The 2024 Drupa Printing Exhibition has come to an end today, with 18 exhibition halls shared by the Dusseldorf Exhibition Hall, covering all exhibition halls. There are a total of 1646 exhibitors from 52 countries and regions around the world, covering sub sectors such as pre printing and printing, cross media and pre-processing, post-press processing and packaging, future technology, material manufacturers, equipment services, and infrastructure. Among them, there are 443 Chinese companies (409 from mainland China, 10 from Hong Kong, and 24 from Taiwan), ranking first in terms of scale among all exhibitors from participating countries and regions, and second in terms of exhibition area, creating the history of Drupa, followed closely by 396 from Germany and 139 from Italy. Chinese exhibitors have made significant progress in digitalization, intelligence, and greening in recent years.
At this year's exhibition, digital printing has once again become the focus of attention, as stated in the Drupa 2024 guide released by the organizers of the Drupa exhibition: regardless of scale, region, or market, all printing enterprises must recognize the tremendous changes that digitalization brings to the printing industry. In the coming long period, both digital printing and traditional printing will continue to develop.
How to make devices more automated, interconnected, and efficient is currently the focus of most printing machine brands. By introducing an automated control system, the post press equipment can work in coordination and integration with the pre press and printing lines. The printing machine can achieve functions such as automatic feeding, automatic adjustment, and automatic detection. At this year's Drupa exhibition, Heidelberg brought the Subaru XL 106, which can achieve automatic plate loading and automatic plate changing, with the shortest conversion time and a fully automated intelligent operating system, increasing production speed to 21000 prints per hour; Exhibitors such as Konishbauer, Konica Minolta, Fujifilm, Usable, Canon, Kodak, etc. also convey a message to the audience that the automation, digitization, and intelligence levels of the printing industry are constantly improving by showcasing numerous systems and solutions that contribute to modern factory automation.
The global printing industry has begun to evolve towards the 5.0 era, and intelligence is an important development direction for modern manufacturing. The application of intelligent technology enables printing machines to have the ability to learn and optimize themselves, automatically adjust parameters according to production needs, and further improve production efficiency. At this year's Drupa, multiple manufacturers such as Landa, Lingyunguang, and Masterpiece have released systems with AI modules, especially in the application of print defect detection and color correction, empowering printing quality inspection and management.
The trend of sustainable development has also become one of the highlights of this year's Drupa exhibition. Before seeking feasible environmental solutions, digital manufacturers are promoting the use of paper instead of plastic films, such as HP Indigo, which has ElectroInk technology, Saicon, which has scratch resistant and heat sealed Titon dry toner, and screens with Truepress PAC water-based inkjet platforms.
In addition, water-based printing is becoming increasingly common in corrugated paper packaging, and HP is leading in this field with its PWI department's pre press and post press technology. Companies such as Fujifilm, Canon, and Hanhua have all showcased their products at this year's Drupa.
