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DRUPA PREVIEW
44
in-line finishing, delivering folded, collated
and glued blocks ready for a simple
cover application and final trim. This is
particularly true for monochrome books.
Publishers and book printers have
now gone beyond just comparing print
costs and are considering the total
cost of manufacturing. The flexibility
of inkjet allows book production to be
re-engineered and book publishers to
reduce their stocks and their publishing
risk, bringing overall cost and service
advantages. Colour books are quickly
following the mono lead.
For other products, the benefits of
changing manufacturing processes to inkjet
are not so clear. Well-established analogue
methods are meticulously honed to
minimise cost while delivering high quality.
This will change as more companies install
inkjet equipment, learn its capabilities and
exploit new opportunities.
A growth opportunity
Inkjet technology already has many early
adopters who are profiting from the
technology. For example, HansaPrint in
Finland, a
€
70m turnover firm specialising
in retail and publishing, recently installed a
high speed Ricoh Pro VC60000 press.
HansaPrint Business Unit Director Jukka
Saariluoma said: “Prior to experiencing the
Ricoh Pro VC60000, I did not believe that
there would be a major shift from offset
printing to inkjet. But the new press has
changed my mind. Our clients are very
excited by the new level in quality and the
increased flexibility offered and are moving
significant amounts of their work from
offset to inkjet.”
All key analyst organisations predict
very high growth for inkjet print volumes
and values. Smithers Pira expects the value
of inkjet printing output for graphics and
packaging to more than treble between
2010 and 2020, from
€
23 billion to more
than
€
70 billion (in current values), with
a forecast CAGR of 12.7% from 2015 to
2020. HP reports that its customers alone
have produced more than 100 billion inkjet
pages since 2009 when it installed its first
production inkjet press.
Beyond traditional print
Inkjet printing applications include
coding & marking, addressing, security
numbering & coding, photo-printing,
wide-format (sheet, roll-fed and hybrid),
flatbed imprinting systems, narrow web,
tube & irregular shapes, high speed wide
web and sheetfed – to name a few.
Outside traditional printing and graphics
applications, inkjet has revolutionised
ceramic tile printing and it is growing very
strongly in textiles and other industrial
decoration applications, from pens and
memory sticks to architectural glass and
laminated decor.
Thus, inkjet offers opportunities for
expansion into areas that may not have
been considered by traditional print
providers. Paul Adriaensen, Agfa Graphics
PR Manager, said: “Not too long ago,
inkjet was praised as an alternative to
conventional systems for its ability to
offer single-off sheets, short runs and
personalised prints. But the technology
has also been introduced to new areas.
This creates interesting dynamics in the
industry.”
For example, Mimaki and other
manufacturers are introducing innovative
digital inkjet solutions with higher speeds
and productivity to meet the demands of
the booming textile market where inkjet
has a major advantage over other print
processes, as it is the only non-contact,
high quality, high performance process.
Better inks
Technical advances are primarily in new
and better control of print heads, better
inks and a much wider selection of readily
available and more affordable inkjet-
treated papers.
Ink manufacturers spend a great deal
of money on developing new inks that
perform well in the heads and provide
excellent print quality. This has produced
ink with higher density levels offering
offset-like quality at lower coverage.
There are also now more substrates that
perform well with inkjet, aided by colour
management improvements.
There are many routes to market for
inkjet inks. Some equipment manufacturers
formulate and manufacture their inks;
others sell ink that is made under license
by ink specialists. In low-end wide-format
inkjet, there are independent third-party
ink suppliers competing with the OEM.
This is probably the healthiest part of
the market for end users, with thousands
of machines sold each year consuming
millions of litres of ink.
This is not the case with high
performance systems, where the equipment
supplier typically provides ink tailored for
Technical
advances
are primarily
in new and
better control
of print
heads, better
inks and a
much wider
selection
of readily
available
and more
affordable
inkjet-treated
papers.
...continued
A Mimaki
TS300P-1800
textile printer
The Ricoh Pro
VC60000 inkjet press
