Epson President Yasunori Ogawa sees drupa as a two-way process, “not only because it is a good opportunity for the company to tell everybody about Epson’s technology and products but also because we want to hear what our customers want to say and what they think about our products,” he said in an interview at drupa.
“One of our key goals is to convert the market from analogue to digital in many areas, because of the advantages like significant reductions in waste. Our broad range of products is to make the benefits of digital technology available to all market sectors.
The common factor across all these sectors is the print head. At drupa, Epson is releasing its latest robust industrial printhead, the D3000, which is designed for aqueous and UV ink applications. “It is basically the same print head for all our various technologies – both consumer and commercial production print – and this can be scaled up into various configurations. This is the common factor that links all our print technologies together,” explains Mr Ogawa.
“By using the same printhead technology across many platforms and printing using virtually any kind of ink, we can gain manufacturing efficiencies and, therefore, bring the overall cost of the product down.
“We see definite growth opportunities in commercial print. Analogue is still by far the dominant mainstream technology in this market so replacing analogue with digital technologies is going to be the key in this market – we see a lot of potential there.
“One of the key challenges we have is that we have to introduce those still using analogue technologies to the advantages of inkjet; it’s important for them to see it and try it for themselves in order to really appreciate the benefits of the technology for their businesses.
“Are we confident in the future of the industry? Of course. We are making significant continuing investments in R&D to advance these technologies. It’s true that there’s not going to be much growth in home office printing; on the other side, however, commercial industrial printing has immense potential, because of the predominance of analogue,” he concluded.
Mr Ogawa also addressed the subject of ‘Up Close and Personal: Printing in the Digital Age’ at the drupa cube on May 28 where he took the opportunity to talk more about Epson’s Japanese origins, referencing the company’s commitment to sustainability and how it has reinvented itself over the years.
As the industry moves away from analogue, he expanded on the potential for digital in C&I printing, how this is more sustainable, less wasteful and meets a growing demand for personalisation through micro-production. He also mentioned recent Epson C&I case studies, and ended with a look at future innovations such as Epson’s strategy of building partnerships.
Click here for more information on the ColorWorks C8000e label printer released at drupa