

Barbieri booth.

SAI booth. Ergosoft booth.

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MIS SoftwareWith RIP brands, most people in the industry know who-is-who. With MIS brands there is no clear-cut leader, in part because the major RIP companies are trying to build MIS inside their RIP suite.

Another route is for printer manufacturers to buy good MIS brands and incorporate them within both their in-house RIP and their in-housefirmwareandOS.Efihasbeenthemostefficientinbuyingupothercompanies.

In the meantime, only a few MIS companies exhibit independently, and most MIS companies focus on expos with a lot of offset printing machines.

Web to Print SoftwareThis is an important software tool. I would estimate that some aspects are built into MIS and some RIPs have both a bit of MIS and a bit of Web to Print.

We have lots of experience with RIP software from the many years of being in charge of the wide-format printer research facilities at two different universities. We are now gradually adding comments on MIS and Web to Print software (just that most signage expos are weak in these categories).

Media, roll-to-rollWeenjoyedvisitingdozensofboothsofmedia.CatherineLiofJUTATechnologiesweretypicalof the hospitality of media booths. Since there were dozens of media booths we have a separate FLAAR Report dedicated exclusively to printable media and substrates.

Optimus booth.

Rogler Software booth.Jutu booth.

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Media & Substrates: Multi-dimensional

At Chinese expos you see what I designate as “bubble-wrap media.” A media which attempts to create a sort of 3D effect with bubble-like features. But at least you do not get as dizzy or seasick as you do when looking at a lenticular print.

Ironically the best lenticular prints are at the APPPEXPO trade show in Shanghai. Otherwise, hardly any lenticular software or techniques are exhibited at most signage expos any more.

Vacuum thermo-formed techniques form a multi-dimensional shape. You could see this in severalbooths,especiallyofefiVUTEk.

Media & Substrates: Thick, Rigid

Altogether we found about 20 companies producing thick rigid printable materials. We divide these into the following generic categories:

•Honeycombsandwichmaterial•Thick,Aluminum,anodized(Polychromalisagood example)•Thick,ACM,ACP•Thick,Foam•Thick,Acrylic

Separate FLAAR Reports focus on thick rigid printable materials (and other report(s) are on roll-to-roll media, etc.

Most thick substrates can be printed on with UV-cured, but several companies focus on using other kinds of inks. And for glass and ceramic times, various formulas of ceramic frit ink are best.

There will be FLAAR Reports on the major international glass expo later this year and on the giant ceramic tile expo also later this year. FLAAR Reports covers most applications for architectural materials since our family background is in architecture.

This year Pablo Martinez (FLAAR team member who observes media trends around the world) noticed the presence of several companies that have’t been observed in previous years; such is the case of Imballaggi Prottetivi, who presented a quite interesting honeycomb PP, I want to learn more about this material and compare their ecological properties between the honeycomb paperboard.

Thanks to the popularity of this FESPA brand here in Western Europe, the increasing precense of Chinese companies is quite significant; each year can be noticed anincrease of approximately 10% of these companies.

What we are also noticing is a reciprocal increase at APPPEXPO of European companies exhibiting at this show in Shanghai every July. We have attended this growingsignage, printer, advertising expo for about six years now, so are in a position to comment on trends in trade shows in different parts of the world.

After-market inks

Of the ink companies at FESPA the ones we know the most are the brands whose factories we have visited:

•Singapore:SamInk,attheirfactorythree times•Germany:Eckart,attheirgiganticfactory about 2 years ago•Miami:STSInks,attheirfactoryafewmonthsago.

When we visit the headquarters of a company then we know more about both their products and their top managers and executives.

We are interested in Eckart after our visit, but in the meantime both the Singapore and the Miami company specifically requestedevaluations, so here are the front covers of what is available so far.

Since Hongsam was at ISA and will be at APPPEXPO, they did not exhibit at FESPA; but since we have visited their factory and/or their headquarters and demo room outside Shanghai about three times, we show here our reports on Hongsam.t

Imballaggi Prottetivi booth.Sam Ink booth. STS ink samples.

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Several laminator brands were present: mostly (but not all) made in China. At most perhaps two coater brands.

Printer companies understandably hope that the entire print shop budget will be spent on PRINTERS. So many printer PR releases claim “NO lamination necessary.”

Sorry, in most cases this is not true. You do still need lamination.

Coating is different; coating puts a special effect onto the surface. However coater manufacturers have not been effective in presenting their advantages. This is where a FLAAR Report would make a significantimpact, but until we can visit the corporate demo room and visit an end-user who has the equipment, it is not realistic to begin an evaluation on a brand.

Laminator Tables (ROLLSROLLER and competitors)Six years ago there was only one major brand of laminator work tables: ROLLSROLLER. Yet every two years there is another brand; there is even a separate brand from South Africa. And starting about two years ago Chinese began producing low-bid versions: FeiYang is one of several.ThisyearatAPPPEXPO2014inJulywewilltakenoteonhowmanyChinesebrandsexist..

At FESPA 2014 I noticed the following brands:BMA Applicator, Bobis, www.bobis.nl, The Netherlands

STS ink samples. Bobis Engineering booth.

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Bubble-Free Applicator, Huber’s, www.hip-shop.de(distributor); Bubble-FREE Applicator (FESPA 2013), made in Hungary, www.bubblefree.hu

CUT Work Table, Paperlinx (distributor)

Bubble-Free booth. CUT Work Table.

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ModulMounter,flatbedlaminator,www.modulMounter.dk, Denmark

Rollover, www.Rollover.no,so made in Norway

Rollover booth.

ModulMounter booth.

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ROLLSROLLER, http://rollsroller.com/, Sweden

The following companies alsomake or sell flatbed applicators. It is not always easy to tellwhether a company is a manufacturer or just a distributor putting their own brand on the product of a different factory.

Eastsign, www.eastsign.com, Hongkong

ROLLSROLLER booth.

Eastsign booth.

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Eezy Applicator, Ogwini Engineering, South AfricaEzyRoller (name used by an Australia distributor)Lamidesk, www.ilatec.de, GermanyMounter’s Mate, www.mountersmate.co.uk, UKRapid Applicator, The Netherlands

Graz,Austriawould be oneplacewewould like to do an evaluation of a flatbed laminatorfor a brand made in Europe. I lived in Graz for eight years while doing my PhD research and dissertation but I have not been back for over 23 years.

Since there are now about 10 different brands, the best way to learn which is which is to start by visiting a factory and then doing a site-visit case study (such as in Graz). As soon as we are flowntoafactorywewilldoourevaluationreport.

Plusitwillbeworthreportinghowthistechnologybeganinthefirstplace,andspreadworldwide(vis ROLLSROLLER).

Other brands:

Inkjet Applications: GicleeInkjet Applications: Fine Art Photography

Printers for Giclee and Fine Art Photography

Epson was once king of giclee printers but clogging printheads and slowness opened opportunities for HP Designjet and then Canon iPF printers to gain market share. The continuing issues with the potentially problematic Chinese-made Epson SureColor series will send even more market share to HP and Canon. The Epson GS6000 was very popular, but was more for signage than for giclee. A major print shop who really liked his Epson GS6000 is one of several sources of information on the weaknesses, issues, and deficienciesoftheSureColorseries.

Chinese engineers are fully capable, but if you allow any low-bid component or software into the system, the overall system is weak. We hope a third or fourth generation will result in a fully acceptable quality. But in the meantime it is worth pointing out that the Epson printers made in a Mutoh factory seem to function better than printers made by Epson in China.

Photo books to showcase your fine art photography

We at FLAAR enjoy testing printers for A3 and all comparable sizes for coffee-table style books. This is because FLAAR specializes in high-resolution digital photography. We started with Leica and Hasselblad in the 1970’s and moved to Canon, Nikon, Leaf, and Phase One for the digital world of today. In the last three years alone we have 78,000 photographs of which many are of fine art giclee quality ofNeotropicalflowersandutilitarianplantsoftheMaya world of Guatemala. You can see these on our www.maya-ethnobotany.org and www.maya-ethnozoology.org

The Canon hdbook system consists of the Canon FlatSpread FS-500 and DreamLabo 5000 printer. We look forward to inspecting these at Photokina 2014 this autumn in beautiful Cologne. Here at FESPA 2014 Munich the Canon booth had the appropriate manager of this product range plus complete brochures. We at FLAAR appreciate the hospitality of the Canon team in their booth at FESPA.

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The background of FLAAR is in art and architecture. Hence our core knowledge is in fine art photography and giclee workflow.Indeed FLAAR was the second worldwide evaluator for Better Light tri-linear scanning systems already in the late 1990’s.

During the years that Dr Hellmuth was a Visiting Research Professor at two universities (both simultaneously), we had a Cruse giclee scanner at BGSU in Ohio. So we have ample experience with this scanner.

As a result of our experience with this Cruse in our facilities, many museums, photographers, and giclee atliers around the world bought a Cruse reprographic system.

But when FLAAR grew to over 15 employees, no university had enough space, so we moved off-campus. We no longer have any flatbedscanner to evaluate, but we have plenty of experience to know the difference between brands.

Two brands were present at FESPA: but only Cruse had an actual unit. METIS did not have any actual equipment. Since we have not had any METIS to use ourselves, and since we have ample experience with the Cruse (plus we know many places which use the Cruse), unless our own tests of a METIS were to surprise us, we would tend to recommend Cruse technology.

Since our current main office is less thana mile from two different art museums and their university campus, we would consider launching newevaluations of fine art, décor,and cartography, especially since we work with Neotropical wood grain (lots of incredible trees in Guatemala), plus we work with sacred flowersoftheMayancultures,aswellashand-woven Mayan textiles.

Since our family background is architecture, anything to do with décor is of interest to us.

Applications for Wide-Format Inkjet Printers: Wallcoverings as an example

Aprinterisamachine.Thefirmware(internalsoftware)combinedwithRIPsoftwareandcolormanagement software give the machine a brain.

Once you have this system, you need to understand the additional items needed for your completeworkflow: inkchoices,mediaoptions,spot-varnish,coatingor laminating(theyarevery different), cutting, etc.

Other crucial decisions are what applications to feature at your print shop, or for your factory to produce the equipment to handle.

Distributors also decide which applications the will focus on: some do lots of soft signage (textiles), others stick with traditional vinyl signage. Every city and country has different focus for their local printing.

We at FLAAR work on all these aspects: equipment, inks, media, software, and applications. Oneapplicationwhichisdefinitelygrowingiswall-coverings,eithermuralsorwallpaper.Sincesome media has an odor; and as some curing systems roast or melt the material (adding odor) and as some inks release VOCs or simply a noticeable smell, it helps to fully understand inks, curing temperatures, and media.

Scanners for giclee and décor: Cruse and METIS brands were both at FESPA

Roland wall covering exhibited at their booth.

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For wallcoverings, to avoid solvent stink and the odor of UV-cured inks, we suggest you look at the non-solvent ink of Hongsam. This could potentially be considered a kind of resin-based or almost latex-based ink (but is not a copy of HP latex). Hongsam is one of the companies which develops their own kind of ink (and they hold several patents).

For wall-covering material, I was frankly surprised to see Xeikon offering this. True, wallpaper often comes in narrow widths, but since you can print wallpaper in 5-meter widths with a grand format printer, as an interior decorator I would think twice about a material only half a meter wide.

Xeikon has great technology; I love their renditions of panorama photographs. Indeed we at FLAAR like to have Xeikon do print samples of our photos. But I would need to visit their demo room and visit end-users to see how their wall-covering suite works out in the real world.

But since they had no actual printer in their Xeikon booth, and since there was nothing special in the booth to draw me inside, I focused on the hundreds of other booths throughout the four halls of FESPA.

Toner Printers & Desktop PrintersEffectively zero toner printers: only perhaps as a toner printer for T-shirts. But no digital offset presses;nodesktopprinters.SonoiGenprintersintheXeroxbooth:nodesktoporevenofficeprinters in the Xerox booth (and curiously, not a single solitary printer in the Xeikon booth.

Digital PressesEffectively zero digital presses. Surely there were some somewhere, but this is not a trade show for digital presses.

We have been guests of Xerox at their world headquarters circa 2004-2005, and guests of HP Indigo at their printer and their ink factories (before Drupa 2008).

As soon as we are at another digital press factory and demo room we will add this equipment to our reports.

Sign Istanbul, Graphics of the Americas (in Miami), and SGI (aka Sign Middle East) we see more digital presses. This is why we attend an average of a dozen expos per year, every year. We have staff at the giant ITMA Asia textile expo as I write; FLAAR will have staff at the largest glass expo in the world (Duesseldorf), the largest ceramic tile expo (in Italy), and the largest photo equipment and photo printer expo (in Cologne).

So we cover many applications in addition to signage.

XEIKON booth.

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3D Printers at FESPAIssue 1 of the FespaDaily ran a feature article on “The exciting world of 3D printing.” But most of the “3D printers” actually on exhibit were only to sublimate onto cups or bottles. So these are not doing any 3D printing, they are only decorating 3D objects which already exist.

Therewasnosignificantpresenceof3Dprinterswhatsoever.Ididnotevennoticea3Dprinterin the Agfa booth (in their combined AGFA-PITMAN booth at US expos they show a 3D printer).

And to repeat, most “3d printers” are not printing, they are laying down melted plastics. There are actual 3D printers, using either HP, Canon, or Ricoh printheads. But I do not believe that any of these were at FESPA 2014.

We cover 3D scanning on our web site:www.3d-scanners-3d-software-reviews.org

Plus our notes for 3D printers at FESPA we have added to our web site www.wide-format-printers.org (look for the link at the left to 3D printers).

Trade Magazine booths

FespaDaily (sic, not FESPADaily)

PrintWeek had a really large booth filledwith people (all in a closed room, but with glass windows). Their text was fully bilingual: Deutsch and English. I read the Issue 1, 2, and 3 but never saw an Issue 4. When I left the expo the fourth day at 4 pm, it was still Issue 3 in the help-yourself bins.

Trade magazines help by bringing product launch info. Repeating PR releases on new products is the standard practice. However several trade magazines such as SIP provide research statistics and articles.

We show here snapshots of several of the many trade magazine booths. Normally the booths are empty of people since they are at press conferences or other meetings. Digital Teknik Magazine.

Global Signs/ SM Media.

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SIP did not have a booth and there were no SIP magazines in the bins the day before the expo opened, so I have no recent issue. Same with most Spanish magazines: hardly any were in the bin at the main entrance to the expo the day before the show opened.

And most Italian magazines were missing (though about two were present). So I can’t compareorfindmyfavoriteItalianorSpanishtrade magazine. PUBLISH of Russia did not haveaboothbutthisisdefinitelymypreferredmagazine for Russia.

IndPrint was great because it clearly and preciselydefines industrialprinting.ThiswasthefirsttimeIhaveseenthismagazine(andonly a 2013 issue; not (yet?) any 2014 issue.

ME Printer magazine is my favorite for the Middle East part of the world. Head editor Alex Jahanbaniwaspresentdayafterday,aswereseveral of the guest writers for this magazine.

Practical Publishing is a great magazine for South Africa. Dyelan Copeland was at the expo. At other expos I see Charnia Yapp of this magazine. FLAAR writes articles almost every two or three months for them.

Lots of magazines from Turkey, but I did not notice any writer from SignGraphic whatsoever, nor did I see any of their magazines anywhere. But Dijital teknik had a hospitable and friendly booth and their key people were at the expo. I also saw Dijital teknik at Sign Istanbul each year.

I did not see any issues of GD Pro, nor did I see Editor Michael Lyons. I was not able to findtheirwebsiteeither.AlsoIdidnotnoticeISM International Sign Magazine.

The most impressive printer trade magazine from the UK was SignLink.

My favorite trade magazines at FESPA Expo organizer BoothsNot many expo booths; VISCOM Germany I noticed, and KOSIGN tends to be present with a Korean trade magazine at most major expos. But otherwise not many expo booths. However some I may simply have not noticed since I was looking primarily for printer equipment.

The VISCOM Germany booth had a pleasant reciptionist but a typical expo problem: she was hired only for the expo and had zero background in trade shows or printer or signage industry reality.

Bazil Cassim of IEC, expo organizers of SGI and also DEAL in Dubai, was busy every day at FESPA 2014.

DistributorsWe have separate FLAAR Reports on Distributors of different countries. However FESPA is mainly an expo for manufacturers more than distributors. But some distributors were present.

LED SignageTough to describe the total lack of LED and LCD dynamic digital signage exhibits. APPPEXPO in Shanghai has more than two ENTIRE HALLS with traditional signage, and the equivalent of one hall of LED and LCD dynamic digital signage.

I can understand the lack of dynamic digital signage in a screen printing expo, but even SGI in Dubai had more digital signage than this May expo in Munich.

Traditional Signage (Channel letters, etc)

EuroSign is a good try, but since there are special expos for traditional signage in China, it is understandable why the area and coverage at FESPA in Germany is modest. But this year EuroSign was better integrated (into the textile hall so to speak). The modest size is less noticeable when it is merged.

X-media trade magazine.

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Attendence in GeneralAttendenceseemedgreatthefirstthreedays,andevengoodthemorningofthelastday.Bynoon the last day attendance was down, as is typical of most signage and printer expos around the world.

But theboothpersonnelofefiVUTEk,Sam Inkandothercompaniessaid theyhad lotsofvisitors. I would rate this FESPA as by far more popular than the one

Direct U-Bahn connection to main train station, so access is easy, however it’s a looong ride.

Weather was great first day; unexpectedlyhot second day. Warm the third day; more agreeable temperature the last day (if my memory serves me).

Main entry to the halls. Note that every year there is less billboard sized WELCOME signs. Same is true at expos in USA: hardly any more WELCOME signage. A decade ago the entire Las Vegas Convention Center would be a giant series of immense signs. But at the last expo there nothing was even visible from the road directly in front of the expo.

Comparing Munich compared with other cities

as venue for FESPAI like Amsterdam; Cologne is great. Hamburg was okay. Dueseldorf is overpriced and we see enough of that with Drupa to last the next four years.

London was even more overpriced than Duesseldorf and distant expo center was too far from Heathrow airport (took too many different trains; Munich airport required one train to hotel and one to expo center).

Geneva, Switzerland was okay. Barcelona was okay as a venue. Paris is too complicated to get around.

Venue: Munchen expo center

FESPA 2014.

Messe Munchen International

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Duesseldorf is a friendly city with a nice historical section. But not enough hotels near Messe area and in general all hotels grossly overpriced during a trade show week. No economical hotels anywhere near the venue. Duesseldorf gouges everyone around the world during Drupa every four years, so not always a popular destination unless you have an unlimited corporate expense account.

Berlin has lots of museums, lots of history: I was in East Berlin the day the Berlin Wall was broken down, indeed it was easier to drive through the broken wall than try to handle the over 5 kilometer line of East Germans trying to fleethroughthemainhighway.

Hamburg has centuries of history as a trading port, but not really the allure of Munich or Cologne.

Cologne is a popular destination. I lived in Germany for 9 years, so have been in Cologne often. There are a few reasonably priced hotels and if you don’t mind a kilometer hike, you can even walk to the expo center. However the expo center since the last several years has changed dramatically as all the historical buildings along the front of the former expo center have been bought by another (non-exhibit) company. So the expo halls are far behind, making the hike an even better exercise opportunity.

Berlin and Duesseldorf probably have more direct flights. Not sure Cologne has any ormanydirectflightsfromanycountriesoutsideWesternEurope:youwouldneedtoflythroughFrankfurt.

Venue: Munchen vs Hamburg vs Duesseldorf vs Berlin vs Koln This was a great expo and we encourage

people to exhibit and attend FESPA Digital every year. But it is not a public service to pretend that everything is perfect. Actually it is a courtesy to point out the few things that hopefully can be improved for FESPA 2015 in Cologne:

Exhibitors the day before said only one person was attending the llllooong line to get exhibitor badges.

Lack of PR at airport (whether a FESPA welcome area and welcome signage was installed the days of the event I do not know, since we need to arrive several days early to prepare for an event as large as FESPA Digital).

Lack of complimentary airport transportation (no shuttles which were complimentary; the airport is actually quite far away). A wimpy discount simply reminds everyone how overpriced the city is.

Lack of U-Bahn or S-Bahn tickets or even discount. 10 years ago most European trade shows wrangled totally free transportation for all attendees. After all, we of the Press are writing about the expo (in theory encouraging people to visit the city). The least the city could consider would be local Metro and Tram tickets.

Total lack of aisle names.Thismade findingbooths time-wasting, especially since there were the following two noticeable lacks:•Totallackofboothmapsatsidedoors•Totallackofboothlocationmapsatmajor cross-aisles

Entry turnstyles seemingly did not function whatsoever. You had to be scanned manually by a human. Not a good ad for local organizational capability; a waste of human resources, a waste of time waiting for one or two people scanning your badge when there are 20 turnstyles locked down.

It was stated that the expo center charged XY-thousand dollars to access their turnstyle system. Typical reason why trade shows are either gradually less popular or often (as with VISCOM Madrid) failing.

The badges has no plastic encapsulation system (probably cheaper this way). Downside was that if you had anything nearby it would scrape off the text so no booth person could scan-your-badge.

I did not notice any free shuttle bus to any hotel (the Ramada and H2 hotels were within hiking distance, so no bus needed). And yes, there is excellent Underground and S-Bahn systems in every German city. But ten years ago the expo organizers would have wrangled a deal with the local city to provide a free pass for attendees and exhibitors: after all, we are all bringing lots of profit to the local city byattending FESPA.

One company not exhibiting reportedly had a sign pointing to a bus to lead to an event offsite. I did not see this, but heard about it. The same company did this at an earlier FESPA several years back: invited people to visit their facilities by bus; this company did not have a booth at FESPA.

Issues to resolve

Messe Munchen International

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Cellphoneusagevariedfromdifficulttoimpossible;butoccasionallyacalldidgothrough.Ifindthat about 50% of large expo halls have inadequate cell phone adequacy: in other words, most calls simply don’t go anywhere.

Too many booths took down their exhibits early on the last day. This is not fair to attendees (and wastes the investment of the exhibitor also). It is the habit in Guangzhou and elsewhere for exhibitors to remove their exhibits as early as 10 am on the last day; 50% of the exhibits are being removed by noon; and by 2 pm there is nothing left to see anywhere (other than major internationalbrandswhoaretrainedtokeeptheirboothsopenuntilofficialclosingtime).

Nice featuresHelpful map

Except that with no A to Z aisle system, and no 100 to 1000 aisle system, booths required using the map the entire time).

Nice catalog is at no costA full exhibitor catalog is available to all attendees at no cost. My compliments to FESPAorganizers.Alsoanicefloorplanmapwas available. But it helps to have the list A to Z and not by booth numbers!

And would be even easier to navigate if there were aisles A, B, C, or aisles 100, 200, 300 etc. Spalttered numbers suggests that the lists were not complete in time to print (or print them later so that there are fewer changes).

At expos in Russia and some in China, they charge too much $$ or €€. Frankly expos need highattendeefigures,soshouldbehappythatanyone comes at all.

Nice Press room Several expos elsewhere have either wimpy Press Room or none at all. Drupa has nice Press Room, as does Graphics of the Americas in Miami and Graph Expo in Chicago.

Many booths took down their exhibits early

FESPA 2014.

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Great meals in Press RoomThisisdefinitelyappreciated.GraphicsoftheAmericas in USA also offers yummy lunches and even breakfast.

Friendly aspects of FESPAFree WiFi was a great idea, but it did not seem to function for people with cell phones from outside EU.

Almost no screen printers whatsoever

This is a compliment. Lack of screen printing equipment meant less awful odor. Any client who needs a new screen printing machine hopefully already knows where to find one.Ironically SGIA still has a large screen printer section.

I have a high respect for the screen printing industry, but the world is moving to digital, so technology expos correctly focus on what’s new.

It is nice that FESPA provides booth opportunities even for competitors: VISCOM Germany had a booth: though the booth rep was not knowledgeable about VISCOM or anything about the industry; she was simply a person to smile and hand out brochures. Yes, there were two actual VISCOM people in the booth, but often they were not present.

In general FESPA 2014 was well organized and well attended.

BENEFITS of an international expo compared with local expo

Local and regional expos such as Sign Digital UK are helpful because you can meet the local distributors.

FESPAhasthebenefitofmoremanufacturersandmorebrands.SadlyDrupaissooverpricedthatitnolongeroffersthebenefitsofaninternationalexpo:notenough brands exhibit here. And, since FESPA is a month or so in front of Drupa, you can see most of what you need at FESPA 2016 in a more comfortable venue.

We hope Drupa can literally reoganize and literally understand wide-format inkjet and everything else about inkjet (wide or narrow). But when we have asked a Drupa person about anything we were abruptly told that “Heidelberg needs 14 days so the expo is 14 days.”

WellHeidelbergisnotamajorforceanymoreandifyouwishanossifiedexpowithossifiedbrands, then people will stay away.

IfthepurposeofDrupaistofillthehotelsofDusseldorfandbringprofittoeveryoneinDusseldorf,they are devouring their own potential every year that they don’t re-think, from the ground up. ButifallboardmembersarefromtheCityofDuesseldorf,orfromtheeraofoffsetandflexoprinting, they will follow the path of all four VISCOM expos (which even through supposedly wide-format, they all four did not enough to the point that they let FESPA win the EU marketplace.

Messe Munchen International

FESPA has the benefit of more manufacturers and more brands.

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Essentially everyone speaks EnglishIn Europe most people are tri-lingual or at least bi-lingual. So even though we at FLAAR are all bi-lingual(andtri-lingual)wefindFESPAEuropeagreatplaceforbeingeasytobeunderstood.

Several other expos had only their local language; not even English and not even Spanish. There are 21 Mayan languages in the tiny country of Guatemala (plus Spanish, Xinca and Garifuna), so we at FLAAR are used to multiple languages.

But at an international expo, the de-facto business language is English. Even in most Chinese signage expos 80% of the booth personnel speak English. I estimate that about 90% at FESPA booths spoke English.

Comparing ISA with SGIA with Graph ExpoFESPA was twice the size of any expo in USA. Considering the size of USA, plus Canada plus Mexico, and Caribbean Islands and Latin America, you can see how FESPA is doing something to get such good size.

ShanghaiexpoinJulyisabout300%largerinsizeandhastwicetothreetimesmorebrandsofwide-format printers; of inks; and especially of media and cutters. The Shanghai expo is about 500% larger for traditional signage.

Nonetheless FESPA was a healthy size and we at FLAAR recommend FESPA in Europe (and FESPA Mexico). As soon as the dates of FESPA Africa are no longer the exact precise same daysasAPPPEXPOinJuly2014,wewilldefinitelyreturntothisniceeventinJohannesburg.

WealsolikeSignIstanbulandSGI(akaSignMiddleEast),plusfindGlassexposandceramictile expos and textile expos important to attend.

FESPA was twice the size of any expo in USA. FESPA team members were of great help.

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What does FLAAR do at an Expo?FLAAR is an educational and research institute. We study, we learn, and we bring information to print shop owners, distributors and manufacturers (plus to the interested lay public).

Since there are already plenty of trade magazines, we do not attempt to replace any of them. FLAAR is very different, which is why we have over half a million readers around the world each year.

Nicholas with the editor of a popular printer trade magazine in Africa. We also visited with Dyelon, the editor of Practical Publishing in South Africa.

GraceMoralestakingnotesintheefiVUTEkbooth.

Maria Renee Ayau taking notes about a UV-cured printer but which uses a variant of a “sticky belt” more commonly used on a textile printer

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We also study why some companies do not succeedI have always been curious of why some companies keep improving and keep gaining market share(efiVUTEkisanexcellentexamplefortherecentfiveyears).

I am evenmore curious of why some companies fail: SigmaJet (formerly GRAPO) is oneexample

TheriseandfadingofSunInnovationsinRussiaisdefiniteyworthathesisinanMBAprogram;same for L&P Digital Technology through WP Digital into Polytype.

Neolt is a good case study; years ago their booth would have been a major size. Yet now their booth was half the size of a minimal booth. Not a single Neolt printer was at the expo (though two printers from the same factory, but with no Neolt branding whatsoever, were in the Triangle INX booth). The only place I have seen a Neolt UV-cured printer is in China; the distributor there seemstohaveafinalmachinetheyhavebeentryingtosellforseveralyears.

The renamed Neolt web site shows two printers for sale, but they are not exhibited at major expos: zero in ISA sign expo for example.

Press Conferences and Evening EventsHere are snapshots from the nice Durst evening event. Several years ago this was at the Audifactory.ThisyearitwasattheBMWfactory.Durstmakesaqualityproductanddefinitelyorganized a quality excursion for the Press.

TheonlypresseventweattendarethoseofefiVUTEk,sincethereissimplynottimetoattendall the others. We also attend the Dilli evening event at ISA or SGIA once a year. We enjoy the hospitality and friendship of the Dilli team.

TheefiVUTEklunchperiodeventwaseducationalandall fourofusattended.TheteamatVUTEk is knowledgeable and hospitable and we are in their booth taking notes at least once every day.

We also appreciate the evening dinner with Mr Sam of Sam Ink.

Efi booth at FESPA 2014.

FLAAR Staff at Durst evening event.

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Pride to be at FESPAOccasionally booth managers come out into the aisle to ask if FLAAR can include their booth in our report. Since an individual PDF can’t function as an attachment if over 4.9 MB, it is simply not possible to show 300 booths (or even 100). So we tend to showcase the booths of companies we know best because we have personal experience at their factory or their world headquarters.Forexample,IhavebeentothefactoryofefiVUTEkseveraltimes,tothefactoryofDurstfivetimesinBrixenandfourtimesinLienz.

The booth manager came out to ask to be included, and since I could see from his booth how much hard work he had invested in his company brands and his booth, as a courtesy we addedhimtothisreport.Howeverweregretthatduetofilesizeit isnotpossibletoincludephotographs of more booths.

Closing ObservationsThiswasclearlyaverysuccessfulexpo.Attendancewasexcellentfirstthreedays,andmorningofthefinalday.Butthereareseveralthingswhichcouldbedonetoraiseattendancedramatically.

Since I attend expos around the world for 15 years, I can note which countries have major numbers of people here. For example, Slovenia and Croatia were well represented: many came up to introduce themselves, or if we already knew each other, to say hello.

But there were several world areas where FLAAR Reports are popular and people in these world areas indicate to us that they tend to attend those expos which FLAAR announces far in advance. However we have no booth nor any association with FESPA and there for 2015 there will be two giant exps in the months immediately before FESPA. So despite the frankly wonderful venue of Cologne, the year 2015 will have the most struggle among expos for the periodsJanuarythroughMay.

Autumn schedules will be normal: no major earthquakes or Tsumanis here. Even summer of 2015 will be relatively peaceful. Hopefully in 2015 we can return to recommending FESPA Africa now that hopefully the 2015 dates will not be the precise same days as APPPEXPO 2015. And FESPA Mexico is always an event we have respected (though we have no booth; we attended two early years when FESPA provided airfare, since Guatemala is only one short hop away).

Closing imagesThis Chinese booth deserves recognition for innovation, and for humor. Since FLAAR does cartoon characters, we enjoy the cute crying faces in these hand-made signs.

Focused FLAAR ReportsHere are the front covers of all our other FLAAR Reports on this nice FESPA Digital 2014 event in Munich.

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Your only assurance that you have a complete and authentic evaluation which describes all aspects of the product under consideration, benefits as well as deficiencies, is to obtain these reports directly from FLAAR, via the various sites in our network.

Nicholas Hellmuth

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