Last week Fujifilm revealed its B2 digital inkjet sheetfed
machine the Jet Press 720, a story, which on the eve of Drupa has attracted a
lot of interest.
Shortly after it released news of the machine, which was
developed by subsidiary Fuji Xerox, another Fujifilm company released a further
tidbit that promises further inkjet innovation at Drupa that is possibly even
more significant.
Dimatix, the firms inkjet printhead division revealed that
its Samba print array, which is used in the Jet Press 720, could be used for
press formats of 4-up, 8-up and beyond. Its parent has already played its hand
with the 4-up (B2) version, so the bets are on now for who will be the first
supplier with a B1 or bigger version.
Several well-connected sources tell me that there will be
launches at the show of offset challenging inkjet presses. I wouldn’t be
surprised if there aren’t multiple suppliers showing inkjet machine in offset
litho formats of at least 8-up based on several different inkjet technologies.
Dimatix’s announcement that its technology can go B1 and
beyond has not only raised interest in who will release what in those formats
but also increased interest in what can be expected from rival print head
technology suppliers for those bigger formats. While HP has already revealed
its own wide web, the details of how Xaar and its technology partners will rise
to the challenge in this space will be glimpsed in a couple of days.
I’m intrigued to see how Xerox will respond. The Jet Press
720 is after all developed by Fuji Xerox, as was the continuous feed 490/980
digital colour web, which Xerox sells in Europe.
The firm has up to now remained cold on inkjet as a technology, although back in
January it did promise a sneaky peek of something at Drupa and has been
hurriedly inviting journalists to its stand in the first day before its main
press conference.
But back to Dimatix’s Samba. That the technology exists and
has been tipped as suitable for formats bigger than its parent’s press suggests
that there will be sheetfed inkjet machines from at least one historically
heavy metal supplier as well as from digital players that have hitherto been in
the distinct sectors of small format toner, high-speed continuous feed and
wide-format inkjet.
There will be a period of flux as suppliers battle to
understand what unfamiliar sectors want, and printers get to grips with what
suppliers they may previously never come across can deliver.
While it will be exciting to see all these developments at
the show, the thing that is more important to bear in mind is how these
products will enable printers to solve print buyers problems while improving
their profitability.
The most important thing to do before the show isn’t to gen
up on what will be in Dusseldorf but what is needed in factories from Dundee to
Dulverton to make print a powerful and profitable medium, and then seeing if
anything being hyped in the halls of the Messe meets those needs.