I-Jong Lin on Drupa 2008

As those of you who tried to get something from me know, I am still totally snowed under and my to do list is still quite long. Therefore, it is a particular pleasure when I get some help from friends, like today's blog post from my esteemed colleague Dr. I-Jong Lin. Here is his trip report from Drupa 2008.

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Dear All,

Here are some pictures that I brought back from Drupa 2008. From all accounts, it seems that the HP booth was very impressive and very successful, and showed the leadership position that HP holds in commercial digital print market. I have some pictures of some competitors, but mostly the offerings from HP (since they made for the best pictures).

Enjoy!

I-Jong Lin

Some competition for IHPS from Miyakoshi. Didn't see it run. Also they have a LEP press that is a competitor to the Indigo LEP technology. For some reason, I felt bad about taking a picture of that press, though.

This picture is the high-speed inkjet "Stream" product from Kodak. It was a pretty huge box as you can see, but inside the tinted glass, it seemed pretty empty. From this massive box, you can see the 8 inch wide output coming out. Obviously, someone has performance issues.

This picture is another view the high-speed inkjet "Stream" product from Kodak. Once again, note the very narrow web feed going into the huge box.

This is the NexPress that was being shown at Kodak. It wasn't running and they seem to have boosted the speed to 120 A4 per minute. But otherwise, there's nothing too new here.

Various views of the IHPS high-speed inkjet press. Very impressive. It was running and producing samples of books and short-run newspapers during the Drupa show.

Note the size of the drying stage for ink has been reduced substantially. One can only imagine the paper path and the airflow through the chimney.

This is the double engine web-fed press (w3250) from Indigo with speeds of 8000 A4 per hr.

A really, really, really big inket printer: Scitex FB6100. The width of the paper is 87 inches wide. Yowza.

Another really, really, really big inkjhet printer: Scitex TJ8500. This printer was popping out 6 feet by 4 feet posters every ten seconds or so. Unbelievable.

Another really, really, really bigger inkjet. The way that printhead was moving around it could have hurt someone.

Another really, really, really bigger inkjet. Even with its size, the image quality and the colors were very vibrant.

A picture of the Indigo 7000, the double-speed press from the Indigo 3050. A very sweet press package due to the electronic transfer of the inks onto the page. This electronic transfer allows the ink to adhere at any angle allows for that very cute fan design for all the bids. All other press manufacturers have to set up their ink transfer stations in a linear fashion. But Indigo has a very neat and compact package.

Birdeye's view of the IHPS inkjet high-speed press.

A picture of the Global Graphics booth, our partners in RIP.