Virtual.Drupa 2021: Trotec Laser’s upcoming products to be a game changer

Both products wouldn’t be available before 2022, but, according to Alexander Kattner, business development manager, print, Trotec Laser Automation, these machines can be game changers for a lot of customers, making them more productive, more flexible, and most important more profitable. 

Talking about how the printing sector looks in 2021, Kattner said, it depends on the sector. There are certain sectors which seem to have grown, like home decoration, packaging and labels, while other areas of print — especially those producing a lot for events — have been massively hurt by the pandemic. “However, we are feeling that there is movement in the market, a lot of companies are finding different/new niches and are using their knowledge and experience to return from this crisis with creative and innovative products,” he said.

He added that while the eCommerce and online ordering systems have changed the industry over the last ten years, the pandemic has given it an additional boost. 

“As our products are fully digital, they are fully flexible, and because of that are a perfect fit for such an environment. Nobody wants to change tools for every single job, or even have a new tool made. And that’s where our technology comes into play. Changing from cutting wood to acrylics? Not a problem, just select the material in the database, put the material in the machine and you are ready to go,” he said.

The company is also getting a lot of feedback from its customers that they are seeing growing demand for eco-friendly production as well as the use of eco-friendly, recyclable/recycled materials. “We are working with substrate manufacturers to qualify those “greener” materials for our customers. And we have to say, we like those materials a lot. We, for example, tested a paper board material which is entirely made from recycled material, and enables our customers to produce great looking products that are greener,” he said.

Kattner said the next big thing is digital, automation and integration. 

“Everybody is looking around to get their production as digital and flexible as possible. The market has benefited from moving to digital more than once, when it came to the actual printing. People understand how to use digital printing, understand that this is different, and they do love the flexibility. So clearly, now is the time for the rest of the production process to follow digitisation, as much as it is possible,” he concluded.