Articles

At drupa we were privileged to interview Seiko Epson’s Minoru Usui, CEO and president of the company since 2008. Mr Usui outlined his vision for Epson’s amazing PaperLab technology. PaperLab is an integrated system for producing new paper from waste paper without using water. PaperLab shreds office paper and recombines the cellulose using a binder…

If you wanted to put a green label on a printing company, what would you look for? The usual differentiator amongst printers is compliance and ideally formal certification to ISO 14001. Compliance to this environmental management standard is based on a company’s environmental policy and how well the organisation conforms to that policy. There are…

Book on Demand was the central theme at drupa 2004. With promises of superfast delivery times and monetisation of content by unlimited reprints manufacturers of digital print systems scored many orders. A phletora of print technologies was used to help publishers get rid of their cellars full of unsellable books. Inkjet. liquid toners, and toner…

We’re all familiar with the annual shindig the World Economic Forum (WEF) hosts at Davos in Switzerland. It combines spectacular scenery with spectacular visions for our collective economic future. But we are probably less aware of the regular white papers the WEF puts out. One of their latest efforts is part of Project Mainstream, a…

The sensation at drupa 2012 was the introduction of Landa´s nano ink digital presses. A smooth show and the amouncement of cooperation with just about every offset press manufacturer sent shockwaves through our industry. Visitors queued to see Landa´s show. Especially the supersize touch screen with which the presses were manipulated drew attention. The prints…

Book on Demand was the central theme at drupa 2004. With promises of superfast delivery times and monetisation of content by unlimited reprints manufacturers of digital print systems scored many orders. A phletora of print technologies was used to help publishers get rid of their cellars full of unsellable books. Inkjet. liquid toners, and toner…

Drupa 2008 saw the breakthrough of digital printing: systems with a larger format than A3, faster production speeds and, certainly as important if not more so, lower cost per print. Star of the show undoubtedly was the HP Inkjet Web Press which wsas announced as a thermal inkjet device with a width of 6,2 cm…

It seems like everyone’s at it. Humdinger green plans abound, but some green initiatives are better than others. And some have more credibility than others. The ones that bash paper are the worst. If you read or hear claims that paper’s use is responsible for the mass destruction of trees, be suspicious. Initiatives that look…

At drupa 2000 we saw the first fully automated finishing systems which used data from the digital prepress workflows to shorten make-ready times and reduce the possibilities of mistakes. Finishing was the last part in the production process which had not made this very important step. Driving force behind this improvement were not only the…

At HP’s recent pre-drupa press conference in Israel a colleague asked how we can trust the accuracy of carbon footprint calculations. We were discussing HP’s commitment to doing full Life Cycle Analyses (LCA) for its Indigo digital presses, so that the associated CO2 can be offset. How far can you trust the numbers? Where does…