Variety of solutions from manufacturers at drupa

As drupa 2024 wraps up, we look at a range of exhibitors debuting new machinery and offerings in the finishing, print technology, and packaging sectors.

An interesting addition to the floorplan was Continental (Hall 4, Booth C40), a specialist in vehicle solutions but also surface materials for furniture, building projects, and the printing industry. 

Following the acquisition of Trelleborg’s printing solutions business, headquartered in Lodi Vecchio, Italy, Continental was able to take a comprehensive product portfolio for offset, flexographic, and digital printing requirements.

Continental exhibited eight brands which it says serve printing and packaging businesses with a focus on local services as the company has facilities worldwide, such as its Chinese plant which produces products for the Asian market.

Visitors have been able to experience Continental’s enlarged printing and packaging unit under the slogan “Experience the world of printing solutions” with the company demonstrating its future focuses on the packaging market and add-on solutions for flexographic printing such as the potential of sleeves and plates. 

Marco Carlini, head of printing and packaging for EMEA, says: “Drupa gives us an opportunity to present our new organisation to both existing and potential new customers and inform them about the new options on offer.

“We will carry on and, indeed, step up our global activities in the UV printing market. In addition, we will increasingly invest in coating plates to keep up with the growing global demand."

Durst Group (Hall 16, Booth A41-1/2) also showcased a range of solutions for packaging and print including technologies for large-format printing, labels, and software. 

Christoph Gamper, chief executive officer and co-owner of the Durst Group: "As digital print natives and technology leaders, we believe the time has come for digitalisation in many areas, such as packaging, and are presenting corresponding end-to-end solutions that can also be seamlessly integrated into existing infrastructures and production processes as hybrid systems. 

“With our Software & Solutions unit, we also support our customers in setting up and optimizing their digital workflow, thereby increasing their efficiency along the entire value chain."

As part of its joint venture with Koenig & Bauer, Durst debuted the VariJET 106 single-pass press which was demonstrated on the Koenig & Bauer stand (Hall 16, Booth A-31-1). 

The press was showcased in a hybrid configuration with Koenig & Bauer’s Rapida offset press technology and workflow and produced applications suitable for markets like pharmaceuticals, health and beauty, and food and beverage.

The press covers the B1 format and achieves a printing speed of 5,500 sheets per hour with a monthly print volume of 500,000 to 1 million B1 sheets.

Another focus for Koenig & Bauer Durst was the Delta SPC 130, a single-pass digital sheet-fed press used in the corrugated markets, which was demonstrated in a production environment utilising Durst Workflow and Durst Analytics. 

The company has also announced an “industry first” for brown corrugated substrate printing with water-based digital white, which Koenig & Bauer Durst says makes it the first company in the world to offer digital white ink for corrugated substrates in primary food packaging. 

Koenig & Bauer Durst says by overprinting white, customers can achieve significantly improved image quality on topliners and give an exact match to spot colours.

Additionally, Durst Group launched a new hybrid solution for label printing with the KJet, the second joint development by the company following the XJet. The KJet is an end-to-end solution that combines OMET’s dual servo flexo printing units with Durst’s state-of-the-art RSCi inkjet technology.

For the large-format printing sector, Durst Group had the P5 SMP, a hybrid LED super-multi-pass printing system that can process both roll and sheet material and has the versatile functions of the P5 platform.

The company has also expanded its position in the field of water-based and sustainable printing technologies following the acquisition of Aleph SrL in 2023 with the Aleph Lafote 600 Paper, which is designed for poster and billboard printing. 

Finally for Durst Group is its Software & Solutions business which was founded in 2018 and has presented a wide-ranging software ecosystem that covers web shops, online graphic editors, comprehensive workflow, and analytic solutions. A new innovation in this field is Hawk Eye an AI software that analyses every single print image at full speed image and in real time.

Müller Martini, a manufacturer of print production equipment, (Hall 1, Booth B50) has reported a successful drupa with a wave of visitors and the successful world premiere of its Starbook Sheetfolder from Hunkeler.

The company has presented four connected production lines that demonstrates their customer’s journey to a digital future. The Starbook Sheetfolder from the Hunkeler range shows how digitally produced signature sheets are transformed into glued book blocks then moved on to inline processing the Vareo PRO perfect binder. 

Also on display has been the compact smart factory solution made up of the SigmaLine Compact book block line, the Ataro Digital perfect binder, and the InfiniTrim trimming robot which puts out four different digitally produced products, without any manual intervention.

Additionally, Müller Martini showed the abilities of the Primera PRO saddle stitcher and its new functions for continuous production of small jobs with reduced staff as well as demonstrations of the Venture MC 200 book sewing machine, the VFN 700 fold hold-down press, and the Cobot Omega 693 from Solema.

The integration of Connex with all Müller Martini and Hunkeler systems was showcased, demonstrating how the workflow system can cover all the functions required for taking all variants and influences in the production process into account dynamically and without manual intervention.

Müller Martini celebrated busy days of the show with its well-known “Blue Hour” which invited guests to celebrate and network on the company’s stand.

Drupa 2024 is taking place from May 28th to June 7th in the Dusseldorf Exhibition Centre, Germany.

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