Page 43 - Print 21 Magazine Sep-Oct 2021

Cover Feature
Joe Carmody, managing director, EVOK3D
Jdisruption – again
3D Printing
3D is digital market
oe Carmody is well aware of the dental fields, in education, as well as with the similarities between 3D printing Dept of Defence. It is helping build sovereign and Currie Group’s initial journey in Australian manufacturing capability at a critical launching digital printing 20 years time of global supply chain disruption.
ago. “Both are disruptive, high-tech EVOK3D is presenting the possibility for processes. Both require complex equipment printing companies to bring AM into their
that needs excellent service, and ongoing consumables. The consultative sales process is also the same,” he said. “We’re doing now what they did then, facing the same challenges in disrupting established methods.”
He prefers to use the term additive manufacturing (AM) to 3D printing, even while acknowledging the similarities of the initiative. “It’s important to understand that while it’s called 3D printing and both have that printing word in them, that’s effectively where the similarity ends.”
The potential market for AM is huge, arguably larger than the offset printing market at the start of the digital print revolution. The scope
to transform manufacturing and shorten supply chains is enormous and already EVOK3D,
an independent Currie Group business that Carmody heads up as managing director, has engaged with organisations in the health and
production mix. “We’ve found a number of Currie Group clients that have opportunities in their existing customer base for additive manufacturing. Examples of that would
be point-of-sale sign and display, or people working in labels and packaging with food and beverage or other manufacturing companies. Those clients will typically have
a product development division where they’ll be prototyping new products and designing concept models for new branding. Sometimes by combining additive manufacturing with graphics applications it enables a better prototype of the new brand or product.”
EVOK3D came on board with Currie Group in 2019. The ten-person organisation utilises the Currie technical service team throughout Australia and New Zealand to provide a complete AM service – what Carmody likes to term, “art to part.”
HP Indigo commercial print
Digital offset transfer is here
This year is a tipping point for printers still running
the HP Indigo presses they bought seven to ten years ago. According to Anthony ‘AJ’ Jackson, those machines are still in use because HP continues to upgrade the technology. “These presses are still producing the best quality digital print and having that reliable quality gives commercial printers confidence. The HP Indigo platform is robust and was engineered to last. It’s like
a Kenworth truck; we’re not as cheap as toner machines, but there’s not that many six to eight-year-old toner machines still running, is there?” he said.
He believes this is now the time when true digital offset transfer is a reality
and printers need to map out a strategy. “The top of the range HP Indigo 100K Digital Press has mainstream B2 printing in the crosshairs. It’s up to six thousand sheets per hour in EPM; it’s hard
to see any difference in the finished product. This is a true offset transfer machine, and with well over 70 global installations, one could say the B2 digital modernisation era has commenced. He calls it “the printing factory of the future.”
“Then there’s the HP Indigo 15K Digital Press with ElectroInk, Premium White, and invisible inks for packaging security. With orange, violet and green it reaches 97 per cent of the Pantone gamut, as well as having any spot colours that
customers can order in from Singapore and Israel. HP
has also added capability to print on substrates up to 600 microns thick - one press can do it all,” he said.
He also draws attention to the HP Indigo 7K Digital Press, the next generation SRA3 press, now capable of handling thicker substrates, up to 550 microns, which makes it ideal for packaging.
In talking with customers, AJ recognises commercial printers are diversifying, looking to see what else they can take to the market. He said, “Our customers, using HP Indigo ElectroInks in
the value-add market, are producing amazing collateral, cooperating with their customers’ creatives, and making good coin.”
Anthony
‘AJ’ Jackson, national sales manager – commercial HP Indigo
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