Sfogliabile_A&L_n4_AGOSTO_2016

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Events
DRUPA 2016, the Future
of Communication
The evolution of printing technologies
creates new communication
opportunities for aluminium foilbased
flexible packaging
by Giuseppe Giordano
DRUPA, that is, “Drucken Papier”, is the main trade
show in the world for printing solutions for the publishing
industry and for packaging production. Every
four years, in Düsseldorf, well over a thousand exhibitors
from all over the world welcome about 200,000 visitors.Thisyear’sedition,whichfromMay31sttoJune10th
filled to capacity all the halls of Düsseldorf’s huge trade fair
grounds, brought together over 1,800 exhibitors from 54
countries and welcomed over 260,000 visitors.
Printingonpaper,asmentioned,isthethemeoftheacronym,
but by now it has become one of the many themes that
provide the show with its true backdrop: DRUPA is the great
opportunity to know what communication will be and will requireduringthecomingyears.Thisisbecause,asalways,the
four years until the next DRUPA will be full of novelties in the
publishing, packaging and advertising sectors and these will
require innovative efforts in the design of machines and in
the search for suitable and high-performance materials. Evident
examples are digital printing, which in every edition of
theshowgrowsandchangesasthoughawholegeological
age had gone by, nowadays perceived as winning and necessary
for the development of every sector. Another example
is 3D printing, which merges design, experiments and small
scale production. 3D printing is actually a “sculpture” technique
that employs addition of overlapping layers of material
rather than removal of “excess” material, as with a marble
(Photo: Messe Düsseldorf-C. Tillmann)
block. The unity of intent with printing is in the material deposit
systems , which exploit principles similar to ink jets. 3D
technology is spreading very fast: in DRUPA 2012 the new 3D
printers present were little more than a curiosity. This year 3D
technology (printers, materials, controls and so on) was present
in 45 stands.
Italian technologies for aluminium
sheet printing
Future developments of communication technologies affect
the aluminium industry for more than one reason. The
sheet is a stable presence in the flexible packaging sector and
it undergoes conversion processes that influence its physical
aspect and functional features such as the capability
of withstanding thermal welding or being printed with newly
formulated inks. Among Italian excellencies, the presence
in our country of special converting machine manufacturers
is certainly noteworthy: this holds good for both traditional
systems, as well as converting, which supports new technologies.
We take pride in realizing that large companies with
leading roles in the digital sector sign deals with Italian companies
for the production of machines and prototypes, as was
the case with Kodak’s partnership with Verona-based UTECO
for the seven-colour digital machine placed in the centre of
the great “market place” of the American company’s enormous
stand.
Not far from Düsseldorf, in Mainz, Gutenberg invented mobile
typeprintingandpavedthewayforthecirculationofreasonably
priced books for a public of readers that was immensely
larger than before. There are many similarities between this
distant event and the evolution of digital printing, as for instance
with jet inking using nanodroplets, which should cause
ink costs to plummet, in flexographic experiences just as in
newlightalloyprintingplateetchingprocesses,whichimprove
the quality of offset printing while slashing costs. ❚
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