Nanographic Printing Technology from Benny Landa

[Al Ferrari]

Hi Erik,

I quite agree with you about Landa's monopoly on the consumables, and I even anticipated that you in particular would see that.

And why not? He and his company have put a lot of work into it. He says himself that in an earlier stage of his own development, he would have attempted to make the razors as well as the blades. But now he is enlightened in his approach in that he recognizes that he should concentrate on the razor blades, and let others make and develop the razors further.

Al

 

[Deleted member 16349]

Hi Erik,

I quite agree with you about Landa's monopoly on the consumables, and I even anticipated that you in particular would see that.

And why not? He and his company have put a lot of work into it. He says himself that in an earlier stage of his own development, he would have attempted to make the razors as well as the blades. But now he is enlightened in his approach in that he recognizes that he should concentrate on the razor blades, and let others make and develop the razors further.

Al

I think it is a beautiful marketing plan. I kind of like his technology but if I was a printer, I would not be too keen on the model. But I am not a printer so it is not such a concern to me personally.

With issues like this, I trust what the market will decide.

If the market shows it likes it by spending money, then Landa should get his well deserved portion.

 

[Al Ferrari]

If Landa adheres to his newly found enlightened monopolist role I think the market will support him. We shall see.

Al

 

[prwhite]

Xeikon Trillium technology. Landa isn't the only one with something new.
Rivals launch a printing revolution that could be as significant as Gutenberg - Tehran Times

Hi Green Printer,
This is a well written article and worth a read. The writer does a great job of relating both Landa's and Xeikon's new technologies. This will be very interesting to see what develops from their 2 different approaches.
PW

 

[Green Printer]

Hi Green Printer,
This is a well written article and worth a read. The writer does a great job of relating both Landa's and Xeikon's new technologies. This will be very interesting to see what develops from their 2 different approaches.
PW

Deinkability is another very important detail. Xeikon has meet the challenge. For the other digital processes to become viable in a world of paper recycling they will have to be deinkable. As a printer I would not want to tell my customers that the product I just sold them cannot be deinked and they are there own on how to dispose of the printed piece when finished using it.

Here are a few links for deinkable products
Xeikon Reveals More Details on its New Trillium Printing Technology | Xeikon N.V.
Ricoh receives INGEDE certification and announces a carbon neutral drupa

http://www.ingede.de/ingindxe/meetusatdrupa.html

 

[UK Printer]

Print Quality from nonography

Print Quality from nonography

Well, after all the hype, i had a good look around the stand. I'm sure its a work in progress, but the print quality was pretty poor, i saw the images framed on the wall (the best they could achieve) and these were a long way from commercially viable.

That being said, hopefully this technology will prove to be more than just hot air, i'm sure they just rolled it all out early to hit DRUPA, when the tech is perfected its gonna be one to watch..

Tim

 

[D Ink Man]

Here is when it will be technically perfected:

In The Year 2525 /w Lyrics - YouTube

 

[Deleted member 16349]

Here is when it will be technically perfected:

In The Year 2525 /w Lyrics - YouTube

That's good news. I can now get back to my project. Just delivered my pickup roller to the supplier to get a nylon coating.

 

[TheProcessIStheproduct]

Guilty...I was caught up in the hype, thinking it was a game changer, but if he is using piezo thermal heads, then I think we have to call it a really rough beta version of an inkjet press, probably way behind kodak, HP, and Fuji, who have workable products for transmo or book applications, but NOT commercial printing, I could not sell that quality to my customers, no way...

 

[Deleted member 16349]

Guilty...I was caught up in the hype, thinking it was a game changer, but if he is using piezo thermal heads, then I think we have to call it a really rough beta version of an inkjet press, probably way behind kodak, HP, and Fuji, who have workable products for transmo or book applications, but NOT commercial printing, I could not sell that quality to my customers, no way...

Personally I would give the developers of the Landa technology time to work things out. It is too early to judge one way or the other. One would be foolish to tell an artist that he can't paint, if one only looked at their half finished paintings.

I don't think Landa's process will perform like other inkjet processes. Because he applies the ink to the blanket, dries it and then transfers it, it might give much better results on non coated paper than conventional inkjet. It might get higher densities with more gloss on lower cost paper. That might be a sweet spot for his process.

His work of art is still a work in progress.

 

[TheProcessIStheproduct]

Benny's own timetable is to install machines late next year, so I will give it till then, but at some point he has to show his cards, or in this case his samples, so we can evaluate commercial viability...

 

[maxon]

One of the Landa team told me it's 600 dpi with variable size droplet but I can't know for sure if he referred to the machine (PET/PE) he was sitting in front of or all machines. Didn't mention how many picolitres.
I doubt it's piezo.

 

[Cory Smith]

here is a very crude video of one of the presses. What I think is appealing to this is the ability to print on such a wide variety of substrates without coating first.

 

[drummerpaco]

Came back from DRUPA 2012, and one of things that pin pointed in my mind is Landa printing equipment.
I am in Roto-Gravure world and since Landa Digital press states they can print on any substrate, my mind was blown.

It seems to me the highlight of Graph Expo in 2010-2011 was Digital press challenging offset presses which evolve to digital print to challenge flexo and rotogravure presses. I do not know how long it will take to settle in our printing world, bit I am sure we are heading mostly digital world.

I could not find the pricing on the machine, but if people could afford the cost, I definitely think Landa will be the leader of its new era.
One thing that I am curious is about Nano ink. in general, I thought nano ink is much more expensive than general solvent ink. Which I thought if the cost of producing packaging is much higher than today's flexo and rotogravure printing method, would it be adoptable in commercial printing environment?

Big controlling screen, internal camera installation, speed and awesome design was very attractive overall, however I am very curious if we see another steve jobs in printing world.

 

[Deleted member 16349]

Thank you AL I stand corrected.

I was basing my statement on the S7 cutaway Commercial - Landa. I was thinking that there would be some latent heat in the transfer blanket when the impression to the substrate is made.

Apparently there is an extra application of heat to assist transfer. They are using IR lamps to increase the temperature of the ink on the blanket just before transfer. Not quite as one was originally lead to believe.

Under the hood of Landa’s Nanography -- drupa Trade Fair - 3rd to 16th May 2012 - Messe Düsseldorf

It describes it in this link.

 

[Al Ferrari]

A question that comes to mind is wether the "booster" heat is to aid in the release from the blanket, or to aid in the bonding to the substrate?

Al

 

[Deleted member 16349]

A question that comes to mind is wether the "booster" heat is to aid in the release from the blanket, or to aid in the bonding to the substrate?

Al

Maybe it is to keep the hamburgers warm on the off shifts or during breaks?

 

[Joe Duffy]

This line from the report:
Specially designed ink ejectors form a complete print image by ejecting drops of NanoInk onto a heated blanket belt. This is dried on the belt, forming an ultra-thin polymeric film. This film, which could be likened to a decal, meets the substrate at a series of rollers and is transferred to it via pressure. Just before the image is transferred, an infra-red booster lamp kicks in, providing the necessary temperature for the transfer to work properly.

has me with more questions than it answers. Is this film/ink layer applied to the paper - like the Fuji pretreat liquid solution? - If so the color would be very hard to manage, as the film could have various reflective properties under different lighting. Or does the film only hold the ink on the blanket and just transfer the ink to the paper? If it is a ink/film applied to the substrate, what happens to the product when it is shipped across a dessert - does the film release or tighten and shrink the substrate? And what about shipping it in a very cold trailer or cargo bin of a plane?

Again, very interesting blurbs, but really would like to see this and ask questions. Really hope they are planning to bring this to the States to Graph Expo.

 

[Al Ferrari]

Everyone reading this thread should write to Benny asking for a complimentary pass to Graph Expo.

Al

 

[TheProcessIStheproduct]

One of the Landa team told me it's 600 dpi with variable size droplet but I can't know for sure if he referred to the machine (PET/PE) he was sitting in front of or all machines. Didn't mention how many picolitres.
I doubt it's piezo.

Frank Ramono describe it as a "thermal" piezo head, not sure who is manufacture, I kind of doubt HP, maybe Ricoh or Epson?