Page 26 - Print21 March-April 2020

Revolution in Print
B2 sheetfed digital press tend be those that see print production as a manufacturing process, with the ink on paper element just one part of the integrated whole.
Litho, too, has the advantage that the more you print with a litho press, the more the cost per sheet comes down, which doesn’t happen with digital printing.
This is about comparison between today’s digital and today’s advanced offset technology. Today’s offset presses are able to makeready in minutes, particularly where only plates are changed and paper remains the same. Makeready waste can
be below 50 sheets, and the press can be up to speed so that litho overtakes digital in minutes. The top selling half size (B2) Heidelberg Speedmaster XL75 for instance
has the Push to Stop technology pioneered on the B1 press, making
it super easy to operate, with automated everything. Offset presses also have the advantage of a wide choice of consumables suppliers.
However, there is no doubt that drupa in three months' time will have a host of new and improved
B2 and B1 digital sheetfed presses on show. Details are sketchy at present but Canon had its digital
B2 prototype Voyager on show
last time, Konica Minolta showed
a proposed B1 version of its
KM-1, while Ricoh is evidently broadening its technology into
new applications, it already manufactures one of the big selling webfed inkjets, the V6000, and visitors to PrintEx will have seen a host of inkjet technology launches in the display graphics and textiles space, so it would be little surprise if it too had a B2 inkjet on the floor.
Heidelberg itself may launch a B2 sheetfed, it was first to market with B1 inkjet with its Primefire, built with Fujifilm print heads and an XL Chassis. KBA and Durst will likely have B1 inkjet, as may Screen and
26 Print21 MARCH/APRIL 2020
BHS. Eight years after launching nanopress Landa is gaining some traction, presses are going in, although mainly on a beta basis at present, and they are B1.
To work alongside litho presses in the optimum way B2 sheetfed inkjet typically needs some nifty workflow software that can decide automatically where to send the jobs. Fujifilm’s GetFit software
has been created to show that
a Jetpress can work in just this way, freeing capacity on the litho press by shifting shorter runs to the inkjet machine. The algorithm takes data from an MIS and shows how the costs of running the jobs on the litho press and on the inkjet press compare.
“There is no doubt that drupa in three months’ time will have a host of new and improved B1 and B2 sheetfed digital presses on show.”
of the digital sheetfed presses will tell you they do.
Part of the hesitation about B2 inkjet can be attributed to the consumables costs – they are more than offset litho, and generally only available from
the machinery manufacturer. Book printing in digital mono is a known cost of ink per page, commercial print in colour could have anything from five to 75 per cent colour, giving widely different print costs.
Nervousness about investing in B2 digital is not something that afflicts the HP Indigo B2 printers, which have been around since drupa 2012. It is by far the biggest brand of B2 digital, its users tend to be existing HP Indigo printers moving up from SRA3. While it provides double the sheet size the costs are not doubled, meaning if you have the work it is a good bet.
The latest version is the HP Indigo 12000HD, which has 1600dpi,
and is often used for fine art of photographic type work. Most printers are putting in the 12000 version, which as well as commercial offers applications in posters, books, some packaging and larger format brochures that were beyond the scope of its smaller format machines.
The ability to print the larger image area and feed a larger sheet also paves the way for digital
print to make a major impact in packaging. The Indigo 30000, its carton press, can effectively print
a B1 sheet, indicating perhaps that a B1 commercial press could be on view at drupa. HP has a strategy of only showing products at drupa that it will have for sale, there is no room for potentials and prototypes there.
Visitors to drupa in June will
have all revealed, the question then is whether B2 digital is capable of moving into the mainstream market as the A3 digital printers did, and that is a decision that owners of print shops across ANA are going to have to think long and hard about. 21
Above
Dominant player: The HP Indigo
B2 digital sheetfed press has the lion’s share of the B2 digital market in Australia and New Zealand
The thinking goes that as print runs in the B2 sector decline the demand for digital presses will increase, recreating what has happened in the smaller format.
Until now, that it has been a slow and steady build-up of B2 sheetfed digital installs, with only a handful
in ANZ, a situation reflected in all developed countries. Sales of B2 offset presses though have not been ten-a- penny in the last few years, suggesting that some are coming to the end of their lives, presenting owners with a dilemma, do they invest in another offset, or switch to digital?
The digital B2 printers are
also opening up new printing opportunities, with their ability to print on a wide range of substrates – including plastics – particularly the UV versions.
This means the printers are not just about replacing B2 litho, but can carve out their own new markets, and certainly this is what the owners