EskoWorld also provided North American users a drupa experience, as not all those in the label and packaging space made the trip to Dusseldorf, Germany for the international printing exhibition. Jan de Roeck, Esko’s director of solutions management, delivered a comprehensive overview of the 11-day show.

drupa 2016 featured 1,837 exhibitors from 54 countries, as well as over 260,000 visitors from 74 countries. Exhibitors were welcomed with a captive audience, as statistics show that 54% of those in attendance came to the show with investment intentions. In addition, 29% of the attendees placed orders at drupa and another 30% said they would place orders following the show.

Despite the activity, de Roeck noted that drupa has seen a downward trend in attendance. There could be several factors causing the decrease, including consolidation. The show shifted from four years to three years and was condensed from 14 days to 11. Following the show, it was announced that drupa would return to the four-year format. The event reached its peak attendance in 1990 with 440,000 visitors.

drupa’s history features clear thematic elements, and the industry has yet to establish the prevailing theme for 2016. In 1958, the event was known as the “phototypesetting” drupa, and four years later, offset captured the attendees’ attention. Twenty years later, drupa shifted to web offset before introducing a “Computer-to-Plate” theme in 1995. It was not until 2008 that drupa highlighted inkjet technologies. The 2012 event was known for its nanotechnology displays, as well as B2 inkjet technology.

“Digital was a very clear and striving theme across drupa, and more specifically inkjet,” said de Roeck. “You could see that in the booth size.”

De Roeck speculated that drupa 2016 could be referred to as the “B1 digital” drupa, as well as the “Cloud” drupa. Other common trends included 3D printing and digital corrugated. Conventional printing processes like flexo, gravure, and offset also made their case for remembrance among all the new highlights.

Jim Hamilton, group director at InfoTrends, coined the event the “Inkjet 3.0” drupa. According to de Roeck, digital printing accounted for the largest floor space of all the printing processes. Additionally, HP displaced Heidelberg as the largest exhibitor for the first time since 1951. Esko listed the top 10 exhibitors as follows: HP, Heidelberg, Canon, Landa, Kodak, Konica Minolta, Xerox, KBA, Komori, and Bobst.

In keeping with the digital trend, the show discussed multiple digital print drivers. Cost reduction, value creation, and shorter runs were discussed throughout the show’s halls. More substrates–with varying weights, grades and sizes¬–were noted, as well. Quality was mentioned as perhaps the biggest driver at drupa 2016. Improvements in resolution, consistency, and extended gamut and spot colors were among the quality drivers.

“These innovations have had a serious impact on cost reduction,” explained de Roeck. “Anything that is related to the converters helping their supply chain: just-in-time production, faster delivery, speed to market. These have a profound impact on the cost reduction aspect.”

In order to stand out on the shelf, many brands were showcasing their new capabilities with enhancements. New coatings, and white, foil and metal enhancements–such as those from Kurz–stood out to attendees. Finishing and digital diecutting received attention too.

De Roeck proclaimed Scodix as the star of the show, improving its reach from 12 customers to 200. The following products also stood out at the show: Heidelberg’s PrimeFire 106 B1, which is a joint development with FujiFilm. The 7-color press features 1200 dpi and is capable of running at 2,500 sheets per hour. The KBA Rotajet L is a 1200 dpi piezo inkjet press that is based on Xerox Impika inkjet technology. Landa capitalized on its success at the 2012 show with the S10 and W10P digital nanographic presses, capable of 4-to-8-color printing. The presses, however, are not yet available to the market. The EFI Nozomi C 18000 and Durst Rho 130 SPC presses were also noted for their digital capabilities. Heidelberg’s “Push To Stop” technology could represent a paradigm shift, where double productivity is possible, in the years to come.

According to de Roeck, the digital technologies displayed at drupa have the capacity to displace most of their analog counterparts. They do, however, require powerful software to keep the data flowing as fast as the presses can run. The press is no longer the only consideration for print media production, as print has gone beyond the machines. Software, such as Esko’s, controls and optimizes the entire supply chain. In addition, the combination of data and print represents a path to growth.

“I thought this was one of the most exciting parts of drupa. Print is by all means something physical, something you can hold in your hands, but we’re operating very much in a digital world,” said de Roeck. “Software and data management are absolutely key and necessary ingredients to achieve more than you could before. And this will only increase.”

Esko designed its drupa booth as a collaboration, displaying technologies alongside partners X-Rite Pantone, enfocus, and MediaBeacon. The booth was created like a workflow, intended to showcase the capabilities across the supply chain–from Pantone to Equinox Color Separation, for example.

“I think that one of the most interesting experiences of drupa was that we were all together in the same workflow,” said Udo Panenka, Esko president. “It allowed for the visitor to come up with better solutions, and I think that made for great inspiration, showing more synergies than perhaps what we’ve captured so far. There was such a great dynamic in the booth.”

The team at Esko came away from the show with several key takeaways. Printing has become a physical product that operates in a digital world. Software and data management are also providing the means to achieve more with the hardware, from plates and substrates to inks, print processes, and multiple finishing technologies. The industry’s changing landscape could be recognized as Industry 4.0, which features data-driven interconnectivity. Automated technologies, as well as the Internet of Things and Cloud computing, factor into this trend.