During an open house event at its Graphic Centre – Europe in Utrecht, The Netherlands yesterday (17 April), Komori held a press conference to reveal details of its showing at the returning trade show, which will take place from 28 May to 7 June at Messe Düsseldorf in Germany.

Komori said it will start its build-up for Drupa from 7 May. Its stand will be split into zones and will run under the theme ‘Connected Automation’.

At the Commercial Print Zone on its 1,500sqm stand – Hall 15, Booth E02 – will be the new Lithrone G37P advance EX edition (GL-837P-A), a 37-inch, eight-colour, convertible perfecting offset press with H-UV L (LED) curing.

Compared to the Lithrone G40P Advance, the new machine uses a print plate 20% smaller, at 700x945mm, power consumption at 60 Hz of 125.8 kW – down 34%, and a machine size of 12.8x3.47m – down 39%.

Komori product marketing manager for Europe, Craig Bretherton, said the EX at the end of the new offset presses stands for ‘Ecological Transformation’ and this will apply to all of the Lithrone GX advance models, from the 40-inch up to the 44-inch models, including the RP reverse printing models. It will also apply to the G37 and 40-inch presses in the Advance series.

He said the machines boast a new look, with “a very distinctive silver panel on the side of the press, which is a change in design”.

Also in this section of the stand will be various items of MBO kit including the K80 B1 combi folder, the A80 stack delivery, the CoBo-Stack palletising robot, and the new Agilox One autonomous mobile robot.

Introducing the technology, Peter Minis, marketing manager at Komori International in Europe, said the new GL-837P-A has a focus on “sustainability, ecology and even more efficiency”.

Meanwhile, at the digital area of the Commercial Print Zone, Komori will show a new digital press called the J-throne 29, a 29-inch B2 sheetfed LED UV inkjet digital press that can print up to 6,000sph simplex and, in the perfecting version, 3,000sph duplex.

The CMYK four-colour process press has a resolution of 1,200dpi, and it can run coated and uncoated paper with no pre-conditioning required.

Compared to the Komori Impremia IS29, power consumption has been reduced while substrates will work well on this machine at room temperature. Ink used to be sourced from Konica Minolta, but Komori’s plan is to introduce its own ink for this model. Commercial availability is expected in 2025.

On whether Komori would continue its digital press partnerships with Konica Minolta and Landa, Komori chief commercial officer Ulrich Sause said: “The Impremia series consists of two presses, both are the result of a joint venture between Komori, with the sheet transport system which is our core technology, and an imaging technology from an OEM partner.

“The J-throne is our own Komori technology – it’s not only the sheet transfer system but the imaging technology is our own system, and the consumables are our own, so we are in full control.”

The two OEM partnerships will also continue though, with Komori continuing to supply the sheet transportation systems for the existing presses produced by these collaborations.

Finally, on the Packaging Zone at the stand will be the Lithrone GX40 advance EX edition (GLX-740A+CC), a UV-equipped 40-inch seven-colour sheetfed offset press with inline double coater.

The press will have double coating capability as well as Komori’s Super Short Makeready and Smart Color features, also new for Drupa, that the manufacturer said lower makeready waste and help solve print problems.

The new offset presses will be available from June, with typical lead times of around six months.

The KP-Connect Pro cloud and workflow automation offering that enables the Smart Factory will also be centralised on Komori’s stand, alongside a raft of “sustainability and ecology solutions”.

The Komori-Kare support service and the K-Supply consumables service will also be discussed at the booth, as well as its specialised print technologies including security printing, printed electronics, its web offset presses, and Komori Chambon, which designs and manufactures in-line production systems for packaging.

A print gallery will show a wide variety of colourful print samples produced with Komori equipment, while the Komori Theatre, complete with wide screen, will enable the company to showcase other technology not on its Drupa stand.

The accompanying open house, which saw more than 300 people attend from around 125 companies, saw attendees treated to a full-day schedule of presentations and live demonstrations including the GLX740+CC and GL-837P, sister presses to the new offset machines unveiled to journalists earlier in the day.

There were also talks by a range of product area specialists and partners, a customer panel, and an interview with Sabine Geldermann, director of Drupa and Portfolio Print Technologies at Messe Düsseldorf.

Speaking to Printweek at the open house, Bretherton said: “For us, this event sets the scene and increases the awareness of what we can do. It's been superb; the feedback from today is that some serious packaging customers are really looking at it with new eyes when they saw what happened in the demonstrations that we've put on.”

As well as MBO, which Komori acquired in 2020, a raft of Komori partners joined the open house. These included Kodak, Technotrans, GEW, Tresu, Baldwin, Apex International, and Eltosch Grafix.