The expectations for Drupa are built around inkjet, AI and automation. Inkjet is (finally) going to be in position to replace offset litho as the technology that dominates print. Artificial intelligence is the technology that will be mentioned on every Dusseldorf stand, from AI ensuring that maintenance occurs ahead of a catastrophic breakdown rather than after, to driving workflows from web portals to plate creation or that inkjet press. Combine the two, and automation is no longer a nice to have but a necessity to counter the industry’s loss of skills. The visible end of automation will be a fleet of robots, either mobile devices moving paper or plates between value adding processes, or robotic arms loading pallets or machinery.
However, while the presses will surely receive the lion’s (or dragon’s) share of attention, finishing technology is putting on its crystal slippers in order to go to the ball. There is recognition that there is little point in having autonomous presses, hands-free workflow, design that exploits artificial intelligence, if what happens once sheets are printed has not changed greatly since the first Drupa in 1951. There has been automation in finishing before now: at one end of the scale is the inline process for printing a bill, folding and inserting into an envelope: at the other is the small standalone multifinisher, slitting, creasing and cutting a sheet into business cards or postcards.
The two ends are now colliding. It is one reason why Muller Martini acquired the automation from Hunkeler; it is why the likes of Horizon, Duplo and plenty of others, are combining processes in an automated line to deliver whatever printed product is desired. Inkjet has come to the point where similar looking boxes can print very acceptable quality and at increasingly acceptable levels of productivity and cost. Success though requires more than contact-free print. Success will depend on solving the finishing side of the equation, on finding the foot that fits the glass slipper.
Time for Cinderella to quit the castle kitchen
The expectations for Drupa are built around inkjet, AI and automation. Inkjet is (finally) going to be in position to replace offset litho as the technology that dominates print. Artificial intelligence is the technology that will be mentioned on every Dusseldorf stand, from AI ensuring that maintenance occurs ahead of a catastrophic breakdown rather than after, to driving workflows from web portals to plate creation or that inkjet press. Combine the two, and automation is no longer a nice to have but a necessity to counter the industry’s loss of skills. The visible end of automation will be a fleet of robots, either mobile devices moving paper or plates between value adding processes, or robotic arms loading pallets or machinery.
However, while the presses will surely receive the lion’s (or dragon’s) share of attention, finishing technology is putting on its crystal slippers in order to go to the ball. There is recognition that there is little point in having autonomous presses, hands-free workflow, design that exploits artificial intelligence, if what happens once sheets are printed has not changed greatly since the first Drupa in 1951. There has been automation in finishing before now: at one end of the scale is the inline process for printing a bill, folding and inserting into an envelope: at the other is the small standalone multifinisher, slitting, creasing and cutting a sheet into business cards or postcards.
The two ends are now colliding. It is one reason why Muller Martini acquired the automation from Hunkeler; it is why the likes of Horizon, Duplo and plenty of others, are combining processes in an automated line to deliver whatever printed product is desired. Inkjet has come to the point where similar looking boxes can print very acceptable quality and at increasingly acceptable levels of productivity and cost. Success though requires more than contact-free print. Success will depend on solving the finishing side of the equation, on finding the foot that fits the glass slipper.
Explore more...
Prayers for the future of the print industry