The drupa Finishing Drumbeat Gets Louder

You know it's coming. Flights and hotels (hopefully) have been booked, and the world's largest graphics event is not far away. But all print shows have undergone a transition over the last 10 years. That transition has seen the dramatic displacement of offset by digital. Digital is where the action is, and that's borne out by the booth sizes and crowds jamming the digital print vendors booths.

The digital workflow has driven a re-thinking of finishing. And the major finishing vendors are now pouring a significant portion of their engineering resources into new solutions for this space. These efforts have accelerated since the last drupa in 2012, as digital print innovation grew even faster. This leaves the door wide open for new and non-traditional approaches to producing a finished product. The drupa 'pre-announcements' from the finishing vendors are already hinting at this.

More than anything else, high-speed digital print has birthed a highly automated, lean manufacturing, continuous flow print-and-finish process. The door has been opened to non-traditional and creative total manufacturing approaches. More than any show previously, this drupa will introduce brand new digital finishing systems designed to increase throughput, quality and ease-of-use for the operator. So, what are you waiting for? I hope you've booked your flight and hotel!