Nine major exhibitors present preview of their exhibits

printcity alliance pre-drupa international Media Event 2012

When everyone is getting ready to make their participation in drupa 2012 (to be held in Düsseldorf during May 03-16, 2012) most rewarding, the exhibitors have started drive to present preview of their products portfolio to be displayed at the mecca of graphic arts industry. On this line, at the PrintCity Alliance Pre-drupa International Media event held in Munich during February 13-15, 2012, PrintCity Alliance members – including Eltosch, Leonard Kurz, manroland web systems, M-real/Metsäliitto, Océ, Procemex, Sappi, Trelleborg, and UPM, who believe in ‘the future of print’ and are investing in the future…, being active in Print: SEEN! LEAN & GREEN activities – announced their detailed plans for the mega event. SM Dutt, technical editor, Print & Publishing, who joined the preview moments, brings out the insights. With expertise across conventional and digital web & sheetfed printing, packaging and publishing, PrintCity members will be active at drupa12, offering visitors access their ‘Connection of Competence’ knowledge sharing and industry leading hot topics. In Hall 6 – the one stop drupa knowledge centre, visitors will see the latest products and technologies from PrintCity members and partners and gain cross-industry process knowledge in various special areas: including digital and offset printing – the best of both worlds, tuning-up web press – extending web printing performance, value added printing and packaging – touch the emotions and add new functions, and lean and green opportunities – improving economic and environmental performance.

Aerial view sketch PrintCity at drupa Hall 6Under the PrintCity drupa theme ‘PRINT: SEEN! LEAN & GREEN’, a shared networking environment will be created by the alliance members and partners with ‘hot topic’ visitor attractions PrintCity Alliance. SEEN! focuses on all areas of ‘value added’ opportunities, through advanced materials and techniques, plus their benefits in product branding, visibility, differentiation and increased business. While LEAN & GREEN focuses on the inter-relationship between lean manufacturing concepts and the latest thinking on environment good practice. Both used together increase profitability and ensure printers, publishers and packaging professionals stay ahead of the competitions.

Ronny MuellerEltosch (Booth C30 in Hall 6): Represented by their printing specialists Hönle, Eltosch and PrintConcept of the Hönle Group will showcast their unique portfolio of UV, UV-LED and IR/HA drying systems. Ronny Mueller, managing director, of Eltosch Torsten Schmidt GmbH gave presentation of their drupa exhibits. The sheet-fed offset specialist of the group, Eltosch is to present its successful Light Guide UV module at drupa 2012. An optimized reflector system and a unique design are at the core of this UV module’s success. UV lamp power up to 240 W/cm offers the necessary power reserves for demanding curing tasks. With a radiation length of up to 2.400 mm, even the largest web widths are easy to handle. With more than 40 years of experience in IR/HA drying systems for sheet-fed offset printing, Eltosch has long been known as a technology expert in this field. The directly heated EcoDirect and EcoDirect smart jets are ground-breaking developments in terms of power, drying performance and efficiency.

With the latest further development of this series, the ECOplus, Eltosch has once again pointed out its technological leadership: when developing this innovative drying system, Eltosch geared very much on the procedural requirements of the end customer. So Eltosch succeded in bringing up a modulare IR/HA system that can be easily adapted to any line speed, drying distance or special application. The advantages of the ECOplus include: simple handling, easy mounting, best energy efficiency possible and reliability of the manufacturing process.

Markus HoffmannLeonhard Kurz Stiftung & Co KG (booth D70 in Hall 3): Markus Hoffmann, vice president sales at Leonhard Kurz Stiftung briefed what the company is to present at drupa 12. The company has developed a finishing process that can conjure the most subtle metallic sheen onto digital print products. Previously, it was only possible to apply a true metallic gloss to paper or card stock using one of three finishing technologies: full-surface metal deposition, hot stamping, or cold foil transfer integrated into offset printing. Now there is a new way: a process Kurz calls Digital Metal. The advantage of the Digital Metal process compared to full-surface metallization is that the metal lacquer layer is only applied to the desired areas. Any areas that need to remain white, for example for printed barcodes, can be produced simply by excluding that area, rather than overprinting the area with white. Similarly, when light clear pastel tones need to be produced, omitting the Digital Metal foil in the relevant areas produces better results than overprinting metallic areas.

The Digital Metal coating adheres well to all readily available toners, which themselves will adhere to a wide variety of print substrates. This makes Digital Metal suitable for a large number of applications. The process therefore broadens the scope of print finishing and offers new possibilities for visually enhancing digitally printed packaging, labels, commercial print jobs, greeting cards or photographic books. This new process not only makes it possible to apply a wide variety of metallic colors to digital print products, but can also be used to apply holographic effects. Leonhard Kurz will also demonstrate how to turn a 2 D barcode into a design element. The stamping foil manufacturer has developed diffractive 2 D barcodes with an appealing aesthetic that enhances the value of the product. Rather than being printed, the barcode is applied as a silver coloured stamping foil into which the actual code has been incorporated as a diffractive, holographic-like structure.

Besides, the company will be presenting the latest generation of its diffractive authenticity feature, Trustseal. The optical product identification specialist has equipped this so-called OVD (Optical Variable Device) with new features that will stop counterfeiters in their tracks. How to make a virtue of necessity, and utilize the authenticity feature for visual enhancement as well, will be demonstrated by the company, presenting two new product lines that combine brand protection and brand design in an especially effective manner.

For sheet-fed UV offset printing, Kurz will be presenting a new cold foil called Luxor/Alufin KPS-OP that the company believes will set a new standard in quality.

Peter Kuislemanroland web systems GmbH (Hall 6): Being newly positioned and optimistic into the future, manroland will present itself as high-performance partner of the printing industry under the new company name manroland web systems GmbH, featuring highly productive solutions for the industrial web offset production of newspapers, magazines, and advertising material as well as many innovative products from the printnet and printservices divisions. Together with manroland sheetfed systems GmbH, the sheetfed offset division of former manroland AG, the latest developments will be shown. New newspaper press series COLORMAN e:line and the LITHOMAN S for 96 page heatset production will raise attention. Nevertheless the focus will be the dialog with customers from all over the world. “We are listening to our customers. We want to make sure that each customer gets the press that is most economical for individual demands,” Peter Kuisle, executive vice president sales, service and marketing, manroland web systems GmbH, who gave an interesting presentation during the PrintCity pre-drupa event.

The takeover of the web press business by L. Possehl & Co. mbH from Lübeck/Germany as their tenth business division means a realignment for manroland web systems GmbH. Capacities and company strategy today match the present market demands. Medium-size structures and behavior create new leeway to quickly and targetedly react to customers’ requirements. “We’ll further strengthen our leading market position in the business for newspaper and commercial web offset presses,” added Peter Kuisle. “Our customers can trust that manroland will continue to bring forward the industrial printing industry with products and innovations.”

Talking about complete portfolio for newspaper and heatset production, Kuisle explained, “We don’t just build large-format commercial and newspaper printing presses. Our customers can profit from a comprehensive performance spectrum of new presses and a holistic consulting, service, and retrofit offer, up to process-relevant consumable components. As it used to be, for newspaper printing the offer spreads from the single-width high-performance CROMOMAN in single circumference over the proven eight-page press series UNISET and REGIOMAN as well as the double-width 16-page press series GEOMAN and COLORMAN as e:line or in satellite design up to the 24-page COLORMAN, XXL series.” For commercial web offset, the 16-page series ROTOMAN in the DirectDrive and HiPrint versions is available, the 24-page ROTOMAN S, the 32- and 48-page EUROMAN, and the LITHOMAN press series in short and long grain format from 32 to 96 pages. Depending on the technical advantage we use sleeve technology or the modern blanket technology with small gap for the commercial press series.

Juha LaineM-real/Metsäliitto: Briefing the achievements of the leading paperboard producer in Europe Juha Laine, VP, IR and Communications, Metsäliitto Group, highlighted the best paperboard product portfolio in its field and their advantages. “Main competitive advantages in our cartonboards include light-weighting, product safety, and visual appearance. Kemiart product group has been renewed, providing enhanced printability and gloss, apart from optimum results with every print technology,” mentioned Juha.

Roland StasiczekOcé: Roland Stasiczek, international marketing director continuous feed printers, SBU production printing, Océ also gave interesting presentation during this pre-drupa event, explaining their product portfolio to be displayed at the show. Accelerating the transition, Océ is offering ColorStream 3700 Twin, which combines best-in-class production flexibility and efficiency with higher speeds to master heavy workloads. With the addition of the Océ ColorStream 3700, the Océ inkjet family extends the company’s leadership in the digital full-colour inkjet segment and helps a wider range of print providers make the transition from toner systems, other inkjet platforms or offset printing to high-speed digital printing.

The Océ JetStream 4300 mono is the fastest 30” inkjet printer in the industry running at up to 200 mpm (3.33 meters per second), equaling 4,040 A4/min or 24,000 B1 images per hour. From a productivity point of view, this system has roughly 20 percent higher output per shift than other comparable systems. While Océ JetStream 1900 printing system offers speed, versatility and minimal footprint. Providing a printing speed of 127 mpm in digital full colour, a member of the scalable Océ JetStream Compact series of high-volume duplex printers, the Océ JetStream 1900 expands the range from two field upgradeable speed bands of 75 and 100 to even faster 127 mpm by increasing productivity by more than 25 percent. This makes the Océ JetStream 1900, the high-end product of the Océ JetStream Compact series, the ideal solution for cost-effective personalized, full colour printing.

In parallel to drupa, Océ will be underlining their leadership approach to world class webfed printing, embedded in to the entire business value chain. Recently the company announced that the new Océ Production Printing Customer Experience Center in Poing near Munich has opened its doors to the public – with more than 4000 sq m of floor space now available – setting the stage for Océ flagships of continuous feed production colour printing and workflow solutions.

Mika VolkonenProcemex: Mika Valkonen managing director at Procemex briefed the company’s plan for drupa. Procemex builds a visual disturbance story throughout the press. The Procemx Print web monitoring system is an efficient tool helping to improve printing press efficiency. The system works with intelligent high-speed cameras filming various key locations throughout the printing process, giving key information to operators and management of press disturbances as video data on web breaks and their root causes. The defect / root cause story is easy to understand since all camera locations are synchronized with each other, showing the same spot of interest at all camera locations. This allows efficient determination of the problem, root cause and possibilities to solve it faster.

Eric Van den BruelSappi: Eric Van den Bruel, director, product development & marketing, Sappi Fine Paper Europe was presented how Sappi goes contributing the graphic arts industry. “First we were arrogant… But then we listened… and we decided to change…How sex impacted the transformation of Sappi…and gave birth to our 3 values. Venus… … We focused our energy…and we simplified…took actions…and developed new products through innovation,” Eric explained their story. Talking about digital paper, he mentioned, “Digital is our future – also heavily linked to people and personalisation. You click on Facebook and you have ads that have been specially selected to fit your profile; the retail magazines that you received are also linked to your individual profile. In a world where information is king, we need to find the best way to maximise the potential of this information – we can do this through digital.”

Thomas LinkenheilTrelleborg: Leading manufacturer of printing blankets, Trelleborg, will launch the ‘Institute of Contemporary Print’ at drupa12. A creative and interactive space in which visitors can relax, experience exciting art and discover the possibilities of modern print. The Institute promises visitors the opportunity to see more innovative printing solutions under one roof than ever before. Presenting the preview, Thomas Linkenheil, managing director, Trelleborg Printing Blankets conveyed, “We have been coming to drupa for many years now, as it provides the ideal opportunity for us to bring our high performance products and solutions direct to the people that can benefit most. We are the only printing blanket manufacturer to offer solutions across all three segments: offset, digital and flexo.”

“This year, showcasing new products such as our Vulcan Synthesis Evo and Rollin MyCoat, we wanted to go the extra mile and really showcase the capabilities of our entire range of high performance printing solutions. The Institute of Contemporary Print provides the ultimate vehicle for us to do this,” he said. The Vulcan Synthesis Evo is the next generation in sleeve development for the Heatset sector and features an innovative new design and carrier. The new Rollin MyCoat is a 2-ply mylar based strippable coating blanket. Available in three thicknesses, 1.96mm, 1.35mm and 1.15mm, the specialist construction of this new blanket makes stripping very easy; the innovative compressible layer of the blanket strips down to the blue layer allowing the end-user to see if knock outs are correct and precise. A specially designed top rubber compound also makes the blanket suitable for use with both aqueous and UV coating applications.

Thomas EhrnroothUPM: “The company once again will be at the centre of action in PrintCity area, together with our customers and Alliance partners,” said Thomas Ehrnrooth, vice president, marketing and communications, UPM, in his presentation at the pre-drupa event. It’s time to turn the page and write the next chapter in the story of paper and UPM is set to do it at drupa12. At drupa one can familiarise with UPM’s wide range of papers for every end use and printing method. New solutions, like UPM SwanBarrier, for the packaging industry, wide DIGI paper offering or low basis weights products, such UPM Eco product family, are just some of the interesting product examples and innovations. At the show, the company will also launch a new service for web based pdf workflow and colour management. It has been developed to produce colour accurate print products on UPM paper quicker and easier than ever.