Cover Image also by Toni McQuilken

Sept. 21, 2009— This year’s Print 09 trade show in Chicago, Sept. 11-16, managed to both defy and confirm all the best and worst predictions made about it leading up to the big event.

Attendance was down, but those who did go to the show were there to do more than just “kick the tires.” In the words of EFI’s Guy Gecht, attendees took the attitude of “Recession schmessession.” Attendees were there to look at ways to expand their current technology, or look for new markets, or even just improve and innovate in their workflow.

Attendees realized that, economic issues aside, if a business stands still, it’s a chance for the competition to get a head start. These are the shops, worldwide, which will be leading the pack as the global world of print continues its recovery.

And it is recovering. While recession and financial troubles were being addressed by almost every major manufacturer, the mood on the show floor was optimistic. Vendors are seeing, for the most part, a slow increase in interest for everything from software to offset presses. They were pleasantly surprised by the number of machines sold from the show floor this year.

And, as one company representative pointed out, they’re starting to see an increase in demand for consumables such as ink and paper, a good indication that print is picking back up overall.

In this first part of Printing News’ look back at the show and what caught our attention, we’ll look at some of the announcements that made waves the first few days of the show. At presstime, the second day of the show had concluded, and there were still more technologies, innovations and meetings to come for this editor. It’s been a great show so far, and from all reports, the last few days should see more traffic, more announcements, and more excitement from almost every sector of our industry.

Prepress Makes a Mark
While there haven’t been any major new pieces of technology on display at the show, one big trend is in the prepress and workflow area. Many booths from some of the largest players in the industry demonstrated a full connected system, from the input of files through the output of a printed piece.

And we’re not talking about a theory. In several booths, customers are being invited to bring their own files, and then follow them around the booth, watching as each task is completed, including the final output. Ease of use, speed and efficiency are the three main themes of Print 09, with an emphasis of doing more, doing it faster, and doing it smarter than ever before.

Sun Chemical was showcasing this concept in its inks with products designed to improve productivity and bring value to customers in both the commercial and folding carton markets.

The company highlighted its SunLit Diamond sheetfed offset inks for high-speed presses specifically formulated for improving press productivity. The company also highlighted the SunPak Diamond inks, Sun Chemical’s line of sheetfed offset inks for folding carton package printing. Again, the inks were designed to specifically enhance productivity and print at high standards.

X-Rite/Pantone highlighted its new EasyTrax semi-automatic color system at the show, along with partnerships across the board for support of the system. Fitting into the product range between handheld color management devices and fully automatic systems, EasyTrax is targeted at commercial offset or folding carton packaging printers with smaller format color presses (from 20 inches up to 40 inches), or those working in a primarily process color environment (two to six colors).

“With EasyTrax, X-Rite now offers a best of breed color control solution for every type of sheetfed printing workflow, from inspiration to production, regardless of the size of customer, their budget, or their level of color process control expertise,” said Laura Pursley, senior product manager for pressroom solutions at X-Rite.

Promoting Press Efficiencies
Xerox Corp. set out to “make print personal” at the show, unveiling a lineup of digital systems that drive production of a range of jobs, from personalized golf ball boxes to high-end customized sales brochures and credit card statements that include tailored offers. The firm set out to “bust” the major myths of printing, even going so far as to bring in experts in this arena, the Build Team from the popular Discovery Channel television show Mythbusters.

Kari Byron, Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara were on hand to not only answer audience questions and talk about the show and their work, they also got to enjoy Xerox’s own “build team,” which was made up of three members of its research wing, stepping into their shoes to bust myths such as personalization is too difficult.

Fujifilm had a variety of machines they were talking about, but one of the ones making waves as the North American debut of the Inca Onset S20. A smaller footprint than the original Onset S70, the S20 has all the same features and benefits, just in a smaller size, and with slightly less automation. This is a perfect fit for traditional commercial offset printers looking to add digital for the first time to their product mix.

The flatbed UV printer can produce up to 50 full beds per hour, and, at Print 09, the company was highlighting the new UV curing that allows them to produce a very high-gloss finish. Samples demonstrated how the finish can be used to produce a spot-varnish effect for some spectacular effects.

“The roll-out of the Inca Onset S20 has gone very well with healthy initial sales and there has been a steady stream of demos. We continue taking Inca Onset S20 orders and are adjusting our production schedule to meet the strong demand,” remarked Linda Bell, Inca Digital CEO. “Along with its obvious speed, we have been very pleased with the Inca Onset S20‘s print quality, and the feedback from our customers says that quality has been exceptional.”

Postpress Shines
For the most part, there weren’t too many brand new products at Print 09. There were quite a few North American debut technologies of things that had been launched at international shows all the way back to drupa, as well as new versions and capabilities to popular products, but not much that could genuinely be called new.

C.P. Bourg was one of the few exceptions to that rule.

The company unveiled a large-format suction tower collator able to support finishing-on-demand booklet making from both traditional and digital workflows.

The Bourg BST-e Suction Tower Collator is designed to feed offset or digitally printed material up to 14.25x23.5 inches into the new Bourg BME Booklet Maker—a stitch-fold-trim finisher able to match the full size of the Xerox iGen.

Paper pile height in each of the 10 pockets in the BST-e is 66 percent higher to accommodate three-inch stacks of stocks ranging from 60 gsm to 350 gsm. Up to five can be linked together to create a paper feeding system that offers a high degree of flexibility.

“By accommodating traditional, digital or hybrid workflows, the new Bourg BST-e Suction Tower Collator makes it possible for printers with any type of workflow to benefit from large-format on-demand, stitch-fold-trim booklet making,” according to Richard Trapilo, executive vice president and general manager of C.P. Bourg Inc.

Muller Martini came to the show with great equipment, but what was really catching people’s attention is the suite of services, branded “mm” the company is offering.

The firm packaged together things like service agreements, preventative maintenance, and more, in a modular format that allows finishers to pick and choose how much or little they believe they need.

Services in our industry have, traditionally, been something of an afterthought in many cases.

However, one company representative noted that, in the past six to 12 months, they’ve seen a surge in demand for them. Preventative maintenance, in particular, has become an important differentiator among many manufacturers.

All in all, Print 09 was a fantastic show, with a lot to offer. We know we can’t cover everything that caught our eye this year, but stay tuned next week for Part 2 of our show coverage, where we’ll look a few more of the technologies that made waves.