Innovation on Display at SGIA ’07

“Complacency is a dreaded disease,” declared Oren Harari, Ph.D., during his keynote address at SGIA ’07, the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association. In an increasingly competitive, copy cat economy, he said, “technologies alone aren’t the value, it’s how they are being utilized differently and innovatively that matters.”

Such was the message at last fall’s SGIA Expo, in Orlando. The major theme was that creativity leads to innovation, and innovation results in new revenue sources. Attendees saw this on the show floor, from high-production digital printers and integrated direct-to-garment equipment to highly developed finishing tools.

Messages of using creativity to differentiate and stand out in a crowd echoed throughout the Expo, from the Wrap Demonstration Area and Digital Apparel Production Zone, to the Future Forum and Interior Design Display.

Johnny Shell, SGIA’s vice president of Technical Services, said one trend he saw on the show floor, from companies hoping to expand, was new integrated printers, such as one with the ability to use both dye sublimation and solvent ink, or one that adds a digital component to an established screen printing system.

“Integration allows companies to expand their product range without having to buy another printer,” Shell noted.

Perhaps most impressive was the relatively new competitiveness of high-production digital printers with traditional screen printing and short-run litho. This is in part due to the development of UV-curable printers, print heads and inks.

“UV is a revolution in the industry, and you can clearly see that here on the trade show floor,” said Bruce Butler, of MacDermid ColorSpan. “It’s a relatively new technology that is used more and more because of the benefits and upgrades in the inks and equipment.”

“Other companies are joining the UV market, certainly with the roll-to-roll systems,” added Mark Packerman, of NUR America. “Many of the customers are those we’ve had that are upgrading their equipment, but we’ve also had customers that were more solvent-based coming to us.”

Equally important is the development of new cationic inks and LED technologies such as Sun LLC’s LED UV-curing system. This system provides intense UV light without the heat of traditional UV lamps. The LED curing system reportedly uses less energy and lasts significantly longer than UV lamps.

While the market has been hot for roll-to-roll cutting systems for some time now, the increase in cutters for rigid media used on flatbed systems was evident at SGIA ’07. Utilizing the same digital file used for printing, these cutting systems sliced through a variety of substrates using blades, lasers and routers. The integration of printing and finishing systems as one combined unit was another trend.