Welcome to 2009: New Trends in UV Printers for 2008-2010

FREE Report New FLAAR Report for January 2009 based on research during 2008

The trend for 2009-2010 and beyond is in inks and printable materials. At SignAfrica '09 (September 2009), I saw X-board from Xanita being used in every booth at the show. So I had a breakfast meeting with their CEO, James Beattie. Then at Print '09, three key people from Re-Board surprised me at the FLAAR booth. I had no idea they were at the show. And I believe it was PlyVeneer BioBoard in a flatbed cutter booth and in the HP booth (Oce had the Re-Board). So for 2009 FLAAR has already begun to evaluate all kinds of non-plastic, non-extruded, non-PVC, non-PP, non-PE materials (in other words we will evaluate printable recyclable honeycomb kraft paper boards for UV-cured flatbed printers.

FLAAR will begin to evaluate metallic effect materials, everything from printable mirrors to alternatives to Dibond to metallic glisten-materials. But all this is for UV-cured printers: this is not the silver metallic ink or Roland or Mimaki (we already know the manufacturer of that ink).

Plus you can look for FLAAR evaluations of textiles, fabrics (and textile inkjet printers) by late 2009 and more in 2010 (we already cover Yuhan-Kimberly and DigiFab).

Trends towards UV flatbeds for architectural décor and interior design

At FESPA both WP Digital, GRAPO, and GCC were featuring printing on glass and other architectural materials. Since the background of FLAAR is in architecture (just Google Hellmuth architect and you will see why, even Nicholas studied architecture at the university). So for this year we are preparing a special exhibit to showcase an entire faux room printed on wide-format UV-curable flatbed or combo flatbed printers. We have not yet selected a potential sponsor, but this will come later in the autumn or winter; the exhibit is in February or March 2010, in New York (the prestigious ArtExpo, managed by Art Business News).

Look forward (into 2010) to more from FLAAR Reports on printing on glass, on ceramic tiles, and floor tiling also.

While on the subject of flatbed printers for architectural decoration, here is a further use for thick flat bio-degradable materials such as Xanita board. Plus, this is an ideal forum to evaluate XY-flatbed cutters and routers. Kongsberg will be our first evaluation. We are considering evaluating Gerber cutters for entry-level and mid-range.

Trend to skip tank-like UV printers and get a more practical size to start with

I visited a printshop in Germany with over a million dollars worth of Thieme screen printers. They said that instead of buying a giant tank-like UV printer for $320,000, they decided to buy one Grapo Manta for flatbed and one Grapo Octopus II for roll-to-roll. They got both together for less cost than one Mack Truck type UV printer for $320,000!

Then (January 2009), I visited a different screen printing and offset printing company elsewhere in Germany. They were installing a million dollar offset press the day I was there to inspect their UV-curable hybrid. But instead of buying any million-dollar UV printer, they were content with their purchase of the GCC StellarJET 183UVK.

Same story at another screen and offset printing company I visited in Chicago: they had millions of dollars of screen and also web or sheet-fed offset printing machines downstairs. And a Gerber Solara ion UV flatbed upstairs. As a result of learning this trend (that million dollar companies are often preferring UV printers under $100,000), FLAAR is now adding coverage of screen printing shops per se, offset press commercial printers, and even flexo (since they will need the UV printers that can do packaging prototyping and short-run packaging production).

Yet other companies are indeed preferring the $250,000 to $450,000 UV printers, still today, even in a rough economy. Durst Rho continues to be popular and Spuhl Virtu is being reborn in Switzerland as the WP Digital brand. I have been to the Durst world headquarters demo room three times in past months and was at Spuhl for the second time in late February (2009). The precision of the Durst and of the Virtu printers is remarkable and makes it worthwhile to consider this class of solution.

ISA '09 and FESPA ‘09 are the watershed for some brands because many small sleek multi-purpose printers are now available. It is sad that the ColorSpan 5440uv concept (a UV printer that is easy to use and available for everyone) failed even with their second model (currently the HP 35500). I had hoped this printer would set sales records, but if the components and printheads were not strong enough it's tough to compete with Korean quality. A slew of minor issues also caused the Mimaki JF-1631 to be overtaken in sales by Oce and GRAPO.

The message is clear: there are 45 manufacturers and over 101 models (over 60 of which are current). Out-moded printers with antique features (HP Scitex FB6100 and Mimaki JF-1631 are pertinent examples) simply can't compete against all the faster, better, less expensive options. Korea leads the new generation of printers, with IP&I and Dilli being the two best examples.

Our goal is to have full evaluations on 75% of the entry-level printers and 50% of mid-range and high-end printers by the end of 2009. Our university in past years insisted that all such work be covered by sponsored research funding so this is the policy since it took 400,000 km in 2007, about 300,000 km in 2008, and we estimate 350,000 km of travel in 2009 to reach factories, demo rooms, R&D facilities and site-visit case studies. Plus FLAAR has a staff of 12 people to handle the volume of evaluations, reviews, and publications around the world.