Drupa 2024 Preview: Glunz & Jensen – Hybrid Software

Drupa 2024 is back after eight long years and will be held in Dusseldorf, Germany, from May 28 to June 7. In this special series, PrintWeek highlights the top exhibitors to watch out for at the show.

26 May 2024 | By PrintWeek Team

GEW has designed and installed a wide range of UV systems up to 2.5m wide

Glunz & Jensen (Hall 3/A91)
This year at Drupa, Glunz & Jensen A/S is teaming up with a consortium of companies under the umbrella organisation Heliograph Holdings, which includes partners such as Lüscher, Hell, Kaspar Walters, Ohio, Schepers, and Daetwyler.

“We’re thrilled to be part of Drupa 2024, as it provides a fantastic opportunity to showcase our latest advancements in prepress plate-making technology and solutions while connecting with our valued customers and partners,” says Henrik Funk, the CEO of Glunz & Jensen.

The company will unveil their extended portfolio of offset and flexo technology solutions for end-to-end plate-making. In addition to established offerings, Glunz & Jensen A/S will introduce innovation in plate exposure technology.

Must See: GEW (Hall 16/E01)
GEW has become a major force in UV curing for sheetfed offset presses The company has manufactured and installed hundreds of sheetfed UV curing systems globally. Its design and engineering teams use state-of-the-art measurement and 3D modelling technology to ensure that every UV system installation is integrated within its fitted press.

GEW has designed and installed a wide range of UV systems up to 2.5m wide. GEW will also highlight its ‘ArcLED’ technology, where UV Arc and UV LED lamp heads can be simply and quickly interchanged on a press. The ArcLED capability is available with almost every type of GEW system installation, whether for sheetfed, offset, narrow web, mid, or wide-web machinery and across a broad range of applications.

This technology has been used to great effect in many sheetfed press installations, where it enables the printer to switch between Arc or LED in both the interdeck and delivery positions, to suit the individual requirements of each print job. The UV system configuration can be altered or fully upgraded to LED later.

HanGlory Group (Hall 8B/B30)
The HanGlory Group is set to showcase their digital inkjet solutions at Drupa. Their theme for the event is, “Digital inkjet: infinite possibilities.” The company will introduce the Glory 160X HD, which is a 1200-dpi high-precision inkjet corrugated cardboard digital printer and unveil the Kirin 660X too, which is a 1200-dpi colour book digital inkjet printer, for the publishing industry.

Lastly, the company will introduce the LabStar330S Hybrid, a multifunctional combination label printing production line, made for the label industry. This equipment will be part of the live demonstrations at the HanGlory Group booth. The company holds complete intellectual property rights in the digital printing domain, with over 420 rights, including 320 patents.

Harris & Bruno (Hall 16/A03, Hall 17/A01-2)
Harris & Bruno International will unveil its new digital embellishment machine, the ZRX, at Drupa 2024, the world’s leading trade fair for printing technologies. The ZRX offers advanced capabilities to flood coat, spot coat, and foil stamp all in one pass on uncoated and unlaminated media. Visitors to Harris & Bruno’s booth can experience live demonstrations of the ZRX and learn more about its unique features.

Must See: Heidelberg (Hall 1/C30-1, C30-5)
Heidelberg’s new-generation Speedmaster XL 106 will be unveiled at Drupa. It promises up to 20% higher productivity compared to previous solutions. This machine can run at speeds of up to 21,000 sheets per hour.

The new press has added features like a drying system which reduces energy consumption by up to 15% and less powder emissions, which is better for sustainability. The Speedmaster XL 106 also supports cluster production, where a single operator can control an entire machine park.

The company will also showcase the Boardmaster, a flexographic web printing system. With a maximum printing speed of 600 metres per minute and up to 90% machine availability, the Boardmaster reduces the total cost of ownership in industrial packaging production.

Highcon (Hall 9/B24)
With the optional new Beam Writer for offline writing of Dart foils, the new Highcon Beam 3 can produce around 50% more per shift than the Beam 2 while delivering higher and more consistent quality for folding cartons.

The new Vulcan, a next-generation system with a sheet size of 1.4x1.7 (55-x66-inch), is still under development for corrugated packaging and display. It will enable the full benefits of digital die-cutting to mainstream corrugated production.

The Highcon Beam 2C, a reliable and efficient solution, has been upgraded to deliver up to 50% enhanced productivity when paired with the optional Beam Writer. This upgrade improves Highcon’s product offering and facilitates the expansion of its footprint in the short- and medium-run corrugated market, especially for POS and web-to-pack, thereby increasing its market share.

The new Highcon Beam Writer, which is compatible with all Highcon Beam systems already installed, allows customers to create creasing rules using Highcon’s proprietary DART system and 5th-generation consumables offline. The Beam Writer can free up more than 16 hours of Beam capacity or two full shifts for every 100 jobs per month, improving productivity and increasing capacity.

Horizon (Hall 6 / F21 – F21-3)
At Drupa, Horizon will showcase over 450 pieces of equipment divided into four main sections, displaying a variety of finishing solutions, new products, and smart factory technology. The four sections are - smart book solutions, workflow and new systems, new focused systems, and new conventional systems. Horizon booth will also have a section for standalone equipment and will offer eight tours daily for visitors to see our products and solutions up close.

Must See: HP Indigo (Hall 17)
HP is set to showcase some exciting improvements at Drupa, including enhancements to its HP Indigo 120k press, which will offer increased reliability, output, and ease of use through tools such as the new PQ Maestro AI quality calibration tool.

HP will also unveil its new HP Indigo 18K press, which can print on a range of substrates. Additionally, HP will focus on core technologies, such as PageWide, ADP, and the upcoming LPX printing technologies.

HP will also demonstrate its future vision through automation, integration, and sustainability using solutions like its Intelligent Automation platform and autonomous mobile robot system.

Hubergroup (Touchpoint Packaging 2024, Hall 3/B31)
Hubergroup will showcase its latest food packaging innovations, sustainability solutions, and digital colour communication. The company will also present its innovative product portfolio, with a focus on MGA inks for printing food packaging, the Hydro-X-Systems, a water-based packaging ink solution, and its solvent-based packaging ink series, Gecko Bond Top. Experts will discuss the future of flexible paper packaging, direct food contact with printing inks and coatings, a licensed Hubergroup Digital Color Communication (HDCC) system, and recyclable ink solutions.

Hunkeler (Hall 17/A01-2, Hall 8A/A20)
Hunkeler will present its innovative automated book solution, the Hunkeler Starbook Sheetfolder, at Drupa 2024. The Starbook Sheetfolder produces glued book blocks for further processing in perfect binders, with a high degree of format flexibility for short to medium runs. The technology guarantees efficient and variable production of digitally printed books with individual book blocks delivered at a speed of up to 1,000 deliveries per hour.

Hybrid Software (Hall 3/B31, Hall 7A/D03)
Hybrid Software’s MyCloudFlow and MyPackz will get an upgrade to Cloudflow and Packz software; the launch of a new 3D rendering software called Capture 3D; and ColorSpace, which combines the workflow expertise of Hybrid with colour management technology for the accessibility of non-experts will be unveiled at the Hybrid stand.

All demos at Drupa will be run using MyCloudFlow, a 100% cloud-based SaaS solution running on an Amazon Web Services (AWS) cluster. Packz, with over 5,000 copies sold, provides a full set of packaging pre-press tools from pre-flight to step, repeat, and trapping. The new MyPackz offers the same functionality in a hosted SaaS business model for increased production efficiency, quality improvements and reduced error rates.

Built on technology from its ColorLogic business, ColorSpace offers optimised colour matching for digital and conventional print to all users of Packz and CloudFlow. ColorSpace supports different colour spaces, including CMYK, extended gamut CMYK OGV (orange, green and violet) and specific brand colour inks.

The other highlight at Hybrid’s stand will be the SmartDFE, a turnkey digital front end (DFE) for digital presses. SmartDFE directly processes the rasterised images for digital jobs to the printhead drive electronics, eliminating the need for expensive disk arrays.

Hybrid will also feature the Xitron IntelliTrap workflow solution. Xitron’s next-generation trapping solution was co-developed with Hybrid Software to provide an extensive base of offset printing customers.