In this interview leading up to Hunkeler Innovationdays, Project Manager Matthias Heinz gives us an overview of why Symphony from CTRL-S is an important product. With Symphony, you can control your workflow, add the components you want, and manage from the same user interface. This means total overview, easier and faster onboarding for new employees, and easy/painless exchange of workflow components if needed. It all sounded logical, so maybe you should listen to Matthias Heinz, or even better, visit CTRL-S at Innovationdays in Lucern!

This is a VERY important chat between Executive Vice President Scott Baker from Crawford Technologies and Editor Morten B. Reitoft. All the personal and sometimes financial data handled by thousands of printing companies need to be managed, not only to the law but also to ensure privacy, security, and the trust customers put in our hands when we print data. Crawford Technologies specializes in software that enables the secure encrypted transfer of data and the ability to track data so the exact location of that piece of data is known to those who are supposed to know. This is important! Enjoy!

Contiweb is one of the leading specialists in heavy un-winding and re-winding, and has for fifty years delivered solutions to web-offset and, with a declining market, over the past years, developed super smart solutions to the digital space. Besides the winding solutions, Contiweb has also developed coaters, moisturizers, etc. In this interview with Rob Bosman from Contiweb, you'll get a bit of history, a lot about the products, and of course, what to expect from Contiweb at the Hunkeler Innovationdays.

Jennifer Kolloczek talks to Morten B. Reitoft about Canon's customer-centric approach to success and also how Canon seeds the market with events, applications, and support to the industry beyond 'just' Canon. At Innovationdays in Lucern, Canon will showcase its latest technology and even some technology that hasn't been revealed yet - I can't wait to see and hear what it is. Enjoy the nice and very open-minded interview with Jennifer Kolloczek, and plan to visit Canon's booth at Hunkeler Innovationdays!

Bronte is a book-of-one-in-a-box software solution developed and used by one of Europe's largest digital book manufacturers, Rotomail, in Milan. In this interview, you can learn more about the background and, of course, also get to know about Francesco Crotti, who has an exciting background in the industry, and now consults for Bronte to get the software into more printing companies all over the world! Bronte will be presented at Hunkeler Innovationdays and are into books-of-one production for sure worth a visit!

Bernd Sauter is the CEO of the German company KAMA located in Dresden, Germany. The company has a LONG history going back to 1894 - and since the early 1900s, KAMA has developed finishing and embellishment equipment. In this interview with CEO Bernd Sauter, who has a background in Müller Martini, he explains how important software is to support short runs and fast setup times. He also explains how KAMA makes parts exchangeable to maximize a KAMA machine's productivity from folding, cuttings, foilings,and more - in both Commercial and Packaging. Interesting and something you should check out at Innovationdays!

in a world with more and more water-based Inkjet Devices, Adphos drying technology becomes super interesting as it dries out the weather without heating the substrate. James Burbidge from Adphos explains it super in this film!  

Beltz Graphische Betriebe, located in Bad Langensalza (between Kassel and Leipzig) is a 180 year old family owned and managed company. With a 2.5 million Euro investment into digital printing and digital print finishing equipment from Hunkeler the company optimized its production process for short run soft- and hardcover books.

Hunkeler has been a pioneer, together with partners like Horizon International, integrating post press with advanced automation. Morten Reitoft will moderate a wide-ranging discussion between Hans Gut of Hunkeler and Mark Hunt of Standard Finishing Systems to review state-of-the-industry in Smart Manufacturing, and how lean principles, process automation and intelligent connectivity are guiding post press product development. To stay competitive today, printers are looking to lower labor costs, minimize touch points and streamline data-driven production workflows. Hunkeler solutions address nearly every print market segment – commercial, direct mail, book manufacturing and transactional print – so this lively exchange of ideas will cover lots of ground.

The media got the embargoed press release about 20 minutes before the information could be published at 16:00, December 6th, 2023 - which is BREAKING news. Of course, acquisitions between companies like Hunkeler and Müller Martini will always create headlines and have consequences. However, this is not just an acquisition, but in our view, a game-changer for several reasons. First of all, we believe it will change the dynamics in the finishing industry - and yes, initially only in the digital space. However, as the digital space continues to grow, the impact of a merged Müller Martini with Hunkeler can have huge opportunities. We are, in particular, curious about what this does to the long-time relationship between Horizon and Hunkeler - mainly because the two companies have worked closely together for years, and now the acquirer is maybe Horizon's biggest competitor - but it may also have other consequences as the biggest market for Hunkeler and probably Müller Martini, North America, have Standard Finishing as distributor for both Hunkeler and Horizon - can that continue? Or what will happen? All of these are speculations, and time will tell - but they are interesting - and an acquisition with further impact than most other M&As lately. Warm congratulations to Hunkeler and Müller Martini. Find the official press release below: Müller Martini and Hunkeler join forces for the future After careful consideration, the owner families have decided to merge the Hunkeler Group with the Müller Martini Group. Müller Martini Holding AG has acquired all of the shares of the Hunkeler Group. With this transaction, the Hunkeler family and Crédit Mutuel Equity have sold off all their shares to Müller Martini. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. Hunkeler AG and Müller Martini AG are both global market leaders with innovative solutions for post-print paper processing. Both companies focus a significant part of their innovative strength on the economical production of individualized print products within an automated smart factory. Hunkeler and Müller Martini have been very close for many years. The long and successful history began during the 2nd World War, when Hans Müller worked for Hunkeler as a mechanical engineer before setting up his own business in 1946 and founding the company Hans Müller / Grapha. These good relations have been maintained for decades. The local proximity in the Zofingen region and the already existing and successful partnership in the machine and component business form an ideal starting point for even closer cooperation in the future. By joining forces, both companies see great opportunities to bundle their innovation activities and to serve their global customer base even better in the future through joint sales and service activities. The two owner families have therefore decided on this strategic transaction that led to the acquisition of Hunkeler AG by Müller Martini AG. Bruno Müller: "The graphic arts industry is constantly changing and regularly calls for new innovations. By combining the key components of the two companies, such as personnel, expertise and technology, we will be able to serve our global clientele even better with innovative solutions in the future." Stefan and Michel Hunkeler: "There is a long-standing partnership between Hunkeler and Müller Martini and a regular exchange. The opportunity for the merger is currently greatly beneficial for both partners and our joint customers, as it will result in considerable advantages in a combined enterprise. This is also a strong commitment for the Zofingen region."

Hunkeler can do “Books of 1”, so let's look at their new Book Sorting Module. Benjamin Locher, product manager, explains to us some of the important advantages of this particular module at the end of the impressive new Starbook plow folder line. As NEXT LEVEL AUTOMATION is the motto and dominant theme of the Hunkeler Innovationdays 2023, we see how they practice what they preach.

In the last episode, Pat McGrew fooled you a bit, right? But now you can see the second part of the Symeta unboxing episode where Pat McGrew shows you the level of personalization Symeta is offering. Discounts are one thing, but more important is it to show the combination of high print quality and the data-driven workflow that enables Symeta to deliver. We are happy with what we see. We should go to Symeta and make a film! Remember to Watch, Like, and Share.

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At the HP Open House #PrintAhead event, INKISH met with Category Manager PrintOS Bob Raus. HP announced the 'Automation Center' upgrade to its PrintOS, and we discussed that. Still, Bob Raus also speaks about the market, how software enables printers to do more with their hardware investments, and even how HP allows many software services to be used on other than HP hardware. Conclusion - This is a super interesting conversation, and for PSPs and Converters, it is important to learn that software is as much of a game-changer as the hardware we all fall so easily in love with. Thanks to Bob Raus for a very open-minded and interesting chat - thank you!

Durban is a major print hub on the east coast of South Africa - a couple of hours' flight from Cape Town and only one hour from Johannesburg. Impress Printers is, by all means, a full-service printing company with capabilities from web-offset and sheetfed offset to digital production of labels, cut-sheet, and inkjet roll-based printing. HP is 'living' their newly defined reality where indigos are placed side by side with a T-250 inkjet machine - and all machines are busy from schoolbooks produced on the T-series to posters, covers, postcards, and high-quality printed brochures printed on the numerous Indigos placed in air-conditioned rooms. The contrast to the offset production is sharp as the offset production is about getting volume produced; the HP technology is used for both fast turn-around products, but also short runs and print requiring personalization. Suhail Agjee, who operates Impress Printers with his father, is proud of what they have achieved. I would say a successful printer in South Africa with capabilities beyond most. Great story.

Bennett Graphics is absolutely one of the more amazing printing companies we have visited. Not only is it a family-owned printing company, but it also prides itself with hundreds of awards and prizes for being the best printer. The awards come from hard work and dedication, as well as the will and ability to invest in the newest and latest technology. You see the newest Scodix, Highcon, and HP equipment along with offset presses and binding equipment. Great company, great people - and this film were made in a very special way. More about that on INKISH.NEWS. Thanks to Adair Hall and Adam Seiz for making this together!

Présentation de la nouvelle machine HP Latex 2700W (Blanche) par le spécialiste produit Thierry Martin. Comme nous le faisons toujours dans notre série de "présentations-walkthrough", nous vous proposons un aperçu rapide des nouveautés de la solution. Nous passons la scène à Thierry Martin.

How can printing companies use HP Digital Solutions software to drive business - by Kirk Lewis and Tim Webster demoing the use of HP Siteflow.

How can printing companies use HP Digital Solutions software to drive business - by Tim Webster HP Solutions with Ulrich Schätzl, Simon Smogur, Jon Tolley, and Chris Knighton.

HP relève le défi écologique avec ses imprimantes latex de 4ème génération et ses encres à base d'eau. Sébastien Tison nous donne un bon aperçu et explique comment HP veut aider à relever ce défi, que beaucoup dans l'industrie recherchent. La recyclabilité est un enjeu important, donc il y aura de très bonnes discussions.

In this short interview, Editor Morten B. Reitoft asks HP's Yale Goidis about curing and bonding/pre-treatment to optimize print and speed. Interesting observations!

La direction internationale de l'impression grand format HP a décidé de venir à Lyon pour prendre la température de ce qui se cuisine en France. Nous rencontrons un Mike Boyle très enthousiaste et de bonne humeur, qui reste à l'écoute de l'évolution de l'industrie graphique et de ses activités. C'est toujours agréable de pouvoir parler aux décideurs et de les entendre directement. Je suis sûr que nous aurons davantage d'occasions de nous rencontrer et d'entendre dans un avenir proche, car ils ont un certain nombre de choses en préparation. INKISH vous gardera bien entendu au premier rang lorsque la nouvelle sera annoncée. —- The international management of HP large format printing has decided to come to Lyon to take the temperature for themselves of what is cooking in France. We meet a very enthusiastic and good-natured Mike Boyle, who keeps his finger on the pulse of how the global graphics industry is changing and going about its business. Always nice to be able to talk to decision makers and hear from them directly. I'm sure we'll have more opportunities to meet and hear in the near future as they have a number of things in the pipeline. INKISH will of course keep you in the front row when the news is announced.

Bel entretien avec Marion Amélineau. Marion Amélineau est la Directrice Marketing d'Indigo & HP PageWide Inkjet France et elle répond à la question de savoir si le marché en France est prêt pour une nouvelle vague de numérisation accrue. Il y a évidemment plusieurs réponses, mais un modèle hybride, combinant l'analogique et le numérique, semble de plus en plus populaire aujourd'hui. HP souhaite être l'entreprise technologique la plus écologique d'ici 2030. Nous vous invitons à écouter certaines des idées que HP a en tête.

It's difficult not to be impressed by the amazing opportunities you can do with a label press. Of course, you can print labels, and sometimes you choose analog and sometimes digital, and VERY often you mix offset, flexo, digital, varnishes, and embellishment - exactly what makes labels so impressive. However, if you have presses like the Screen 350UV or the new Screen PAC830F you can also produce pouches that extend your business opportunities like never before. But as usual host, Pat McGrew takes you through a wealth of inspiration in this Print Sample TV episode!