Landa Details the Latest on Beta Site Roll Out

A year after Landa showcased its latest developments in Nanography at drupa 2016, the company has now launched its first beta site in Israel, with more presses to be delivered to sites in the United States and Europe. 

Graphica Bezalel, a folding carton converter based in Yavne, Israel received the first installation of a Landa S10 press over the summer, and in September, approximately 120 visitors from around the world traveled to Landa’s headquarters to visit the first beta site and see the technology in action. 

“We opened the laboratories to show customers the unique equipment and methods being used to advance Nanography,” Nachum Korman, Landa VP and GM, Americas, says. “[Nanography] is a new technology, and we wanted this group, which has seen conventional printing R&D plenty of times in the last 20 years, to see the science that is not only powering the next generation of print, but also dozens of other applications." 

Korman explained that even in the short time Graphica Bezalel has been running the press, the company has already found multiple applications that are better produced digitally than on its analog equipment. For example, he states that one job the company has transitioned to the S10 involves printing both spot colors and black. On analog equipment, Korman says this job required significant setup time and created a lot of waste, but the Nanographic press has reduced both concerns. 

“When they started using the S10 with four colors, they proceeded to match the colors that the customer wanted,” he says. “So only with CMYK and with the setup time of digital – which is nothing – they succeeded to make this job. For them it was a big win.” 

In addition to the speeds that the S10 can reach – 6,500 sph in beta, with plans to advance to 13,000 sph – Korman says two other advantages are especially popular with customers. One of these is the plan to make 7 colors available by the end of the beta period; i.e. CMYK+OBG, which will cover 96% of all Pantone colors. (This is 50% more than CMYK offset.) Another primary benefit is the press’ size. At 40” wide, the S10 allows Graphica Bezalel to print multiple versions of a box on a single sheet, which was a restriction in an analog workflow. 

“In analog every plate has to have the same boxes, but the S10 immediately allowed them to put different content on the same sheet,” Korman says. 

With the first beta site up and running, Korman says Landa is moving forward toward its next installations. Before the end of 2017, he says a Landa S10 press will be delivered to Imagine Print Solutions in Minneapolis, which will then be installed early in 2018. Likewise, Edelmann, a package printer based in Germany, will receive Europe’s first S10 delivery in early 2018. 

Following the first three beta site rollouts, Korman says he expects more to follow in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. 

Korman says that some lingering skepticism about digital printing as an emerging technology in packaging is subsiding, as digital solutions such as the S10 and those from other providers show success in the market. Seeing the S10 running live, and hearing Graphica Bezalel’s Director, Eyal Harpak, talk about his own customers’ happiness with it, squelched any remaining apprehension on the part of Landa’s visitors. 

“People want to be sure the presses perform as promised,” he says. “Now the market is seeing it for themselves.” 

In the year since drupa 2016, Korman says the excitement throughout the Landa organization has been clearly visible. While drupa was an exciting time due to the technology announcements, seeing Nanography in action has been equally rewarding. 

“Drupa was a big celebration for us,” Korman says, continuing, “And today we have real jobs being produced, and other customers readying their facilities for delivery. Our customers are leaders in this new era of digital production."