Page 26 - Print 21 Magazine Sep-Oct 2020

Inkjet Webfed
Inkjet
arrival
High-speed inkjet webs have been around for
a decade, but are now openly competing in the commercial space. Print21 editor Wayne Robinson asks what they can bring to a commercial print house.
While sales of B1 offset presses this year, or B2 for
that matter, can
be counted on the fingers of one hand, that does not mean the king of print has been replaced by its would-be successor, inkjet web. It just means no-one has invested in anything. However, the inkjet developers are now positioning the high-speed continuous-feed printers in the same space as the B1 and B2 offset presses, claiming they can more than compete on speed, quality, productivity and, most importantly, profitability.
When high-speed inkjet first arrived a decade ago, it was always in the context of a complementary technology to offset and positioned in the transpromo, books, and direct mail categories. Printers in all these areas in ANZ installed the inkjets, but commercial printers gave them
a wide berth.
However, the new generation of inkjet webs from the likes of Ricoh, Canon, Screen, Kodak, Fujifilm, and HP are knocking on the doors of commercial printers, and if it weren’t for Covid, they would likely be finding their way into the press halls too.
The benefits of inkjet continuous feed are well documented: no
plates, no makeready, variable data capability, and integration into a digital network, making a dark print house possible.
overcome for commercial printers looking to move into inkjet – reels rather than sheets being one of them, although, of course, reels are cheaper than sheets.
Most of the inkjet presses print
at around 150 metres a minute top speed, although that speed decreases as you ramp up the resolution. Stocks have been an issue too, but that has been largely overcome now, with many of the new generation able to print on standard offset stocks.
“With the cloud, the internet of things, and industry 4.0 all based on digital data, the digital inkjet webs are capable of plugging straight in.”
Inks are also a different beast with high speed digital presses. Offset printers are used to having a choice, and while some of the offset press manufacturers have started supplying inks, there is no obligation to take them. However, inkjet inks are completely connected to the specific press; you can’t buy off-the- shelf inks for a high-speed inkjet press, or if you can, the warranty will be voided.
Then there is the cost. Most high-speed inkjets will give you little change out of $2.5m, which
is a fair bit more than a B2 press
will cost you. You’ll need to have a high-performance front end, and a post-press finishing, like a Hunkeler
or Tecnau solution, to handle the high-speed reels.
The higher upfront costs, though, will be mitigated by lower ongoing costs – no need for plates or a CTP unit for instance – and the greater efficiencies that can be achieved.
However, high-speed digital inkjet is not a like-for-like straight swap for a 50-tonne litho press. The inherent digital framework lends itself to a future-oriented printshop, including where the manufacturing side is largely lights-out, with few staff,
if any, on the floor.
The paper job bag is being replaced by digital meta data, held in a file that identifies and tracks the job through the production process. With two-way data, the job information goes into the press and finishing, and the actual performance stats come back the other way. The digital job data can also be accessed by the client at any time.
Each high-speed inkjet developer has its own workflow software. With the cloud, the Internet of Things, and Industry 4.0 all based on digital data, the digital inkjet webs are capable of plugging straight in. Digitisation is not simply replacing one lump of highly engineered metal with another.
In the end, it may come down to horses for courses, and how willing a print business is prepared to invest to pivot its manufacturing from the tried and trusted offset litho into the new world of inkjet. 21
However, there are obstacles to
26 Print21 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020
Above:
Inkjet webs: speed, quality, and digitisation