Dozens of New Systems Announced at Pre-drupa Gathering

By Bob Neubauer

EFI's Guy Gecht addresses the crowd of 100 journalists from all over the world who attended the pre-drupa 2016 International Media Conference.

This week in Düsseldorf, Germany, about 100 trade journalists from all over the world gathered for a preview of some of the innovations to be shown at drupa 2016, the world's largest graphic arts trade show. Fifteen graphic arts vendors took turns announcing new products and dropping hints about what they will reveal at the show, which will take place May 31-June 10.

Attendees were treated to a live rendition of the drupa 2016 theme song.

After a stirring live performance on Monday morning of the bouncy new drupa theme song (yes, you read that right), representatives from Canon, EFI, Epson, Fujifilm, HP, Kodak, Konica Minolta, Pitney Bowes, Ricoh, Xerox and others spent the next three days talking about their drupa plans, revealing their drupa themes and unveiling some of the technologies they will be showing. Among the most interesting:

Xerox will debut a cut-sheet production inkjet press, the Brenva HD, able to print 194 A4 images per minute. A second new inkjet press, the roll-fed Trivor 2400, will print 551 feet per minute in color.
Canon will greatly increase the number of substrates its own cutsheet inkjet press can handle (to include standard uncoated and offset coated media) with the new ColorGrip inline paper conditioning option; also new will be the Océ ColorStream 6000 Chroma continuous feed inkjet press, featuring the new Chromera ink set, which boasts reduced ink show-through, for use on lighter weight media.
Epson got everyone's attention by announcing an office paper recycling machine that uses no water and can produce 14 sheets per minute. What's more, Epson will show 13 new printers at drupa, such as the SureColor SC-S series of 64˝ signage printers, which use Epson's new formulation UltraChrome GS3 inkset and boast significantly lower ink consumption.
Kodak revealed a host of new offerings it will show at drupa, including its next generation inkjet technology platform, KODAK ULTRASTREAM; the new KODAK NEXPRESS ZX3900 Digital Production Color Press, which supports thicker paper and the use of synthetic substrates and features a new multi-bit LED writing system; and a new addition to the SONORA Plate portfolio designed to meet the demands of UV print applications.
Konica Minolta will use drupa to launch the KM-1 UV sheetfed digital press. The company just announced its first European KM-1 beta site customer, PLS Print Logistic Services Germany GmbH.
Ricoh announced enhancements to its Pro VC60000 continuous feed inkjet printer that enable it to reach speeds of 150 meters per minute. Ricoh will also offer the Watkiss PowerSquare 224 booklet maker inline with the Ricoh Pro C9100, the Ricoh Pro C7100x and the Ricoh Pro 8100.

There was much more drupa news than this, of course. Watch for it in the April issue of IPG.

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Bob Neubauer Author's page

Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.