Production Inkjet: Beyond Technology Replacement By Richard Romano Xerox Rialto 900 Océ VarioPrint i300 from Canon USA In past GRAPH EXPO shows and elsewhere, it was common to hear production inkjet spoken of in the context of using new high-speed presses to “take work away from offset” or “take work away from toner-based digital presses.” We still hear that this year, but as the technology has evolved, however, the value proposition is less about shifting work from one technology to another and more about using the new technology to create new, unique print applications. Canon Solutions Americas (CSA) (Booth 1213) recently introduced two new production inkjet systems—the Océ VarioPrint i300 and Océ ImageStream 3500. The former is CSA’s first cut-sheet production inkjet press (it had been code-named “Niagara” for much of its development), while the latter is a continuous-feed press that offers the ability to print on offset-coated papers. CSA is also showing its ColorStream 3000 Series inkjet press. “As we have all expected, inkjet is rapidly becoming a force within the printing industry,” says Eric Hawkinson, Senior Director, Marketing, Production Print Solutions, CSA. “Infotrends estimates that total U.S. digital production volumes are growing at a CAGR of 4.4%, representing 390 billion impressions by 2019. What’s most interesting is that they estimate by 2019, 56% of those impressions will be printed on inkjet devices. Continuous-feed inkjet pages are growing at an astounding 20.5% CAGR, moving from 82 billion impressions in 2014 to an expected 210 billion Impressions by 2019.” Products such as the Océ ColorStream 3000 and Océ ImageStream 3500 series, Hawkinson adds, “represent new opportunities for printers to attack the commercial print and book printing markets. Similarly, with the infusion of new products like our Océ VarioPrint i300, we are starting to see the impact of sheetfed inkjet machines as they take pages away from traditional digital toner machines. This is primarily due to the speed, significantly lower running cost, and the ability to continue to deliver quality one-to-one communications for the end user.” Xerox (Booth 613) announced its Rialto 900 inkjet press earlier this year, the first product based on the company’s 2013 acquisition of Impika. The Rialto 900 is a unique offering in that it is a roll-to-cut sheet press, with the sheeter integrated into what is a small-footprint machine. A great way to understand what is possible with inkjet is to hear stories from users. To that end, on Monday, September 14, at 3:00 pm, The Printerverse (Booth 3867) is hosting a “Case Study Café! Telling THEIR Story: Best Practices from HP High-Speed Inkjet Web Press Customers!” featuring users who have successfully developed unique and profitable new print applications and expanded relationships with existing customers thanks to HP’s high-speed production inkjet solutions. HP (Booth 1202) is showing its entire range of inkjet offerings— from production inkjet, to wide format, to packaging. One trend that HP has found is that customers acquired an inkjet press for one purpose and found that it also gave them the ability to expand into other areas. “There are customers who bought our inkjet presses for transactional and Commercial Printing | Digital Printing | Flexible Packaging Folding Carton Packaging | Metal Decorating | Newspaper Plastic Cards | Security Printing | Signage and POP www.kba.com KBA covers it all... Booth 213 transpromo, and then said, ‘Let’s expand into new spaces,’” says David Murphy, Worldwide Director of Marketing and Business Development, HP Inkjet Web Press Solutions. One customer, Murphy notes, acquired two HP T230s initially to transfer its transactional work away from the offset-shells-imprinted-with-digital approach, and created an entire end-to-end “white paper in” workflow that even produced fully addressed and image-customized envelope wrappers. But then, they realized, transactional may not be a high-growth application. “So they said, ‘let’s go after higher-growth, higher-value applications,” says Murphy. “So they’re going after color trade books and hybrid direct mail.” Other examples abound, and many users and their customers have found that these high-value print applications are high-value because they boost response rates. So while inkjet continues to take volume away from offset and toner, the reason that’s happening is not technology change for the sake of technology change, but simply because inkjet lets printers and their customers do things they had not been able to do before. 28 September 13, 2015 | GRAPH EXPO Official Show Daily | PrintingNews.com
GraphExpo Show Daily Day 1
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