Sriraam Selvam’s Top Five Drupa Products

Canon
Canon has unleashed four new models of its imagePrograf range. These are the PRO-2000 and PRO-4000, which are targeted towards the fine art and photographic markets, and Canon says the PRO-4000S and PRO-6000S will offer ‘fast, confident results’ to the commercial print industry. The imagePrograf  series is set to have 11-colour ink systems and the new Chroma Optimiser which, according to Canon, improves print performance and its printheads can reduce clogging and wastage.

The raft of new machines are ideal for the wide-format and photography industry.

Epson
While the others are making big ticket announcements, Epson, the piezo electric specialist, has been adding new features to its SureColor SC-T series of large-format printers to improve functionality and productivity. Indian printers can see these features on its multifunctional 914mm and 1.12m-wide aqueous SureColor SC-T series printers with integrated scanners will be demonstrated for the first time at Drupa, which will take place in Düsseldorf from 31 May to 10 June. The high-speed, four-colour, wide-format SureColor SC-T7200MFP and SC-T5200MFP printers are designed for graphics, commercial print, copy shop and CAD/GIS applications.

Landa Digital Printing (LDP)
LDP, which has doubled its stand space at Drupa, has finally made an announcement. The Israel-based firm will show four Nanographic presses on its 3,000sqm booth – two S10 B1 sheetfed straight printing presses, an S10P perfecting press, and a W10 1m-wide, 200m/min web press aimed at flexible packaging. Landa technology will also feature on strategic partner Komori’s stand at the show.

With Nanography, the firm’s nano-scale ink is jetted onto an intermediate blanket belt before being transferred to the substrate in one hit. Landa believes its combination of high quality and high speed will take digital printing into the mainstream. Separately, LDP has developed a non-digital system to address the wasteful process of foiling. Its Nano-Metallography system holds out the promise of zero waste, halving the costs of conventional foiling processes.

The S10P perfecting press

Xaar
The inkjet head developer headquartered in Cambridge said the introduction of the new printheads was in line with its 2020 vision. It’s year-end results last week hoped to increase sales to Rs 20780million (approx. conversion of £220m) by 2020 would come from four areas, each producing sales of at least Rs 4722m (approx. conversion of £50m): maintaining Xaar’s market leading position in ceramic tile decoration; packaging (including coding and marking, labels and direct-to-shape printing); new applications such as textiles and wide-format for its upcoming Thin Film printhead; and lastly 3D printing, partnerships and acquisitions.

At Drupa, Xaar's printheads are aimed at applications including ceramic tile decoration, labelling, direct-to-shape and other packaging printing, the production of wood laminates, glass printing and other manufacturing processes.

Xeikon
The Belgium-based Xeikon now a division of Flint Group has unveiled its first liquid toner Trillium press, developed with partner Miyakoshi and aimed at the commercial and DM print sectors. The 60m/min (800ppm) twin-CMYK duplex machine uses Xeikon’s existing LED imaging to create print at up to 1,200dpi resolution. It is expected to enter the market in Q2 of 2017. The Xeikon toner presses have one unit with up to ten colour heads; and Trillium has two units with four heads each. the machine was aimed at the market currently buying HP Indigo 10000s but said a price tag nearly triple that of the Indigo was worth it as Trillium One is three times as fast.