Technological development in the print and packaging industry is usually measured in “drupa years,” a measurement based on the quadrennial event that provides those with exciting new technology—and sometimes even “shippable products”—a platform to present their wares to the global community. Hunkeler Innovation Days (HID) is the biennial event that shows print technology integrated with finishing into full-line production solutions. However, in the years between these events, lots of other innovation still goes on. In fact, component modularization and increased inter-vendor cooperation have allowed some of these developments to move from being driven by the hardware manufacturers to the service providers, bringing even more innovation to the market.

Component modularization, as we have discussed before, can be seen at a fairly granular level with the DuraLink inkjet technology from Memjet. DuraLink, and its predecessor VersaPass technology, have provided an opportunity for many printing equipment manufacturers and even service providers to develop new and bespoke solutions, sometimes in a fairly quick timeframe. We have covered this in the past; however, the results of these efforts have finally started to show up as deliverable production products. These include products from some of their early adopters like Xante, Colordyne, Afina, and Trojan to mention a few. However now that the new DuraLink technology is becoming available, many old and new adopters including Canon Océ, Heidelberg, Rigoli, Konica Minolta and MGI with their exciting new AlphaJET Industrial Print Factory product are jumping on board—just to mention a few. (We will cover the AlphaJET in greater detail in a future article.) We can expect to see many new and unique products utilizing the Memjet printhead technology to make their introductions this year. The production inkjet products and many more that don’t use Memjet technology, like those from Mouvent, are expected to finally become deliverable products this year, with many of these products directed at the growing Label and Packaging market. 

Inter-vendor cooperation will continue as well. Last year, we covered some interesting L&P solutions like the Canon Océ Labelstream 4000 for labels combining technology from Canon, Edale, and FFEI; and the Sapphire EVO, developed jointly by UTECO and Kodak, for flexible packaging. I would expect this type of cooperation in product development across the industry to continue this year and lead up to drupa 2020. I would also expect an increase in service provider and manufacturer cooperative development like theinkjet and flexo hybrid folding carton platform which created a bespoke solution to service the needs of Zumbiel Packaging.