Just over a year since the drupa launch of the revolutionary inkjet press, Landa has shipped its first, a Landa S10 Nanographic Printing Press, to a folding carton packaging and label convertor, Graphica Bezalel, at a beta site not far from the manufacturing plant.ant.
Just over a year since
The long awaited installation is the first time the industry will be able to examine the performance of the groundbreaking technology in an actual production situation. The press is the first of three announced beta installs for this year with another going to point-of-purchase solutions US-based printer, Imagine! in November followed by one to German-based board and paper packaging printer Edelmann in Europe before Christmas.
According to Yishai Amir, CEO, Landa Digital Printing, the first shipment is a significant moment not only for the company but also for printing itself. “We have begun delivering our game-changing technology to the market. Now we are ready to deliver our presses to the first customers it’s time to change the rules of the game… again. Printing will never be the same again. Stay tuned,” he said in a press release.
The roll out is the culmination of a process that began at drupa 2012 when Benny Landa, the father of digital printing, announced a new imaging format, nanography, employing nano-particle inkjet. The initial showing was followed by a thorough revamp of the press conception as Landa re-engineered it upwards to match the performance of full-size offset production machines. The presses shown at last year’s drupa have since spent a year being fine-tuned before the release to beta customers.
Landa’s caution in the roll out reflects his experience with criticism of the original Indigo digital print engines in the 1990s – the genesis of digital printing – which were released before the technology had been fully developed. This time around the Landa company has had to ignore claims the new system would never see the light of day.
The Graphica Bezalel press will be a focus of a customer event in September for the numerous early adaptors who’ve signed on to be in line for the Landa presses, At least three Australian companies – CMYKhub, Heroprint and Blue Star – have laid their money down to be in the queue.
According to Michael Mogridge, Landa channel development manager, Asia Pacific and Japan, the first press to ship to our hemisphere will likely go into China next year. Local printers will have to be patient.