Heidelberg invests in digital future

Online print shop flyeralarm is the first company in the world to apply ‘4D’ printing and will be printing on sports balls from the fall.Heidelberg’s digital portfolio already encompasses printing presses, consumables, software, and services for a whole range of market segments – and further expansion is on the way. As part of this growth, Heidelberg is collaborating with prestigious partners including Ricoh and Fujifilm. Furthermore, almost a third of the company’s research and development resources focused on digital. According to Heidelberg CEO Gerold Linzbach. “As part of our expansion in the digital sector, we are investing in technologies such as digital inkjet printing. We are also exploring printing on three-dimensional objects and thus breaking into market segments that are entirely new to Heidelberg. Overall, we estimate that the digital sector offers us sales potential of more than EUR 200 million per year in the medium term.”

In fall this year, Heidelberg and Gallus are presenting a new digital printing system for the label market that incorporates Fujifilm technology. This solution is designed to meet the growing demand for a cost-effective means of producing short runs and customized labels. In parallel with this development, Heidelberg and Fujifilm have initiated a joint project to develop a new highly productive industrialized inkjet-based digital printing system for use in commercial and packaging printing.

Besides, with more than 400 Linoprint C digital printing systems already sold worldwide, Heidelberg has highlighted its expertise as the only manufacturer in the industry to successfully market integrated digital and offset applications. The company is working closely with its Japanese partner Ricoh to broaden its offerings for this sector in the near future.

More and more customers want to be able to run highly productive offset printing solutions in parallel with versatile digital technologies. Heidelberg meets these demands with the comprehensive software portfolio of its Prinect print shop workflow. Prinect can integrate all the management and production processes in a print shop into one standardised workflow to ensure they are managed efficiently. Heidelberg already generates sales in the mid eight-figure euro range with these offerings and plans to expand this sector with new products, for example in web to print, and multi-channel publishing.

Last but not the least, the Jetmaster Dimension from Heidelberg is an inkjet-based digital press for printing on three-dimensional objects. The very first application for this system is being implemented at one of Europe’s leading online print shops – flyeralarm, where standard sports balls are to be embellished with personalized printing, based on customer requirements. The next step is to move into industrial applications in the automotive or aerospace industries, for example.