drupa 2016 to Highlight Industrial Printing

As the world’s leading trade fair for print and cross-media solutions, a strong focus at drupa 2016 will be the advances in industrial printing, specifically packaging, glass, textile, ceramics, flooring, laminates, wood, wallcovering and decorative printing as well as printed electronics. The event will take place from May 31 – June 10, 2016 at the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany.

“Packaging production and industrial printing applications are recognized today as growth markets. We must follow market changes and identify future trends to integrate them into our concept for the trade fair. For 65 years, drupa has always been at the forefront of technological innovations,” explained Werner M. Dornscheidt, President & CEO of Messe Düsseldorf.

Industrial printing applications have historically been produced using a variety of analog printing technologies, such as offset, gravure, flexographic, and screen printing. Although the digital revolution has taken several paths, the most prominent to date has been in the graphic communications market. Digital print-on-demand is now well-established in this area and the use of digital technology is now migrating and growing in industrial segments such as packaging, decorative and functional printing.

According to estimates by InfoTrends worldwide mass-production of decorative products accounted for just under half a trillion dollars in manufactured goods in flat glass, ceramic tiles, flooring/laminates, textile. and wall coverings.

Sabine Geldermann, Director drupa 2016, stated: “The print and media industry is changing. New technologies are establishing themselves. With the highlight themes of print, functional printing, packaging production, multichannel, 3D printing and green printing, we are responding to this change and are opening up new visitor target groups with state-of-the-art technologies and new solutions.”

In addition to the individual exhibitors’ products on display, drupa 2016 will present the latest design and production solutions in the special exhibits drupa innovation park (dip), drupa cube, touchpoint packaging and PEPSO – Printed Electronics.

A strong base of productivity and demand and a growing desire for mass-customization creates an excellent basis for innovative digital printing technologies. Inkjet printing is the dominant enabler of this transition. Following several decades of technological developments in jetting and materials science, there is now a resurgence of technologies that enable deposition onto applications including packaging, ceramics, textiles, 3D objects and electronic components. During drupa 2016, the world will converge to explore and observe new technological innovations in print and material deposition, with many of them focusing on industrial and functional printing solutions.