Trade Show. April Nicholas Hellmuth

Transcription

1 April 2014 Nicholas Hellmuth

2 innovation at the booths. 1 Recognition for Most Innovative Print Samples Recognition for Most Innovative Print Samples 1 Best Overhead Booth Design 2 Textile Printers 4 Dye Sublimation in 4 general 4 T-Shirt Printers 4 Latex Printers 6 UV-Cured Printers 8 Flatbed Cutters 9 MEMJET MEMS printers 12 After-Market Inks 14 Media & Substrates 15 Color Management 16 3D Printers 18 Scan and Print 19 Air Purification 20 Desktop Inkjet Printers: RISO 21 Toner-based Office Printers 21 Distributors 24 Lecture Program 26 Trade Show Daily, 27 Newspaper 27 Other Trade Magazines 28 Venue: South Miami Beach 29 Venue: Trade Show 29 Center 29 Additional advantage of GOA in Miami: 30 Most people are bi-lingual 30 Final Comments 31 We do not know who produced the 3-dimensional bird but it was an attractive decoration. ( All items on this page are hotlinks. The booth at GOA 2014 which really invested considerable time and effort in bringing nice print samples was SunAmericas. SunAmericas printing samples.

3 innovation at the booths. 3 Best Overhead Booth Design OKI consistently has an attractive and innovative graphic design for their overhead booth designs. We give them a well deserved recognition as Best Overhead Booth Design at GOA 2014.

4 textiles t-shirt printers 5 Textile Printers I did not notice any direct to garment (disperse dye) printers. If present they were not very visible. This means that any distributor who brings these to GOA 2015 will have good sales potential, especially since FLAAR is proposing to lecture on both dye sub and direct to fabric at GOA I saw one and perhaps at most two printers for transfer paper (dye sublimation ink) but not a single calendaring machine was noticeable. (noticeable does not mean absolutely none was present, but does mean that in three days none caught my attention). But sometimes a machine is buried in the back of a booth or blocked behind another item of equipment. So there is a lot of potential for factories and/or distributors to exhibit this class of textile workflow equipment in Dye Sublimation in general T-shirts are only one of many products which are produced by Sublimation. So there were booths which offered sublimation on coffee mugs, mouse pads, etc. hg World was one of these booths. T-Shirt Printers Most of the major T-shirt technologies were readily available at GOA Toner-based T-shirt printing was exhibited in The Magic Touch. Inkjet T-shirt printers were well represented: Brother, Anajet, TEX PRO, and other brands. Plus sublimation equipment was on exhibit for coffee mugs, mouse pads, etc. T-shirt printing was exhibited at GOA 2014.

5 latex printers 7 Latex Printers HP was noticeably absent. The pleasant Mimaki team had a minimal-sized booth. So the only latex printer was in the booth of Ricoh. One week prior to the GOA expo a major trade magazine asked me to write an article on the state and status of latex ink printers worldwide. The request was because the question was raised as to whether latex ink would become a new de-facto world standard. The almost total absence of latex ink printers at GOA is the best answer. At the gigantic D-PES expo in China (the week before GOA), there were about 70 brands of UV-cured printers (and over 100 models of UV-cured printers). I would estimate there were well over 100 solventbased printers also. There were even dozens of water-based printers (actual old-fashioned true water-based ink printers). Not even the Chinese latex ink manufacturer, Meijet, was present (they also skipped all other major expos so far in 2014 and were missing from major expos at the end of 2013). Since Ricoh makes the printheads for Mimaki printers, and since Ricoh has tried to become a large-format printer machine manufacturer, it is no surprise that Ricoh is rebranding this Mimakimade printer. Mimaki intelligently dropped using Epson DX heads in most of its new models since about four years ago. Mutoh and Roland are still stuck with old Epson heads. Yet there was not one single solitary major booth anywhere at D-PES with any significant latex printer whatsoever. The Mimaki booth had no significant activity for its latex printer; there was no noticeable Ricoh booth. Zero HP booth (except for a low-bid booth of a secondrank unknown distributor with one old HP latex printer.) And at the even larger signage expo across the street (Sign China), I did not notice any latex ink whatsoever. Zilch. I wrote my article on latex ink before attending the two huge signage expos in Guangzhou (and concluded that latex was nowhere near being a de-facto standard). The lack of interest in latex ink in China, however, was a surprise even to me. Ricoh booth. The only latex printer was at the Ricoh booth.

6 uv-cured printers CNC 9 UV-Cured Printers I tend to make a list of every UV-cured printer at every printer expo around the world. So we will have a separate FLAAR Report on the UV-cured printers at GOA Whereas latex printers were embarrassingly weakly present at GOA, there were 400% more UV-cured printers at GOA (about 1000% more at the Chinese expos). Flatbed Cutters If you have a flatbed (UV-cured) printer, sooner or later you will need a flatbed cutter. You can use CNC routers, CO2 laser engravers, or the more sophisticated digital XY flatbed cutters (such as Zund and Kongsberg) We have been to the Zund factory in beautiful Switzlerland (FLAAR had an office in Switzerland for three years; then we moved to Austria when I was accepted at a university in Graz; after the university career, nine years in Germany. The entire time FLAAR also did research in Mesoamerica). FLAAR has also been to the Kongsberg demo room in the USA. So we know both brands well. FLAAR has also been to the factory of two other brands of XY digital flatbed cutters. Our interest is having experience so we can assist distributors and print shops to recognize the differences between each brand. Acuity Led 1600 at GoA Kongsberg XP at Esko booth.

7 water-based printers 11 Ricoh showed their CAD printer, Pro MP CW2200SP. The only printers I have seen with a longer name are those of Roland or printers from China. Canon water-based printers were in the booth of imagepro. Pro MP CW2200SP A unique doube-sided proofing printer was displayed at GOA also.

8 memjet mems printers 13 MEMJET MEMS printers There was at least one booth, possibly two, with single-array MEMJET printers for labels. MEMS is very advanced technology. The verdict is still out on to what degree MEMS printhead technology is effective long-term out in the real world. All other MEMJET-based 42 printer brands seek higher quality. There are separate FLAAR Reports which mention each of the other brands, including the new brand from China (which we tested in Istanbul and in Guangzhou, China). FLAAR expends lots of effort to evaluate so we can help distributors and print shops and end-users decide which brands are good to consider, and which products are premature (perhaps need more improvements and newer technology and better ink). MEMJET works well in a demo room or in a booth at a trade show. But the unanswered question is how long do the printheads work in an actual print shop environment (dust, humidity, temperature fluctuations, etc). Until we can be brought to inspect print shops who have been using a MEMJET printer for at least four months, we are waiting to issue an evaluation judgement. It would be nice to see 42 wide-format MEMJET products at GOA Xante had a booth at GOA 2014 but zero actual 42 printer. The Xante is for printing on rough surfaces of thick material, such as pizza delivery boxes (since customers will either not notice or not complain about color intensity or nozzle-out blips). There was at least one booth, possibly two, with single-array MEMJET printers for labels. Xante is for printing on rough surfaces of thick material

9 inks media 15 After-Market Inks I noticed that third-party inks were available in several booths. The key person in the area which had Veramax ink was very enthusiastic about his product. We enjoy meeting individuals who have worked hard to create a product and are now working at building brand recognition. But the only independent ink company booth that I noticed was STS Inks. Media & Substrates One Chinese media booth was present. Other media was primarily in the booth of distributors. YUPO had their own booth. An innovative product which I have not noticed previously elsewhere is the Easy Assembly System for Falconboard a Honeycomb board finishing System, in the booth of DGS (Digital Graphic Systems.) We prefer to evaluate inks when it is possible to visit the factory, the demo room, and to know the owners, managers, and personnel at the corporate headquarters. STS booth. Yupo booth.

10 color management 17 Color Management Color-Logic was present to help understand how best to handle color management for metallic colors. Their booth had lots of nice print samples. Color-Logic booth. Nice print samples at Color-Logic booth.

11 3d printing scan and print 19 3D Printers I was pleasantly surprised to see several booths with 3D printers (rapid prototypers). Scan and Print Colortrac had a booth but we have not tested their equipment. We tested one HP scan and print system six years ago, but it was definitely not perfect. 3D printing samples. Colortrac booth.

12 air purification desktop printers 21 Air Purification The air purification units of Island Clean Air were in the booth of RDW Environmental, Inc. Most printer manufacturers make iffy claims of how little odor their printers produce. But would you really want any of these wide-format printers in your bedroom or your dining room? Island Clean Air makes a wide range of air purification equipment in case you wish to make your print shop less unhealthy for your employees (and for yourself also). Desktop Inkjet Printers: RISO The Colombian distributor at RISO (Jorge Orlando Sanabria) and his wife (Adriana Hernandez) were helpful and hospitable in the RISO booth. We know them from many years of trade shows for lots of name-brand printer products. RISO desktop printers are inkjet, not toner-based. Toner-based Office Printers In general the quantity and quality of tonerbased printers, office printers, and short-run digital presses is quite ample at Graphics of the Americas. A good example would be the KONICA MINOLTA booth. There was even an HP Indigo, but the president of the distributor was always in meetings so we had no way to ask to be able to do test prints on the HP Indigo. Since the HP Indigo was not easily available, we tested on OKI at the official OKI booth, and OKI in the booth of Perez Trading Company. So all our test prints were done on OKI traditional toner printers. One model we tested was the OKI C941dn. RDW Environmental, Inc. booth. FLAAR test prints on OKI traditional toner pritners.

13 desktop printers 23 Oki beautiful printing samples for FLAAR printed at Oki booth and Perez booth with Oki printers. Xerox had a booth but I did not notice their 42 Memjet printer. Oki beautiful printing samples for FLAAR printed at Oki booth and Perez booth with Oki printers.

14 distributors 25 Distributors Manufacturers of inks, substrates, printers, laminators, and other products often ask Dr Nicholas for lists of distributors. So we keep track of which distributors are at which expos. Here are examples of the distributor reports of FLAAR. You can order by writing and asking to be invoiced. We show two distributor booths here, since we show 100% of the other distributors in our separate FLAAR Reports (on distributors in USA which focus on Florida, California, Latin America and the Caribbean). Innovaciones del Futuro had a hospital team: they offer a wide range of products from Korea (D.G.I.) and from China (XENONS). I have visited the D.G.I. printer factory twice outside Seoul. GraphTech USA kindly printed a customized ruler for us. Innovations of the Future at Xenons booth.

15 lecture program 27 Lecture Program Mike Burgstein works every year to organize a diverse range of lecture topics for attendees. Since the GOA expo is bi-lingual, the lectures are in Spanish or English. Since FLAAR is multi-lingual, we lecture in both English and Spanish. In Europe we also lecture auf Deutsch. The two presentations for 2014 by Nicholas were: Impresión en cristal, en azulejos cerámicos, La Realidad UV vs Tinta Inorgánica Our lecture in English was about innovative materials for new applications. For 2015 we are suggesting to have the FLAAR team present: Dr Nicholas to lecture on trends: what s new and coming Pablo Martinez to speak on after-market inks and innovative media (more than PVC vinyl) Maria Renee Ayau to speak on differents in textile print production workflow and the pros and cons of each kind of textile ink (so more than just sublimation). Trade Show Daily, Newspaper FLAAR Reports produced three articles for the Graphics of the Americas (GOA) conference program newspaper, ExpoNewZ published for GOA by the OutputLinks Communications Group. The editor was Aaron Kiel. Printing on Textiles (offers more potential profit than signage on old-fashioned PVC) Print in more than two dimensions (raised relief UV-cured, thermo formed, and full 3D) Print on more than Paper (honeycomb, metal, glass, ceramics, etc) An additional trade publication which is prominently featured at GOA is the TRADE SHOW TIMES. They also publish Dealer COMMUNICATOR. Dr. Nicholas Hellmuth at one of his lectures at GoA 2014.

16 trade magazines venue 29 Other Trade Magazines We support printer and signage trade magazines. We do not view these as competition since FLAAR Reports do not publish PR releases. Plus we do not produce lists of every new product. So we recommend trade magazines since they provide these services. Instead we visit all the major printer and signage around the world, since our readership is worldwide. Plus our readers prefer to read the kind of reports they would expect of a university research professor. We prefer to focus on a selected limited number of products where we have visited the factory and know the company in-person. Wide-Format Imaging magazine had a nice booth at GOA. RadTech had a booth out in the lecture area. They had copies of their RadTech Report available. Venue: South Miami Beach The trade show center is an easy walk from dozens of hotels along the main avenue of South Miami Beach. Keep in mind that the hotel prices are rising. Most of the older lower-price hotels are being torn down and completely rebuilt (with the new rooms at twice the price of five years ago). But at least there are more hotels near this expo center than any other expo center in the world. Indeed DRUPA is the worst, since there are only one or two hotels actually near the fairgrounds of Duesseldorf. I rate GOA as having the most convenient hotels and most convenient restaurants as well (since there are two streets with rows of restaurants, plus the main Collins Avenue). This area is about $30 to $35 from the Miami airport, which of course has flights from all over the world (I flew here from Guangzhou, China, by way of several plane changes). Venue: Trade Show Center The expo center is of a size that makes it easy to get around. The entire place is one single location. The downside of Photokina in Cologne and Drupa in Duesseldorf is that their expo centers are buildings splattered around, so you have to hike kilometers every day if you need to see everything, or if you have a meeting in another hall (plus the Press Room is an especially long hike). So GOA in Miami is a pleasant venue. Plus South Miami Beach is relatively safe (sure is better than Atlanta expo area and adjacent downtown Atlanta). Trade Magazines

17 goa Additional advantage of GOA in Miami: Most people are bi-lingual 100% of the FLAAR staff who attend expos are bi-lingual. Spanish is spoken also by 100% of the FLAAR staff at both offices. The few of our staff who do not speak English speak a Mayan language. But the point is that Miami is fully bi-lingual: Spanish and English (plus I bet there are a good number of speakers of some of the 21 separate Mayan languages of Guatemala, not to mention additional Mayan languages of adjacent Mexico). Final Comments GOA is a friendly expo with helpful personnel in the booths. The expo was in Orlando two years; sure is nice to have GOA back in MIAMI, South Beach Miami. Here is a good example of hospitality by a company owner in his booth (HG World). So we recommend Miami if you are bi-lingual and wish to have a choice in which of the two languages you prefer to do business in. The web site of GOA is GOA is capably organized by the Printing Association of Florida (PAF). Their web site is Media relations for GOA are handled professionally by Helene Cohen Smith and Amanda Kliegl, HSPR. PAF also had an official publication available, GRAPHICS update, 2014 HG World booth.

18 This report has not been licensed to any printer manufacturer, distributor, dealer, sales rep, RIP company, media or ink company to distribute. So if you obtained this from any company, other than FLAAR itself, you have a pirated copy. Also, since some reports are occasionally updated, if you got your version from somewhere else, it may be an obsolete edition. FLAAR reports are being updated all year long, and our comment on that product may have been revised positively or negatively as we learned more about the product form end users. PLEASE NOTE To obtain a legitimate copy, which you know is the complete report with nothing erased or changed, and hence a report with all the original description of pros and cons, please obtain your original and full report straight from other web sites in our network such as Your only assurance that you have a complete and authentic evaluation which describes all aspects of the product under consideration, benefits as well as deficiencies, is to obtain these reports directly from FLAAR, via the various sites in our network. Copyright 2014 FLAAR_Reports Nicholas Hellmuth Free Subscription