Landa Explains Nanographic Press Delays
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—It's December 12…do you know where your Landa Nanographic Printing press is? Benny Landa, chairman and CEO of Landa Digital Printing, feels your pain, but he will not release any press before its time.
The Godfather of Digital Printing took to his blog earlier this week to share why the press isn't ready, 30 months after he'd promised they would "perform to perfection." Landa cited two reasons why the Nanographic presses have not yet been delivered.
"The first is that as exciting as the drupa 2012 models were, they were not exactly what the customers wanted. Folding carton converters wanted inline coating," Landa wrote. "The big touchscreen user interface, although universally loved, needed to be at the delivery station. And operators needed more convenient access to the machine’s inner workings. In short, we learned that the product needed to be completely re-engineered. And just over a year ago, we took the difficult decision to do just that, to re-engineer the product from head to toe.
"The second reason is that we had to improve print quality. Although most customers at drupa were able to appreciate the fundamentals of Nanography—the sharp dots, the ability to print-on-any-paper, etc.—print quality defects masked many of Nanography’s remarkable attributes. Eliminating these defects too turned out to be a time-consuming challenge, especially as this work had to be done in parallel to the massive machine architectural changes.
As a result, Landa wrote, it has taken more time and money than anticipated, and the company has focused its attention on getting the press technology to the level it needs to attain. The machines are now much different than the ones shown at drupa.
"If our top-of-the-line Landa S10 press then weighed 10 tons, our fully-loaded Landa S10 Nanographic Printing Press with inline coating now weighs over 30 tons," he says. "That’s not just 30 tons of iron, that’s 30 tons of technology. It is a masterful piece of engineering that integrates Landa’s Nanographic Printing engine with a paper handling platform from Komori; an image inspection system with image processing from AVT; and the industry’s most powerful digital front end incorporating EFI Fiery technology.
"As for print quality, our Landa NanoInk colorants are now visibly delivering on their promise: brilliant, deep pure colors, razor-sharp text and edges, nano-thin images that replicate the gloss of any off-the-shelf paper and more."
He says development has advanced to the point where Landa Digital will begin showing full-size B1 (41˝) samples to Landa S10 clients, with the company ramping up its sales and service organization in anticipation. Beta candidates will be hosted at an event in Rehovot next March, and Landa promises to double his floor space at drupa 2016.
"There is still so much to do. We plan to be in full beta in the second half of the year. We are blessed with the most amazing team of talented, dedicated people committed to making it happen…so it will happen.
"Apart from over 1,000 man-years of blood, sweat and tears invested by our people, by drupa 2016 we and our ALTANA partners will have spent over a quarter of a billion dollars bringing Nanography to market."