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Ipex kicks off

May 21, 2010 | By Ron Augustin and Naresh Khanna

Ipex 2010 kicked off on Tuesday 18 May in the presence of industry pioneers John Crosfield and Benny Landa among other print champions. The entire day was filled with press conferences by the various digital press manufacturers, such as Kodak, Ricoh, Xerox, Screen and Impika. The previous day was used by Fujifilm and Heidelberg for presentations on their Ipex highlights, representing the two main segments on show and, who knows, pointing at future synergies between the two companies.

Kodak signage at Ipex Photo: Naresh Khanna

Fujifilm’s most glamorous presentation was reserved for its new B2 inkjet press, the Jet 720, but what is really interesting for Indian printers are the developments in the company’s low chemistry plates. Fuji not only sells plates and FFEI CtPs in India but has also started to sell its own B1 commercial high speed Luxel CtPs and is rolling out its widely acclaimed and futuristic XMF workflow.

Two new plates have been added to Fuji’s low chemistry plate family. The first is a long run plate meant for heatset web applications, the Brillia HD LH-PLE which can give run lengths of up to 300,000. The thermal Brillia HD-PLE plate withstands UV inks. The other new plate being added to Fuji’s low chemistry family is the Brillia HD LH-NI3 plate, a third generation bakeable negative thermal plate targeted at very long run lengths for sheet-fed and web offset applications. Apart from fast run-up to colour both plates use less chemistry in the processor with a very extended period between processor cleaning.

Heidelberg’s pre-exhibition conference has been a long tradition on the industry’s show agenda. Apart from criticising its rivals for not bringing real machines to the show and the digital press industry for its marketing hype, the company unveiled a new press, the CX 102. The new press stands between the CD 102 and the XL 105 series, and is running live at Ipex in a 5-colour plus coater configuration. One such press has already been sold in India. Basically, the CX 102 is an upgradation of the CD series using some of the new technologies and learnings of the XL series. It runs at 16,500 impressions per hour, halfway between the CD’s 15,000 and the XL’s top speed of 18,000 impressions per hour. Indian customers will of course study each and every enhancement on CX 102 and apart from the speed, weigh each one against the capital cost. As one of the next generation printers working hard at the show pointed out to us, before buying a new press it is essential to put the postpress in order. The finished product must be pushed out and billed as fast as it is printed if more capacity is to be added.

CEO Bernhard Schreier at Heidelberg Ipex press conference on the afternoon of 17 May 2010. Photo Naresh Khanna

Heidelberg’s CEO Bernhard Schreier openly declared that the company is searching for a digital press partner or partners. He then corrected himself to say “additional partners,” implying that Heidelberg already has a vestigial link if not partner in Kodak with which it joint-ventured to build the Nexpress and then relinquished its share. At the time, it was implied that the deal was not strictly an all-cash buyout but that Heidelberg’s share could be recovered over time on the basis of Nexpress sales volumes.

It was also clear from the Heidelberg press conference that the company is looking forward to increasing its revenue streams from services, consulting and consumables. George Clark, Heidelberg’s managing director in the UK and chairman of Ipex, in a clever and spirited defence of heavy metal also forwarded several possible labels on the exhibition that was about to open. He said that rather than merely labelling it a digital show it could equally be called the recovery show, the workflow show, the colour management show, or the reality show. His talk was not only entertaining but was possibly aimed at being helpful to those trade journalists who are looking for a hook on which to hang their Ipex coverage.

On the exhibition floor, meanwhile, the show has been a bit slow during the first two days. The volcanic disruptions in air traffic can hardly be made responsible for lower visitor numbers anymore, as all major airports in the UK had opened up their air space before the start of the show. With less than 900 exhibitors at the present Ipex, i.e., a 25% drop from the 1,200 in 2006, and a similar drop in the turnover of the major offset press manufacturers, the question remains whether this will be mirrored in the visitor numbers.

In fact it is the digital press manufacturers who are now the show’s heavy hitters. And their tribe is growing, both in acreage and in numbers. In fact, digital presses come in all shapes and sizes and are generally more portable than traditional printing presses, thus less expensive to exhibit in terms of build-up and infrastructure. Although there is a growth of special digital shows both by design and by default, their new found dominance at the traditionally offset-oriented shows, such as Ipex, could lead to the wholesale conversion of the heavy metal unbelievers.

On the whole Ipex has started off under a dark cloud of uncertainty as far as the future of the large offset press manufacturers. There is uncertainty also about the nature and extent of the economic recovery in the developed economies. More than all this is the uncertainty of whether the requisite number and quality of visitors will turn up at all. There are in fact many interesting developments from the manufacturers to be appreciated at the show but what is missing is a critical mass of visitors. And among the Indians, apart from the low number so far, we are missing many of the heavy hitters hungry to sort out their next buying decision.