One of the key trends we are seeing today is the rise of the hybrid printing system. This is where a mix of printing technologies are used on a press or finishing system to allow for adding variable data to offset or flexo printed content. This is done through the addition of inkjet print heads onto a press or finishing system to overprint the offset or flexo printed information. Hybrid printing is not new and there has been a lot of work in this area for adding low quality monochrome data onto small areas of the offset or flexo printed content. Up to now this has been predominantly an area dominated by Kodak with its old D-Series continuous inkjet print heads. These print heads have mainly been added by systems integrators onto press or finishing lines to create a hybrid solution. There are also many other companies including Domino, Atlantic Zeiser and others that are mainly in the data marking business or packaging using inkjet technology.

In recent years this market has started to change to allow for higher quality monochrome printing and also for adding overprinting of color. Again it has been Kodak that has been leading the way in this area with its Stream technology S-Series continuous inkjet print heads, and a significant number of these heads are now in use around the world. Included in this are a few installations where these heads are put together in groups to allow for printing of color. An example of this is in the UK at Lettershop Group where they have added two blocks of four heads each onto one of their finishing lines to overprint color variable data onto web offset printed content for direct mail applications. The benefits of this are getting web offset costs for most of the pages plus comparable quality color inkjet printed variable data.

Today Kodak is not the only player in this market. HP has introduced its HP C-500 and C-800 Print Module Solutions using similar technology to that used in the HP T-Series inkjet web presses. Imprika launched its iEngine family of overprinting modules at Ipex 2010 with the iEngine 1000 and is now introducing its iEngine 1000L. Atlantic Zeiser also has a range of different specification print modules aimed at a range of markets. Domino also has its K600i print heads for this market that can be stitched in widths from 108 mm (4.26 ins) to 782 mm (30.81 ins). Modules from these companies come in a different range of speeds, and can be used for different types of inks, to cater for a wide range of applications.