PacPrint Hot Picks! Andy McCourt picks his standout products of the show

HOT PICKS HOT PICKS HOT PICKS

Amazing Azura – Agfa’s plate of the future
It’s here, the plate you do not need to process with chemicals. The only waste is a bit of gum and rinse water – about 20 liters per 300m2 of plate. Using patented ThermoFuse technology where the 830nm thermal laser of a regular CtP system fuses the particles in the image area; a negative working aluminium plate is ready after a quick gum rinse to wash off the non-image area. Suited to print runs of up to 100,000, Azura has already been adopted by Sydney’s Lionheart Offset and Melbourne’s McLaren Press. It’s the greenest way into quality platemaking.

As Agfa’s Garry Muratore comments; “Printers these days are looking out for eco-friendly solutions. Azura is a vindication of Agfa’s R&D in this direction and we are the first to offer a real commercial chemistry-free, non-ablative plate.

Thermal CtP the fast way – Lüscher in double figures
CtP manufacturer Lüscher has entered double figures in Australia with the sale of its tenth XPose Thermal CtP setter, and it’s no ordinary machine. The XPose160 on the Ferag booth (222) is a 128 –laser version, the fastest made for imaging an 8-up plate in as little as 90 seconds. The innovative drum design of the XPose machines makes them very accessible and the all-thermal approach keeps platemaking nice and simple, and of course precise as would be expected of a Swiss manufacturer.

After PacPrint, the XPose 160 is bound for a Melbourne printer who obviously needs to make a lot of plates! Big hitters from Ferag Lars Janneryd and Roger Corney are here to back up local Ferag folks Fritz Kistler, Steve Collyer and Ray Bounsall.

Hyphen’s Inkjet Ingenuity
Being an Australian inventor and manufacturer may seem like a hiding to nowhere to some but not Mark Chinchen of Hyphen (booth 922). He’s taken Canon large format inkjet engines and made them do tricks. First is a flatbed machine capable of printing on thick media up to 50mm; even straight onto stretched canvass. The chassis, software and design is by Hyphen, the inkjet engine by Canon. A special Black ink can be used to image Screen printer’s mesh. On show is a 610mm (24”) model but a 1118mm (44”) model is coming.

Also from Hyphen is the ‘doppelganger’ dual-sided printer using two Canon W8400 engines rigged on a chassis and driven by Hyphen software for either imposition or double-sided banner printing at 2400dpi. Great Aussie inventiveness.

A3 Offset press – Heidelberg makes an ‘eight’ out of the 52
The trusty Speedmaster 52 can hardly be described as ‘small offset’ in its eight-colour guise. It’s a beauty. With one installed at CJ King, Perth, there are sure to be many more after PacPrint. When fed by CtP and a PDF workflow, the SM52-8P is a short-run 4/4 multicolor powerhouse and can take on non-variable digital presses at a much lower cost-per-impression; and with offset quality. A lot of the goodies from the B1 long guns have filtered down to the A3+ world.

Whilst with Heidelberg, I have to mention ‘Plates on Demand’ – an option with Printect CP2000. If a plate scuffs up or becomes otherwise unusable, the press operator him/herself can hit one button and – bingo – a new plate is produced automatically. Brilliant thinking!

Big, bold and cutting-edge – Bobst’s SPanthera 106LER
Now die-cutting may not sound exciting to many but without Bobst you could be pouring your cornflakes out of a brown paper bag instead of a nice folding carton. This is a world first showing outside of Switzerland and so impressed ColorPak, they ordered it on the spot. With engineering like a Swiss watch but power like a team of bullocks, Diecut-meisters Bobst have done it again, may we say ‘a cut above all the others?’ See it doing its thumping thing on IPP booth 322.

Flatbed Grand Format – Columbia Turbo triumphs
One of the most exciting displays at PacPrint is the Inca Columbia Turbo working on the Sericol booth (1200). This baby is hu-u-uge and can image up to 3.2m x 1.6m on almost any substrate at up to 160m2 per hour. Inks are UV cured so there is no need for overcoat or lamination. After PacPrint, this one heads up to Brisbane where Screen printer Colorcorp will have it running by week two of June. Sericol’s Jeff Hand says 130 Columbias have been installed worldwide but this Turbo model is a first for Australia.

“Oddly enough, screen printers who have installed Inca Columbias have experienced an increase in their regular screen process work too,” he said. It’s beautifully engineered and there are no solvents to worry about with Sericol Uvijet inks. Brisbane might have the first but we guarantee the other capital cities will have theirs before too long.

HP Indigo 5000 – serious digital printing
The HP Indigo demonstrations are drawing five-deep crowds. Perhaps it is the excellent print quality, snappy look or speed but in the HP Indigo 5000, we have a digital press that uses liquid ink, has advanced paper handling that real printers like and can print on a range of substrates familiar to printers. Reviewed in May Print21 Magazine, the HP Indigo 5000 may just hit the mark with offset printers wanting to go digital, but in territory they feel comfortable with, and from a supplier who knows offset and digital because he sells both.

Whether the variable data option is taken or not, it’s still a great A3+ press for short runs, ultra-fast makereadies, pile delivery and it slots into existing finishing capabilities.

A2 Offset press –Shinohara makes sense
Also on the colourful Currie stand and seen for the first time outside of Japan, Steve Dunwell and Bernie Robinson are justifiably proud of the new Shinohara 75 – 5c medium pile five-colour press. It’s so compact; most A3 printers could move up a level and stay in the same premises. It’s packed with advanced press features normally found on long B1 perfectors. Auto plate changing, auto ink control using the X-Rite colour bar scanner, double-diameter transfer cylinders for highly accurate perfecting and at 15,000sph, it’s very quick. All this for around $250,000 less than you would expect to pay for a 5-colour A2. Make ready can be down to 6 minutes with the automation options. Curries can bundle the Shinohara 75 with ECRM CtP and Polyester plates for a complete turn-key operation.

By the way, Curries booth (504) shows what trade exhibitions are all about! It’s bright, stacked with working demos and just plain fantastic, right down to the truck for roadshows.


GTI’s practical solution for soft proofing
Father and son Fred and Robert McCurdy are on Kayell’s booth 1026 with a whole range of American-made GTI Graphiclite colour viewing products. However, it’s the Soft-View D5000 that caught our eye as it solves the problem of assessing colour between hard-copy and monitor displays. The operator adjusts the light intensity of the Soft-View with the hard copy proof and matches the CRT or LCD display so no mistakes can be made in colour approvals. It’s a simple concept but, as with all GTI Graphiclite products, executed with extreme precision.

X-Rite’s super-fast spectro
Over on the ColoRite Equipment booth 732 is the first showing of the X-Rite DTP70-Monaco Profiler bundle. From under $8,000 (standard version), highly accurate ICC profiles can be created at lightning speed – the DPT70 reads an entire ECI2002 chart with over 1,350 colour patches in a couple of minutes. Bundled with Monaco Profiler, it’s a complete package for colour management in proofing, press fingerprinting and large format and even comes with an Optix monitor calibrator.

For value and time-saving in ICC profiling; it’s hard to beat.

A0 size large format – Canon’s W8400 on steroids?
The new Canon W8400 gets its first airing at PacPrint and it is amazing to see it churn out a big A0 in 2.2 minutes (depending on mode), at 2400 dpi. It really speeds up large format display printing and proofing at 1118mm (44”), if speed is your priority. Canon has extended the gamut of its six-colour inks and droplet size is down to four picoliters (millionths of a litre), for fine resolving power. It’s a good looking machine with big 330ml ink tanks and prints edge-to-edge; but it’s mainly the sheer speed that gets it into the PacPrint Hot Picks.

Short run labels – Mimaki’s marvel
Peter de Maagd of DGS Mimaki (booth 352) is enthusiastic about prospects for Mimaki’s approach to digitally printed and die-cut labels – a separate cutting station rather than all-in-one. However, a new system links the plotter to the cutter in a tandem system that delivers roll-to-roll labels die-cut in any shape ready to peel. The Mimaki JV3755P solvent printer prints the stepped-up labels in vibrant colours and the roll then traverses to the CGML75 cutting station. The clever FineCut3 software enables the printer and cutter to ‘talk’ to each other and the result is a short-run adhesive label system that has to be a great profitable business opportunity.

Hudsons foils ‘em and creases ‘em
Two Hot Picks stand out on the AE Hudson booth (805). The FoilTech machines make producing metallic foil up to A3 sheets a breeze. A mono laser toner image is made from a printer and the sheet is fed into the FoilTech unit where the foil is ‘attracted’ to the toner and the black becomes gold! Goods news is, the foiled sheet can pass through a laser again, so if foiling letterheads, they can be printed in a laser printer, no problem.

From $3,500 – $11,000 these babies are sure to bring in the gold in more ways than one! Creasing goes high-tech with the Multigraf Tri-Creaser and Microperforator. Beautifully engineered, the creasing ribs are colour-coded for light, medium and heavy stock and creases applied to digital print (notorious for cracking) are clean and sharp. Great finishes from Hudsons!

Avery’s substrate for vehicle graphics
The little Smartcar Coupé being repeatedly decorated on the Avery booth is using Avery’s MPI-A 1005 material with EZ-Apply adhesive. Applicator David Newman makes it look so easy as he transforms the car into a mobile billboard using a thermal airgun and a heck of a lot of skill. MPI-A 1500 can be printed on all solvent inkjet machines but it’s the material that’s the Hot Pick. Pliable and long-lasting, MPI-A1005 can be re-positioned during application and removed for up to five years later if you want to go back to plain paint job and sell the car! A great visual demonstration that adds heaps to the appeal of PacPrint.


PacPrint 05 is a huge show, filled with great products. Watch out for more of my Technology HotPicks in next week’s Print21online Hot Picks.