October Print Innovation Asia

Print INNOVATION

Asia

Magazine

Serving Printing, Packaging and Publishing Industries across Asia Pacific since 1985 Issue 10 2021

Talking Digital Transformation with Scott Mackie, FUJIFILM Business Innovation Full interview page 14

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_018 022 Contents Page 4

Sales Are Down: Do Nothing or Change?

6

Future-oriented product marking with inkjet

8

Getting the best out of inkjet through

process optimisation

10

Innovation Print Awards 2021 now open for entry

12

Xeikon continues on pathway to full digitization

of print manufacturing

14

FUJIFILM Gears Up to Lead Digital Transformation

in Asia Pacific

20

Understand Laser Technology for Anilox Cleaning

Plus In Speed and End Result

22

Accent Impression grows folding carton production

with Heidelberg Easymatrix

26

Three old machines are replaced by two

30

Upgrading its printing capacities

34

International Book Markets on the improve

36

Heidelberg presents its first Prinect app in the

cloud – Print Shop Analytics

38

Label printing press optimised at all levels

40

Three criteria to maximize your press performance

42

Accelerate innovation in wine and spirits

44

Book Publishers’ ability to respond to changing

market demands

50

Putra Naga Indotama puts its faith in BOBST once

more to support growth ambitions

52

Xeikon expands its organization in Greater China

54

News from around the world

Issue 10 2021

Print INNOVATION

Asia Magazine

Published by Asian Print Awards Management Pte Ltd 65 Chulia Street #46-23 OCBC Centre 049513 Singapore Print Innovation Asia Labels and Packaging Innovation Asia Asian Print Awards Packageing Excellence Awards Label and Packaging Conferences Publisher

Paul Callaghan paul@printinnovationasia.com

Editorial

Elizabeth Liew elizabeth@printinnovationasia.com Editor Sha Jumari sha@printinnovationasia.com Packaging Sales

Elizabeth Liew elizabeth@printinnovationasia.com

Print Innovation Asia Issue 10 2021

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Sales Are Down: Do How will you handle this type of situation. Well its a fact that during the coivd pandemic many companies are facing big downturns in their recorded sales. This article tries to help you find a solution to addressing this and keeping everything moving forward Q. Every one of my customers is buying less this year than last year. My sales are down. What can I do?

A. You really have a choice here.

The first, which, unfortunately, is the solution that most companies and salespeople currently choose is this: Do nothing differently, complain a lot, and hope that things change. Maybe the government will fix everything.

The second, which is my recommendation, is this: Move outside of your comfort zones, become a whole lot more strategic, thoughtful, and better at what you do, and do some things differently.

Analysis & Data Collection Begin by analyzing your market to identify where your opportunity lies.

Unless you have 80 – 90 percent of the total market in your area, you have an opportunity.

Typically, you’ll find that there is a market opportunity within your current customers, as well as an opportunity in prospects who do not currently buy from you. Collect information about both groups so that you can make good decisions about where your time is best invested. Then, prioritize those prospects and customers based on their potential.

Next, strategically develop plans to gain more market share from each of these two sources.

Create An Agenda Proactively create the agenda for the conversations between you and your customers. For example, if one of your customers is buying half of their purchases from you and half from someone else, identify specifically what they are buying from your competition, and develop plans to gain that business.

Ask yourself, “What would it take for them to buy it from me?”

Don’t settle for the simple answer of a “lower price.” Think more deeply, uncover deeper motivations in your customer, and answer that question, product by product, category by category, for everything they are buying from someone else. Here’s a great question to ask, “What has to change for us to do more business here?”

Listen and Respond Listen to the customer’s answer and respond appropriately. Put together specific, persuasive offers to each customer and methodically present them to each customer. Show them, specifically, why they should do more business with you.

You are not done yet. Understand the fundamental sales equation: Relationships = Opportunities = Projects = Money In other words, the quantity and quality of your relationships equals the quantity and quality of your opportunities,

Print Innovation Asia Issue 10 2021

Nothing or Change?

and those opportunities develop into projects (aka purchasing cycles) and those projects turn into sales.

If you want to sell more, you must develop more and bigger projects, which develop from more and bigger opportunities, which emerge from more and higher-quality relationships.

If your sales are down, either you aren’t very competent, (in other words, you are not very good at turning relationships into money) or you need to increase the quantity and quality of your relationships.

Work on Two Parallel Paths If all the key decision-makers and influencers in your current accounts don’t know you, then work hard to create those relationships. At the same time, look outside your group

of current customers, and create relationships with prospects. In other words, work diligently, methodically, and systematically at creating new relationships and thereby, new customers.

I realize that for a percentage of salespeople, this sounds pretty basic.

If that’s the case with you, there is power in refocusing your efforts on these fundamentals and work at doing each of them better. For you, the issue isn’t doing things differently, it is doing them better.

There is another group of salespeople for whom all of this sounds too different and too far outside of your comfort zones and skill set. This is not how you are accustomed to doing your job. Remember where we started, “move outside of your comfort zones,

become a whole lot more strategic, thoughtful, and better at what you do, and do some things differently.” If this is new and uncomfortable for you, then the next year or so will be one of the most challenging of your life. You’ll need to work diligently at developing these practices.

The world is full of people who will tell you that success in this environment is a matter of “secrets” or simplistic solutions. I wish that were the case.

Unfortunately, sales success is the result of years of hard work, constant improvement, and thoughtful, diligent efforts. If you are serious about wanting to change your circumstances, you’ll need to begin to change yourself.

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Future-oriented product marking with inkjet • Intuitive use like a smartphone • Modern and industry-standard design • Sustainable and cost-efficient in production operation The alphaJET5 X features a convincing new design.

With the new alphaJET5 X, Koenig & Bauer Coding makes it clear that special attention has been paid to userfriendliness. The design has rounded edges and eliminates raised knobs and switches. High-quality materials such as glass and stainless steel are used for the robust housing. This means that the printer is not susceptible to dirt deposits and can even be used in sensitive environments.

Another new feature is the modern user interface, which allows navigation by swiping gestures, just as on a smartphone. Depending on the lighting conditions, a switch can be made between Light and Dark Mode.

Depending on the production process, the start screen can be individually configured for the user.

Koenig & Bauer Coding has continued to improve the portfolio of its alphaJET small-character inkjet printers. The reliable inkjet technology with the proven Active Inkflow and Smart Start Technology has been fundamentally modernised in terms of both look and usability.

Low consumption and emission values ensure that the alphaJET5 X has the best TCO values.

Product marking meets different requirements in various industrial sectors.

Productivity demands maximum reliability and the greatest possible flexibility from all involved. All inkjet printers in the alphaJET product

range possess these capabilities in combination with a large and constantly growing ink portfolio.

The alphaJET5 X is also ready for future challenges.

Ready-to-use software in many languages and cloudbased systems already provide room for excellent performance. The extensive connectivity of the system opens up all possibilities for managed services and predictive maintenance in production.

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Unbox faster turnarounds Make the move to digital – and unbox your business with the flexibility to accommodate fast turns, versioning requests, last minute edits, and changing buying decisions.

With the EFITM Nozomi C18000 Plus digital press for corrugated packaging and POS, you can reduce process steps from weeks and days to hours and minutes. And personalize runs from one to infinity at higher margins and with lower costs – all in a single pass.

Let’s build your brilliant future. Together. Visit nozomi.efi.com to learn how corrugated converters and packaging printers are opening up new ways to say, “Yes!”

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Getting the best out of inkjet th To remain competitive in today’s print production market, commercial printers need to be agile and adapt to the ongoing changes being driven predominantly by the impact of digital transformation and accelerated by the pandemic.

Canon iX-series

The increase in digitally driven ondemand printing, combined with the uptake in online ordering, has multiplied the number of print jobs at lower volumes that a print service provider (PSP) must manage and produce. In fact, according to Keypoint Intelligence research, the average number of monthly print orders received by European PSPs in 2020 surpassed 3,500 – that’s 117 per day.

Meeting customer demands for the progressively faster turnaround of these shorter run jobs requires the right print production processes and technology, which means some form of digital production printer. And with the quality, flexibility, productivity and

Steve Ford, Managing Director, Production Printing Asia, Canon Singapore

cost efficiency of high-speed inkjet presses now recognised as being sufficiently mature to merit investment, more and more PSPs are adopting the technology.

One such company is CB, the leading distributor of books in The Netherlands. The production manager Dave Van’t Wout comments on the value digital inkjet has provided, “Digital brings enormous benefits. With offset, you produce separate sheets that then go through a production chain, from folding, gathering and sewing before a book is completely finished. Digitally printed books are created so swiftly.

With digital print technology, you can have a finished book within five minutes – that’s the beauty of it.”

But a digital inkjet press in isolation is

Philip Chew, Director, Regional Commercial Printing, Canon Singapore

not a silver bullet and such an investment may necessitate a complete rethink and a re-engineering of a business’s production processes, especially if your business has not previously embraced digital printing on any level. There are lots of opportunities to achieve greater operational efficiencies, reduce costs and enter new markets with digital inkjet, but there are also a lot of variables to consider.

However, anyone with experience of running a manufacturing operation understands the challenges of keeping an operation running efficiently and maximising the efficiencies of production. To identify areas where processes could be improved, manufacturing managers regularly carry out an analysis of the 4Ms – manpower, method, machine, and materials – the most important factors involved in the production process.

In taking this approach, it’s clear that being “lean” is not just about a single piece of equipment or software, but is really about looking at all variables within the operation, at how people are behaving as much as how well equipment is performing.

As most industrial manufacturing lines have already done, print production lines are optimising more and more of the processes involved by automating them with software or machinery that requires minimal or

Print Innovation Asia Issue 10 2021

hrough process optimisation no human assistance or intervention.

Take order intake, for example – the workflow efficiency of many business models (e.g. on-demand printing) strongly depends on the integration of web-based and standardized order management tools, whether these are open platforms for B2C or closed platforms for B2B. But the key element of these type of e-commerce platforms is the seamless interaction between the online storefront and the production workflows. Typically, if this integration is managed well, the benefits of these automated order management solutions will follow: reduced order errors, reduced time on order processing and issue solving, visibility of order processes, faster processing cycle times and improved efficiency in order fulfilment.

perspective, we often find that starting at the end and working backwords can be a more valuable approach. First look at what you’re trying to produce and then start to consider how that product can be best manufactured – not just in the most cost-effective way, but delivered with all the necessary parameters, which might include, for example, quality, a price point and a certain finishing requirement. The key is to challenge previous assumptions and be prepared to be self-critical and this process should be an ongoing one that is regularly monitored, tested and reviewed.

In the manufacturing of our own inkjet systems, we’ve taken away a lot of the traditional operator tasks that are associated with running a printing press. We’ve developed fully automated

Canon ProStream

That’s just one example, but it can be mirrored and needs to be mirrored throughout the manufacturing journey as there’s no point in developing an online portal, for example, which would allow thousands of orders to be taken if there is no automation or technology to handle those jobs. In the same way, while inkjet technology itself can provide a significant boost in quality, speed, flexibility and cost effectiveness, unless the workflow before and after the press has been optimised, a PSP is not going to get the best return from their investment.

We therefore recommend that PSPs take a holistic approach to process optimisation and, from a Canon

cleaning routines, we have camera systems that detect and eject paper that is damaged, we have real time monitoring of quality and can detect any nozzle failures in the print heads and correct them on the fly.

Alongside this smart automation, we’ve also developed a proactive service model, meaning that we now have real-time connectivity between the customer and the Canon factory, so that our service organisation can see and predict any machine issues, ensuring that the press maintains uptime levels that, until now, simply weren’t possible. All these things enable a manufacturing process to run more smoothly, save time and money and

deliver new opportunities for printing companies. This is all possible through smart automation and tracking and also the human involvement between service and the customer.

Mike Hughes is Managing Director at Latcham Direct, a UK commercial printer that has invested in inkjet. To PSPs considering the same move, he offers the following advice, “First and foremost, realise that an inkjet device alone won’t give you everything. It is part of the solution that drives efficiency - but all parts of the manufacturing process need to be considered. For example, we needed to consider the finishing capabilities to make sure these were aligned and could manage the workload and prevent bottlenecks.

We needed to consider the flexibility requirements in terms of the

application types, and our customer requirements in terms of quality, run lengths, personalisation, finishing and turnaround times. We also needed to have a partner that fully understood the journey we wanted to take and who could help work alongside us with the expertise and knowledge to ensure we delivered the right success. We spent a lot of time not just understanding the Canon technology and how it would fit and what benefits we would get, but we analysed the service capability and support mechanisms in place also.

I’m pleased to report that this has also proved to be a really positive outcome where we enjoy a great level of service and support from Canon. It is definitely about forming the right levels of trust and partnership.”

https://www.cpp.canon

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Innovation Print Awards 2021 now open for entry FUJIFILM Business Innovation Asia Pacific Fuels Creativity for Graphics Communications Businesses through the Innovation Print Awards 2021. The call for entry submission for customers who utilise FUJIFILM Business Innovation graphics communications print solutions starts now FUJIFILM Business Innovation Asia Pacific announced today the launch of the Innovation Print Awards (IPA) 2021. The annual competition in its 14th year, aims to encourage customers to further extend the boundaries of print by experimenting with existing and latest print techniques and technology.

IPA 2021 is open to customers in all the locations in the Asia Pacific region where FUJIFILM Business Innovation has a presence. They are encouraged to approach their local counterparts of FUJIFILM Business Innovation for more details.

All entries will be judged based on these criteria -- output quality, degree of innovation, business effectiveness and a newly added criterion, overall creativity. The new criterion is included

with the intention to spur customer’s thinking on the technical and creative applications of print, due to an increase in demand for flexibility and variance in the print industry such as personalisation and versioning, as well as printouts via various applications, on different types of paper and with specialty colours (beyond CMYK).

All entries will also be reviewed and winners to be determined by independent judges from the print and creative industries.

Apart from the application categories, there will be a single winner to receive the “Best Innovation” award, previously known as “Best of the Best” award in IPA 2020, and it will be awarded to the entry that is able to surpass the four judging criteria.

All winners and runners-up will have their creative pieces featured in the IPA Winners’ Booklet which will be promoted across FUJIFILM Business Innovation country websites, social media, and published in the regional print and packaging magazine, “Print Innovation Asia (PIA)”.

In addition, winning entries will be automatically entered into the Asian Print Awards 2021, and enjoy a winners’ showcase at FUJIFILM Holdings in Japan as well as in Graphic Communications industry events across Asia Pacific.

The deadline for submission is on 12 November 2021 before 6.00 pm (Singapore time).

Please refer to the Innovation Print Awards (IPA) 2021 website for more information below

https://www-fbsg.fujifilm.com/en/Insights/Article/IPA-2021

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So you’re a QUALITY Printer then

T

be different

HINK BIG

SHOW ME!

If you Win in the Asian Print Awards then you can!

2022 ASIAN PRINT AWARDS Details coming soon

Print Innovation Asia Issue 10 2021

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Xeikon continues on path of print manufacturing Xeikon takes another strategic step forward with the announcement of new areas of innovation. The Xeikon vision has always been to offer printers and converters a clear and viable pathway to digital transformation.

With its comprehensive portfolio and raft of new and innovative digital printing solutions, Xeikon is now ready to move to the next level. Printers and converters are searching for solutions that will enable them to achieve business growth, provide the highest quality and offer creative products to meet today’s ever-evolving consumer demand.

Online ordering has increased the need for automation, high -quality color controls and faster production speeds.

Xeikon’s extensive and innovative digital portfolio, in-depth knowledge of digital technology and long -standing experience working with companies that move to digital has positioned them as the world’s go-to advisor for businesses looking to safeguard the future of their print production and manufacturing operations.

Filip Weymans, Vice President of Marketing states: “In the last year, Xeikon has launched several new innovations and products. Now,

printers and converters are truly able to see our vision materializing and what that can mean for them. The careful build and structure of our portfolio is about to bear fruit, and we are now ready to present even more exciting innovations that will open up a way toward a digital future and ‘lights out’ production and manufacturing.”

manufacturing from anywhere on the shop floor by viewing the interfaces/ dashboards 24/7 on a smartphone or any other device.

Xeikon’s innovations include new product introductions in all different aspects of the print manufacturing workflow:

- Xeikon’s Label Converting Unit (LCU) series: Within Xeikon’s portfolio, they are specifically designed for converting industries and printing businesses. The LCUs, formally named D-Coat, are also cloud connected with machine/ machine interfaces. There are various options to choose from, e.g. entry level, wide web, narrow web and highend as well as more modular offerings.

Important to note that with each cloud -connected solution, operators can monitor print manufacturing from anywhere on the shop floor by viewing the interfaces/dashboards 24/7 on a smartphone or any other device.

Digital Production Presses - Xeikon Cheetah 2.0 dry toner technology: Now cloud-connected with man/machine and machine/ machine interfaces where the machines are in constant communication with each other , driving and monitoring print jobs with full automation. Earlier this year, Xeikon introduced two new models: the CX30 and the CX50 entry level dry-toner presses. Important to note that with each cloud -connected solution, operators can monitor print

- Panther 2.0 UV InkJet technology: New Panther models will include the Xeikon PX2200 and Xeikon PX3300, replacing the PX2000 and PX3000.

Services Xeikon is announcing a selection of new services to add to Xeikon’s already comprehensive Solutions & Services (XSS) and aXelerate programs: - Xeikon (Business Services) XBS – launching soon in North America In real time, Xeikon Business Services can translate data in the cloud from machine to machine and provide all the necessary and in-depth information on a dashboard that is available on any smartphone or device. With Xeikon XBS, printers and converters can check the performance of any press or piece of equipment at any time 24/7. They can check on efficiencies, costs and compare results.

Print Innovation Asia Issue 10 2021

hway to full digitization

- Xeikon (Performance Services) XPS – Xeikon will offer XPS first in North America Xeikon Performance Services will be included as a standard for the first 6 months with all press investments.

This is intended to help printers and converters identify which aspects of production need their attention. This software will highlight and visualize any key feature that need adjusting, including maintenance issues, training schedules or applications check. This service will be offered to support customers in their digital start-up phase. It will also provide Xeikon with the information needed to help their customers become operational faster when embarking on their digital journey.

- Xeikon (Color Services) XCS Xeikon’s XCS Pro 2.0 is a cloudconnected breakthrough in color management, it is a unique automated toolbox for the highest quality printed products. Extra capabilities include full automation for ‘on -the -fly’ profiling, color profile monitoring and adjusting.

It is now possible on a Xeikon press to automatically recalibrate the color profile when an issue arises.

The operator is alerted automatically,

and the problem is automatically escalated to the production manager if it persists. Importantly, XCS 2.0 can now be used for making color profiles on a variety of different platforms such as a flexo press, offset press, screen printing with digital or any competitors press. This extends what can currently be achieved and expands the variety of applications and materials that can be worked with. The Xeikon XCS 2.0 also has the advantage of simplifying the process for the printer and manufacturer as it covers all their needs for high-end color management.

Workflow A fundamental and key component of the workflow is Xeikon’s X-800 Digital Front End (DFE). The X-800 unifies every facet of Xeikon’s digital portfolio. Xeikon is now extending the capabilities of its X-800 workflow even further to expand and enhance the range of possible applications. The label version of the X-800 will now include Xeikon VARI ONE variable data workflow – a true differentiator – and combine it with Panther durable haptic printing and with Xeikon’s FEU (Fusion Embellishment Unit).

This truly unique development is set to offer the highest levels of variable imagery available today. With this unique capability, the X-800 will drive both the Panther and the Cheetah series of presses towards digital transformation.

Filip Weymans concludes, “With our latest innovations, printers and converters will be able to address the current and future needs of print buyers and brand owners. Having clear insight into their production environments means they can monitor progress and make quick and flexible decisions on the fly. This is why digitization can be a game changer. When we install the first digital press at a company's site, we are with that company every step of their growth journey. They quickly realize the productivity, growth and profit benefits of implementing a fully automated digital print manufacturing process. Everyone knows that making changes in a company’s strategy and operations can be difficult. Xeikon stands as the go-to advisor for printers and converters looking to the future for their growth and sustainable profitability.”

https://www.xeikon.com

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FUJIFILM Gears Up Transformation in As Print Innovation Asia speaks with Scott Mackie, General Manager of the newly-integrated FUJIFILM Business Innovation Graphics Communication Business Asia Pacific. In this interview, we discuss the regional impact of the integration, dedicated new brands and product offerings to digitise the print industry, and what customers in Asia Pacific can look forward to.

How has the transition to being an integrated Fujifilm been? What does the integration mean for your customers?

The integration is the biggest event in our company’s history, and one of the biggest synergies within FUJIFILM group is the Graphic Communications Business.

Integrating the divisions is creating the powerful ability within the segment that we didn’t have reach in previously, and accelerating the expansion of our product portfolio.

What has changed and how has FUJIFILM responded?

FUJIFILM has a proven track record of successfully transforming itself from a photo graphic film company to a developer of various high growth business. So far I’m glad to say we’ve ridden the storm well as the industry has seen more digitisation but it has been an incredibly challenging time for all.

We’re collaborating strongly in our go-to-market (GTM) activity and importantly our support structure for customers. Going forward, customers will enjoy long-term commitment from FUJIFILM in the print industry and as a business partner to grow together.

Most Graphic Arts players have faced difficulties in business slowing down especially during the lockdown periods or 2nd and 3rd waves, but we’ve seen real resilience. We learned that short run demand has increased due to decrease in traditional applications, some print providers have simply transitioned 100% to digital production as it’s the ONLY way to achieve what their customers are asking for.

With COVID-19, we guess you’ve not been immune to the challenges in the market.

That’s significant in the industry.

The change is real and accelerating and one of the ways to counter the

change in demand is adopting more digital workflows to adapt to the much higher order rates such as Web to Print systems due to the increased demand for on-demand in eCommerce.

For reference, look at how HYBRID is a new way of working, a new way of living in many ways and it’s changing the way we communicate. Traditional methods of production must adapt to not just survive, but thrive in the Graphic Communications world.

HYBRID Production is an essential part of the new market.

Revoria Brand You have a new Technology brand, Revoria. What was the development inspiration for Revoria?

Revoria is a herald of our new FUJIFILM Business Innovation as we begin expanding our regional and global reach. The brand name was derived

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to Lead Digital sia Pacific from the blending of “revolution” and the suffix “-ia” which means country or land. With our latest innovations in print, the company aims to cultivate new “lands” and create unprecedented value.

Why is the new series perfect for the next revolution in print?

As I mentioned, the brand is part of our strategy to expand both in the Graphic Communications sector and geographically. Revoria does not focus on a single aspect of the industry, but instead Revoria will bring a total solution to the market.

It comprises all three aspects of Production Printing; the Revoria Press™ with Revoria Flow™ deliver the print and control for our presses, and Revoria One™, which delivers workflow solutions. It is a complete suite of solutions to our customers.

How has the market response been in Asia Pacific?

In our regional launch event in July, where we unveiled the Revoria Press ™ PC1120 and Revoria Press™ E1Series on-line, we had more than 1,200 registrants and following this the demand from local operations has continued.

I’m sure customers are excited to have a closer look at the Revoria.

Would you be able to tell us more about in-person events for the Revoria line in the region?

Across the region as restrictions ease, face-to-face events are ongoing.

In the rest of the region, countries are leveraging online webinars to demonstrate and showcase the new Revoria line-up.

The regional team at FUJIFILM Business Innovation Asia Pacific are continuing to host regular webinars to share new content and insights to our customers and the industry.

With flight paths opening up for vaccinated travellers I hope we can see a return to live in-person events in the new year, but we will continue to have Hybrid events in the future.

The Revoria being a new series of production printers in Fujifilm’s portfolio, where would your existing products such as Versant and PrimeLink fit into this new vision?

Current models (such as Versant and PrimeLink) will continue to be sold under its current name until the end of its life cycle and we will continue

Scott Mackie

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to build out the portfolio with new technologies in the coming months and years.

FUJIFILM Graphics System Collaboration Since the integration, does FUJIFILM Business Innovation also provide FUJIFILM products and solutions such as Jet Press & Acuity?

The collaboration actually started a few years ago, so since the integration on 1st July, FUJIFILM Business Innovation also provides FUJIFILM Graphics System products and solutions including Jet Press and Acuity or wide format products.

At the same time FUJIFILM Graphics System operations will also start selling FUJIFILM Business Innovation products.

What sort of customers will benefit from the Jet Press? Why the Jet Press instead of say, the Revoria PC1120?

The Revoria Press™ PC1120 is targeted for commercial print, quick print and print room that requires SRA3 size or extra long sheets up to 1,200cm. Its single pass, 6 colour technology allows underlay of white inks and overlays in the same pass also.

There is nothing like it and with specialty colours like gold or silver to produce Pantone Color Metallic or FUJIFILM metallic colours, and white, clear and pink to expand digital printing capabilities such as varnish finishing and colour gamut expansion, it enables so much flexibility that is proving invaluable to many customers.

On the other hand, the Jet Press is positioned for commercial print or folding carton packaging, that requires up to B2 sheet size and benchmark

print quality. The Samba printheads that we use are delivering astonishing quality and consistency that’s hard to beat.

On that note, what about the packaging and labels spectrum?

What can we expect from FUJIFILM? Digitally printed labels and packaging are growing at a tremendous rate across the region and globally, especially as we move towards more sustainable methods which can be enhanced by digital production.

The FUJIFILM Development Team are developing new product innovation in this segment such as the FUJIFILM FP790 targeted for flexible packaging and the Acuity B1 Press that can print on metals for short run food and beverage products.

It’s an area of the market that we are continuing to develop and you should see more from us in the future.

Inkjet vs Toner – what are some points a printer should consider when deciding which to invest in?

The reality is that each technology has great strengths and will have specific target benefits for different printers and it really depends on customer’s requirements, and comes down to what they are producing, how often, how many, the size etc.

We have experts that can guide any business on the right technology, that’s how we should consider what is needed; business needs first, then consider workflows that can meet demand and then consider the correct printing press technology to produce what the business needs.

FUJIFILM Business Innovation’s core technology is developed from tonerbased technology. Toners have been

proven technology for many years, producing high image quality with specialty colour and at a reasonable investment with relatively higher running cost then inkjet.

On the other hand, inkjet quality has been improved significantly especially with 1200 dpi from the FUJIFILM Samba Print Head and it has become the standard used by many players in the industry. It is targeted at higher-end with relatively higher investment than toner-based technology, but achieves more competitive running cost.

Ultimately, we should help any customer decide, which one suits their business needs with proper evaluation of what they want to achieve.

For a commercial printer looking to go from offset to digital, what is your advice for them?

We are in the Graphic Communications industry for the long term and we look for long-term partnerships with printers, where we begin with the most suitable products for an offset printer to start a digital print business and grow together with FUJIFILM. As their business grows and expands, they can explore a higher range of products since we have one of the most comprehensive product portfolios in the industry.

To be competitive in the market whilst increasing productivity, printers are considering expanding their services into the sign & display or label & packaging segment which is an increasing trend.

To handle the new Hybrid environment, most printers are now also implementing online solutions and workflow automation to ensure longterm sustainable business.

Transformation from offset with traditional

traditional processes,

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https://fujifilm-gcb.info/FBNZ_Re

Print Innovation Asia Issue 10 2021

18 - Workflow optimisation consultancy services to automate customer printing workflow and control the best printing output quality

complimented with digital print and automation workflow will be critical especially to stay ahead of competition in the new normal.

EFI is also one of our key partners in developing solutions and we will collaborate on the Revoria PressTM E1-series and other Revoria products in the near future.

Industry 4.0 Solutions and Services With Industry 4.0 being a hot topic for many years now, robotic automations are at the forefront of digitisation in the industrial printing sectors. What plans do you have to forge the path to digitalisation?

Revoria One™ is part of Revoria brand strategy alongside with Revoria Press™ and Revoria Flow™ to maximise digital capabilities and functionality that conventional workflow can’t handle.

The Revoria One™ will give customers opportunities to customise what type of automated workflows or colour management they want to use. Not only to increase productivity, but also to ensure consistent output quality, reduce wastage, quicker turnaround time and allow effective communication.

FUJIFILM Business Innovation will also continue to build a strong relationship with our solution business partners and develop GTM strategies together to provide a comprehensive end-to-end solution.

What are some of the software partnerships that you already have, or are working on?

We have a strong relationship with our current solution business partners such as CGS Oris, XMPie, Solimar, Quadient, etc., and recently we established a relationship with Aleyant and launched Pressero; an SAAS affordable Web-to-Print solution now available through FUJIFILM Business Innovation across the Asia Pacific region.

We will continue to look for partners to expand and strengthen our solutions portfolio to cover all aspects of our customers’ requirements FUJIFILM Business Innovation recently launched the Colour Innovation Program. How does this programme help customers in the print industry?

The Colour Innovation Programme is our industry-recognised colour management training programs and services, delivering Fogra and G7 Certified levels of colour management service.

The main challenges regarding colour management in the industry are that it requires too much time, lack of trained staff, limited technical skills and infrastructure, and change of printer conditions such as toner or media.

What we offer is a holistic solution to these problems: - A team of highly skilled and certified Fogra PSD and G7 Colour Consultants for Colour Management training - Quality control processes and colour prints that are compliant with industry specifications and standards such as G7®, GRACoL®, and ISO (ISO 12647-8, ISO/TS 15311, etc.)

- Designing for Digital and Specialty Colours - Automated colour workflows to maximise productivity while reducing operational costs

We understand that every business and customer's specific needs are different.

Our highly qualified colour experts are ready to help customers continue improving skills and maximising the possibilities of FUJIFILM products and colour services.

With this array of services, customers can focus on what’s most important and continue growing their printing business.

Future Moves 2021 has been a big year so far, what’s next? Where are you going as a brand?

We have got a big, bright future ahead.

The strength of collaboration in R&D in combined technologies and expertise is accelerating and we will continue to develop new innovations for the wider printing industry that will truly, change the game.

I can’t say exactly what that will look like, but we will continue to lead and drive DX (Digital Transformation) in the Graphic Communications industry.

Please tell us more about the newly-established ‘Innovation Print Group’.

Innovation Print Group is a dedicated group where resources, knowledge, skills, and even current trends are shared amongst all members in the region. Such information is shared in the form of webinars, events and even online for easy access.

All this information is important to bring the best practices and latest applications to take one’s business to the next level. Innovation Print Awards is the platform to share applicatione and celebrate success in the region.

Industry experts and renowned speakers will be sharing their knowledge about the region’s progress and the latest print information for our Innovation Print Group members.

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www.cgs-oris.com

Quality improvement Environmental resistance Faster drying Eco friendly

Ink Saving is so much more than just reducing costs: It helps optimizing the entire production process. How?

Learn more

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Understand Laser Technology for Anilox Cleaning Plus In Speed and End Result Laser technology applied to the anilox cleaning is increasingly known, recognized, and accepted.

It is a technology that obtains extraordinary results and doesn’t need consumables, doesn’t generate waste, vapor or pollution of any kind.

The cleaning of the anilox is essential for an industrial printer to obtain the correct and homogeneous ink supply. Traditional systems have many limitations, such as high screen count lines, types of inks and geometries.

Laser technology is the only one that reaches the entire surface of the roller,

there are no screen count or geometry limitations, and achieves the maximum cell volume recovery. The laser, without the need of contacting the substrate of the roller, provides a cleaning without any mechanical, chemical, or thermal load.

engraving of the cells, and with a pulse rate adjusted to evaporate the material that blocks the cells. It can remove dry inks, adhesives, lacquers, silicones, and others. The elements that seal the cells vaporize, become dust, and are easily removed.

The laser beam moves along the surface of the anilox with a controlled power, to protect the ceramic layer and the

It is therefore essential to search for manufacturers who have a good knowledge of laser cleaning, as it isn’t an innocuous technology. In the case of Sitexco, after more than 10 years in the market and working constantly in R&D, they have a wide knowledge of the technology, which materialized in their Sitexco Plus product range that was launched end of 2020.

This range achieves all the advantages of laser cleaning, but it eliminates many of the limitations that are usually attributed to it: it is very fast, it is very intuitive, it cleans a wide range of inks and, above all, it offers maximum security.

TEG Technology has partnered with DKSH, an integrated solution provider for packaging, printing & converting in the markets India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan. DKSH offers advanced industrial solutions, tailored solutions and unparalleled after-sales services that help customers achieve higher efficiency and performance reliability.

Contact DKSH to learn more about Sitexco Laser Cleaning Technologies for Anilox.

https://www.dksh.com/ppc

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Print Innovation Asia Issue 10 2021

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Accent Impression grows folding carton production with Heidelberg Easymatrix Influenced by market demand for packaging during COVID-19, Accent Impression, a commercial printer located in Montreal, Quebec, recently expanded its folding carton production by purchasing an Easymatrix die cutter from Heidelberg.

The Easymatrix, which complements the company’s existing Speedmaster XL 106, secures Accent Impression’s position in the packaging sector and sets the company up for future growth.

Started in 1989, Accent Impression, a family-owned and operated business, has focused on the commercial segment for most of its 30 years of operation.

Equipped with a Speedmaster XL 106 that it installed in 2015, the company already had the capability to print on board stock but lacked the automated finishing equipment needed for efficient folding carton production.

“We always wanted to move into packaging and had our eye on the Easymatrix for many years,” said Vice President of Operations Adam Zara, “but we kept postponing investments due to other business priorities.”

After seeing the demand and need for packaging during COVID-19, however, the company knew it was time to accelerate its decision.

Installed in March 2021, the Easymatrix, which runs at speeds of up to 7,700 sheets per hour, is the company’s first full-size 41” die cutter.

Having drastically improved Accent Impression’s productivity over the very manual platen die cutters it was running previously, the Easymatrix has already generated a lot of business for the company.

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24 confident operating the Easymatrix despite never having run a full-size die cutter previously.

Today, Accent Impression continues to be impressed by the level of service it receives from Heidelberg for the Easymatrix. “We wanted a machine that provided the same level of support that we get for the Speedmaster XL 106, and we’re able to get that with the Easymatrix,” said Adam. “This machine delivers on everything we need – for half the price we could have paid for other die cutters and in half the delivery time.”

“The arrival of the Easymatrix gave our existing clientele the confidence to send us the packaging work they were previously sending to other vendors,” said Vice President of Marketing and Sales, Anthony Zara. “Through efforts to enhance our sales force and product development team, we’ve also been able to attract many new customers.”

Initially, Accent Impression’s goal was to shift its business from 100% commercial work to a 50% commercial-50% packaging model over the course of two years. Producing primarily food-based and machinery packaging, Accent Impression, together with the Easymatrix and XL 106, has

been able to provide its packaging clients fast turnaround times for quick time to market. Demand has been so high that the company is already seeing its production split evenly.

Tailor-Made for a Commercial Printer Getting into Packaging Cost-effective and operator-friendly, the Easymatrix “is tailor-made for a commercial printer getting into packaging,” said Adam. Thanks to the intuitive touchscreen interface, along with the motorized cutting pressure adjustment and quick-lock technology for dies and stripping tools, the Easymatrix boasts short makeready times and is easy to run. After a twoweek training, Accent Impression felt

About Accent Impression Accent Impression is a North American commercial printing and folding carton manufacturer. With over 30 years in the business, the company’s longevity speaks to the quality and experience of the people behind its print production. Accent’s flexibility, speed, and efficiency reflect the investments it has made in advanced print machinery, with the goal of offering its customers the richest results possible.

Image includes: Anthony Zara, Vice President of Marketing & Sales, Accent Impression and Adam Zara, Vice President of Operations, Accent Impression with Heidelberg Easymatrix

https://www.heidelberg.com

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Three old machines are replaced by two Major increase in productivity allows downsizing with three old machines replaced by two package-spec Lithrone G40 advance presses Nakatani Printing, Inc., with multiple plants and warehouses in Osaka, has built an integrated production system covering everything from printing to postpress and finishing. The company stands strong as a printer specialized in packaging. In March of this year, the company became the first to install two Lithrone G40 advance offset presses from Komori, one in a two-color configuration and one in a five-color configuration, both targeted for the production of paperboard products.

Both presses are equipped with the H-UV L (LED) curing system and feature low power consumption.

Interview with President Shingo Nakatani and Chief Operator Tomokazu Shirasawa on the

background to this equipment upgrade and the results of the installation.

Integrated packaging production system delivers quick turnaround with total quality control

President Shingo Nakatani

Nakatani Printing, Inc. runs a wide range of postpress equipment, including surface finishing, die-cutting, gluing, and carton-making machines, in addition to printing presses for paperboard. With its strengths in high quality and short turnarounds, the company is capable of integrated inhouse production.

including niche products, for which customers have strict requirements. Our most common job is food packaging, where high quality is required because of hygiene demands for cartons that come into direct contact with food. The next most common job is packaging for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, which feature stylish design and also have high quality requirements."

Mr. Nakatani says, "We compete with added value by specializing in small-lot, high-quality, and quick delivery work,

To meet these requirements, each process employs inspection equipment to ensure thorough standardization and

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LED-UV lamp

quality control. In addition, Nakatani Printing promotes the use of multiskilled operators, enabling personnel to work flexibly without barriers between printing and processing. These systems are contributing to more efficient production and shorter delivery times.

Lithrone G40 advance improves productivity by 30%-40% Mr. Nakatani commented on the new presses: "We were thinking of updating our two aging UV machines and became very interested in the latest Lithrone G40 advance printing press, eventually installing two of these new presses. As a result, since we do a lot of small-quantity and spot color work, the automation on the Lithrone G40 advance has significantly reduced our makeready time, providing us with important benefits.

The speed of color matching using printing systems such as KHS-AI has been staggering, and productivity has increased by 30%-40% compared to our previous machines. The two new presses we installed can handle huge volumes of work, so we retired one more old machine," he says.

The company decided to replace the existing three machines with two Lithrone G40 advance series presses due to the presses' high productivity.

This is a case of successful downsizing, where current production machines are replaced by more efficient presses that deliver higher productivity.

Regarding operation, Chief Operator Tomokazu Shirasawa says: "Everything takes just one touch of a button. The machine automatically adjusts job settings and all the necessary feeder settings, so operation is very easy. We often print on difficult paper, but paper feeding stoppages are a thing of the past." At the time of the interview, the machines were printing at the maximum speed of 16,500 sph.

Rock solid quality in multiimposition printing The previous presses did not have a colorimeter, and the operator had to adjust the colors by feel, which was quite difficult. Mr. Shirasawa says: "With repeat jobs, the KHS-AI preinking function sets up the colors, so we get accurate color right away. For some jobs, the second test printing is OK, and we have been able to significantly reduce waste in terms of the number of test prints."

In addition, in packaging printing, maximizing the imposition on the sheet is key to productivity. To achieve this

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29 element, color tones must be uniform over the entire sheet. "With our previous presses, sometimes the color on the leading edge and tail edge did not match. With the new machine, we don't have to worry about this kind of unevenness of color, and color after start-up printing is stable throughout the run," says Shirasawa.

Komori has advanced development to raise color reproduction accuracy on repeat jobs, a point that users have often requested. Such color reproduction accuracy would not have been possible without the formation of a uniform ink film thickness by KHS-AI, start-up color accuracy ensured by the ink key arrangement, and the thin, uniform water film enabled by the Komorimatic dampening system.

LED-UV slashes power consumption The company has now adopted LED-UV technology. "The power consumption of UV presses is almost three times that of conventional oilbased machines. We have determined by monitoring power consumption in each building that our new LED-UV presses clearly use less power than UV machines. Not only that but I believe we are also seeing a reduction in standby power consumption because LED-UV can be turned on and off instantly," says Nakatani.

Care must be taken when selecting materials for packaging printing using LED-UV. After testing various materials and confirming printing performance for LED-UV, Nakatani Printing selected Komori's K-Supply ink. "This ink does not become overemulsified and can produce deep, thick

blacks. Also, the matte OP varnish solves drying issues and gives a very good matte feeling," Shirasawa says.

The K-Supply Series products were developed to maximize the performance of Komori presses and offer both high quality and printing stability. Komori is committed to total support for printing and supports user productivity with not only printing presses but also materials and maintenance.

forward to continued support from Komori."

Mastering small-lot packaging printing with the Lithrone G40 advance In evaluating the Lithrone G40 advance printing press, Nakatani says, "It was an extremely good installation.

We were able to not only remove an additional machine due to the increased production efficiency of the new presses but also significantly reduce power consumption. In the future, we want to further train our operators in maintenance, and, of course, we look

With the global trend toward a smaller carbon footprint, printing companies are now required to respond to the priorities of brand owners in each industry.

Improving productivity through enhanced efficiency will lead to reduced CO2 emissions. Komori is committed to further technological innovation and will contribute to the development of not only printing companies but also the printing industry.

Installation of these two machines proved that the performance of the Lithrone GX40 advance presses and the effects of downsizing can lead to increased productivity and profits in small-quantity packaging printing, where increasing production efficiency is especially challenging.

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Upgrading its printing capacities • Fully automated six-colour press with inline coating • High level of process automation and individual press customisations •Top printing performance saves an entire shift • First mover when it comes to product innovations and plastics substitution A lift brings the plate trolleys up to the press gallery, which has been raised. This reduces walking distances and cuts the risk of accidents compared to manual handling of the large-format plates

The coat-of-arms of the Saxon electoral princes is ever-present in Coburg and surroundings. It was in 1353 that Margrave Friedrich III of Meissen inherited the lands which made up the territory known as ‘Pflege Coburg’.

The town has only been part of the Free State of Bavaria since 1920. Even so, the fact that a sheetfed offset press built just a few kilometres from Meissen has been in production at Coburger Kartonagenfabrik in Dörfles-Esbach since last year has nothing to do with past traditions.

This is not least due to the extensive automation solutions and individual press customisations: From its sidelayfree infeed DriveTronic SIS, to the disengagement of individual inking units and automated and therefore exceptionally fast coating plate changes, the Rapida 145 offers benefits that every press operator highly appreciates.

The investment decision was preceded by an exacting selection process. Senior commercial manager Robert Hein recalls: “Koenig & Bauer did a really good job here. The cooperation was professional and consistent at all times.”

After a series of process analyses and print tests, the company opted for a sixcolour Rapida 145 with inline coating facilities and a three-section extended delivery.

Supplementing these features are the EasyClean ink duct coatings to accelerate ink changes, QualiTronic The press delivery is similarly equipped with a full range of logistics componentspress gallery, which has been raised. This reduces walking distances and cuts the risk of accidents compared to manual handling of the largeformat plates

What was already an impressive installation was raised by a further 630 mm to maximise the efficiency of packaging production, and effortlessly handles piles of 1.8 metres and more in non-stop operation. Thanks to fully automatic pile logistics, uninterrupted production is even possible when printing on heavy boards.

Excellent performance Robert Hein and print manager Rolf Uting are full of praise for their printers and the speed at which they have become familiar with operation of the new press. This was not just a change of press model, but also a quantum leap in terms of automation and performance.

The sheet output per working hour

continues to increase from month to month. Regular performance reports, which include anonymous comparisons with other similar sheetfed offset presses, show that the Rapida 145 at Coburger Kartonagenfabrik is already performing at the top of its league.

ColorControl for inline inking control, which also extends to the rear edge of the sheet, and ErgoTronic PlateStretch (remote stretching of the printing plates from the console to compensate paper stretch). Using Koenig & Bauer’s plate trolley lift for inspiration, the specialists at Coburger Kartonagenfabrik designed an additional lift to bring the inks to the press. A chute is also provided to enable used washing cloths to be dropped into floor-level waste containers.

All these additional functions reduce walking distances and cut the risk of

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Several million folding cartons come off the folder-gluer lines every day accidents by minimising the need to climb up and down onto the gallery with full hands.

The new Rapida 145 is responsible for 60 to 70 per cent of the daily production volume. To play out its strengths to the full, it primarily prints on board between 230 and 250 g/m2. A first step saw the high volumes output by the Rapida 145 save one entire production shift on the older press, which is still installed nearby.

Sustainable packaging production The Rapida 145 makes successful use of unbent, process-free printing plates.

To extend the stability of the plates and to maintain process reliability despite the greater contamination caused by the dampening solution, the intervals at which filters are replaced have been made more frequent. Intensive roller cleaning is also scheduled on a weekly basis.

This is just one of the company’s measures to make its packaging production sustainable.

It is supplemented by a consistent energy management strategy that involves short- and long-term energy savings, continuous investment in energysaving machinery and infrastructure, and systems for heat and condensate recovery. After all, corrugated board production causes high temperatures, and steam and condensate to form.

The Coburg-based packaging experts also pay special attention to checking for leaks, for example from the compressed air systems, for which energy requirements are particularly high.

At the same time, the company has obtained all the applicable certifications for food and non-food packaging production, from ISO 9001 and FSC to HACCP and energy management.

Spectacular installation Significant conversion measures had to be carried out on the existing hall to enable installation of the Rapida 145 in its current location, directly at the entrance to the printshop, ensuring it is fully integrated into an end-to-end logistics chain. There used to be a loadbearing column where the feeder now stands. This had to be removed and replaced with a support system to the side of the press, along with a steel roof girder above it.

The installation of the heat exchanger on the hall roof was another spectacular step within the project. The huge dimensions of the hall required a 220-tonne crane with a jib length extending to more than 80 metres to position the unit on the roof.

First mover in many fields Coburger Kartonagenfabrik produces several million folding cartons every day. Alongside the two sheetfed offset presses, the production floor space of some 40,000 m2 is occupied by laminating machines for single- and double-wall corrugated board, diecutting machines, more than ten foldergluers, a window gluing machine and other items of special equipment. The 300 employees process approx. 45,000 tonnes of paper and board each year.

Corrugated products dominate, and account for 80 per cent of the final output. The board types used are F-, E- and B-flute, including double-wall variants, and they are used in every conceivable combination.

When it comes to product innovation and the use of renewable resources to replace plastics, Coburger Kartonagenfabrik is one of the industry’s first movers. It derives significant benefits from the current paradigm shift towards renewable resources. Moreover, the company’s machinery base and automation capabilities primarily target highvolume production. Product finishing is one of the standard services that is offered to major customers, along with warehousing services and the shipment of packaging products in batches. Some 16,000 pallet storage bays are available directly on site.

The company branched into offset printing for double-wall corrugated packaging at an early stage. To this end, it invested in the first of the latest generation of inline corrugated laminating machines. Between 2015 and 2021, the company proceeded with a major investment programme covering not only the building structure and machinery base, but also the entire IT environment.

The new Rapida 145 is an integral component of this programme, which, for the most part, is now approaching completion. All the measures that have been realised are clearly aligned with changing market conditions and more exacting customer expectations.

The customers of Coburger Kartonagenfabrik are primarily larger SMEs and major industry players from the German-speaking region and the Benelux countries, and represent a traditionally broad and diversified cross-section of the print market.

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Connect to Grow

33

Unleash your printing potential Connect to Grow. That is your key to stay ahead in a demanding market. By connecting with MPSConnect, you ensure the best in reliability and productivity from your printing press. You will increase competitive advantages and maximize profits.

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mps-printing.com

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International Book Markets on the improve The international book markets recorded a significant increase in sales in the first half of 2021 – both compared to the same period of the previous year and to the first six months of 2019, when there were still no restrictions in book retailing.

This was the result of a special analysis

by GfK Entertainment. As their study, which covers nine countries, shows, sales increased by more than a third in some cases within a year – for example in Brazil (plus 33.4 percent) and in Spain (plus 38.3 percent). In a two-year comparison, growth here was still 16.3 and 12.8 percent respectively. In Italy, growth compared to 2020 was around 36.8 percent, and in France as much as 43.4 percent.

The sales curve in the first half of 2021 has so far been somewhat flatter in the Netherlands (plus 4.3 percent). In Germany, the trend was also positivesingle digits compared to the first half of 2020 (plus 4.1 percent), but down 4.9 percent compared to 2019. The Swiss book market ended the first six months of 2021 up 11.1 percent, while Portugal and the Belgian regions of Flanders and Wallonia reported increases of 18.9, 16.8 and 33.8 percent, respectively.

Non-fiction trumps fiction Sales growth in the first half of 2021 was accompanied by increased average prices in almost all countries. Although

sales also developed positively in most cases, the growth rates here were lower than for sales in eight of the nine regions analyzed.

In most of the countries analyzed, nonfiction and how-to books grew even more strongly than the fiction segment. Cookbooks, life and financial guides, and feminism titles were also in high demand. Comics, including mangas in particular, were the fastestgrowing product group in France, Italy and Spain.

Streaming boom also reaches the book market Since the early 2000s, cinema blockbusters such as "Harry Potter"

and "The Tribute to Panem" had fueled sales of the corresponding books. Now that many cinemas have had to close for months and streaming services are booming unabatedly, the influence of hit series such as "Bridgerton" or "Lupin" is becoming increasingly apparent.

These helped the books by Julia Quinn and Maurice Leblanc gain increased attention in Belgium, France, Italy and Spain, for example. The mini-series "The Queen's Gambit," also released on Netflix, led to a run on game and chess manuals in Italy.

Interest in e-books wanes The e-book sales channel, which was considered separately, was unable to continue the positive development from the previous year in many places.

While digital books were still in the black in Flanders (up 16.5 percent) and the Netherlands (up 12.7 percent) in 2020 as a whole, for example, the figures there were down 3.6 and 5.3 percent respectively in the first half of 2021. Switzerland and Spain also reported a decline, whereas according to Gfk Entertainment, the e-book trend in Germany (plus 9.6 percent) is continuing.

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Korn it Digital

bonding

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Kornit Digital Asia Pacific

www.kornit.com #simpleprintingproduction #sustainablefashion #wearyourcare Enquiry: apac@kornit.com

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Heidelberg presents its cloud – Print Shop Anal • Access via Heidelberg Plus Portal with single sign-on • Application developed together with customers • Digital Heidelberg ecosystem gaining momentum / significant customer benefits of digitization clear to see Heidelberg is taking the digitization of its customer relationships incorporating useful value-added services to the next level. “Heidelberg Plus” is the new gateway to Heidel-berg’s digital ecosystem, which customers can enter with a single login and access all of Heidelberg’s digital offerings. Future applications will make use of cloud technologies, IoT, Big Data, and AI to offer customers added value when it comes to running their com-panies.

Under the slogan “Always a Step Ahead”, Heidelberg is now showcasing Prinect Print Shop Analytics, the

first cloud-based Prinect app offered through Heidelberg Plus that will become available to customers in the course of the coming year. This is a tool that en-ables users to determine the current performance of a print shop based on real-time data from the most important KPIs. Monitor KPIs in real time with Print Shop Analytics and optimize produc-tion.

Many print shops still control their processes using outdated data and only have limited access to their current

KPIs, which makes it difficult to quickly optimize many processes. Prinect Print Shop Analytics offers an integrated solution that records, evaluates, and monitors the KPIs of a print shop in real time to optimize production by suggesting con-crete courses of action with the help of artificial intelligence.

Customers can access it via Heidelberg Plus with an integrated user interface and single sign-on authentication.

All generated dashboards, with the corresponding analytics and recommendations, are avail-able to all authorized users at any location on their computer, tablet, or smartphone, as required. There is a notification system in place here that actively alerts the user to any problem areas.

“With the first Prinect app available in Heidelberg Plus, our Heidelberg digital ecosystem is gaining momentum, and the customer benefits of digitization are becoming increasing-ly apparent,” says Ludwig Allgoewer, Global Head of Sales & Marketing at Heidelberg.

Market surveys have shown that our customers urgently want the functions of an app like Prinect Print Shop Analytics that they can use to quickly boost efficiency while systems are running, and also reduce costs at the same time."

Heidelberg is developing Print Shop Analytics in collaboration with cus-tomers In order to make the app ready for the market as quickly as possible, while also offering the desired practical functions, Print Shop Analytics is being developed as part of a joint pro-ject between Heidelberg and Pinguin Druck in

Print Innovation Asia Issue 10 2021

first Prinect app in the lytics

Berlin: “Collaborating with Pinguin Druck is having a very positive effect on the user value of the very first cloudbased Prinect app,” says Christopher Berti, Head of Software Solutions at Heidelberg. “This approach ensures that the functions we include in the app reflect actual market demands.”

“Print Shop Analytics is becoming a game changer in our day-to-day work,” says Alexan-der Mende, Managing Director at Pinguin Druck. “I will now be notified immediately by Print Shop Analytics if one of our printing presses fails or the print shop misses its targets.

These notifications are set according to my personal preferences and I can see the detailed data immediately. This feature and the recommended courses of action the tool suggests help me make the right decision to promptly solve a problem.”

Heidelberg Plus supports print shop management and offers customers additional value With Heidelberg Plus, the company is combining existing digital applications with new services for customers. In the future, a single point of access is all users will need for a complete overview of all the digital tools and services in the Heidelberg portfolio. This will make it quick and easy to obtain information, purchase items (eShop), and monitor their business. Over 1,800 print shops already use Heidelberg Assistant (HDA) to access their production data. To obtain the relevant services, they need to be registered or have purchased specific services as a contract customer.

What is already impressing users more than anything is the option of using mobile devices to monitor machine

operation, purchase consumables, or create service tickets. Regular HDA users range from large businesses with sites located in dozens of different countries to SMEs with just one site.

“Key elements of the Heidelberg digital ecosystem such as HDA and the eShop have already developed very encouragingly,” explains Allgoewer.

“By merging these and other existing applications, and also integrating new ones, we will fur-ther enhance the benefits for our customers.”

The company recently unveiled the new gateway to the HD digital ecosystem “Heidelberg Plus” to the public at the China Print trade show this past summer. The tool is now set to be showcased at the Print Media Center in Germany as part of Innovation Week 2021.

https://www.heidelberg.com

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Label printing press optimised at all levels The Gallus Labelmaster is now being delivered with extensive new and optimised features. The new operating concept not only ensures greater user convenience for the machine operator, but also less waste in the daily production.

Shorter machine, less waste Gallus can now offer an even more compact machine system. The Gallus Labelmaster now has a shorter machine length, as corona, web cleaning, transport and web tension are integrated in the new winding units, which means that one module can be saved. The compact design enables reduced waste thanks to a machine length that is up to 3.30 meters shorter, thus ensuring an improved ecological footprint compared to the previous version.

is no longer necessary and the operator can use the trolley flexibly as required, even on other machines. Simple and flexible loading of the substrate is the result.

New features as standard configuration Further optimised features such as improved accessibility to the corona pre-treatment and web transport modules with a quick-change system for quick and easy cleaning complete

the further development of the Gallus Labelmaster.

More than 160 installations of the Gallus Labelmaster worldwide speak for the success of this flexible machine system. The Labelmaster is now available with these new features, partly included in the package as standard or depending on the wishes and needs of the printing company.

“Ease of use” “Operator friendliness”, i.e. the simple and intuitive operation of the Labelmaster by the machine operator, has always been the focus of the further development of the Gallus Labelmaster. With this respect, the winder units can now not only be operated locally directly on the winder, but their parameters can be viewed and adjusted centrally via the touch panel in the human machine interface (HMI) of the machine system - in line with the "ease of use" concept.

In this regard the loading process of the substrate has also been redesigned and completely revised. With a new trolley system, i.e. a mobile lift outside the printing press, the substrate can be easily loaded and unloaded without touching the ground. An integrated lift

https://www.gallus-group.com

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19 – 22 October 2022

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Three criteria to maximize

Did you know that….?

Fact #1: Many printing presses are standing still nearly 70% of the time. This downtime is due to lower speeds, long change-overs, unmanned machines and administration time. This is a significant amount of downtime and lost revenue that many people aren’t aware of.

Fact #2: For many operators and print shop managers, it’s difficult to get insight in the performance of their printing press. They can’t look inside and know what’s happening with the press—only what’s going on around it. Yet, with the right insights they can achieve annual savings of up to 10%, improve capacity by 20% and reduce waste by 5% within a year.

Fact #3: Combining sensor technology with the internet (IoT) in printing processes will uncover the hidden potential of

machines and can bring up to 30% improvement in performance.

Over the years, MPS has focused on connectivity and digital workflow to improve consistency in print quality and higher productivity. From a global analysis of nearly 100 presses, MPS knows how to maximize your press performance and maximize profitability of your business.

In this article, we’ll give you three criteria to maximize your press performance.

1. Industry 4.0: get insight in your press performance To optimize the overall performance of your business, you need more than just improved print quality and higher productivity.

To maximize the productivity and profitability of your business, it’s time to deep-dive into the machine. Industry 4.0 makes this possible by using sensor technology. Hundreds of sensors will

Print Innovation Asia Issue 10 2021

e your press performance

By Tim Klappe Managing Director Asia Pacific at MPS and based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

provide you with details about the performance of the press. Using the data from the press helps improve the performance by identifying bottle necks. To compare with Formula 1 racing; this is what Mission Control teams do!

give you a clear vision of exactly how your printing press is performing.

Now, your printing press becomes an intelligent machine and a tool for performance improvement.

Depending on your MPSConnect package, you will connect with our team of experts once per quarter or month. We’ll give you unopinionated, factual data or more in-depth advice.

3. Implement, review, and improve Sensor technology, analytics, and

With MPSConnect, you can measure all press activities and human interference of the operator with hundreds of sensors. This information includes speed, power, events, alarm messaging, humidity, temperature, accurate changeover time, web tension of the infeed and outfeed, exact set-up times, waste and more.

Algorithms and software converts this real-time data into an array of reports and charts. This data and the reports

2. Work with expert teams Based on data insights via MPSConnect, MPS supports production managers and operators in identifying opportunities to achieve improvements.

performance reports alone will not bring success. You must have the willingness to analyze and interpret the data and implement actions for improvements.

From our global analysis of unbiased data from nearly 100 presses, MPS knows many activities on the press can be improved. Focused support from a team of experts can help you shorten job production time and minimize material waste to maximize profits. MPS does this by benchmarking the industry leaders, identifying bottlenecks, gaps, and best practices.

To stay competitive in the market, it’s important for every label printer to get insights into press activities to identify opportunities for production improvements.

With your MPS press and MPSConnect, we put you in Pole Position. But it requires performance optimization to win the race!

https://www.mps4u.com

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Accelerate innovation in wine and spirits VERY DENNISON, ESTAL and LEONHARD KURZ are launching Make a Mark, a three-year collaboration initiative for designers, printers and materials providers intended to break new groun in sustainable and innovative wine and spirits packaging.

“Since wine and spirits packaging is more than just a glass bottle and stopper, we thought, why not join forces with the most respected industry leaders in labeling and finishing — Avery Dennison and LEONHARD KURZ to see how much further we can push creative innovation?” Estal CEO Gerard Albertí said of the initiative. “And what if we invited some of the world’s top packaging designers and turned this into a platform for showcasing new creative ideas while also building an inspiring design community?”

Make a Mark will kick off at Luxepack Monaco with the unveiling of a book eaturing bold and provocative concepts by 18 of the world’s most creative packaging designers. Printed in a limited edition of 2,000 copies, the book is the first of several expected in a Make a Mark series, and one of many planned projects aimed at bringing together brands, designers, and materials providers over the next three years.

“We are all more innovative when we collaborate,” said Vladimir Tyulpin, Avery Dennison’s Market Segment Leader – Wine & Spirits. “And innovation is more essential than ever.

The urgent need for sustainable packaging, the new ways COVID-19 is forcing us to shop, and the increasingly crowded playing fields in wine and spirits all demand bold new approaches, from the bottle shape to the label material to the design. Make a Mark was created to kick down the barriers that separate the contributors to wine and spirits packaging and give us more opportunities to collaborate and innovate.”

“With Make a Mark’s tremendous synergy and inspiration for those involved, we want to break boundaries and make impossible things possible”, said Stéphane Royère, Head of Business Area Packaging and Print at LEONHARD KURZ. A focus on sustainability, luxury and innovation Some of the most awarded packaging design studios on a worldwide basis decided to come on board and be part of the Make a Mark project — Anagrama from Mexico, Boldrini & Ficcardi from Argentina, Butterfly Cannon from United Kingdom, Chad Michael Studio from USA, Denomination from Australia, Dragon Rouge from China, JVD Estudio from Chile, MARK Studio from South Africa, Motherland from Sweden, Pocket Rocket Creative from UK, RitaRivotti from Portugal, Ruska Martín Associates from Germany and Spain, SeriesNemo and Supperstudio from Spain, Servaire & Co amd Studio Créa’ Design from France, Smith

Lumen and Spazio Di Paolo from Italy.

They were asked to develop a wine or spirit brand concept combining sustainability, luxury and innovation.

They were free to bring their boldest ideas to life without the usual constraints of costs, tight deadlines, and client requirements. Access to some of the industry’s latest technologies enabled them to execute their ideas.

Among the concepts featured in the book are a wine brand that draws energy and color from Argentina’s move toward democracy in the early 1980s; a whiskey brand that pairs elegance with acknowledgement of the crises facing freshwater and oceans; an acquavite that pays homage to the volcanic origins of Sicily; and a gin inspired by the iconic 1990s TV show Baywatch, complete with a mini life preserver that gauges the level of liquid in the bottle.

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Learn more

New solution for direct-to-substrate proofing on uncoated packaging media - now available for FLEX PACK!

www.cgs-oris.com

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Book Publishers’ ability t changing market deman publishers’ economic objectives, expands their market opportunities, and lets them enrich the content and the perceived value of their books.

Introduction Digital printing technology continues to transform book manufacturing by offering print providers and publishers new options to improve efficiency and profitability. While book printers have been producing books on digital presses for some time, innovations in inkjet printing are moving more work from offset to digital, improving productivity, and offering new opportunities for products and services.

Production inkjet devices are a key driver for moving book pages from offset to digital printing presses. These ultra-high-speed digital presses have redefined the economics of printing books on demand in larger quantities, without sacrifices in quality. According to IT Strategies, more than 10% of all book pages are now printed on production inkjet presses, a percentage that will continue to grow at doubledigit rates for the foreseeable future.

This report highlights the critical trends influencing book publishing and how production inkjet devices can meet publishers’ requirements.

It will examine how inkjet supports

Books, a resilient print application Printed books continue to demonstrate their value, relevance, and resilience. As the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and quarantines throughout most of 2020 brought consumers an unexpected avalanche of homebound hours, many filled the time by reading printed books. In turn, print book sales in the U.S. soared to their best yearly numbers since 2010. According to The NDP Group, which claims to track 85% of trade print books sold in the U.S. through its NDP BookScan survey, unit sales volume in 2020 rose 8.2%, year over year, to reach 751 million units.

Sales momentum continued into 2021.

Citing additional data from NDP BookScan, Publishers Weekly reported that unit sales jumped 18.5% in the first six months over the same period in 2020.

Another contributing factor to the boom in book sales is demand for

books that address current events and issues that people care passionately about, such as social justice and race.

The NDP Group says that titles focusing on these topics grew by 160% – more than 700,000 units – from January through May 2021 compared to the previous year.

As in-person gathering restrictions wane, publishers now wonder how reading and book buying will fare as people reconnect with the kinds of out-of-home entertainment that they couldn’t enjoy while sheltering in place from COVID-19. Digital printing offers publishers the ability to better respond to fluctuations in demand.

Economics of digital printing for books For over two decades, books have been produced on digital printing systems.

The potential that publishers saw in digital printing then has reached full fruition today.

A catalyst for digital transformation of book printing was unit cost: the sum of the charges incurred in printing one copy of a book. With conventional printing on offset equipment, unit

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to respond to nds cost declines as the number of copies increases. This is a good proposition for bestsellers, but not for smaller runs, in which the unit cost of the first few hundred copies can be prohibitively high.

Before digital printing, this meant that publishers often had to buy a minimum number of copies specified by the printer in order keep unit costs under control. By accepting these offset “minimums”, publishers sometimes found themselves inventorying more copies than they actually would be able to sell – a requirement that deliberately built the waste of unsold units into the bookselling equation.

In contrast, the unit cost of a book printed digitally stays the same from the first copy to the end of the run.

There’s no decrease in unit cost, no matter how many units are printed. In small quantities, the unit cost of a book printed on a digital press will be lower than that of a book printed on an offset press. In the 1990s, this was precisely the break from the minimum quantity requirements of offset printing that publishers were looking for.

Today, the static unit cost of digital print is the foundation of short- and medium-run book manufacturing.

A survey of publishers by NAPCO Research found that nearly half (46%) of those who printed books on digital presses reported experiencing savings in unit cost. In the same study, nearly three-quarters (74%) said that digital enabled them to print short-run titles that offset couldn’t produce economically (Figure 1). Even more (77%) cited the reduced life cycle cost of warehousing and returns as additional key benefits.

Digital printing’s ability to print books in economical quantities, all the way

down to just one unit, offers publishers a powerful tool to address variations in demand. In this scenario, minimums, inventories, and sell-through projections don’t apply, because the model has shifted from print-then-sell to sell-then-print. Publishers no longer have to guess at the number of copies needed or fulfill from existing stock – they simply direct their print service providers to print and ship the book (or books) when the order is received.

Eliminating inventory releases the cash tied up every time a book is printed, bound, and warehoused prior to sale.

Publishers can instead use the capital for new acquisitions, marketing, and other activities that generate a return on investment. This enables them to concentrate on the core business of book publishing without being distracted by manufacturing and logistics.

With this kind of support, publishers gain more flexibility to produce new works that deserve an audience but may not have a sales potential sufficient to justify the cost of offset printing. Digital printing offers the same salvation to backlist titles, which now can be reprinted economically on digital equipment instead of missing out on a next edition because the cost of an offset run would be too high.

This means that the “out-of-print” book has become a thing of the past, given that any title can be reprinted digitally and sold for profit as long as somebody, somewhere wants to purchase a copy of it. Better than half (57%) of book printers surveyed by NAPCO Research affirmed that increasing sales by producing short runs of backlist and out-of-print titles on demand was one way in which their publisher customers used digital printing to grow revenue (Figure 2).

Publishers have come to appreciate digital printing as a solution for reducing their production costs, shrinking their inventories, and expanding and preserving their book lists. Lately, they also are seeing domestically based providers of digital printing services as alternatives to the overseas printing companies to which many publishing houses have outsourced production over the years.

These foreign printers are cost competitive, but their advantage often erodes when the expense and delay of international shipping are factored in. Supply chain upheavals arising from the COVID-19 pandemic have bolstered the argument for bringing book manufacturing back home. The Economist, for example, recently reported that the cost of shipping goods from China to ports on America’s west coast has quadrupled from its prepandemic level.

These trends point to book printing as an incredibly strong opportunity for production inkjet printing as publishers re-shore manufacturing from overseas sources.

The importance of sustainability As consumers concern for the environment grows more significant, no discussion on the business of book publishing can overlook the responsibility of publishers and printers to produce books sustainably and reduce excess waste.

Conventional printing, with its inherent physical waste and more hazardous chemical ingredients, doesn’t satisfy the bottom-line objectives for a sustainable future. Digital presses print without plates and oil-based inks; instead, they use safer ink chemistries and water, cutting environmental costs of permits and disposal fees. Another benefit of

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46 their books to life either entirely on their own or with the help of publishing houses that specialize in this segment of the market. Self-publishing, once unfairly derided as the province of the “vanity press,” has gained considerably in both size and respect.

digital printing is that the first set of pages printed are ready to finish and ship, unlike the press makeready waste associated with offset. After the run, there are no rollers and blankets to wash up or any solvent-soaked rags to dispose of.

In addition to the print process waste, there is the waste of excess copies from overproduction required as part of the conventional printing model. This mismatch of supply and demand is not only a financial risk, but it is also bad for the planet – a cost that often times goes unnoticed. The carbon expenditure of manufacturing the overproduction and the logistics of inventory, storage, transportation and disposal all play a part.

Thermal, drop-on-demand inkjet printing with aqueous pigment- and dye-based inks – the technology underlying Memjet’s VersaPass®, DuraLink®, and DuraFlex® solutions – are stable, consistent and safer for the earth and the people handling them.

With this type of inkjet, it’s possible to control resolution and ink coverage in ways that not only assure print quality but minimize environmental impact as well.

Manageable unit cost, flexibility for short and medium runs, inventory reduction, and eco-friendliness – all courtesy of inkjet – add up to digitally driven economic opportunity for book publishing at a moment when the industry has never been in a better position to take advantage of it.

Digitally enabled opportunities for book publishers

Publishing industry research identifies the substantial opportunity digital printing offers publishers, particularly in backlist and self-published titles.

Both are categories that tended to languish when offset was the only method of producing them. Digital printing transforms them into profit contributors that don’t need mass sales to justify their retention in the catalog.

Most backlist titles are older books that their publishers no longer actively promote. Nevertheless, they continue to generate sales as “long tail” works that have modest but reliable followings among the audiences they were written for.

The Book Manufacturers’ Institute (BMI)/NAPCO Research report, The State of the Book Industry 2021, reveals that since 2008, the number of self-published books produced has increased by more than 20% in each year, with a 45.9% jump from 2017 to 2018. Between 2008 and 2018, the number of self-published titles jumped by more than 1,906%, topping out at more than 1.5 million of them in 2018.

Self-publishing authors often don’t have the luxury of a sales history to help them forecast demand. In almost all cases, they bear the full expense of creating, manufacturing, and distributing their books – meaning that they have no margin for error in deciding the number of copies they can afford to print.

Digital print-on-demand gets their books into production without guesswork, waste, inventory cost, or time-to-market delays. Self-publishers print only what they need and when they need it, to handle orders as they’re received or to ship in fulfillment of pre-publication sales. Because the data

The backlist was a healthy place for books to be during the pandemic year of 2020 when, according to NDP BookScan, titles in the category accounted for 67% of all print units purchased – up from 63% the year before. In 2010, the backlist accounted for only 54% of all unit sales.

In any year, digital printing is a natural adjunct to backlist publishing. Once a title leaves front list status – new and enjoying strong initial sales – and proceeds to the later stages of its life cycle, digital printing offers the publisher a cost-effective way to reprint the book in the small batches that its remaining sales are likely to consist of. If demand picks up again, offset printing can be reconsidered – but digital keeps the title alive no matter what the current volume of orders happens to be.

The principle is the same for selfpublishing authors: writers who bring

https://www.memjet.com

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RIGHT LABELS, RIGHT TIME, RIGHT COST.

New! VP500/550* DESKTOP COLOR LABEL PRINTER

Budget-friendly print solution for professional-quality labels designed for small to medium-size businesses and multi-location enterprises.

New! VP610/660* DESKTOP COLOR LABEL PRINTER

Streamline your labeling workflow and deliver up to 2,400 labels (4x6") in 10 min. with these new supercharged print solutions.

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*VP550/VP660 provide enhanced water-resistant inks for chilled food and beverages and most moisture exposed product labels.

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48 The versatility of production inkjet printing can be leveraged in automated workflows that make it easy to: • Add color pages to books as desired • Update content for reprints and reruns • Version books by language, regional and seasonal material, etc.

• Enhance the reading experience with variable text and imaging, including personalized, reader-specific content • Make book pages interactive by adding QR codes, AR taggants, and or other multimedia technologies

for a digitally created book can be easily sent electronically to any capable print production site, self-publishers have the opportunity for worldwide distribution as a bonus – something they could never dream of enjoying within the constraints of conventional production.

Self-publishers and mainstream publishers alike are learning that all of these advantages reach peak efficiency with production inkjet, the ideal digital printing process for 21st-century book manufacturing.

Inkjet advantages for book manufacturing Until now, the challenge for book manufacturing was how to find a digital printing method that matches the quality, speed, flexibility, and affordability of offset printing.

Production inkjet makes the offset-todigital transition fully achievable. This is because no other digital printing technology is as productive across the general range of book manufacturing as inkjet. Toner-based systems, with their slower printing speeds and format limitations, don’t offer the same breadth of capability.

Today, book printers recognize inkjet as the most cost-effective solution for shorter runs. At the same time, the technology continues to expand into volumes that traditionally have belonged to offset. Some publishers have found that they can comfortably produce 2,000 books or more at lower costs than they would incur with offset printing.

Accelerating the trend are steady advances in inkjet press performance: faster running speeds; higher print resolutions; bigger sheet sizes and web widths; greater longevity of inkjet heads and other critical components; more options for inline and near-line finishing; and probably most important, the increasing ability of these devices to print with sheetfed quality on standard offset papers without needing complicated coating or pre-treatment routines.

A sheetfed or continuous-feed inkjet press built along these lines is the “white paper factory” that book printers have always longed for: a fully integrated solution for text, color imagery, and variable content that delivers a finished product in a single high-speed pass.

The high speed of production inkjet in both monochrome and color also enables it to compete with offset for non-variable work.

Print quality sometimes raised questions in the early days of production inkjet systems, but seldom among book printers.

Conclusion What lies ahead for the book market obliges publishers to recalibrate their strategies for bringing titles to market.

Nowadays, a book needs to be relevant, customizable, readily available, and above all, profitable to manufacture and sell. This requires printers to be sure that they have made the right decisions about the technologies they will use to manufacture books going forward.

It is up to printers to give their publisher customers flexible, environmentally friendly manufacturing solutions that let them print what they need, when they need it, where they need it, in costjustifiable quantities, and with whatever enhancements will add value in the eyes of end-using readers. Printers also have to convince publishers that by producing in this way, they are protecting a business model that will keep books alive, well, and profitable no matter how much more competitive the media marketplace becomes.

Ongoing trends in the publishing market will drive more book production toward digital inkjet. Inkjet is unique among printing processes in being able to meet these criteria with all of the productivity, quality, and value-adding capabilities that printers have always looked for in digital solutions.

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DIGITAL PRINTING SOLUTIONS LIKE NO OTHER Ready for the next turn.

Just like you.

As truly direct and dedicated printing technology specialists, we believe you should deal with your challenges in your very own way. That is why we offer a wider range of digital technologies for a wide range of applications. From wine labels to wall decoration; from toner to inkjet – how can we help you to make your business ready for the next turn? www.xeikon.com

Direct. Dedicated. Digital.

Xeikon_CorporateAdv_210x297_EN.indd 1

24/08/17 09:45

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Putra Naga Indotama put once more to support gro Fast-growing Indonesian flexible packaging manufacturer, Putra Naga Indotama, is realizing the rewards of investing in BOBST once again, after seeing an uplift in production and doors opening to new market opportunities.

The company, which has sites in Tangerang and Purwakarta in Indonesia, installed a BOBST VISION D 850 laminator in December 2020, adding to its portfolio of BOBST machinery that includes the BOBST VISION CL850 laminator and a gravure press.

Edison Teoh, a young and visionary business owner of Putra Naga Indotama, said: “The greatest challenge we face is ensuring we are always one step ahead of our competition in terms of quality and cost. In addition to that, we have an ambitious growth strategy in place to increase business with existing and new customers around the world.

“Our investment in new, state-of-theart machinery forms a key part of that plan and is a key reason that we turned to BOBST when we decided the time was right to look for a new laminator for our Purwakarta plant.”

Putra Naga Indotama was founded in 2008 and today employs approximately 300 people. It manufactures a range of flexible packaging solutions for the Indonesian food, household and personal care markets. Economic growth and greater demand for singleserve, on-the-go convenience foods in Indonesia has fuelled an increase in flexible packaging production, with the market predicted to register a CAGR of 4.6% between 2021 and 20261.

Edison added: “The flexible packaging market is growing rapidly and customers are demanding ever higher quality products; it was crucial that we chose the right machine for our business and the needs of our customers. We knew that with BOBST, we were partnering with a reliable, highly renowned company that is at the cutting edge of machine design and development for the packaging industry. It is also a bonus that we have

local service and support from BOBST here in Indonesia to shore up our own commitment to customer care.”

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ts its faith in BOBST owth ambitions Paper napkin job

machine is designed to be operatorfriendly too, so it is easy for our team to operate and understand the technology.

In addition, we have Helpline Plus support from BOBST to ensure any problems are quickly resolved without impacting production,” said David Kho – Production Manager.

“The machine is able to run with any kind of material, from thin aluminum to thick LLDPE, both with solvent based and water-based adhesive without any problem. This helps us develop more products to meet customer requirements,” said Antonius Tugiyanto, R&D Manager.

The VISION D 850 laminator is ergonomically designed and offers a series of advanced automation features to deliver fast job make-readies and changeovers. Bringing together high performance and operational efficiency, the multi-technology laminator achieves superior product quality and offers configuration flexibility to businesses.

Operating at speeds of up to 450m/min, the BOBST VISION D 850 features a multi-trolley design for different laminating process technologies, a fully automatic bi-directional reel splice at machine production speed and a hybrid dryer with dual technology nozzles for maximum efficiency.

It offers sensitive web handling on all substrate types, thicknesses and web combinations, while the trolley design

ensures coating uniformity and visual appeal with all applications.

“The rotogravure trolley system, which requires no tools to change from one trolley to another, and the three-section drying tunnel have been important machine features for us. With these, we have reduced make-ready times and increased production speed, line reliability and energy efficiency. The

“The laminator has met all their expectations and more. It has never stopped since it was installed! It is an excellent asset to their business, producing excellent quality laminated packaging in high volumes and enabling their ambitions to move into new markets to become a reality,” said Antonius Koban, Sales Manager at Bobst Indonesia.

Putra Naga Indotama has already committed to further machinery investment with BOBST in 2022 and 2023 to ensure it is always able to be ahead of the curve in flexible packaging manufacturing.

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Xeikon expands its organization in Greater China Xeikon has appointed Sean Wu General Manager for Greater China, signalling the company’s increasing presence in the region.

excellence. Printing and converting companies are invited to discuss their business strategies and compare results on Xeikon equipment. Wu continues: “We are also able to provide customers with the full suite of Xeikon services, including training and support as well as our online and comprehensive advisory service Transform with its hotline for advice and guidance on digital transformation.

With the new warehouse in operation, we can also efficiently handle all our customers’ enquiries with a very fast response and a 24hr delivery”.

In his new role, Wu is tasked with managing the significant growth in interest for Xeikon’s digital solutions in China, particularly from label and packaging printers and converters working with the high demands from brand owners and designers, creating unusual, unique and highend products to meet ever-evolving consumer demand. Wu will also manage and coordinate Xeikon’s new warehousing facility at its Technical Innovation Center in Shanghai, where the company can now provide same day consumables and parts delivery and technical support.

Wu says: “I am pleased to be a part of Xeikon’s future plans in China. The Xeikon family is a great community of innovation and forward thinking. I have long admired Xeikon’s technology, and with the huge growth we are seeing in the labels and packaging sectors in China, it is exciting for me to present Xeikon’s innovative solutions to these markets.

With the new warehousing facility now open in Shanghai, we are able to

quickly respond with technical help and 24hr delivery service on parts and consumables. I have been working in the IT sector for almost 30 years – for Hitachi, EMC and IBM. I also worked for many years as General Manager at InfoPrint where I was in charge of selling Continuous Print solutions. My new role is a big opportunity and I now hope to bring my IT and management skills to support Xeikon.”

Xeikon’s Innovation Center in Shanghai is designed to house the latest Xeikon equipment to support the expanding Chinese markets. The hands-on centre of digital printing excellence is a welcome place of interaction were visitors and customers can test a variety of applications and options for new revenue streams and business growth.

Klaus Nielsen, Director & General Manager APAC, concludes: “We are delighted that Sean Wu has joined Xeikon as General Manager for Greater China. He brings a wealth of expertise and proven management skills. The Chinese market continues to expand, and this appointment is the next step in our G2M strategy for this region.

In his newly established role, Sean will further develop and strengthen Xeikon business in Greater China.”

With this new state-of-the-art warehousing facility, Xeikon is now able to deliver a same-day response to its customers across the whole of Greater China.

Xeikon designed its Innovation Center in Shanghai to be a benchmark of

Sean Wu

https://www.xeikon.com

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54 New commercial digital press from Kodak.

Kodak announced a revolutionary new digital press and innovative additions to its comprehensive portfolio of digital and offset solutions designed to help printers boost their profitability and capitalize on new opportunities for growth.

The Kodak Ascend Digital Press is a solution for commercial printers and digital service providers targetting Retail/POP and Packaging markets.

The Kodak Ascend digital press is the first electrophotographic (EP) press designed to print heavy weight substrates at long lengths with eyecatching, high-margin CMYK and flat foil embellishments in one pass. .

It is more flexible than traditional presses and more productive than flatbed inkjet systems, offering production speeds up to 572 sqm/ hour (5280 sqft/hour). Its large sheet length of up to 122 cm (48 inches) allows the press to offer 23% more print area than a B2 sheet. The new press enables printers to deliver sustainably recyclable print by using environmentally friendly Kodachrome Dry Inks, which are Indirect Food

Contact rated. Kodak’s new press is a more cost-effective solution for producing Retail/POP and Packaging applications than traditional presses or flatbed inkjet devices. .

The Prinergy On Demand Access, introduced is a cost-effective expansion of its cloud-based Prinergy On Demand Platform. This new option makes the printing industry’s most secure and highest performing software platform affordable for more printers of any size, with or without digital presses.

The new SaaS solution provides full connectivity to digital presses, Microsoft Azure-backed security and the scalability the PrinergyOn Demand Platform is known for.

Prinergy On Demand Access includes preflight, color management, file management, backup and routing as well as built-in KodakInsite Prepress Portal functionality for file submission, remote customer collaboration and online approvals. Available in Q1 2022.

The new Kodak Prosper Digital Varnish is a unique, water-based varnish that can be jetted as an area or spot coat to printed packages using Kodak Prosper S-Series or Kodak

Prosper Plus Imprinting Systems. The eco-friendly Prosper Digital Varnish can be applied in perfect register with design elements and creates a matte protective layer providing rub and water resistance to paper-based packaging applications.

As Prosper Digital Varnish is applied only where needed and doesn’t require plate making for spot coating, it helps printers eliminate the costs, effort, waste and environmental impact associated with traditional post-coating methods. The new varnish provides an environmentally friendly, waterbased alternative to solvents and UV coatings.

The KodakProsper Digital Varnish will be available worldwide by the end of 2021.

Jim Continenza, Kodak’s Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said, “The innovations announced today reflect Kodak’s continued commitment to developing breakthrough solutions that enable our customers to improve their productivity and profitability and successfully expand their customer base. With innovations like the KODAK ASCEND Digital Press, we are opening up new profitable application opportunities for printers.

We continue to deliver on our promise to provide a complete range of solutions that offer Print that Pays.”

Miraclon Global Flexo Innovation Awards Miraclon today announced the 13 winners of the Global Flexo Innovation Awards, which recognize businesses that are driving the transformation of the flexo industry with the help of KODAK FLEXCEL NX Technology. Over 200 entries from 24 countries were judged by an independent panel of eight flexo industry experts during a hybrid session that saw the judges convene both in person and through digital collaboration applications.

With high quality a pre-condition of entry, submissions were evaluated on four criteria: the efficiency of the company’s workflow, conversion from other print processes to flexo,

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SPEED UP YOUR PROCESSES with optical systems for UV curing and drying

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56 manufacturing processes,” comments Grant Blewett, Chief Commercial Director, Miraclon. “The high conversion rates from other printing processes to flexo, focus on fixed color palette printing, and efforts to maximize on-press productivity and efficiency that also contribute to sustainability that we have seen in so many of the entries, all demonstrate how much the flexo industry is set to become the print process of choice for packaging.”

the degree of creativity in the graphic design and the level of sustainable business practices in the project.

Excellence in two categories received a silver award (seven winners), in three categories a gold award (five winners) and in all four categories a platinum award, demonstrating to the industry and to the winner’s customers a commitment to the highest level of print production.

This year, Lorytex (Uruguay) became the first winner ever to receive the platinum commendation. The judges also awarded Highest Honors to four of the winners that they believed demonstrated the biggest impact on advancing the flexo printing process.

“At a time where all of us were experiencing the additional challenges because of the pandemic, these winners prove that we’re not only part of an incredibly resilient industry, but one that continues to innovate with companies that drive creativity and efficient, consistent and sustainable

Out of the top 13 companies, seven winners are based in Latin America, three in Europe, two in North America, and one in the Asia Pacific region. “We’re pleased to see companies from around the world innovating and being creative in growing their businesses as well as driving the transformation of the flexo printing industry,” continues Grant.

“Each one of the winners, as well as the companies that received special mentions, demonstrated incredible commitment to the advancement of flexo and set great examples of what can be achieved when fully utilizing the tools and technology at their disposal; it should motivate the rest of the industry to do the same.”

The full roll of honor is as follows: Highest Honors Winners (in alphabetical order) Bosisio SA, Celomat SA & Mondelez SA, Argentina (Joint Entry) – Gold Fathom Optics, Grace Label Inc and Confluence Brewing Company, United States (Joint Entry) – Gold Mega Embalagens, Multipack & Pontyn, Brazil (Joint Entry) – Silver Sunshine FPC & Trisoft Graphics,

United States (Joint Entry) – Gold Winners (in alphabetical order) Platinum: Lorytex, Uruguay Gold: Cromograf & Strong SA, Uruguay (Joint Entry) Günther GmbH & Flexo-Service Cl. Jaehde GmbH, Germany (Joint Entry) Litoplas Colombia Numex Blocks India Ltd Tadam & Gruppo Sada spa, Italy (Joint Entry) Technofilms, Guatemala Teruel – Papeis Amalia Ltd, Brazil Victory Graphics & Caps Cases, United Kingdom (Joint Entry) EFI Highlights its Leading Broad Portfolio of Advanced Inkjet Solutions to Create Opportunities for Customers Efficient, high-quality, versatile digital inkjet solutions can be key to helping display graphics providers drive profitability and capture new growth opportunities. Electronics For Imaging, Inc. is working closely with those providers, presenting them innovative solutions that can drive their display graphics business forward faster in an economic recovery.

This week, dozens of EFI™ customers, prospects and industry media and analysts are attending a series of EFI Ignition open house events that deliver a morecomprehensive view of growth opportunities display graphics providers can capture.

The events – one-day invitation-only presentations and demonstrations at the EFI Global Inkjet Innovation Center in Londonderry, New Hampshire – highlight the ways print providers can take their businesses to new heights by leveraging leading-edge production solutions.

“The pandemic has understandably forced the cancellation or postponement of several large tradeshows that would have served as launch events for these products, but that does not diminish our customers’ need for continued advancement and innovation,” said Ken Hanulec, vice

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CANON SINGAPORE PTE. LTD.

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58 coming in 2022 – that deliver the automation, reliability and productivity needed to lower costs per square foot, at higher volumes, for an extended range of signage and display products.

EFI Pro 30h

president of Worldwide Marketing, EFI. “Our conversations with customers at this week’s Ignition event will give a strong representation of the market opportunities display graphics businesses have for success in a recovering market using our leading portfolio of innovative solutions.”

This week’s events highlight new product launches and a range of topic areas that address specific display graphics challenges and opportunities. New product launches and presentation topics include: - Growth opportunities in premium soft-signage applications with the launch of the new VUTEk® FabriVU® Plus series 70-, 133- and 205-inch dispersed dye-sublimation printers, including the 133-inch-wide VUTEk FabriVU® 340i+ model with in-line sublimation making its debut at the Ignition events.

The FabriVU 340i+ model delivers upgraded performance thanks to eight high-performance printheads, and enhanced high-quality and backlit print modes, with the ability to print on transfer paper or direct to fabric using the same ink set. The FabriVU Plus series’ new CMYK x 2 configuration printhead array – along with new

EFI VUTEk h5

electronics, a new vacuum system, and a new heating element – deliver higher-quality 600 dpi graphics with better saturation and more density.

- Achieving value with a wider range of possibilities with the newest EFI Wide Format hybrid printer, the 126inch wide EFI Pro 30h LED flatbed/ roll-fed system dual-roll capabilities in Continuous Board printing models to give commercial print shops, sign shops and in-plant print departments an efficient, highly versatile entry point into high-quality display graphics production.

- An overview of digital print for packaging opportunities, with a presentation of market benchmark data from industry analyst Kevin Karstedt. EFI is also presenting highlights of the EFI Nozomi C18000 Plus printer – the world’s leading single-pass inkjet solution for corrugated – and an upcoming, premium-quality, shuttle-based UV LED printer, the EFI MCORR 1300, scheduled for release in 2022.

- EFI’s expanding super high speed signage production solutions – the EFI VUTEk h5 hybrid roll/flatbed printer with ¾ automation along with the EFI VUTEk XT hybrid printer and single-pass Nozomi 18000+ LED printer for display graphics producers

- High-volume, higher-value UV LED graphic production with the EFI VUTEk Q series – the fastestever VUTEk roll-to-roll production printers offering. Launched in 2021, the 138-inch-wide VUTEk Q3r and 208-inch-wide VUTEk Q5r printers offer expanded capabilities for a wide range of challenging, high-volume applications, with premium features such as multi-layer white and highvalue in-line finishing, collection, and auto backlit and blockout options that help users achieve a remarkably low total cost of operation.

- Emerging and high-growth industrial applications, with a presentation highlighting advanced inkjet printer, ink and coatings solutions that bring greater value, versatility, quality, and efficiency to markets, including for wood decoration and wood flooring production, luxury vinyl tile manufacturing, and more.

- End-to-end workflows to drive profit. Ignite will highlight the unique advantages possible in display graphics production with comprehensive EFI Midmarket Print Suite MIS/ ERP workflow solutions that handle web-to-print order entry, estimating and costing, accounting, production, fulfillment and more. This Ignition session also highlights the launch of new EFI Fiery® XF and Fiery proServer digital front-end solutions, offering significantly faster spot color processing and expanded print-and-cut support features.

- Higher value in hybrid printing, leveraging the cost and productivity advantages of the 126-inch-wide EFI VUTEk h3 and h5 LED printers.

Four-color is the new eight-color on these printers, thanks to an exceptionally wide color gamut that has successfully given users worldwide the power to drive faster throughput on premium work by moving away from eight-color process to a CMYK x 2 configuration with little to no loss in imaging quality.

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60 support evolving opportunities and challenges that may arise in the years ahead. We look forward to a long and prosperous partnership with Kornit, a technology innovator that has demonstrated an understanding of the digitized marketplace and capitalizing on the trends that dominate our industry.”

Debs Corporation Implements Kornit Presto to Deliver Sustainable, Customized Textiles on Demand

reflect a “Made with Japan” mantra, combining the best of the Japanese textile industry with enhancing global technologies such as Kornit Presto.

One of Japan’s largest fabrics exporters selects single-step, pigmentbased production system to expand product portfolio, demonstrate versatility of digitized textile production

“Having served the textile industry for more than 100 years, Debs Corporation is committed to maintaining its leadership in the textiles industry by setting the standard for quality and working to sustainably manufacture fifty percent of all products by 2025,” said Hani Debs, President of Debs Corporation.

“Many recognizable brands rely on us to provide high-quality, responsiblyproduced materials in various quantities and performance standards, and Kornit’s technology checks all of the boxes to answer those needs, and

Kornit Digital Ltd, a market leader in sustainable, on-demand, digital textile production technologies, announced today that Debs Corporation, a producer of exclusive textiles to prominent brands worldwide and one of Japan’s largest fabric exporters, is adopting Kornit Presto for fast, ecofriendly textile production without graphic or color limitations.

In addition to supporting Debs Corporation’s production needs, their installation will serve as a live production showcase to educate textile industry professionals regarding the expanding possibilities of digitized production as an efficient, streamlined mechanism for supporting global webdriven demand for custom materials.

Supplementing a production environment that already incorporates sustainable raw materials and waterless dyeing and printing technologies, the company’s adoption of Kornit’s proprietary single-step, pigment-based production process aligns with Debs Corporation’s corporate philosophy of growing via digitalization, innovation, and sustainability. Their efforts

“Debs Corporation supports more than 250 fashion, intimates, and sports apparel brands globally, and has a thorough understanding of custom textile production as any supplier on the planet,” said Ilan Elad, President of Kornit Digital Asia-Pacific. “Kornit is proud to work with them to demonstrate the many ways digitized production can deliver unlimited graphic and color capabilities, profitability in any quantity, and a cleaner, more eco-conscious process, to the benefit of producer, consumer, and the broader textile industry alike.

We share a common vision of making the industry more capable, more responsible, and more responsive to the values of today’s marketplace, and delivering on the superior end-to-end experience digitization promises.”

Hani Debs will be a featured speaker at Kornit’s upcoming “Fashion Without Limits” sustainable fashion event in Tokyo, available via virtual presentation on November 4.

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