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yaşam için baskı <strong>2018</strong><br />
A Discussion with Xaar:<br />
Is Inkjet Crossing<br />
the Chasm into New Sectors?<br />
By Marcus Timson<br />
www.industrialprintblog.com<br />
Xaar is a good one to speak with regarding direct to<br />
shape and décor in particular, being an independent<br />
head manufacturer. So I had a chat with Adam<br />
Strevens who is Strategic Marketing Manager at Xaar.<br />
Adam, what is happening for direct to shape<br />
inkjet for packaging? Lot of initial noise but<br />
not a lot of obvious production? Has inkjet been<br />
swallowed by the chasm?<br />
I have visited a number of product print and tube<br />
printing companies. It certainly looks like there are<br />
increasing numbers of machines on the market and<br />
I think this is growing.<br />
Adam Strevens,<br />
Strategic Marketing Manager, Xaar<br />
At InPrint, we run surveys<br />
to gain an understanding<br />
of growth and change<br />
for industrial inkjet.<br />
However, it always helps<br />
to speak with some of<br />
the experts in technology<br />
businesses that have an<br />
independent view on a<br />
number of new sectors.<br />
Initially, there was a lot of interest and excitement<br />
surrounding companies such as Krones,Till (now<br />
100% owned by Krones and renamed Dekron),<br />
KHS, and so on. Whilst there have not been a vast<br />
number of printers installed yet the interest is high.<br />
These companies continue to further develop and<br />
promote what we are referring to here as direct<br />
to shape inkjet for packaging. Similarly, there is<br />
continued development of the broader product<br />
printing inkjet space by companies like EPS and<br />
Bergstein, to name a couple. By chasm if you are<br />
referring to the often cited Gartner chasm then, no,<br />
I don’t believe inkjet is stuck in it as that implies<br />
it has gone past supplier proliferation and peak<br />
adoption, neither of which has happened; it is very<br />
much still in the early adopter phase with a select<br />
few end users still trialling inkjet or just starting to<br />
get involved with trials.<br />
What is holding this back?<br />
For one thing, development cycle times for bespoke<br />
equipment like this are not short and I do think we are<br />
at the point that some of the larger big brand companies<br />
need to invest more in this kind of innovation.<br />
There may be an issue of perception with brand<br />
owners in terms of pricing. On the surface inkjet is<br />
not cheap when compared with analogue so people<br />
find a reason not to use it. The TCO and the flexibility<br />
the technology enables need to be made clear to<br />
overcome this. As with many UV inkjet ink based
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