Big, Bigger, Biggest—It’s drupa time!

From May 3 to 16, 2012, the worldwide printing industry will again meet at drupa, print media fair, to be held at the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany. Exhibit categories will include prepress and premedia; print, postpress and paper converting; and paper and substrates, as well as inks and consumables, components and infrastructure, and services and software. A special feature at drupa 2012 will be the U.S. Pavilion, organized by Messe Düsseldorf North America and supported by NPES - The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies.

Like no other trade fair, drupa 2012 will present a complete range of products: whether global players or newcomers, providers from emerging countries or from industrial nations. The entire fairground with its 19 halls will be turned into the largest printing plant of the world. Approximately 1,800 exhibitors from more than 50 countries will showcase the innovation strength of their industries—whether it's in newspapers, package printing, commercial, or functional printing.

Trends

"The future of printing lies very clearly in the areas of packaging, printed electronics (RFID), and digital print with personalization. Especially package printing will play an ever increasing role in the future," states Dr. Markus Heering, managing director of the Association for Printing and Paper Technology within the German Engineering Federation.

Of particular note, since the last drupa held in 2008 the suppliers of digital solutions have become even more important and reflect the mega-trend of digitization. In six halls, drupa 2012 will show everything concerning digital printing, workflow, or Web-to-print applications, just to name some important examples. Companies such as Agfa, Canon, Kodak, Epson, Fujifilm, Hewlett-Packard, Konica Minolta, Ricoh, Screen, and Xerox can be found in halls 4, 5, 8a, 8b, 9, and 10.

World view

While traditional markets are close to being saturated, the printing market in the emerging countries is developing very dynamically. In Asia, the volume has increased from Euro 133 billion to Euro 168 billion, and in China alone it has doubled to Euro 49 billion—and these dynamics are continuing. Market research institutes estimate that the printing volume in China will increase to Euro 70 billion by 2014. Cautious optimism is reflected in the printing and paper industry as drupa 2012 gets ready to open its many doors.

The dynamic development of the Chinese printing market is reflected by the large number of exhibitors at drupa 2012. With around 118,400 square feet, China's participation has increased by almost 100 percent compared to 2008.

Special exhibits

Two special exhibits will be a focus of attention at drupa—drupacube (hall 7A) and drupa innovation park (hall 7).

With the introduction of the drupacube in 2008, drupa launched an engaging change in perspectives that proved to be a guide for the entire sector—pure technology was moved backstage in favor of applications. As in all of the 19 trade fair halls, the focus of the drupacube will be on the printed product—with one major difference; everything seen in hall 7A refers to the use of printed products for communication, driven by marketing. This change in paradigms offers an important advantage: the respective heads of marketing or publishing houses, manufacturing experts, contact persons, and creative arts directors can get comprehensive information regarding print products on combined markets. This helps to bring very diverse target groups closer at drupa.

The diversity of needs of these target groups will be matched by the variety of the drupacube offers. Conferences held every morning will cover a different theme daily, including a "Magazine Day," "Book Day," and "Dialogue Marketing Day," as well as a "Packaging Day" and a "Corporate Communication Day." The program of activities aimed at specific target groups will be enhanced by current topics such as "Green Printing," "Functional Printing," and "Social Media." In the evening, the drupacube will be the venue for exhibitor events.

The drupa innovation park 2012 (dip) presented by digi:media will be the center of attention for groundbreaking innovations, along with the latest top themes in the digital printing sector and media industry. Here, startups, young companies, and key sector players with unique solutions and applications will have the opportunity to participate in drupa 2012, print media trade fair, and present their ideas for tomorrow's markets.

Exhibitor sampling

Gallus will be showing the productivity potential in producing folding cartons in an inline process. It will demonstrate the Gallus ICS 670, an inline machine system that has been tailored specifically to the needs of state-of-the-art folding carton production. It will also be demonstrating a combination of its HiDef flexo printing™ system and a totally new gravure unit, as well as other high-quality finishing processes, such as rotary screen printing or cold foiling in a single pass. By integrating the flying imprint option and its new 100 percent quality control system with blank ejection, the Gallus ICS 670 offers many additional benefits.

drupa 2012 will be Esko's largest trade event presence in its history. Esko will show a wide array of software solutions, including the introduction of Suite 12, a major update release of Esko's workflow software offering for the packaging, label, sign making, and display industries. The CDI Spark 2530 with digital Inline UV1 and the CDI Spark 4835 Auto with digital Inline UV2 will be on display next to the Digital Flexo Suite optimizing the flexo platemaking process. Esko will also preview the next generation of HD Flexo plate imaging technology that will allow users to control the shape of different dot structures in one single plate.

Comexi Group and Wikoff Color Corp. are partnering at drupa to showcase innovations for flexible packaging focusing on sustainability. They will show the printing of low-migration, solvent-free inks for food packaging with a central impression offset press. The Comexi Offset CI3008 press will demonstrate its capabilities in offset printing on a light-gauge plastic material. Wikoff will showcase its Regal EB lithographic inks, which are a proven set of process colors that are being widely used in many food packaging applications.

Heidelberg is showcasing around 60 innovations under the motto "Discover HEI" in Hall 1. It will launch a new series of sheetfed offset presses under the name Speedmaster SX. This series combines the cutting-edge technology of the existing product series in a new performance class primarily targeted at print shops that need to take productivity to a new level. The company is also expanding its digital print portfolio, bundling all solutions under the name Heidelberg Linoprint. For this purpose, the partnership with Ricoh has been expanded to include Ricoh digital printing systems under its own name and equipped with Heidelberg software.

MacDermid Printing Solutions will showcase several new innovations including its LAVA 5080 Thermal Plate Processor, innovations to the LUX Platemaking Process, the LiquifleX Platemaker, the Aspect Quadra RS, and MacDermid Accent Coating Plates. The LAVA 5080 will enable printers and plate reproduction houses to create plates up to 50˝ x 80˝. The new LUX 38˝ Laminator is designed specifically for the narrow web market. The 38˝ LUX laminator laminates plates up to 38˝ wide and includes several new features that make lamination of the LUX membrane more efficient.

Xeikon will demonstrate its latest range of customer-driven innovations designed to deliver best-in-class image quality, offer new levels of flexibility, and deliver significant improvements in productivity. On display will be the new 8000 series of digital presses, driven by Xeikon's lastest workflow. Visitors will also experience the new range of application-focused suites for the label and packaging markets (self-adhesive labels, heat transfer labels, and folding carton packaging) with the Xeikon 3000 Series of digital label presses at the core, integrated with application-specific toners, workflow software, substrate, and equipment components. The company will also launch the ThermoFlexX line of high-quality imagers for the flexographic and letterpress markets.

DuPont Packaging Graphics is showing several of its newest equipment offerings that enhance flexographic printing. It will showcase a complete Cyrel® FAST Round workflow that demonstrates precision printing for sleeve processing. A key component is the DuPont™ Cyrel® FAST Round 1450 FR, a sleeve-making system that uses dry, thermal technology to quickly process high quality photopolymer sleeves. Additional new technologies from DuPont: the DuPont™ Cyrel® FAST 3000 TD system, which ensures outstanding quality and uniformity in a larger 50˝ x 80˝ format; and the DuPont™ Cyrel® DigiFlow, a new digital workflow designed to expand the capabilities of digital Cyrel® and digital Cyrel® FAST to create the desired dot shape plate by plate.

HP will showcase new digital printing solutions and applications to help print service providers grow their businesses. HP says its 53,300 sq. ft. stand will be drupa's second-largest exhibit and its single-largest exhibit of digital printing technologies. The stand will feature HP's broad range of graphic arts technologies including: HP Indigo digital presses featuring high-quality liquid HP ElectroInks for label and packaging applications; HP Inkjet Web presses for high-speed publishing, transactional, and commercial applications; HP large-format systems using HP Latex and UV inks for sign and display applications; and HP Specialty Printing Systems inkjet solutions for high-productivity imprinting, coding, and marking applications.

Landa Corporation has unveiled Nanography™, what the company says is a new digital printing category for mainstream commercial, packaging, and publishing markets. At drupa 2012, Landa Corp. will demonstrate its new line-up of Nanographic sheetfed and web presses. The company is led by Benny Landa, who launched the Indigo digital press in 1993. "The Landa Nanographic Printing process is the result of ten years of nanotechnology research. It is a true breakthrough that enables our presses to achieve amazing results," says Landa, chairman and CEO. At the heart of the Nanographic Printing process is Landa NanoInk™, which is comprised of pigment particles only tens of nanometers in size. The Landa Nanographic Printing process can print on any off-the-shelf substrate, from coated and uncoated paper stocks to recycled carton, newsprint, and plastic packaging films—all without requiring any kind of pre-treatment or special coating. The Landa family of six Nanographic Printing presses have a very small footprint and can print in up to eight colors at 600 dpi or 1,200 dpi resolution. pP