The four-day specialist trade show opened its doors in Lucerne, Switzerland on Monday (27 February) and its two halls quickly filled with visitors who were keen to get back to business, with the event having missed a cycle due to the pandemic. The event concluded yesterday.

There were several high profile launches, product enhancements, and first showings held at the show, covered by Printweek already from the likes of Canon, Ricoh, HP, and Kodak.

Friedheim International, the UK distributor for Hunkeler, invited UK clients and prospects to the event, some of whom were ready and looking to invest while others were scoping the market for developments. Friedheim also represents Scodix, Kama, and Komfi, who were among the circa-100 exhibitors.

Hunkeler, which introduced its new Starbook Plowfolder book solution and also showed the new Sheet Cutter in its DocuTrim product and its new Book Sorting Module, reported brisk business at the show, sharing details of sales of various different machines, including a Starbook Plowfolder book system to Rotomail Italia.

The overarching feeling from the exhibitors and industry analysts that Printweek spoke to at the event is that the biggest leaps forward in the technology since 2019 have been in the press drying systems that are helping to facilitate high quality at very high speed, and the increased ability for continuous-feed inkjet presses to successfully run a much wider variety of substates, including offset-coated stocks.

However, inkjet treated media has also come down in price – still higher than offset-coated but closer than it was four years ago.

The other big topic of conversation – unsurprisingly, with the show being held under the motto ‘Next Level Automation’ – was the way in which automation, including workflow, integrated high-speed finishing, robotics, handling systems, and the general reduction of touchpoints, has become more crucial than ever before since the pandemic.

Many companies have lost staff over the past three years but need to maintain their productivity and were looking at the kit they require to help them do so. The need to “do more with less” is a sentiment Printweek heard from several exhibitors.

Mark Stephenson, Fujifilm Europe digital press and print manager, told Printweek the company decided to take a stand this year following the company’s acquisition of inkjet integrator Unigraphica last year.

“There’s definitely a buzz that I didn’t feel last time I was here. The reception has been good – what people are realising is that there’s not many people who have got the ink, heads, and the integration altogether from the same stable, and we’re able to offer that.

“It’s even more obvious that people are pushing the commercial viability of roll-fed. They’re claiming to run it faster; at the last Hunkeler Innovationdays they were running commercial applications but slowly, now they’re running them a bit faster.

“But they’re also adding more options; a coater, an option for a drying system, or even building a drying system into it. There’s more of the press manufacturers building everything into one platform.”

Bowe Group was showing its Fusion Speed 30K inserting system – the fastest and most efficient model in the Fusion Series with an output of up to 30,000 envelopes per hour. It was being demonstrated in combination with the new BOXIT system for automatic filling of postal trays.

Bowe Group UK sales director Andy Wain told Printweek the reaction to the company’s highly automated kit had “been great”.

“People have reduced their headcount or in a lot of cases they can’t find people. A combination of Brexit and Covid has meant that some of the people that were here now aren’t here, but also with Covid you couldn’t use them anyway because they were at home, so it’s brought the need on for automation more than anything.”

“It’s all about return on investment and they are impressed with our whole solution. When you look at somebody like this, there’s absolutely no need for somebody to be stood putting something in boxes and stacking boxes. It’s not a nice job for anybody.”

Hunkeler Innovationdays will now return to its biennial cycle, with the 2025 event set to take place again at Messe Lucerne from 24 to 27 February that year.

A deeper dive analysis of the key trends and product news from Hunkeler Innovationdays, as well as exhibitor interviews and visitor reaction, will feature in the April/May issue of Printweek, due out next month.