The future seen on Screen – exclusive Print 21 magazine interview

Screen has long been acknowledged as a true technology innovator in the graphic arts and beyond. Best known for its thermal CTP systems, the company has recently been active in repositioning itself for a world after offset plates, in particular in inkjet printing. Naresh Khanna of Indian Printer and Publisher magazine spoke with Kyohei Fujisawa, president of media and precision technology at Dainippon Screen, about the way ahead.

Ever since I heard about Screen’s ‘White Canvas Rakusai’ concept in January 2008, I have been intrigued. I was curious about how this very Japanese company based in Kyoto was looking at the changes in our industry. I thought that maybe White Canvas Rakusai was a special Japanese way for describing ‘blue sky’ thinking or some other kind of creative idea-mongering — perhaps another way of planning its transformation for the future. Certainly it seemed that Dainippon Screen, with its acquisition of the Inca inkjet and its persistence with both the high-speed TrueJet 520 and the DI Truepress, was a company that was achieving transformation.

At drupa 08, the transformation of Screen was evident. Not only were the Truepress 344 and the TrueJet 520 shown in action but each already had an extensive installed base. Since the TrueJet 520 was first shown at Print05 in Chicago, it has been sold to transaction printers in Europe and North America and the Truepress 344 DI has a strong installation base in Western Europe as well. The most startling Screen product at drupa was the TruePress Jet SX — a sheetfed inkjet press. Although this was not a unique development at drupa, from my encounter in Kyoto with Screen’s president I think that it may be the first such product to market.

I have visited Screen in Kyoto several times since 2001. At the end of November 2008 I got a chance to visit again, and this time I was able to satisfy some of my curiosity about the Rakusai centre and also to meet with Screen’s president, Kyohei Fujisawa, (pictured) at the company headquarters which are across the city toward the hilly part of the city not far from the famous Kyoto palace.

The building itself is faced with gridlines reminiscent of Screen’s heritage as a 19th century printing company that went on to manufacture the first Japanese glass screens for half-toning with a precision scoring machine. There is an adjoining museum that displays its beginnings as a printing company, its subsequent achievements as a screen manufacturer, and its diversification of this expertise into electronics, since the manufacture of printed circuit boards and semi-conductors also began with precision photolithography techniques. Screen has now become the leading supplier of coating, exposing, measuring equipment to PCB, semi-conductor chips, flat panel displays and solar panel manufacturers.

NK: As far as White Canvas Rakusai is concerned, what part comes from tradition and what part is practical industrial research and development or perhaps strategising and product development?

KF: Rakusai is focused! Our core technologies are in cleaning, coating, exposing, and checking. For instance, laser exposure techniques came from our scanners to printed circuit boards, and then to flat panel displays. We have to show new technology in the four-year cycle.

NK: How does Screen view the current graphic arts markets? At its pre-drupa press conference in Düsseldorf in January 2008, Screen said that the CTP market is now flat.

KF: Seventy per cent of the market for our graphic arts products is overseas. If we look at three main segments, computer to plate (CTP), print on demand (POD), and precision equipment, we would have to conclude that CTP is saturated in many markets such as North America and Europe. Here we are looking at the replacement market. We expect Screen to take about 40 per cent of the CTP market in the current year. This would include our OEM production for some other manufacturers. In any case, the market this year would be something like 5,000 CTPs. It could even be less.

NK: So far Screen has been manufacturing only thermal CTPs. What about violet?

KF: We are considering the newspaper market and thinking and planning for newspapers. We may have to reconsider. I want to understand the market and for this we have to watch the market conditions. Now it seems that violet plates have a future and we are looking at machines for this market.

NK: What is your strategy for the inkjet market? For the TrueJet 520?

KF: More than a 100 of our Truejet 520 systems are already sold. This includes our OEM sales mostly in the transactional market. Our own sales strength is in the commercial printing and newspaper markets. . .  We are now developing several types of inkjets and several types of new machines. We may produce a just black and white system or a less expensive machine.

NK: Do you have any plans to develop your own inkjet heads in the future? And do you envisage consumables as a big part of your revenue streams?

KF: No, we are not planning to develop inkjet heads ourselves. However, in the future, consumables will be an important part of the market. We should develop inkjet products.

NK: What about the Jet SX sheetfed press that was shown at drupa in May 2008?

KF: Many customers are interested in this press and the quality is good on any paper. We plan to launch the Jet SX in the first half of 2009!

NK: Does Screen have any plans to manufacture in lower cost countries?

KF: In future we should consider the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries because of the trade taxes and the currency exchange rates. The Japanese Yen is too strong. For example, we already have a manufacturing company NTMC in China.

At White Canvas Rakusai
Screen’s White Canvas Rakusai centre is not far from its CTP and POD factories in Kumiyama in the southern industrial part of Kyoto. The group’s largest research facility contains 350 of its best researchers in what is meant to be a creative environment for discussion and collaboration that ultimately leads to product development. Although the words White Canvas Rakusai evoke ‘open space’, the centre is actually a place for filtering and focusing more than 600 of Screen’s core technologies into a mere 100 core technologies. Thus it is a place of convergence and synergy — the place where Screen creates special tools to help it enter various industries.

White Canvas Rakusai contains several overlapping concepts and activity areas. It is an open space for discussion and it is also the centre for collaboration with universities or the academic world. It encompasses research and design areas and a channel for sharing core technologies. Physically, it’s just a nicer building than most of the factories in the area with conference and discussion rooms on the top floors and large open offices on the floors where many of the engineers work.

On the ground floor, there is a kind of technology museum including some of Screen’s products across both the graphic arts and the PCB and semi-conductor manufacturing equipment industry in which Screen has a large share. There are also glimpses of the interconnectedness of the technology when one sees a three-dimensional image created by a parabolic mirror and new products like solar panels. The products in the room span Screen’s vacuum tube Scanagraphs to contemporary flat panel displays.

Screens core technologies include microscopic image exposure, micro stereo lithography, ultra-precise chemical coating, damage-free cleaning, nanospray, micron order precision, colour science and management technology, inkjet technology, workflow, automation, computer integrated manufacturing, flow detection and real colour 3D. Many of these easily translate across its product segments. For instance, on an earlier visit to one of Screen’s CTP factories, I was shown a precision measuring instrument for evaluating the accuracy of CTP imaging that had been ‘borrowed’ from the PCB manufacturing equipment side of the company.

From screens to Jets
The company that is today known as Dainippon Screen started off as Ishida Gyokuzan Printing Works, not far from the present headquarters in Kyoto in 1868. In 1887, it became a photolithographic pioneer and, in 1934, the company manufactured the first glass screen for half-toning in Japan. In 1943, it changed its name to Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Company.

Subsequently the company diversified into production of PCB and semi-conductor manufacturing equipment. On the graphic arts side, Screen landmarks include the Scanagraph vacuum tube scanner and recorder systems that ultimately led to a whole series of developments in both colour science automation and laser recorders such as imagesetters and CTPs.

Screen’s current advanced products, apart from its CTP, include its new digital flexo plate imager and its digitally imaged, fully-automated Truepress 344 offset press that was launched in 2004. Imaging at 2,400 dpi resolution and printing with a conventional offset process using standard inks and water, this machine has just seen its first installation in India.

However, Screen truly sees the future as inkjet and has quickly developed a wide array of inkjet POD products. In the past four years it has launched its own formidable range of POD and wide format ink jet printers including the TrueJet 520 in the transactional and on demand newspaper printing space. The Truepress Jet650UV has been developed for the industrial printing market, where the business model of incorporating POD systems into a variety of products during the production process is gaining considerable attention. In Kyoto, I saw some of the interesting 3-dimensional industrial products that can be produced on this machine. The inkjet TruePress Jet SX sheetfed offset press was also shown at drupa 08.

In the wide format inkjet space, Screen acquired Inca Digital of the UK, which manufactures the high-speed Spyder and Onset printers. Screen’s own Truepress Jet2500UV is a versatile, high-quality, large-format inkjet printing system designed for markets that demand large-size, high-speed printing. It covers a maximum printing width of 2.5 metres and makes it possible to print on a variety of media including panels and construction materials. The Truepress Jet 2500UV won the 2008 SGIA product of the year award at the SGIA show in Las Vegas.

In the last two years, Screen has launched several new platesetters for the flexo and newspaper industries. These include the PlateRite FX1524, a new mid-range flexo device which generates a high quality dot and is aimed at the folding carton and flexible packaging market with a format of 1067mm x 1524mm.