Digital newspaper printers, and the many more publishers who see opportunities in the segment, are waiting for per copy costs to come down… and hoping that DRUPA will deliver the ‘silver bullet’ (writes Peter Coleman).
There’s cause for hope: Any number of players promise print developments ranging from upscaled office inkjets to slip-in units for large newspaper presses, while finishing has attracted the attention of major players.
Newspaper publishers impatient for a solution will however be disappointed to find that it’s book printers who are getting first dibs on makers’ R&D budgets. Müller Martini already has several components to turn digitally-printed webs into saddlestitched or perfect-bound books, and offset press maker manroland says it will have a book folder ready for DRUPA, albeit in the showroom of German partner Océ.
When I asked Peter Kuisle, sales, service and marketing director of the newly-created manroland web systems business, whether we might expect the variable newspaper folder the company has been working on by the IfraExpo in October, he wasn’t certain.
“It’ll depend on demand,” he says.
Well yes, there’s the pioneering early work done on TribLocal at the ‘Chicago Tribune’ with Kodak… but most of the hyperlocal publications which support almost 100 citizen journalism websites are now being printed offset. And ‘niiu’, the ‘individualised’ newspaper launched with some fanfare in 2010, ceased publication last year.
In fact the current ‘publisher’ baton-holder for personalised newspaper projects is a utility, Swiss Post, which began a year-long pilot of its long-awaited ‘MyNewspaper’ project at the end of last year (see page 14).
So when does the market presaged by these ‘ahead of their time’ efforts become real and viable? When cost-per-copy becomes comparable with offset… that’s when.
I’ve been writing about digital printing since 1993, when the Benny Landa circus wowed Ipex in Birmingham with its Indigo technology.
Early players – Agfa notably among them, twice, with the Xeikon-based Chromapress and then a decision not to market its UV-cured inkjet in the newspaper segment – have come and gone since then, and Landa has since sold his business to HP, left the office printer giant, and gone off to develop more ideas of his own. But more of that later.
Even now, if you ask any of the vendor stayers about cost-per-copy, you’re likely to get a sharp intake of breath, followed by a discussion of “real cost of ownership” and the unique value of a personalised, digitally-printed piece. It’s not what newspaper publishers are looking for, and will not be with current publishing and distribution models.
But, we’re told, that is about to change. ‘Print media’ show DRUPA will be dominated by digital, with two digital print companies among its five largest exhibitors.
Kodak has staked its reputation and its future on the premise that its Stream inkjet technology will be competitive with offset. And in its present precarious situation – did you hear Billy Crystal call the building they hold the Oscars in the ‘Chapter 11 Theatre’?– they had better be right.
As GXpress was closing for print, Kodak unveiled its plan for the Düsseldorf show during a media event in Lisbon (details in page 15). Most of the developments relate cost-effectiveness to speed, so it will be interesting to see how this addresses specific publisher aspirations.
HP was one of the sensations of the last DRUPA, with a wide-web inkjet it said it wouldn’t bring to market (but did) big enough to stick a newspaper folder on. It’s expensive, but has been popular with the stressed bookprinting market, albeit mostly in black-only implementations.
There’s some doubt as to whether the pre-treatment technology will preclude much newspaper work, but the versatility from wide range of paper stocks including coated papers coming through, may offset that objection. Expect new excitement in what at 4952 m2, is DRUPA’s second-largest stand.
Digital newspaper pioneer Océ – now owned by Japanese giant Canon, which will be DRUPA’s fourth-largest exhibitor – has already announced faster versions based on existing models. The strong parent, and the fact that its range now embraces presses of its own development as well as OEM ones, means that it could sprint a surprise.
Despite the big Düsseldorf stand, its main operational showing – and that of partner manroland (above) – will be at a newly-opened customer centre in Poing, near Munich.
One of the quiet achievers in the marketplace is (Dainippon) Screen, whose flagship inkjet web has been in production at sites around the world – many of them newspaper-orientated, but also in rebadged Ricoh Infoprint 5000 sites – for five years. Among the most recent of these is a (currently shy) user in Queensland, Australia.
DRUPA plans have not been announced, so it’s not clear whether there will be speed or capability enhancements; sheetfed has been a recent focus with the JetFX. Screen – which uses a heated drum to assist ink drying – is among many with a wider range of usable paper substrates, so far all uncoated.
Meanwhile, Screen’s local partner, Fujfilm will bring a long-awaited B2 sheetfed press to DRUPA, with new ink and printhead technology. It says it has continued to develop the 1200 dpi Samba printhead on its Jet Press 720 inkjet web, extending life and improving precision.
Another ‘traditional’ player to watch is Epson. Best-known for office and the highly-regarded wideformat printers used for proofing, it has indicated an interest in production inkjet. The company, which has its own printhead technology, will show a concept label press at DRIPA, and says it wants quadruple revenue from industrial printing.
Japanese press maker Komori – which makes both sheetfed and web-offset presses – will show an inkjet web concept press developed with global partner Konica Minolta at DRUPA, competing in the 510 mm web width segment with a 150 metres/minute colour machine.
German arch-rival Heidelberg will also have inkjet webs at the show, reviving the Linoprint brand for the label-sized product of its OEM cooperation with Ricoh. Does that mean it will be pitching for world supremacy in the digital newspaper market any time soon? We think not.
Impika is another player with an inkjet web platform, the 250 metres/minute iPrint eVolution – a modular design for up to four printheads and resolutions of up to 600x600. One or two tower versions are available with twin engines inline.
The French innovator Impika promises “inkjet performances never seen before”.
We’ve been following the Australian-developed Memjet inkjet technology for a while, and believe DRUPA may be the point at which it moves from ‘also ran’ office technology to serious contender. US-based Delphax – which has brought some of the fastest web-fed systems to previous shows – will present new Memjet-power colour systems but has so far only been talking about sheetfed production at up to 500 iph.
It remains to be seen how the claim of president and chief executive Dieter Schilling to introduce a “game-changing print system” in an entirely new technology category will be met, although the potential is there: Memjet printheads deliver up to 700 million drops of ink a second using more than 70,000 ink nozzles, and there are many of them on the new devices.
The other new technology to watch will come from Benny Landa, who kick-started the digital printing revolution with the Indigo technology he sold to HP, and has new ‘nano printing’ technology to show.
Since the 2001 sale to HP, he has developed a raft of technologies within the Landa Corporation. A new batch of patents – in addition to the 700 he already holds – cover the new nano printing technology. It has been described as a kind of inkjet technology in which particles “smaller than a germ” are used with a flexible new printhead, and is related to research into energy technology.
Landa Digital printing is one of four divisions of Landa Corporation, which has interests in lenticular printing, cutting-edge science and engineering. Those who remember the stylish launch in 1993 will be crowding the 1500 m2 corner stand in Hall 9, where five presentations a day are planned in an amphitheatre-style setting.
To exploit many of digital printing’s newspaper opportunities, of course, you might wish to start with a newspaper press.
The manroland alliance with Océ is unlikely to spawn an on-press system, on which it previously worked with Kodak.
Three offset newspaper press makers – KBA, TKS and Wifag have however thrown their hats into the ring. KBA will have the fruits of its cooperation with R.R. Donnelley to show, but has so far said little of what show visitors can expect except that it will be “the only traditional press manufacturer to launch an own-brand digital inkjet press” at the show.
TKS had a new JetLeader 1500 inkjet web with a 610 mm web width and 546pp cut-off at GraphExpo last year, “the first major press vendor to develop digital ink jet printing and then integrate it with other TKS manufactured components,” says US sales and marketing director Mike Shafer.
Developed inhouse, the press has variable image and format capability and can run on a variety of paper substrates using water-based ink. Speed is currently 150metres/minute at 600x600 dpi.
With a sister company, Polytype already in wideformat digital with its Virtu system, Wifag may enjoy an advantage following the reinvigoration of its business which has come from the acquisition of Solna. New digital newspaper and book production lines have been developed inhouse, as has workflow systems for content and production data.
There are systems for prepositioning and cleaning the industrial-scale printheads, making replacement quick and easy.
Wifag also has a “totally variable” folder for newspapers, allowing similar book structure to a conventionally-printed edition. The company also has a book printing system with a cutting and sheet collecting arrangement which a complete stack of pages to be delivered to the finishing system.
Both companies say the digital equipment can be offered either as complete production lines or as modules for existing equipment.
The ‘elephant in the room’ may come from the giant economy to the north: Founder – best known as a workflow systems developer – will introduce China’s first inkjet printing system, the EagleJet P5000/5200, at DRUPA.
Expect high output and of course, high price performance from a system pitched at government official documents, on demand books, newspapers and magazines, as well as direct mail, variable data and short-run commercial printing.
The technologies come from the national inkjet digital printing technology lab, where a team of Peking University professors and researchers are exploiting the 40 digital printing patents Founder owns (with more than 60 pending).
Core technologies cover printhead control, ink supply, head cleaning, a parallel RIP and variable digital process, and join existing expertise in inkjet FM screening and digital workflow. The EagleJet has a drop-on-demand piezoelectric printhead rated for 75 metres a minute in colour or 150 metres/minute mono using water based or dye ink.
That might sound like a starting point, but clearly we should watch this space…. not least because of the impact Chinese involvement may have on printhead prices.
We’ve lost count of the number of companies who claim they want to be ‘the leader’ in inkjet. DRUPA will bring countless developments, but we question how many will make a real difference to newspapers’ business model… yet! Hopefully one or two.
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