Drupa Report with focus on Commercial Printing : Executive Summary

Drupa 2012 is over, but what were the key points? This report tries to summarize from a Commercial Print perspective.
Offset press manufacturers: The former big 3 Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, KBA and manroland had to face the fact that continuously less and less customers visit their stands and the center of interest became digital. I think the company with the best future perspective among the three is KBA. They have brought up plenty of new developments and offer very attractive solutions to their customers (DriveTronic in large format, 20k/18k press/perfecting speed, shorter makeready/washing, RotaJET digital press ). HDM did well in medium Format (e.g. new XL 106) as well as with the new Anicolor XL75 in small format, but I missed a clear statement regarding large format (just a XL 145 delivery on the booth). I see them after drupa in large format clearly behind KBA which is threatening their position in the strategically important area of consumer packaging (not to forget the growing business with internet printers). manroland had, due to the current situation, the weakest approach. manroland web solutions seemed to be more lucky than their former colleagues as they could announce a contract on a dual web 80-page LITHOMAN with KraftSchltels in Wasserberg, Germany. manroland sheetfed tried to be positive with their motto the legend goes on , but the level of products presented was comparably far behind HDM and KBA (press speed and makeready time). The concept manroland sheetfed will continue with the complete press program is not very convincing as not only insiders know that it is impossible for the company in this new setup to develop all their products even close to competition level.

Digital Print: Drupa 2012 was digital! At least you could get the feeling while visiting the stands of HP or Landa the two companies I was focusing on. Landa the Steve Jobs of the digital press manufacturers created an immense hype around his nanographic printing, most probably the most discussed topic on drupa 2012. It was a great show an outstanding marketing but very low content! Not a single press on the booth was really working, neither did the Apple like control panel. We have to see what if nano is as big as Landa intended to make us belief when the first presses will come in end 2013. HP Indigo was far more concrete in this area. Customers could make their own impression on touring throughout the booth which was split up in Commercial Print, Labels and packaging as well as Sign and Display. Looking at the new Indigo presses you could see and feel the print qualities possible, not offset but for many end uses good enough quality. Format size, press speed and especially cost per copy are still an issue which allows space for improvement.

Hans Jrgen Lind Technical Service and Intelligence Manager Sappi Fine Paper Europe