The recent announcement of the first B2 format sheet fed digital presses using inkjet technology from Fujifilm and Dainippon Screen will change the dynamics of the digital printing market. These two machines have been previewed at drupa and are expected to start shipping during 2009.
The positioning of the new B2 presses against the established B3 format presses is generating much discussion at drupa, and I think my view perhaps differs from that of Frank Romano. While I am impressed by the technology of these new inkjet presses I am not convinced there is a real market for them. Frank Romano believes there are many applications that a B2 sheet fed press will be ideal for, however I feel that there are too many limitations with both these new presses to generate a wide market opportunity.
If one looks at the high-end of the quality digital printing market where we have the HP Indigo 7000, The Kodak Nexpress 3600, The Xeikon 8000 and the new Xerox iGen4 announced yesterday, these products are of very high image quality and have substantial sophistication for handling a wide range of applications. I cannot compare quality of these with the new B2 inkjet presses as yet because we are still seeing early prototypes of these presses and much work needs to be done on them before they come to market next year. I feel however that these two new B2 presses have too many limitations to provide the level of productivity required in the digital market. These are essentially like entry level B2 offset presses but ones that print using inkjet technology. They appear to have been designed like offset presses and not to work like digital presses. They do not have perfecting capability and double sided printing requires the printed sheets to be manually unloaded and then reloaded into the feeder to run through the press a second time. The presses have no in-line finishing so all work has to be moved into the bindery after finishing.
I like the idea of a B2 format digital press but I feel that if these are to succeed they have to match the functionality and quality of the well established B3 presses and this means auto duplexing and in-line finishing.
Discussion
By Buck Crowley on May 30, 2008
I agree with Andrew, but his logic is very linear. If you look at this as a new technology demo, all the issues he raises are simple engineering and can be resolved in short order. Inkjets are easy to apply and easily scaled. The fast track will be to put the inkjet heads in the place of other printing technology and all the paper handling will come along.
The next implementation will be to not have standalone printers with post processing. But put the inkjet heads on the existing finishing structures. Imagine an envelope mail inserter with inkjet heads on every hopper; this is in development.
Buck Crowley
BuckAutomation.com
By HC on May 30, 2008
Machines like the iGen3/4, Indigo and Nexpress offer the benefits of collation, two sided printing, multiple medias, etc but they often aren't easy to integrate into existing press oriented shops (How many shops have you seen where the digital output isn't in a different department or area?). A solution like this allows for the makeready benefits of digital and leverages all of the existing workflow of a press oriented shop with gains in collation.
I see it as a completely different market when compared to the other devices.
By swarnangka on May 31, 2008
Hi Andy
How does the print quality fare compared to the stream concept press?
By Andrew Tribute on May 31, 2008
My comments about the lack of functionality of a digital press in both the presses is perhaps something that might be expected. History shows that when Japanese companies enter a new market they usually take two to three iterations of the product to get it to be very competitive. This can be seen in Dainippon Screen's CtP devices that today are the industry's market leaders but were pretty basic when they first came out. I would expect that both Fujifilm and Dainippon Screen will assess the feedback they are receiving and rapidly enhance their new presses to become digital presses rather that offset presses that print with inkjet technology.
As far as the question of how do these presses compare with the Kodak STREAM Concept Press the answer is these today are very different products. From early output the STREAM looks better but the new Japanese presses have had no chance of being specifically set up to optimize their working. There is also a major difference in speed and size. Currently STREAM is being shown on a narrow 10 inch web whereas the Japanese presses are running on 28 inch wide sheets. Kodak still has to sort out the building and the output quality of wide multi head print array. With both the Japanese and Kodak technologies it is definitely a case of watch this space.
By swarnangka on Jun 01, 2008
Thanks for your comments. Definitly its a space to watch out for.
By Mike Sinigaglia on Jun 02, 2008
I think you are right on the mark Andrew. Fujifilm and DS have a lot of catching up to do before they can compete with the big boys like Indigo even if B2 is there strategy.
Discussion
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