The Ipex 2014 event in London was not one for major product introductions. The size of the event was much smaller than originally planned due to the withdrawal of many of the major suppliers. (For more information on this please see my article IPEX – A New Approach for Trade Shows). The show however was a very interesting one with a wide mix of exhibitors. There were a large section of pre-used equipment vendors and also a surprising number, around fifty, suppliers from India and the Far East (not including Japan). A significant area of interest was the large number of companies showing innovative post-press digital finishing systems. Here the emphasis was very much in adding value to digital printing. Offset presses were largely non-existent with very few presses on the floor. A key aspect of the event were two separate free to enter seminar areas and a separate cross media exhibition and conference, where very interesting and valuable discussions took place showing printers and creative organizations new routes to market, new business opportunities and ways to enhance profitability. These were a very successful part of the event.

Without most of the major vendors we were left with just a few “anchor” exhibitors. Konica Minolta took the largest exhibit area in the show, and the other larger exhibitors were EFI, Screen and Fujifilm. It was however not a show for major product announcements. It was interesting to see that almost nothing that was introduced at drupa 2012 was on show and those that were there were not ready for sale. The only major product previewed at drupa 2012 that was being shown was the Konica Minolta KM-1 B2 Plus format sheet fed inkjet press. When this was demonstrated it drew the largest crowds at Ipex. Apart from this most of the interesting new products came from smaller companies and had in some cases not been seen at any trade show before.

The following is a limited review of some of the products seen at the show: