Olivia Cahoon
Part one of four
Graph Expo is considered one of the most comprehensive tradeshows for the printing industry in the Americas. It features exciting exhibitions of digital, inkjet, offset, flexo, gravure, and services for packaging, publishing, mailing, digital imaging, and industrial printing.
This year the event took place for the first time at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL from September 25 to 28, 2016. Over 400 exhibitors showcased new products, floor features, and educational opportunities.
The commercial print market continues to expand into new technologies and groundbreaking features. Over the next few weeks, we will take a look at some of the digital printing, finishing, consumables, and workflow solutions displayed at Graph Expo 2016, beginning with announcements related to print engines.
Canon
Canon’s booth theme was #PRINTCANON to promote Canon’s printing capabilities. The company encouraged attendees to take part in the conversation and experience their new devices.
Canon displayed the Océ VarioPrint i300 digital press for the first time at Graph Expo. It features iQuarius and ColorGrip Technology. The press offers an inline paper conditioning step to enable inkjet printing on a variety of media.
The imagePRESS C850 digital color production press premiered during the show. Designed for small-to-medium printers, it handles a variety of media up to 110 lb including heavy stock and envelopes. The imagePRESS C850 and C750 feature R-VCSEL laser scanner units for crisp and clear images, the Consistently Vivid Toner improves transfer efficiency, and the Advanced Image Transfer Belt serves quality output on various types of media.
HP Inc.
HP released four new 30-inch HP PageWide Web Presses powered by High Definition Nozzle Architecture, the company’s latest inkjet printhead technology, which uses 2,400 nozzles per inch. The presses address a range of commercial printing applications like magazines, catalogs, and books, and features enhanced print quality, productivity, and versatility for print service providers.
The T390 HD, T390M HD, T380 HD, and T370 HD embed Internet-connected codes and invisible watermarks in printer collateral like magazines, instruction manuals, and textbooks.
The company also announced recent HP PrintOS capabilities to digital press models that allow automated print production. The new features include customizable dashboards for individual management of multiple sites in one account, improved Print Beat functionality on mobile devices for production visibility from anywhere, and simplified job onboarding through non-automated channels like file transfer services and a file upload portal with PrintOS Box.
HP offered attendees unique book samples printed by the Webcom and autographed by Dr. Joe Webb. The books were printed with HP OneBook technology, a multi-faceted suit of end-to-end workflow solutions for industrial book printing. OneBook works with HP PageWide Web Presses and HP Indigo digital presses.
KBA
KBA announced the development of an industrial digital sheetfeed press for the folding carton market, the KBA VariJET 106. They intend to partner with Xerox and integrate the Impika inkjet technology into the KBA Rapida 106 press platform.
With seven inkjet colors, it offers inline capabilities like printing units, coating, cold foil application, rotary die-cutting, creasing, and perforating. Conventional printing and finishing technologies combine with digital inkjet printing into a hybrid press by modular use. The press offers speeds up to 4,500 sheets per hour in 29.5×41.7 inches at 1,400 dpi per hour.
Konica Minolta
Konica Minolta encouraged attendees to “touch the future.” The company provided an overview of its latest innovations in printing, applications, and know-how. Konica Minolta offered direction on the future of the printing business with creating new business among existing customers, attracting new customer groups, and increasing profits.
Among other exciting product demonstrations in its booth, the company ran its bizhub PRESS C71cf, a continuous-feed, toner-based digital label printer, outputting at speeds of up to 62 feet per minute on 13-inch wide rolls. Utilizing the company’s HD dry toner technology, the press provides 1,200×1,200 dpi resolution.
OKI Data Americas
OKI debuted the ColorPainter line of wide format printing devices as the company expands its professional printing solutions portfolio. The series includes Advanced SX Inks that are low-odor and eco-solvent.
OKI also featured the OKI proColor series of digital production printers. This line of color printers includes four- and five-color devices. The company offers three print engines in standard configuration or as digital envelope printers.
Ricoh USA
Ricoh unveiled its latest high-speed B&W digital print platform, the Ricoh Pro 8220s Series. The device is capable of long sheet printing up to 27.5 inches and scans in full color at 220 images per minute duplex.
The print platform has a new High Capacity Interposer with a two-tray system of 2,000 sheet-per-tray capacity. The tray is designed for insertion of color inserts printed on offset or digital printers into books and manuals. It is available in six models with different speeds and maintains its 1,200×4,800 dpi VCSEL quality that is capable of long sheet printing up to 27.5 inches.
RISO, Inc.
RISO premiered the RISO ComColor GD Series of Professional Inkjet. The high-speed, full-color printer delivers prints at speeds up to 160 pages per minute and uses five colors for a grayscale print. The machine features an embedded GDI or two optional RIPs.
Its new formulated ink offers vibrant colors and high density. The machine handles paper, card stock, and envelopes from 3×5-inches to 11×17-inches and will be launched in early 2017.
The company also showcased the ComColor FW Series, a line of business inkjet printers that prints high-speed, full color data printing at 120 pages per minute. It has improved scanning, copying, and networking capabilities with a smaller footprint than previous models.
The company also showcased a technology preview of two concept presses—both continuous and cutsheet—targeting the production inkjet market.
Xerox Corporation
Xerox featured the Xerox Brenva HD Production Inkjet Press and Xerox Direct to Object Inkjet Printer. The Brenva uses proven technologies from the Xerox iGen, Impika, Nuvera, CiPress, and FreeFlow families for inline automation for productivity.
The Direct to Object Printer is capable of printing directly onto objects from the size of bottle caps to football helmets including plastics, metals, ceramics, and glass. It is compatible with flat, contour, and uneven surfaces.
Xeikon
Xeikon announced TrilliumOne’s liquid toner technology that encompasses quality, speed, and cost effectiveness to print 1,200 variable dot density with a 19.7-feet print width.
The booth featured a virtual reality experience to “walk inside a TrilliumOne.” The technology recycles unused toner and carrier, and offers speeds of 200 fpm. The press promotes new color services such as managing color, optimized color workflow, and color forecast. Its automated workflow solution by Alwan Color Expertise is a fully automated inline G7 calibration system.
Announcements in Digital Print
These are a few highlights of digital production equipment displayed, introduced, and discussed in Orlando. Next week, we move on to exciting finishing solutions on the show floor. dps
Sept2016, DPS Magazine
