May 30, 2024
drupa and PRINTING United Announce Partnership See p. 6
50 Years of Innovation Is in Plockmatic’s DNA See p. 9
Sustainability Front and Center at EFI drupa Stand See p. 16
BOBST Application Management: A New Hands-On Consulting Service See p. 31
Heidelberg Stakes New Claim to Industrial Inkjet with Jetfire Heidelberg erhebt mit Jetfire neuen Anspruch auf industriellen Inkjet BY PATRICK HENRY Heidelberg’s central product announcement at drupa is its return to industrial inkjet printing with a pair of machines introduced in partnership with Canon. They are the Jetfire 50 in B3 format and the Jetfire 75, a B2 press. Heidelberg is promoting them as solutions for hybrid production in combined offset and digital environments where both processes can be linked together in the latest iteration of the company’s Prinect workflow. The Jetfire 50, based on an existing Canon product, is said to be capable of printing more than 9,000 SRA3 sheets per hour for an annual output of 60 million sheets per year. It is designed for runs of one to
People Profile: Dr. Raša Urbas BY DAVID ZWANG With degrees in Textile Technology and Graphic Arts, as the Chair of Information and Graphic Arts Technology, Dr. Raša Urbas’ professors, teaching assistants, and technical staff are involved in a number of research and teaching activities. These include, but are not limited
medium volumes at 1,200 x 1,200 with a minimum of operator touchpoints. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2025.
years later. Now the emphasis is fully on commercial printing with the latest technology from partner Canon, a market leader in inkjet.
Based on a newly announced B2 platform from Canon, Jetfire 75 is targeted at commercial products such as brochures, books, posters, and banners. Its claimed output is 8,700 sheets per hour for 54 million sheets annually. The 1,200 x 1,200 press, according to Heidelberg, is twice as productive as other equipment in the B2 digital category. Delivery is anticipated to start in early 2026.
Heidelberg will provide single-source service and support for the Jetfire presses. Both are designed for integration with Prinect, Heidelberg’s hybrid production workflow. New at drupa is Prinect Touch Free, an AI-enhanced solution designed to guide large numbers of jobs through production with maximum efficiency.
Jetfire is not Heidelberg’s first venture into production inkjet—in 2016, it introduced a full-size inkjet press for packaging that it withdrew from sale several
to, prepress, press, and postpress operations, graphic materials, printed electronics, packaging, image processing, information-communication technologies, photography, 3D modelling, colorimetry, typography, graphic design and ecology. Dr. Urbas has participated in many different research projects and programs in textiles and ecology, including the use of textile fibers as a protection against ultraviolet radiation, and optimization of the procedure of rubber products with the textile bearing core. Additionally, Dr. Urbas has been collaborating with other educational institutions’ global graphic arts programs and the Ghent Workgroup (GWG) in the
Prinect Touch Free has three elements— Pathfinder, Decision Maker, and Auto Scheduler—that calculate output options, choose and initiate the best ones, and adjust production as necessary during Continued on page 2
development of student-created educational resources with the goal of presenting information to their peers in a variety of formats that align with their “generational” language. With today’s digital native generation, providing educational materials in local language translations as videos, infographics and animations has been very successful in the acquisition and transfer of important and sometimes complex concepts and knowledge. Her dedication and approach to her students and the graphic arts industry represents the ideal for developing the future generation of graphic arts professionals. Continued on Page 4