TECHWATCH tm: Who Moved My Goalpost?

When HP announced efforts are underway to help digital print technology climb the volume ladder—ultimately competing more directly with conventional offset litho—analysts were treated to an aggressive revisioning of the production platform playing field. Vyomesh Joshi, HP's executive VP, Imaging and Printing Group (he goes by VJ), said the goal was to competitively match conventional offset at the 5,000 color impressions mark. Joshi's presentation stated that presently, digital color printing is better than or very competitive with offset printing on non-variable images at the 2,000 impression mark.

Joshi's proposed shift significantly moves the economic goalposts for digital print. You have to love a newer industry entrant like HP stepping up and within five years buying their way into the pressroom floor by acquiring Indigo.

New entrants like HP raise the vitality of our industry, sparking competition and better products for customers. HP, mostly an “ink company” because its digital color presses—inkjet, sheetfed and webs—eat up huge quantities of ink, more than many thousands of consumers do with desktop color inkjet printers over a lifetime, and far more than hundreds of HP self-service retail PhotoKiosks will ever use. Just think of the ink flow volume from a single active commercial color pressroom floor. This is the honey that brings the HP bee.

One thing is certain: whoever can bring out a reliable plain-paper 25´´+ digital color sheetfed will be well on the way to breakeven with long-run offset; offset printers would be able to leverage existing finishing investments. Expectations are that visitors attending next year's drupa in Dusseldorf, Germany, should see digital concept presses from major manufacturers' labs breaking current sheet size limits.

Many challenges exist. Besides laying down beautiful color on many types of substrates, large digital machines demand immense data processing as speeds rise. Ink drying for non-toner digital systems remains a big issue. We have seen early proof of success. At the 2004 drupa, Inca Digital and Sun Chemical demonstrated a nice sheetfed corrugated board packaging press. We saw Riso, jointly with Olympus and Toshiba, break ground in inkjet color sheetfed light production printing with the 5500 model A3-sized process color inkjet output. Suppliers have more surprises in store.

But wait, the breakeven point on this chart (left) is not static. In fact, offset litho has shown that great engineering, such as Heidelberg's Anicolor (see GAM June 2006, p.12), can move the goalposts too. Anicolor ink control technology on the Speedmaster 52 press, now shipping, can vastly reduce makeready color setup sheets to 25 or fewer. (Some digital presses take more.) Heidelberg has reduced the entire makeready to seven minutes, moving offset image and substrate power to staggering affordability in quantities as low as 250 pieces.

[For a GAOnline aside, go online to www.graphicartsonline.com.]