The printing industry has seen many changes at its major trade shows over the years. The general shows, such as drupa, Ipex and Graph Expo, have seen varying degrees of decreasing attendance, while more focused shows such as SGIA and Labelexpo are growing.
 
Still, the large-scale shows draw sizable interest. For example, Graph Expo 2015, which will be held Sept. 13-16 at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL, will have many key suppliers ot the printing industry on hand. While it no longer plays host to most of the major ink manufacturers, a number of ink companies will be showing their latest technologies.
 
Alphabeticaly, among the ink manufacturers on hand are INX International Ink, Toyo Ink America, EFI, Collins Inkjet, HP, Kodak and Budget Inks. Among the largest exhibitors are Canon USA, Konica Minolta, EFI, HP Ricoh, Xerox, Pitney Bowes, Epson, KBA and Goss International, with all but the latter two on the digital printing side.
 
INX has a major presence at the Graph Expo 2015, with a wide variety of products at its booth. These include commercial inks (EcoPure HPJ Soy inks), low migration sheetfed packaging inks (EcoTech LM inks) and inkjet inks (Triangle Alternative Inks). INX will also show aqueous and energy curable coatings (INXKote Aqueous Coatings and ProCure UV Coatings for flexo and sheetfed).
 
As for press manufacturers, perhaps the most noteworthy introduction will be made by Xeikon, which will be debuting its Xeikon 9800. A Graph Expo 2015 MUST SEE ‘EMS Award recipient, the Xeikon 9800 can produce up to 308 letter-size impressions per minute with a web width of 20.2 inches, utilizing Xeikon QA-CD toner.
 
“Graph Expo attendees will get a sense of how our technology can have a powerful impact on any marketing campaign, with applications designed to cut through the clutter and get consumers engaged,” said Patrick Van Baelen, Xeikon’s VP of worldwide marketing.
 
KBA will offer attendees information on 10 market segments the company covers, including offset packaging, commercial, digital, newspaper, metal decorating and flexible substrate segments.
 
The Rapida 105 PRO, a medium-format sheetfed press that prints 17,000 sheets per hour, will be a highlight for KBA this year. On the inkjet side, KBA will be discussing theRotaJET 130 L and RotaJET 168 VL digital presses for books, publications and industrial printing. VariDry LED-UV will also be a focus., as well as its KBA-Flexotecnica presses for flexible packaging.
 
“This is an important once-a-year occasion to demonstrate our wide range of equipment,” said Mark Hischar, president and CEO of KBA North America.
 
Goss International is focusing on its new web offset technology for commercial, newspaper and packaging applications, including the Goss Sunday Vpak press, designed for short-run packaging applications, and Magnum Compact press for short- to medium-run book, newspaper and semi-commercial applications. Goss will also highlight its Sunday commercial web presses.
 
Xerox earned two MUST SEE EM awards this year for its new inkjet presses. The Xerox iGen 5 Press and Xerox Rialto 900 Inkjet Press will have their North American debuts at the show. The Xerox iGen 5 Press offers an optional fifth toner station, extending its color gamut. The Rialto 900 is a compact medium-volume narrow web inkjet press.
 
On the UV LED side, the RYOBI MHI 925 LED-UV Press, a 5-color, 8-up press with LED-UV curing, earned a MUST SEE ‘EMS award, and Ryobi will run live demonstrations at the show.
 
For more information on Graph Expo 2015, see www.graphexpo.com.