Eleven breakthrough technologies win 2020 InterTech Technology Awards

PRINTING United Alliance has announced that eleven game-changing technologies have been selected to receive an industry-renowned 2020 InterTech Technology Award. The technologies entered for consideration were judged on their innovativeness and likelihood of having a significant impact on the printing industry.

An independent panel of judges deliberated over an outstanding selection of technology nominations that highlight the dynamic nature of the industry. More than half of the awarded technologies were digital presses and associated systems, including the first ever award for a textile press. Judges also recognized innovations in sheetfed offset press technology, web-to-print software, and solutions that streamline packaging print production.

“Our goal each year is to spotlight technologies which shape the future,” says James Workman, Vice President, Center for Technology and Research, PRINTING United Alliance. “Each summer, the panel of judges and I scrutinize each submitted technology to evaluate its degree of innovation and potential for impacting our industry. It is a challenging process to select the recipients since all of the technologies are impressive.”

2020 InterTech Technology Award Winners

The 11 technologies selected to receive a 2020 InterTech Technology Award are as follows

Customer’s Canvas – Aurigma: Customer’s Canvas is a web-to-print toolkit to bring designing capabilities for personalized print products and custom gifts to existing and new web-applications. Customer’s Canvas supports nearly limitless ordering workflows for all manner of print products and easily fits into any custom web to print system. Our product can also help printers create a site tailored for their unique needs, enabling them to break into exciting new markets that were out of reach before. The advanced image composition engine that accompanies Customer’s Canvas automates the creation of proofs and high res outputs optimized for printing.

All the building blocks for a powerful custom solution are there: an HTML5 web-to-print editor for personalizing templates or creating products from scratch, a server backend to support image processing tasks, and the ability to export designs to hi-res PDF files ready to go to print.

The utility of Customer’s Canvas isn’t limited to print products alone. It can also be useful as a personalization engine for other vendors such as brand management platforms, email marketing providers, and marketing platforms working with retailers. These vendors can rely on Customer’s Canvas as a powerful tool for maintaining brand consistency, streamlining ordering and approval workflows, and increasing overall efficiency.

EFI Reggiani BOLT – EFI: Owing to its cutting-edge printhead concept and high-performance ink delivery system for direct-to-textile printing, the 71 inch- (1.8 meter-) wide EFI Reggiani BOLT is the fastest digital textile printer available, delivering a top throughput speed of 295 feet (90 meters) per minute at a 600 x 600 dots per inch (dpi) resolution. It features high-end imaging in drop sizes from 5 to 30 picoliters, and also provides premium-quality 600 x 4,800 maximum-dpi resolution printing, allowing customers to address their full range of design needs.

A robust, industrial platform solution designed for 24/7 operation, it offers an innovative, low-maintenance, fast-startup recirculation printhead that delivers high-quality printing with superior uptime. Users can reduce the cost per meter of digitally printed textiles with the EFI Reggiani BOLT while creating a broader range of designs quickly and efficiently. Plus, the printer can include one or more analog printing stations as an option, integrated into the digital printer for special effects.

Esko Trapper – Esko: Manually trapping packaging artwork can take hours and requires highly skilled professionals. Esko trapper in ArtPro+ 20 handles highly complex packaging designs. ArtPro+ can trap files fully automatically. Exceptions can be saved and will be used after a change is made to the file, so there’s no need to retrap the whole file. It traps jobs 80% faster and is fully customizable.

Following an initial phase of pre-release beta testing, the new Esko Trapper was first made available commercially to customers in 2020, within Esko Automation Engine, DeskPack and ArtPro+ 20.0. Supporting the Esko submission, one of the company’s largest customers detailed how the new innovation led to a 70% reduction in the time spent on trapping

GMG ColorCard – GMG: GMG ColorCard stands for reliable colour, irrespective of the substrate. Corrugated cardboard, for example, is simulated on the digital color card. This provides a digital proof that accurately represents the final print result. GMG ColorCard applies colour science to achieve reliable and repeatable results that brand owners, designers, ink technicians and printers can trust.

GMG ColorCard shows a result in under three minutes. A packaging project often requires multiple ink drawdowns or additional cards to be produced later in the process, in any case, the benefits of GMG ColorCard are multiplied. Not only are the cards produced within minutes, they are also identical even if produced at different locations.

Because GMG ColorCard is fully automated, the system is simple to operate. A few clicks and entry of basic parameters such as ink, printing process and substrate is all that’s required.

HP Indigo 100K Digital Press – HP Inc: The HP Indigo 100K Digital Press offers nonstop duplex digital printing, enables PSPs to deliver more than one million B2 million duplex sheets per month. Printing at 6000 sheets per hour, the HP Indigo 100K press delivers significantly higher productivity compared with the HP Indigo 10000 series along with the look and feel of offset. This high performance is enabled by advanced paper handling and offset-like gripper-to-gripper design for precision registration, as well as unique Indigo digital advantages, including color automation, calibration, fast switchover between jobs and media and five-input source feeder.

H&B ExcelCoat ZRW Web Coater inline with HP PageWide Web Press T240 HD – HP Inc: H&B ExcelCoat ZRW combination Web Coater inline with HP PageWide Web Press T240 HD received the award for delivering extraordinary productivity with a touch of luxury, further driving the HP portfolio of inkjet solutions in the Direct Mail segment.

The ExcelCoat ZRW was created as an exclusive, fully automated simplex/duplex inline 22” wide post coater. This coating system is capable of running either aqueous (AQ) or UV cured coatings giving print service providers the best opportunity to meet customer’s ever-increasing demands and needs for post coated media.

KODAK PROSPER QD Packaging Inks and Film Optimizer Agent – Kodak: PROSPER QD Packaging Inks and Film Optimizer Agent are based on Kodak’s decades of experience in the development of inks and consumables for continuous inkjet technology. These winning fluids are revolutionary in enabling high speed, high quality and low consumable costs on films and plastics. The panel members were particularly impressed by the chemical breakthroughs that let Kodak’s inkjet technology print at fast speeds, even on non-porous packaging substrates.

Komori GLX40RP Double-Sided Press – Komori America Corporation: The Komori GLX RP is a “reverse printer” that prints the bottom and the top of a sheet respectively, in a single pass without turning the sheet over.

It has a top speed of 18,000 sph and a maximum sheet size of 29 17/32” x 41 11/32”. When equipped with the reverse printer, the GLXRP is available in a variety of configurations such as 8 colors over 1 color, 5 colors over 5 colors with or without coaters and everything in between. The GLXRP can also be built to match the print size of existing Komori 40” presses and is available for thinner stocks up to 20 pt. or thicker stocks from 8 pt to 32 pt.

The GLXRP comes equipped with state-of-the-art automation, including the ability to perform multiple makeready and washup functions simultaneously, the ability to sequence and automatically process jobs with no lost time in between, and the intelligence to consider many variables when presetting air and ink settings. Users can opt for an electronic vision system to detect errors, PDF comparison to confirm content, and the ability to automatically transport feeder and delivery piles into and out of the press. In operation, the GLX40RP can makeready and produce a sellable sheet in just a few minutes with as little as 20 sheets of waste and do it with a smaller footprint than a convertible perfector.

Uteco Sapphire EVO M Press – Uteco and Kodak: The Uteco Sapphire EVO M Press, jointly developed by Kodak and the Uteco Group, is a digital web press for the packaging market that uses KODAK Stream Continuous Inkjet Technology and low-cost, environmentally friendly water-based pigment inks and optimizer agents (primers) from Kodak. Sapphire EVO M is targeted at short to medium run lengths and delivers excellent CMYK print quality on a variety of plastic film materials and papers.

Sapphire EVO M prints CMYK inkjet at up to 600×900 dpi and supports a maximum web width of 650 mm and a print width of 622 mm. With production speeds of up to 200 meters per minute (650fpm) on plastic film substrates, it is faster than any other digital solution for flexible substrates. The press works with the new eco-friendly, water-based KODAK PROSPER Press QD (Quick Drying) Packaging Inks and KODAK PROSPER Film Optimizer Agent which are certified for indirect food contact.

Sapphire EVO M is available in custom configurations with in-line priming for different classes of substrates, flexo-white and post coating. The press features a unique hot air/IR drying system for ultra-efficient drying of the inks on non-absorbent substrates.

Xerox Baltoro HF Inkjet Press – Xerox Corporation: This innovative platform is about both balancing and maximizing value, volume and velocity (3V) – focusing on the ROI for those that print and who they print for. The secret to Baltoro’s 3V balance is a combination of the Xerox-exclusive High Fusion print engine, ink and print heads. HF ink delivers low-cost, high-quality performance and extensive media support without priming. That means customers can enjoy greater application versatility and higher image quality than ever before.

Automated Intelligence (AI) is one of the key differentiators for the Baltoro platform. It is a set of evergreen process controls and customer selectable features that automate processes in color and quality that help simplify onboarding, migration and production of inkjet jobs. A Xerox-exclusive integrated inline spectrophotometer allows customers to create their own color profiles for plain, treated and offset coated stocks that conform to G7 standards. The Full Width Array scanner at the heart of Baltoro’s AI includes the latest RGB sensor technology for real-time adjustments to quality and precision drop accuracy.

Baltoro also delivers best-in-class ‘inkonomics’ or total cost of ownership through its unique features. With the use of highly efficient infrared drying technology and no need for priming solutions, Baltoro offers significant sustainability, environmental and economic advantages to customers.

Navigator DFE – Xitron, LLC: Xitron’s Digital Front End (DFE) is a customizable, brandable, browser-based user interface for processing print jobs through any number of today’s high-speed digital and inkjet presses. Adaptable to the underlying technology of printhead selection, drive electronics and engine controls, Navigator DFE allows operators to prepare their job runs, manage the color accuracy, and drive the press at full rated speed, even when variable data is present on every page.

Based on the fast and accurate Harlequin Host Renderer RIP from Global Graphics software, Navigator DFE is a scalable solution designed to handle almost any high-speed press requirement. Existing Navigator DFE implementations include single color, multi-color, multi-printhead, single sided and duplex imaging conditions, found in transactional, label, and direct mail applications.