Although Benny Landa’s first nano printing technology has fallen significantly behind the original schedule, the company expects the new presses to enter beta testing in the second half of this year.
Landa will show the presses at drupa 2016. Landa puts the delay down to the need to re-engineer the presses seen at drupa in May 2012. He says, “Though not yet perfect, we are getting close. Close enough, in fact, to start showing full-size B1 print samples to our Landa S10 customers. Close enough to start building a sales and service operation. Close enough to double our drupa 2016 floor space. And close enough to host our beta candidates at our facilities in Israel in March.”
In a statement to the industry Landa admits, “Yes, we did warn that perfection takes time, but it is taking more time than we had predicted.”
Landa plans to invite printers to Israel in March to see the S10, his company’s B1 carton press, put through its paces. Thirty months after the introduction of his nanographic printing presses, Landa says the company has completely re-engineered the machines for a better result second time round.
He says, “As exciting as the drupa 2012 models were, they were not exactly what the customers wanted. Folding carton converters wanted inline coating. The big touchscreen user interface, although universally loved, needed to be at the delivery station. And operators needed more convenient access to the machine’s inner workings. The product needed to be completely re-engineered.”
Print quality also failed to come up to scratch; Landa adds that defects masked many of the promised Nanographic benefits including sharp dots and the ability to print on any paper. He says, “Eliminating these defects too turned out to be a time-consuming challenge, especially as this work had to be done in parallel to the massive machine architectural changes.”
Landa has now promised a fully-loaded Landa S10 nanographic printing press with inline coating. The Nanographic printing engine complements a Komori paper handling platform, an AVT image inspection system with image processing, and an EFI Fiery digital front end.
He adds, “Landa NanoInk colorants are now visibly delivering on their promise, with brilliant, deep pure colours, razor-sharp text and edges and nano-thin images that replicate the gloss of any off-the-shelf paper.”
Pictured above: Benny Landa with an early iteration of his nanographic press
