Fujifilm Graphic Systems U.S.A.

Thirty years is a long time to keep a press running—even a Heidelberg. But over the past three decades, the folks at the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) did their best to take care of their four-color Heidelberg MOVP perfector, even if it did cost them an average of $60,000 a year for repairs.

The Digital Packaging Summit 2015 is a hosted, invitation-only conference designed for senior managers and executives in label and package printing and converting. The event will take place from November 9-11 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Fujifilm's 'Inkjet Insights' Website provides a hub of information addressing inkjet printing solutions. The site provides whitepapers, videos, and additional content to help keep prospective and current inkjet users informed. 

Hot products for in-plants from companies including Riso, Canon U.S.A., Xanté, Fujifilm North America, Roland, Heidelberg, On Demand Machinery and Agfa Graphics

Hot wide-format products for in-plant printers from companies including Agfa Graphics, Canon Océ, EFI, FUJIFILM North America, Epson, HP, Mimaki, Mutoh and Screen USA

With equipment specs, pictures and video all available online, why should an in-plant manager bother going to Graph Expo any more? Those who made the trip to Chicago last month have lots of good reasons.

In June, Fujifilm’s Graphic Systems Div. showcased its production inkjet strategy by holding an event at Gilson Graphics, in Grand Rapids, Mich., an early adopter of cutsheet and continuous-feed Fujifilm inkjet presses.

These products for the in-plant market will be on display at Graph Expo.

Continuous-feed production inkjet is an exciting, evolving market. Average annual growth since 2010 has been at 93 percent, according to IT Strategies; in 2013 alone, 146 billion pages were printed globally with continuous-feed inkjet. Market-Intell estimates that this represents 350,000 tons of paper in North America in 2013.

Adding a high-speed, production inkjet press is not a "build it and they will come" endeavor. Before moving forward, you'll need a formal strategy in place that anticipates more than simply transferring jobs from existing offset or toner-based presses.