drupa 2020 is approaching. For the exhibitors, the trade fair planning becomes concrete. In an interview with IST METZ GmbH, Holger Kühn, Managing Director Sales and Dr. Robert Sänger, Managing Director Development, report what they will be presenting to drupa (16 – 26 June 2020) visitors under the slogan “energy in light.”
drupa 2020 is approaching. What can visitors expect from IST METZ?
Holger Kühn: drupa has always been an opportunity for IST to present both our technologies and their applications in the form of concrete products, effects and results. Three years ago, we changed our slogan from “more than UV” to “energy in light”. We want to make this energy tangible for drupa visitors in the form of wow effects.
Dr. Robert Sänger: UV hardware, i.e. UV LEDs and conventional UV lamps, is state of the art in label printing and is also convincing in areas where we would not have expected it until a few years ago, such as commercial printing or newspaper printing, more and more users. The latter are increasing the capacity utilisation of their machines, which previously ran mainly at night by producing finished print products during the day. Our UV technology makes it possible. The fact that we were able to expand our spectrum in this way is also due to the application-oriented presentation of the technology at drupa. In June 2020 we will also be presenting a number of new products, including excimer lamps for matting, bleaching and disinfecting as well as for cleaning and modifying surfaces. Hot-air infrared drying is also making progress; it is in great demand especially in digital printing.
Megatrends such as Artificial Intelligence, Connected Customer, Platform Economy and Circular Economy are all shaping drupa – is this also true for IST?
Sänger: We have to adapt our curing and drying solutions to the trends set by our customers in the printing press industry. Currently, increasing plant availability with the help of predictive maintenance is a major issue. We work on this in projects with our customers. For years, we have been offering interface and control solutions that record operating data and, partly with the aid of our UV systems, process data for quality assurance. These solutions are now increasingly in demand. We also increase flexibility with hybrid LED/lamp systems. Of course, the circular economy is also an issue. Paint and lacquer manufacturers are working on increasing the recyclability of UV-curing lacquer systems. We will offer energy-efficient hardening and drying technology with the appropriate wavelengths. Users in the packaging and commercial printing sectors are waiting for solutions.
In your opinion, what are the most important market trends in the print sector?
Kühn: Our market potential has grown because commercial printing relies on our drying technology. Suppliers of offset printing technology use them, for example, for long perfecting presses in order to get their print products to postpress faster – and thus gain an advantage in the technology competition with digital printing. Offset printing machines with our LE/LED systems are used especially by web-to-print suppliers. This goes far beyond finishing and haptic effects – and has only manifested itself as a trend since drupa 2016. In label printing and other areas, we are also seeing analogue and digital printing technology growing together. Digital printing modules are increasingly supplementing analogue printing systems. I’m sure we’ll see some of that at drupa.
The growth of the print industry is shifting towards packaging and industrial printing as well as Asia. How does IST METZ prepare for this?
Kühn: We are globally positioned and have locations in China, Thailand, Japan and Korea. It is important to be close to the customer, to experience market developments on site and to offer service & maintenance reliability and short response times. This is another reason why our Asian subsidiaries are developing very dynamically. We have always been strong in packaging and label printing, graphics – and as your question suggests, industrial printing in particular is contributing to our growth.
How have your target markets changed technologically since drupa 2016 – and what further changes do you expect in the medium term?
Sänger: Packaging is the core market for IST. We open up new applications in graphic printing. And in addition to our contribution to analogue and digital printing processes, digital media are now also being added via LCD displays.
Which technologies in your market segment do you consider to have particular future potential?
Kühn: We see potential in excimer lamps and laser-based systems. In recent years, we have laid the foundations for this and will now increasingly transfer the technology into usable processes. Excimer technology in particular is finding more and more users. “Excimer” stands for excited dimer: with the aid of alternating voltage, noble gas-based dimers are energetically excited and then emit UV light with wavelengths of sometimes less than 200 nanometers, which is transmitted through synthetic quartz glass. In addition, the second major technology trend is industry 4.0.