Today RR Donnelley announced that plans have been finalized to create a technology alliance with HP to collaborate on the development of digital printing solutions for inkjet-based digital presses. According to Mary Lee Schneider, Chief Technology Officer of RR Donnelley, “Since the 1970s we have always looked to the market first for solutions to meet customer needs; when they were not available, we built our own. That has been our heritage. It is a nice place to be, because we are not beholden only to what is currently available in the marketplace.”
Just prior to Drupa 2008, both HP and RR Donnelley made significant yet separate high speed production inkjet announcements. “Our two presses are very different,” says Schneider. "In fact, RR Donnelley's announcement was part of the natural upgrade path we had defined for inkjet press technology--technology we have been refining and deploying since the late 90s. The interesting fact was that we had been integrating aspects of HPs commercially available technology. When we realized we were going down parallel paths, we realized we could accomplish more together than pursuing independent paths.”
Schneider is quick to point out that RR Donnelley has no intention of selling product directly to the general market. There are currently at least nine high-speed inkjet presses installed internally, fulfilling customer needs--and based on customer demand, there are more to come. “This is consistent with our mantra of ‘we buy when we can, and build when we have to’, she says. “HP brings a tremendous amount to the table in terms of imaging technology and materials knowledge, and we bring expertise in integration and understanding customers' needs. It is a perfect combination.”
The first joint initiative, anticipated to come to market as an HP product, is MICR capability for the T300 HP web press.
When asked if she could divulge any of the financial details, Schneider declined, but said, “It is safe to say that each of us will benefit from contributing intellectual property to the arrangement. Today it might be one thing we are doing for HP; tomorrow it might be two or three things they do for us. And we will decide together how HP brings it to market. It became a natural conversation to have. We are both going to benefit in several different ways through this technology alliance.”
When asked what impact this technology alliance would have on equipment installed within the RR Donnelley network, Schneider replied, “It is public knowledge that we have more than 1,000 digital printing units already installed throughout our network, from our own digital imaging units to all of the major players'. We will continue our strategy of understanding customer requirements and buying (or building) the necessary infrastructure to meet those requirements.”
This alliance brings to mind the early work RR Donnelley did with Creo in development of CTP, and Xeikon in the development of 4/c toner web presses.
Schneider summed it up by saying, “This is a terrific opportunity that enables us to benefit from the approximately $1 billion in R&D HP invests in, in addition to our own sizeable R&D efforts. This is a very different announcement than the normal trade show announcement where one company agrees to purchase equipment from another. It is much more far-reaching. We have chosen each other to jointly develop printing technology, and we intend to work together to revolutionize print.” If past history, including the Creo and Xeikon story, is any indicator, this team will indeed accomplish that objective.
Schneider was not at liberty to disclose other developments in the pipeline, but she did say that the pipeline is robust, both for RR Donnelley proprietary projects as well as for joint projects with HP.
Over the next few days, WhatTheyThink will be speaking with HP executives to gain more insight as well as talking to exhibitors and attendees at Print 09 to get their take, so stay tuned for more.
Discussion
By Adam on Sep 10, 2009
Print has already been revolutionized... it's called a mobile electronic device (i.e. smart phone, ereader, pocketpc)Putting a MICR print head on a web press, adding an extra ink tonner cartridge, increasing the speed at which the rollers turn and the paper feeds is evolutionary and really not a big deal after a revolution occurs. Print has not changed for over 500 years, it is still ink (in one form or another) placed on top of a substrate (of one form or another). That's it.
By Erik Nikkanen on Sep 10, 2009
What RRD has been doing should be the model for all large and medium sized printers. Even small printers should be thinking in terms of how they can develop better technologies or methods internally to be more competitive.
The major problem in this industry has been that printers tend not to develop technologies but buy them from suppliers. If everyone buys technology from a supplier, how can anyone get a competitive advantage?
I think it is great that RRD has developed its own digital presses and it is smart of them to work with others who can co-benefit in that direction.
My only complaint is that large printers and even RRD do not think to look at all potential possibilities for improvement. These large printers tend to think that only other large companies can offer intellectual property but they forget that intellectual property, in the form of patents, are not granted to companies but to individuals. That is why it is called "intellectual" property. People come up with the ideas and not companies.
They also tend to look for new technology that is already being developed but ignore potentially new knowledge that can lead to fundamentally better and lower cost technology. Knowledge does not require a large organization but it does require people who think about problems, the science and the solutions.
Because of this lack of interest in new knowledge and view points, these large printers have missed significant opportunities to increase productivity, quality and margin.
Offset printing still has very many areas in the process that can be greatly improved but it requires an open mind to investigate new views on how the process actually works. New knowledge on how the process works and relatively low cost technology can be applied across the similar processes of sheetfed and webfed presses to give a large printer great leverage in process improvement at low risk and low cost.
Large printers should be interested in moving in that direction but for some reason, they have not taken any steps there. Possibly because they don't believe it is possible or that when they ask the experts, they get a negative response.
Warning! If the experts were so smart, they would have solved these existing problem already. Experts are usually not pioneers. They are too busy being experts.
Opportunities for improvement will not come from things everyone thinks are right but from things that everyone thinks are wrong. Take some time to think about what at first sounds wrong and maybe in the end, you will understand that it was the opportunity you were looking for.
The best of luck to all printers that want to develop technologies that are better than what they can get in the market.
By Buck Crowley on Sep 10, 2009
We have low cost inkjet modules that will let any printer add pantone colors at 600dpi to any production process. They can be added to an OCE, Nipson or IBM web printer to give it spot color. It can be added to a offset press to give varable data and extra color. It can be added on folding or binding equipment. It can be added to a DI press or envelope press to add variable information capabilities for a very low cost.
It can be scaled to any width and speed up to 750 fpm at 600 dpi. It can be used to lay down CYMK at those speeds at 600dpi.
We can also produce digitial thermography (raised printing) without plates.
Like Erik says, it is hard to get a competitve edge if everyone has the same processes. You need an edge.