The show's
organiser is expecting more than 400,000 printers from virtually every country
in the world to enter the giant Messe Centre, where they will be welcomed by
the biggest number of exhibitors the exhibition, now in its 50th
year, has ever seen, with no less than 1,971 companies from a remarkable 52
different countries showcasing their
wares, up by eight per cent on the 2004 figure..
Offset
printing still commands the lion's share of the 175,400 sqm of exhibitors
floorspace, a figure which is also up by eight per cent on last time.
Heidelberg, Manroland (as it is now known) and KBA are all showing giant XL
145cm or 162cm presses, which are simply astounding to look at, such is their
sheer size and production power, KBA in fact has an eight-colour 145cm
perfector on the floor. It is Heidelberg's
launch point into the large format offset sector. Going the other way Manroland
launched into the 20" (52cm) maket with its new Roland 50.
However
generating just as much interest are the new breed of inkjet printing
solutions. By 10am on the opening day Fujifilm, Screen and Kodak had all
announced new inkjet print technology, and while some of it is still in concept
rather than production stage its impact may be huge, indeed Antonio Perez CEO
of industry giant Kodak said of the company's new Stream technology that "It
will change the face of the print industry forever".
The
new inkjet printers promise offset
quality, no makeready, high speed and low cost, and if all these factors do in
reality combine then inkjet may be capable of mounting a serious challenge to
offset. Perez says there is nothing that is currently printed offset that Kodak
inkjet technology will not be able to print.
With a host
of other inkjet announcements yet to be made it is likely that by the end of
the show the print production landscape may have irrevocably changed.
For daily
updates on drupa keep tuned to i-grafix.com, which will provide all the news
first, and with most insight and analysis.
