At a pre-drupa press conference hosted in its headquarters in Belgium, Agfa Graphics unveiled its plans for the upcoming drupa show in Düsseldorf. The company has come up with the slogan ‘We Embody Print’ for drupa 2016, highlighting its commitment to both the offset printing and the wideformat printing industry, while also opening doors to new print markets and applications in need of innovative solutions. Agfa Graphics is using its presence at drupa 2016 to provide an overview of its product portfolio including new products such as ECO3, wide-format solutions and software cloud solutions.
Agfa Graphics president Stefaan Vanhooren said, “Print and print technology continue to play a crucial role despite the digitization of our daily lives. Print volumes undoubtedly suffer in particular areas and applications (for example, newspapers, magazines and some commercial jobs), yet they are still growing in packaging, wide-format and industrial applications, as well as in the emerging economies, generating plenty of business opportunities. And even in mature printing markets and regions, our innovative thinking and solutions enable our customers to always stay ahead.”
ECO3
ECO3 stands for eco-friendly, economic and extremely convenient. In the field of offset printing, Agfa Graphics focusses on transforming technology into sustainable solutions that create value for its customers. The environmental impact of these solutions is an important factor, yet Agfa Graphics is taking this one step further by adding total cost of operations and convenience to the equation – ECO3. “With the introduction of the Azura printing plate in 2004, we pioneered chemistry free prepress solutions; we are still the industry leader,” said Joan Vermeersch, vice president technology, marketing and business development prepress. “In the meantime, we also keep improving Hall 8a Stand B62-1 Agfa Graphics to address opportunities for growth conventional systems to become more ECO3.”
For drupa, Agfa Graphics also adds the Avalon N8-90 CtP to its family of thermal computer-to-plate systems, and the new Energy Elite Eco printing plate. Also new on the stand will be the pallet loader for the high-end, automated Advantage newspaper CtP systems, and the Advantage N Essentials CtP series.
Wide-format solutions
Agfa Graphics’ Anapurna roll-to-roll and hybrid solutions will be driven by the Asanti workflow at the company stand at drupa. So will the versatile Jeti Mira with the unique dockable roll-toroll option and Jeti Tauro. “We continue developing the common Jeti platform with the quality and productivity demands of sign and display printing companies in mind,” said Dominiek Arnout, vice president Inkjet, Agfa Graphics. “Users get the most out of our wide-format systems thanks to the tight integration with the Asanti workflow. Now, with the automation features added, the entire printing process is fully streamlined to deliver maximum productivity.”
Software cloud solutions
Besides the new Apogee 10 and Arkitex Production 2.0, Agfa Graphics announced PrintSphere, offering print service providers a cloud-based solution for online data exchange. PrintSphere provides a standardized way to send and receive files including secure back-ups of production databases, all seamlessly integrated with the Apogee, Arkitex and Asanti workflow software.
