Page 24 - Print 21 Magazine Sep-Oct 2020

Digital
Print pioneer
pursues profitability
Xeikon was one of the digital pioneers when it launched its first digital colour press DCP-1 in 1993. Now, more than a quarter of a century later, it continues to make waves and provide opportunities to printers. Print21 editor Wayne Robinson – who was at that DCP-1 press launch – looks at how the company is moving forward.
The birth of digital printing was at Ipex in 1993,
with Xeikon one of the developers that stunned the world of print when it
drew back the curtains on its digital colour printer, the DCP-1. The years since that momentous event can roughly be split into two, with the first half characterised as a roller coaster ride, and the second half a period of stability and growth – even more so in Xeikon’s case since 2016 when it was acquired by the world’s biggest ink company, Flint. Flint’s purchase of Xeikon gave it the Holy Grail of toner, inks, hardware, and software all within its own portfolio.
The following year Xeikon established Xeikon ANZ, a direct subsidiary taking over from the previous agency arrangement. Trevor Crowley, ANZ country manager says, “Xeikon took the view that a direct line from customer to the factory was always going to be beneficial, and so it has proven, with the
local Xeikon users
seeing the benefit
of the direct factory
link, not only with
technical support
but also with
development of new applications.” Today the local company has an experienced manager and support
staff (total of six people), with its loyal band of customers enjoying the two-way communication from the factory in Belgium. Printers in this part of the world also have direct access to the technical excellence centres in Antwerp, Tokyo, and China.
Xeikon has proved itself as a technological pioneer, not just in
its initial launch back in 1993, but
in the years since. It has developed presses, and more latterly end- to-end production systems for a
host of applications. Labels and commercial are the big two, but the company has sold lines for bespoke application paper cups and pouches into ANZ. Any printer who visits
the increasingly popular Print Café held at the company’s plant outside Antwerp every year will have seen the print systems set up as a series of application specific production lines.
Below
Pouch production, for instance, has been a game changer for many print businesses. The end-to-end solution enables printers to enter the booming pouch market, whether for soups, pet foods, or high-nutrition meals.
It is a long way from just putting ink, or toner, on paper. Crowley says, “With our considerable heritage
in digital printing, as one of the pioneers, we have learned a lot over time. We know how to get the most out of our machines, how to ensure that our customers optimise their working capital.”
That optimisation comes from Xeikon looking not just at the engine itself, nor even the end to end solution, but at digitising the whole production workflow.
Connection: Xeikon digital printing
“Xeikon is not a standard four-colour printing system, its capabilities far exceed that and will go to wherever you want to take it.” Filip Weymans, Xeikon
Crowley says, “Digital presses are not only ‘no plates and no make ready’, that is history, they are digitally connected ‘digital print manufacturing’ and enabled print solutions. For instance, in labels there is a digital imposition system to ensure optimum productivity, which integrates with the MIS. Our studies show that correctly applied digitisation of the workflow will
24 Print21 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020