Update June 2009

I thought it best to start afresh with projects and get rid of all the old projects. So here is the latest report.

FESPA continues to support a wide range of projects submitted by its Associations and in the last six months a varied number of projects have received approval. Some of these are described in more detail below. Our next meeting will be in September when we hope to have some new refreshing and innovative projects to consider and hopefully approve.

Our most recent supported events took place in Amsterdam during FESPA Digital.

Combined Belgium,Dutch, French and Swiss project

To enable Dutch, Flemish and French speaking members of Febelgra, GPSF, VSDS and ZSO to have an opportunity to hear about the two new FESPA products launched (Planet Friendly Guide and World Wide Survey) in their own language, the Associations pooled their resources and organised an information event after the show on Wednesday. Over 100 people attended (including FESPA BOard members Enrico Steijn and Christian Duyckaerts) following which there was a great opportunity to network and enjoy some French cheese and Belgian beer. One of the Associations even managed to recruit new members so it was a most worthwhile event where we were able to focus on FESPA products in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

If anybody from these countries reading this wants to become a member of the local Association, contact details of all FESPA Associations can be found elsewhere on this website.

German Digicom Event
 
The current problems in the wider economy make it essential that BVDM members (who are also FESPA members) and potential members in the digital printing industry  are fully aware of the technological and market changes that will influence their businesses. To meet this requirement BVDM brought together a very strong team of speakers
in the form of Mr. Wolfgang Mildner, CEO PolyIC GmbH & Co KG, Fürth and chairman of the board of the Organic
Electronics Association (OE-A), Mr. Roland Niggemeyer, owner of Bildproduktion Niggemeyer, Bochum and Mr. Sven Hagemann, MPS Druck und Medien GmbH, Mudersbach to provide a unique information package that truly addresses the needs of our market.

Objectives:
The objectives were to provide a forum for debate and to transfer knowledge, to demonstrate value to membership and to the wider industry community (who can experience a valuable aspect of membership), and to put digicom ‘on the map’.

The conference created an opportunity to gather like minded executives together to examine the future business areas of digital printing addressing:
• Business areas –  commercial, LFP and printed electronic
• Discussion “Business areas in digital printing in the Future”

There was also a chaired open forum where attendees were able to discuss any aspect of digital print and the business area of Digital Printing in the future. The event was highly successful and was attended by xx delegates.

Label Printing Seminar in Hungary
FESPA board member and acting secretary, Gyorgy Kovacs, organised a label printing event in Budapest in May with over 80 people in attendance. One particular machine was featured, the VP 485e VIP colour printer, a versatile unit which has the ability to print one or one thousand labels. Brand new from colour labelling specialists VIPColor is the VP485e. A medium duty full colour inkjet label printer from the makers of the highly successful VP2020.Various presentations were made showing how this machine could cope with a variety of applications and substrates.

Continuing to use well respected Hewlett Packard inkjet technology the VP485e is able to provide photo quality full colour labels on demand and up to an A4 page in size! Print speed has been significantly improved and the VP485e can now achieve throughput speeds of upto 4 inches per second on draft mode.

The VP485e makes use of individual 28ml cyan, magenta and yellow ink cartridges and a 69ml black cartridge meaning that many labels can be printed before the cartridges need replacing.

Large high visibility indicator lights on the VP485e control panel warn of "low ink" or "out of paper" alerts making the VP485e ideal for busy factory environments.

Embak 2009

Meanwhile, in Brno in Czech Republic, FESPA supported a combined activity organised by Czech and Slovak Associations, enabling them to promote their Associations with a stand at this well attended and popular local Trade Fair. It was an interesting event with a seminar taking place whilst I was there enabling both Associations to tell the audience what they both do and I had an opportunity to promote the new Planet Friendly Guide.

One thing really excited me at this show was Optaglio, a company who specialise in security printing technologies. I
have often been asked by secretaries about security printing and this system was to me totally mind blowing. Optaglio s.r.o. is specializing in the development and production of optical security devices and holograms. The production is based on its own long-term research and development. This way Optaglio s.r.o. is moving the limits of the security technologies based on the optical devices and enlarges the portfolio of new security products against counterfeiting. I was particularly amazed by OV Dot technology (please read about this). You can see what I mean by looking at http://www.optaglio.cz

Another machine that impressed me in Brno was from Grapo Technologies - www.grapo.com and its Shark machine which I must confess I missed seeing during FESPA Digital. This High-end level UV printer is the answer for the evergrowing demand for the UV printing technology. 
 
Using Xaar technology with Greyscale variable dropsize Shark has managed to accomplish a UV printer with technical specifications such as  printspeed at 225m2 per hour at a quality of 960dpi.

FESPA Link event - Budapest

One innovative event , and one which FESPA actively encourages, was a FESP link event in Budapest. Printers from Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary gathered together to share information, experiences and understanding of printing technologies over a day and a half. About 60 people attended this event.

Planet Friendly Guide and Worldwide Survey
Two products that you can receive totally free of charge if you belong to a FESPA National Association are the brand new updated Planet Friendly Guide, possibly the most comprehensive single source  document available anywhere for screen and digital printers. This guide will provide all you need to know about environmental issues - including best available techniques -  applicable throughout Europe. 

Originally written by Michel Caza, with assistance and updates from our environmental consultant, Paul Machin, this FESPA produced guide is a must for every screen and digital printer. The guide provides all the information a printer will need and if you want to achieve an environmental accreditation such as ISO 14001 or EMAS, this guide will help you to achieve it. The guide will be regularly updated and with more regulation and enforcement likely to happen with environmental issues, we think this will prove invaluable.

Following the success of 2007’s Wide Survey – FESPA has once more, in partnership with InfoTrends, completed a research project into the challenges, opportunities, threats and trends of the wide format digital marketplace. The report begins with a staggering statistic – our global graphics market has a value of €56 Billion!
As well as discovering the total market size – the report which looks at the development of wide format digital print technologies and features over 50 questions with over 400 respondents from over 50 countries and examines the latest applications, newest innovations and compares developed and emerging markets, adding a truly world wide
perspective to the research.

“Drawing on the growing FESPA community of print professionals worldwide and utilising the key data pools we have in Europe, Mexico and in Thailand, we were able to conduct a research project designed to provide us with more information into the trends, pressures and opportunities in the market. This unique study enables us to compare emerging and developed markets as well as trends and emerging innovations. I don’t think there is another study around that can draw upon this quality of analysis” – says Marcus Timson, Communications Director, FESPA Conducted in 4 languages (English, German, Spanish and Thai) the research was conducted via an online entry form throughout December 2008 and January 2009.

Please note that non members must pay € 2,000! To enquire about receiving a copy of the report and/or joining one of FESPA’s national associations, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Other Projects

In addition to these activities, this year we have also approved many other projects including brochures, website updates, workshops for students, conferences and a symposium. We have also approved a seminar that will be taking place in Slovakia in October - the 5th International seminar where the main speaker will be Michel Caza and the main theme will be textile printing with contributions from M&R, MHM and Artem Nadirashvili, an exceptionally talented and innovative screen printer from Midi Print Company in Moscow. 

This takes place in Dudince Slovakia on 2nd and 3rd October. All are welcome but we expect places to be booked very quickly so if you want to join in this very worthwhile and interesting event, please contact the secretary, of Slovak Association, Ludovit Bartos  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it