Discussion

By David L. Zwang on Apr 04, 2014

Welcome back.... :-)

By Eric Vessels on Apr 04, 2014

He is NOT back. He is retired. This is a one-off. Back to seclusion he goes. LOL. Great to have this stuff from our good friend Andy.

By Joseph Falcone on Apr 04, 2014

Kodak uses nano inks in their Prosper Stream Technology Systems. Already commercially available. How does the author continue to miss that?

By Michael Mittelhaus on Apr 04, 2014

At it´s recent inkjet event in Heidelberg (2nd April), Heidelberg stated that they do see more potential in Inkjet than in Nanography.

CEO Linzbach said, while they thought for some time Landa would be their best choice for an entry into the digital market, he´s now but one choice amongst others.

By Charles Gehman on Apr 04, 2014

I find it quite amusing that people doubt the ability of this man to bring to market a game changing technology. It doesn't matter that Canon was first, or Xeikon launched at the same time as Indigo. What matters is that it's only the Indigo that has gained the position of prominence in the industry today, and a lot of that was the insight, intelligence and drive of Benny Landa. And perhaps even more so, his ability to bring together and motivate incredibly talented people to build out his vision.

I think that's what's missing from many of the companies in the industry-- and furthermore, speaks to the question regarding why Landa has to promote the company. This question demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of how great technology companies are built. This is an exciting company, its employees are motivated. Promotion will ensure that Benny can attract the best of the best, and build a team that absolutely will change the world AGAIN.

And the "where is Heidelberg" question is laughable. Where is their digital strategy? They are trying to sell other people's copiers, that's some strategy. I actually believe this question was addressed several months ago in a press release about the strengthening of the Komori relationship. Weak partner got dumped, plain and simple.

By Henry Freedman on Apr 04, 2014

If one looks at the Xerox Phaser solid ink(wax) melt desktop printers you will find a viscous sticky ink jetted to a heated intermediary drum and then transferred to paper. Looking at Landa, you have "injecting" - jetting of a sticky ink to a heated intermediary belt and transferred to paper.

Having worked in the development of digital presses for over 38 years, never have I seen so many presses announced at once that have so many wide ranging changes in such a short period of time.

Remember Landa had announced a great number of patents at Drupa, we are several years past this time now and has anyone seen these? They
may very well be in process but it would be nice if we could read the applications.

Today Kodak leads in nanoink and is delivering on pressroom floors today for very nice color printing on coated paper but often does not get the credit they are due.

Andy's article certainly places proper focus on
Landa outside of the area of marketing communications.

By Erik Nikkanen on Apr 04, 2014

Regarding Landa patents. It has been stated by Landa, that Landa does not apply for patents gradually but keeps them waiting until the last moment in order to not give away information too early and to save unnecessary patent costs. I tend to think this is a good strategy.

Money, brains and past success are no guarantee for future success. In the end, what ever is done must be within what is allowed by the laws of nature. Even very smart people with a lot of resources can make assumptions that some problems are easy when in fact they are quite difficult. I suspect they are finding this out.

By Andrew Tribute on Apr 04, 2014

Just a quick reply to Joseph Falcone. I did not include the Kodak work with inks for the Prosper presses. The pigments here are around one third of the size of pigments used in water based inks for other suppliers inkjet presses, but these pigments are still probably three times the size of Landa's nano pigments. Kodak don't refer to their pigments as being nano size, and they are not down to what Landa refers to as nano sized pigments.

A reply to Charles Gehman is that the Indigo presses did not achieve their dominant position until HP acquired Indigo. Until that time the presses had many faults and their reliability and consistency of quality was not good. Only after HP applied some of their expertise and money did Indigo attain its current very strong position.

On the subject of Heidelberg it is interesting to note this week that they indicated they had a development in progress to build a new inkjet press based upon their offset platform. This press will be a joint development with Fujifilm and will use the Fuji Dimatix Samba inkjet heads. These heads produce the smallest drops of all drop on demand inkjet heads and they use Fuji ink (that for all we know may use nano particles). This throws further doubts in my opinion of their intentions to produce a Landa technology press.

By Carl Ashley on Apr 05, 2014

We seem to forget that Indigo was built on the bones of several companies that licensed earlier iterations of Landa liquid toner technology and were unable to make it work. These companies, among them DuPont, Kodak, Xerox and Lexmark, were hardly startups. It is right to question the practicability of Landa technology.

And Indigo is hardly a heroic success, being a major emitter of VOCs.

By Stan Najmr on Apr 07, 2014

Excellent article, Andy! Thank you! Indigo was very well promoted by Benny Landa and developed into a solid product by HP. It is not clear yet who will do actual product development for future Landa presses.

By Patrick Henry on Apr 07, 2014

Tune in tomorrow (Tues., 4-8) for some answers from Germany to the "where is Heidelberg" question.

By Rossitza Sardjeva on Apr 07, 2014

Kodak uses nano pigments in their Prosper, but it is continuous Inkjet, not drop-on demand, like in Landa Nanoprinting - where not only drop-on -demand but it is piezo drop-on-demand.......there is a defference.

By Naresh Khanna on Apr 08, 2014

Thanks Andy, it's brave man who takes on Benny and his showmanship and his pr machine. To some extent the crowds that Landa Nano attracted at drupa reflected the boredom of a vast number of printers who were looking for a bit of infotainment. Also there is always some hunger in our industry for a cult figure who can tell us the future and solve all our problems (quality, speed and cost) in the same breath.

By establishing the facts and the chronology you also point to a problematical need that Benny seems to have: to be seen as a re-incarnation of Gutenberg (remember he once dressed up as Gutenberg at a show, soon after HP bought Indigo) by constantly re-iterating the re-invention of printing theme.

One cannot deny Benny's greatness as a patenter,
inventor, product developer or as a communicator. He has continuously defined the industry issues and product aims including the need for imagination and vision in marketing and selling. Benny has been important to our professional lives but I agree with Andy when he questions Benny's need for continuous publicity.

By Erik Nikkanen on Apr 08, 2014

I have a feeling that in the future, Landa will be remembered more for his efforts in developing non-printing nano technologies. They are potentially much more important to society in general than any improvement he could do in the printing sector.

By Axel Fischer on Apr 09, 2014

One question Landa still leaves open is that of recyclability. With Indigo being developed in times when sustainability was not an issue for printed products (and now, as a lamination rather than a printing process, failing to be deinkable), Benny Landa's second baby should reflect "today's" requirements for a printing process: To fit into a sustainable paper chain in order to be able to credibly compete with electronic media. Only sustainable (and thus deinkable) products will survive in the European market where more and more ecolabels already require this feature, more and more customers demand it and public procurement requests ecolabels.

By Stan Najmr on Apr 09, 2014

Compete with electronic media? Maybe compliment electronic media, if we are lucky. The battle is lost. You are making a very good point, Axel. Time flew fast and what was new at drupa is old already.

By Andy McCourt on Apr 09, 2014

Here in Australia we have a musical icon, John Farnham ('The Voice'), whose career began in 1968. He retired in 2001 with a series of 'farewell tours' called 'The Last Time.' They he came back when invited to do a tour with Tom Jones. Then he retired again. Then he came back 'Live, by popular demand' with another farewell tour. He's still performing. One upset fan even tried to sue him through our Consumer Protection authority, for misrepresenting his 'farewell' concerts! It failed.

So, Andy, for whatever reason you are back, it can only be a good thing and it's good to hear your Voice again. Farewell old mate; until the next time and the one after that!

PS: Writ is in the mail;-)