31st Global Ink Jet Conference

News from the 31st Global Ink Jet Conference

Budapest Hungary

March 12th, 2008

I've recently returned from speaking at the 32nd Global Ink Jet Conference in Budapest Hungary. This is the same conference which, in 2007, Silverbrook announced the Memjet technology and HP announced the Edgeline technology.

This years conference was noticeably smaller than last years conference. This may have been a combination of it's proximity to the Drupa conference which is coming in a few months, and, the lack of major announcements.

A few highlights of the conference included:

• Steven Miller of HP gave a very interesting update on the Edgeline technology including the future ability of the technology to drive up to 100 PPM per minute.


• Rob Beeson, also of HP, also gave an interesting presentation on ink jet technology. He gave an interesting overview of the new HP Web Press technology which utilizes 7 Edgeline heads to create a 36" print swath. HP will have an actual press at the Drupa show.


• Bryan Palphreyman gave a presentation on Variable Data on Press technology which utilizes a cylinder which accumulates ink on the outside and then 'releases' the ink on to the page.

Overall, this was an interesting conference with a technology track and a marketing track. Yours truly made two presentations. The first presentation was a review of the market from a financial perspective, while the second presentation dealt with how to speak with and manage the Wall Street financial analyst community. If you would like copies of either presentation, just contact me at eacrowley@photizogroup.com.

From my perspective the conference exemplified the continued development and enhancement of the digital inkjet technology to effectively compete in the "high end" production / press market. For anyone who is tracking this market, this conference represents an interesting and informative view into the latest high performance digital ink jet development efforts. Has digital ink jet technology reached it's zenith? Clearly not. Will ink jet technology continue to evolve? Absolutely. Is it a replacement for offset press technology - not yet. For those who are watching this evolution, this event is clearly one of the places to stay abreast of the latest changes!