Page 46 - Print 21 Magazine Jan-Feb 2019

Digital Technology
metres a minute, they are seriously productive machines.
Océ’s commitment to R&D can be seen everywhere. It manufactures its own ink. The UVgel for the Colorado is created to have the best of both worlds of solvent and latex inks: it has the colour gamut of eco solvent, the lack of odour of latex, and the productivity of UV.
“UVgel is faster drying, more viscous, and less liquid than other inks, giving better end results for printers,” says Whitehead.
The high volume inkjet solutions manufactured by Océ are gaining ground in their bid to emulate offset quality, it says ProStream matches and sometimes exceeds offset quality. Many industry analysts expect a wholesale switch from offset to inkjet in the same way there was from letterpress to litho.
“Although Océ has been the inkjet leader for the past decade, we’re not standing still. The new ProStream has been designed from the ground up. It has new technologies including DigiDot piezo electric drop-on- demand, ColorGrip, polymer pigment ink set with InkSafe technology,
and intelligent paper temperature management. It will print in multiple different substrates for magazines and publications,” says Whitehead.
Looking outside the technology, Whitehead believes there is much more to the company’s mission. “For Océ it’s about the business model more than the technology. Our view is that we need to keep enabling print businesses to move forward, to enter new markets, to produce for existing
markets more efficiently, and to enable them to exploit new opportunities.”
One of those opportunities is around the Océ VarioPrint i300, manufactured in Venlo. This B3 sheetfed inkjet printer, designed for speed, quality
and cost efficiency, can be configured with inline finishing. In our part of
the world, companies such as Waratah Direct and Soar Print have installed it.
Saskia Willems, international product manager for sheetfed presses at Océ, was largely responsible for the i300. She says it was produced
as a “flexible on-demand sheetfed inkjet printer” with speed and cost efficiency as the key drivers. “We listened to customers who told us what they wanted, and the response to the i300 has matched that request. Sales have been excellent,” she says.
Originally targeted at the direct mail and transactional sectors, Willems says Océ is now seeing the i300 move into general commercial print, as it prints onto offset coated stocks. It’s significant of the scale of Océ’s ownership of R&D that everything, including the inks, has been developed in-house.
Pioneer Xeikon
Xeikon was one of the first companies to launch digital printing systems onto the world market. Along with HP Indigo, it shocked the print industry at the Ipex show in Birmingham a quarter of a century ago. It’s not
been a smooth ride: in the early years the company was bought and sold a couple of times, but today is part of the giant Flint Group, with all the stability and resources that provides. Xeikon has remained a major player in digital printing, particularly so in the labels and packaging sectors, and here in Australia, well-known companies such as Foxcil and Guru Labels are among the Xeikon install base.
The company made its name on toner based systems, and these days it also supplies an inkjet system, the Panther.
Filip Weymans, well known on Australian shores thanks to several visits here, is the international marketing manager. “Xeikon has both inkjet and toner technologies. It can offer solutions according to application required. Food packaging will be toner-based systems, whereas for pharmaceuticals inkjet may be applicable,” he says.
“The company has dedicated itself
to understanding the market and developing solutions that enable our customers to meet its demands through technology that is quick, productive, high quality and cost efficient.
Above left:
“Now we are part of the Flint Group we have significant resources behind us for R+D, for distribution, for service and support. The company is in better shape than ever. Evidence for that can be seen in new developments such as cloud-based servicing for Xeikon presses.”
He believes Xeikon remains an agile company as part of Flint. “We have, of course, had to adapt to certain standards, but they have only made us better.”
Flint Group, of course, is a world leader in consumables, such as
ink, for the flexible packaging and corrugated converting industries. Its purchase of Xeikon was strategic, with major benefits for both parties.
“In the past 25 years the world has changed, and it continues to change, offering new opportunities for digital print businesses. For instance one of the new applications we are seeing some of our customers engage with is in wallpapers for major hotel chains. Printing with Xeikon means runs can be short,
so wallpapers can be changed more often and for lower cost, enabling the hotel brands to keep their product looking fresh. That is a great solution, it benefits the client, and for the printer it opens up a whole new market,” says Weymans.
And that is that: a tour around the low countries, revealing high technology in the industrial parks of the historic centres. Belgium and the Netherlands may not
have the population of Germany or Japan, the UK or the US, but they certainly have the skill sets, the commitment to education, and to technological development. They also have the opportunities to enable their young people to develop innovative solutions
to keep their industries at the forefront of print. 21
Cloud: Guy Desmet, Agfa
Below (l-r):
Connection: Geert De Proost and Jef Stoffels, Esko
46 Print21 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019