CLIMBING THE LANGUAGE BARRIER AT DRUPA
There’s a lot of non-English speaking companies with exhibition stands here at drupa – and I don’t mean the Germans. The number of Asian manufacturers, especially from countries such as Japan, India and Korea is significant and growing – and that doesn’t include the recent tsunami of Chinese technologies firms.
All up, 37 per cent of exhibitors are from Asia, with the newly arrived Chinese leading the charge. It’s all good and to my mind contributes to the international flavour of the graphic arts.
It also presents exhibitors with a challenge when it comes to communicating with visitors. Practically no Chinese companies hold press conferences. It’s a cultural bridge too far. They are way behind the sophisticated marcom strategies of such long-term Asian exhibitors as the Japanese. Because it’s not easy to face the press when English is not your first language.
Full marks though for those that are climbing the linguistic cliff, a fine example of the challenges that await many other non-English speaking exhibitors.
Is this how it’s done?
When I arrived back at the Screen exhibition space it was a lesson in how Asian companies can successfully bridge the cultural gulf. It was also perhaps the most casual of the pressers at the show so far.
Juan Tano is the marketing manager for Screen Europe. He was so at ease that he didn’t even bother with microphone, preferring to rise his voice over the roar of the surrounding trade show to extol the virtues of the new Truepress PAC.
It’s a flexible packaging machine that can print on such substrates as soy paper and food-safe plastics. There are two versions, one the 830F that is still in development. He opened the doors to show the engine, but threatened any journalist foolhardy enough to try for a quick snap with dire consequences. It has an impressively large and long hot air drier, which means the whole printing process in contactless until a final roller on exit.
Juan may have been able to talk over the ambient noise but his label press expert was suffering from trade show throat. (There’s a lot of it about. I picked up a stinker of a cold myself.) We stood around while he went through the features of the latest Screen label press, The Truepress 350UV SA I. No, I don’t know what the letters mean either, apart from the UV, and I couldn’t hear whether they were explained. However it’s an impressive machine with extra primer that makes it suitable just about every substrate.
Finally we were ushered to core of the stand, the document printing machines. First up was the Jet S320, which to my eye looked remarkably like the Kyocera Taskalfa Pro 55000C on the adjoining stand. It’s Screen’s attempt to get down into small cut sheet printing and is “still under development.”
Beside it was the new Truepress Jet, the flagship machine. I was pleased to hear the young Japanese presenter use a microphone. He tells us the machine has a new imaging and drying system. It’s rated at 100 mpm, with a lower quality speed of 150mp.
All in all, which includes Screen’s continuing CTP technology, the company is a strong contender in many printing and industrial sectors.
Out of the box with Nozomi
I’m schlepping down the broken travelator that goes end to end of the Messe for the third time. The EFI presser is on the opposite end in what they call the CCD (conference rooms?). This time around we’re going to meet the new CEO, Frank Pennsi. He tells us it’s his first drupa, but he’s been to the Messe many times as a customer of EFI before taking up the chalice.
The whole show is charged with American ‘can do.’ The positivity is so persuasive you might even start it believe it. He launches with the slogan Brilliant imagery together. He runs through the major trends; sustainability, digital transformation, personalisation, convergence, packaging innovation and industry 4.0/AI. I know what he means by these labels, after all I sat through his explanation, but I’ll spare you, gentle reader.
In true progressive style he expands sustainability to include human rights and racial equity. Who will argue with that? More pertinent to the occasion he tells us that the textile industry is the second dirtiest industry in the world after fossil fuels. EFI is out change that with its textile printing.
He hands the presentation over to a decades long veteran with the company, who undoubtedly knows where all the bodies are buried. In a fast fire, powerful presentation he goes through EFI’s different sectors, and its new machines.
Notably there’s the new X5 Nozomi box printer, which is designed to drive what he terms as a new branding platform otherwise known as the Box. It makes sense. Boxes are ubiquitous and most are still plain cardboard. The new machine is a complete system that takes cardboard in at one end and pushes out completely printed and constructed boxes at the other, one every six seconds. Pretty impressive and I will try to get to see it in operation here.
As he goes through the five new printers EFI is launching at the show, I’m struck once more by how EFI has expanded into so many sectors, mainly by acquisition. From its Vutek wide format machines to Fabri dye sub textiles to the Reggiona eco Terra and ceramic printers. It demonstrates the versatility of inkjet, which is the dominant imaging technology at this Drupa.
Short run, long run, all the same.
Switzerland is famed for its precision watchmaking but for my money its bookbinding expertise is not only as precise, but a lot more useful than glamorous watches. Two of the oldest and best recognised Swiss binding machine manufacturers, Müller Martini and Hunkeler, neighbours in the German speaking part of Switzerland, have joined together. Hunkeler is now a brand within the Müller Martini Group but the two companies were almost culturally indistinguishable.
For the final presser of the day Bruno Müller, CEO, added a fine dash of passion and commitment to his presentation Driving the digital transformation. “Maybe because it comes from the heart,” he told me.
The sector is challenged on many fronts as the volume of books and other print declines, runs become shorter, and everyone wants it now. The two operated in complementary sectors: Müller Martini focused on books and magazines. Hunkeler did a broader range including direct mail and posters. Coming together they have to develop systems and solutions to address the new reality in which 50% of the business comes from digital print. Inkjet continues to grow producing 7.6 per cent of books in the US, 10 per cent in Western Europe and 13 per cent around the world. The challenge is to make it possible for one or a thousand copies to be manufactured at the same cost per copy.
Enter the latest iteration of Müller Martini’s Smart Factory. At its core is the latest hardcover production process using the Sigmaline. This miracle of precision manufacturing is able to produce 2000 books per hour in a wide range of formats. It’s worth seeing.
Mind you, as I was being shown around to see it in production by Christoph Müller - it’s still very much a family affair – the line broke down. “It’s never happened before,” he said. I had to reassure him there’s a special law of nature which states that any time a journalist is present, the machine will break down.
It felt somehow reassuring that this most European and traditional of companies is transforming at breakneck speed and enabling the whole industry to not only to survive in the digital era, but to thrive.