Dusseldorf, 19 January 2008 - From 13 to 18 January 2008 several of the most interesting drupa exhibitors put on a preview for more than 130 trade journalists from 40 countries. Formal presentations of the new technologies and products were interspersed with the usual mixture of show concepts, secrecy and hints. Some of the revelations were held back for special preview events that will be held in the next couple of months.

Nevertheless the official preview presentations included Heidelberg, Domino, Creo POD, Screen, Dalim, Ricoh, Screen, Fuji, drupa Innovation Parc, drupa Cube, EFI, Xerox, Presstek, and Kodak. Heavy metal mostly missed its chanced to speak to the large and diverse gathering of world trade journalists. Apart from Heidelberg saying that it will be launching its XL162 press at the show ready for sale, Screen and Presstek talked about their DI presses.

Many of the exhibitors acknowledged the strong growth of packaging and their offerings in terms of technology and equipment for this segment and also made a point of saying that they will be present at Interpack in April end which is also in Dusseldorf. This included Heidelberg, Kodak, Domino, and Xerox.

From the drupa preview one could sense that at drupa there will be a wider and deeper level of technology and printing for what can be very broadly now called digital printing. Right from the DI Presses, to new toner based colour presses from Ricoh, there will be several new inkjet based presses that will be shown from Xerox, Domino, Screen, and Kodak.

Domino will launch its new third generation drop on demand inkjet K150 head for narrow webs at drupa08 in addition to its new L400 thermal 600 dpi head developed with Lexmark. Ricoh will launch its new Pro900 and C900S digital colour presses based on a new engine that comes from the company’s acquisition of Hitachi. Screen will show three TrueJet inkjet presses at drupa including the 5200, 2500 and 50 models in addition to its digitally imaged offset TruePress 344. Xerox will not only show the continuous feed colour press announced in October but also the new monochrome 650/1300 dry toner presses.

Kodak made the most comprehensive preview announcement and spoke of 32 new products at drupa08. In the digital printing realm, apart from several models of the NexPress and the Versamark, Kodak will demonstrate a “concept” continuous feed inkjet press capable of printing colour at 500 feet per minute at its stand at the show.

From the Indian point of view the drupa preview was a great opportunity to keep up with industry thinking and to communicate some of the interesting highlights of the coming drupa. We believe that both the Indian exhibitor and visitor participation will be much greater than at the last drupa in 2004. We hope to share our drupa insights from this and other preview events with our readers both in these newsletters and in the print edition of Indian Printer and Publisher.