ON THE PRESSERS’ HOME STRAIGHT

As drupa 2024 prepares to wrap up, Print21 brings news from the final set of press conferences it covered. And after 11 days in the halls of the Messe Centre, looks forward to spending time in the open air.

eProductivity Software for SME

Software has a lot to offer, and is completely necessary, but for many small and medium sized print businesses it has long been problematic, both its install and usage.

However, at the eProductivity Software press conference the company revealed it is launching Nubium MIS, which it says takes just 'hours' to learn, is 'simple' to use, and is 'easy' in its operation. 

It is aimed at printers with turnovers of between $3m and $15m, and who may be operating in diverse fields, including commercial print, sign and display, labels and packaging.

Judging from the ePS presser, there is no doubt that what goes on under the hood is full-on IT, but ePS says for the SME printer there is no need to go under the hood, with the intuitive system leading them through every aspect of MIS on the screen.

Launch price is 500 UK pounds a month and it will be available in ANZ later in the year.

manrolandGoss new applications

Applications was one of the big stories of drupa, as the technology developers vied to show the expanding types of jobs that can be produced from their kit.

Heatset web presses from manrolandGoss, which dominates the global market, have until now only been used to print publications. However, at this drupa the press giant was showing paper packaging produced on its heatset Lithoman.

The item in question was packaging for frozen pizzas, the packaging a collaboration between various parties, the result fascinating – great quality of course – fully recyclable and using 80 per cent less CO2 than conventional frozen pizza packaging.

ANZ managing director Dennis Wickam was also pointing out the changed strategy of the local business, which is now not only supplying manrolandGoss sales and service as before, but also supplying and servicing half a dozen other adjacent technologies.

Kyocera cometh

With a heritage as one of the world’s biggest inkjet printhead manufacturers, Kyocera is now making its first moves into its own print engines.

This drupa has seen the launch of the Taskalfa Pro 55000c cutsheet SRA3 inkjet printer, which comes five years after Kyocera’s first printer, the Taskalpha Pro 15000c.

At its press conference, the company said the timeline was deliberate to ensure it had a good amount of customer feedback, from what are now 600 customers around the world.

The new 55000c will print on offset quality coated stock up to 400gsm with no pre-treatment, at resolution of 1200dpi, and says Kyocera has an “advanced” IR dryer.

Mutoh pushing sustainable

Sustainability is one of the key themes at this year's drupa, and not just in lip service, as has been the case in the past, with technology developers recognising print businesses are under pressure from their customers.

Mutoh was among those that were showing new green tech, its new HydrAton 1642 inkjet printer equipped with the newly developed ink based on Fujifilm's Aquafuze technology.

According to Mutoh, inks using Aquafuze technology are expected to become the “fourth technology” that it says can address several issues that existing ink technologies face.

The company says that its safe composition, with water as the main ingredient, and its low odour, as well as its capability of printing on different substrates, including using non-penetrating media without the need for primers or optimisers are the main characteristics of Aquafuze.

And that marked the end of the drupa 2024 press conference run. Big thanks to my colleagues Lindy Hughson and Patrick Howard for sitting through them. As always, Print21 brings you unrivalled coverage of the print industry, thanks to its vastly experienced editorial team. Always a pleasure.