Page 33 - Print 21 Magazine Sep-Oct 2020

Inkjet Sheetfed
the majority of runs the cutsheet digital presses were fit for purpose. But the B2 world is a ways behind that. For print business owners, the
prospect of moving to a brand new technology and platform is no small deal. For most B2 printers the offset press is all they have known as the centrepiece of their proposition for the past 50 years. Its performance and quality are known factors, as is the service support. The inkjet cutsheet developers have to get their potential customers past their perception obstacles. And in these Covid times even investment in B2 and B1 offset presses is rarer than hen’s teeth.
For printers who have built their business on 50-tonne offset machines, a move to a press weighing a tenth of that is a big
step. Digital presses also offer less choice when it comes to consumables, service
and support – indeed there may be no choice – in
contrast to the heritage of an offset printer being free
to negotiate with any supplier of ink, plates, blankets, wash-ups, font solutions and other consumables.
Other barriers include the click charge which
may or may not be part of the deal. However, inkjet proponents say even with all this, the trend to shorter runs, on-demand work, no makeready, and personalisation will only accelerate the move into digital.
And make no mistake, the drupa event would have seen a swath of digital cutsheet inkjet B2 presses that are built not to operate at the margins of commercial print, in direct mail, books or transpromo type work, but to replace offset presses at the heart of the commercial print industry.
The Konica Minolta KM-1 presses are being used as commercial
presses, as is the Fujifilm JetPress at Ellipsis, the Canon i300, the Screen TruePress. Competing directly with Canon iX is the Fuji Xerox Baltoro, although not in ANZ where the relatively small size of the market has so far made its introduction unviable. Printing B2 digital is not simply
about replacing one lump of metal with another, albeit lighter, alternative. Digital opens up a world
of possibility when it comes to connectivity and automation. Factories and presses that are cloud connected to workflow, track and trace, shipping – this is the Holy Grail, where digital connectivity takes out an increasing number of human touchpoints.
Inkjet also scores in its industrial capabilities, being able to pump out consistent sheet after consistent sheet for hours at a time if necessary, and being able to replicate that colour fidelity months or years down the track on reprints and new jobs with the same graphics.
Inkjet can also be used as a complementary press to offset, running in a print shop and being used for the short runs, those with variable data, those that are needed in double quick time. And software is available to make the decision as to what goes where and when. Fujifilm’s GetFit software, for instance, will show how a Jetpress can work in this way, freeing capacity on the litho press by shifting shorter runs to the digital press. 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. It will work out the ink coverage per page and show how that will affect the cost of the job.
Offset presses of course have
the high makeready cost, but the longer the run the lower the per page price, whereas with digital it doesn’t change. And the offset presses have got makeready down to a fine art. However commercial printers are
now able to choose to install B2 inkjet as an industrial print system. 21
Print21 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 33