In recent weeks there have a number of press events announcing new products to be seen at the forthcoming Ipex exhibition in May. The following is a summary of announcements from Heidelberg, Atlantic Zeiser, EskoArtwork and Kodak. In following weeks I will also be covering announcements from HP and Xeikon.

Heidelberg – This year at Ipex Heidelberg will not be introducing any ground breaking new products, nor will it be announcing its re-entry into the digital printing market. That re-entry should be announced later this year. Instead Heidelberg will introduce a wide range of updates in the move to improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of its products. For Heidelberg lean manufacturing, ecological printing and integration is very much the driving strategy of what they will announce at Ipex. This increased efficiency will be across its whole range of products and services.

Heidelberg sees Ipex as the barometer of the health of the industry and it comes at just the right time as the company sees the global economy improving slightly with orders starting to pick up. This is particularly the case in what they term the threshold countries, and an upturn is also being seen in the services and packaging printing areas. Heidelberg has seen the in the small format B3 press area that demand for offset presses has significantly dropped as print runs get ever shorter and here they see the real impact of digital printing. During 2010 Heidelberg will announce its strategy for re-entry into the digital market through a partnering arrangement with one of the digital suppliers. Discussions are under way at present and an announcement will be made before the end of this year.