Howie Fenton

DI Presses: Market and Usage

During my Digital and Variable Presentation at Graph Expo someone asked about DI Presses. I mentioned that existing users loved them, that this is a wonderful niche for some digital printers who need things like color colors on digital books, and inplants use them frequently because they have a need 4 color small format printing.

However compared to industry predictions that were made when they were first introduced - the market for them never developed as originally predicted and has declined over the years. This prompted questions about how many units are installed and how much are they used.

To answer this question I had to think about published numbers and my own experience. Frank Romano my coauthor of a Digital Printing book says that the world wide installed market of DI presses is 1500. But installed base numbers can be confusing because I have gone into many companies and seen DI presses in corners that are used rarely.

In my presentation I said that there were 500 "active" DI Presses in the US. Active was defined as more then 30% utilization or 2.5 hrs/day or 12 hrs/week. In that presentation people said I was way to low.

I asked Frank and he said that about 700 DI presses are in the US and the average utilization rate was 70%. If you assume that 70% is the middle of a bell shaped curve – then I would conclude that my estimates are plausible (to quote the wonderful Mythbuster show).

Do you agree or disagree?

Posted by Howie Fenton on November 10, 2008 | Comments (1)