Canon steers customers towards new automation possibilities at Hunkeler Innovationdays 2019

Canon Europe is at Hunkeler Innovationdays 2019 (Hall 2 P3, Lucerne, Switzerland, 25th-28th February 2019) to showcase the breadth of its digital print solutions designed to help customers extend their current offering through higher value applications. Canon is demonstrating how customers can use the emotional power of print to grow their business, powered by Canon’s in-depth expertise and automated end-to-end solutions.

The Océ VarioPrint i300 is working inline with newly launched cutsheet finishing solution Hunkeler DocuTrim

Canon is producing printed promotional communication and merchandising assets to support the coffee table book ‘Speed’

Visitors can see three Canon digital print technologies on the stand that demonstrate the application possibilities with automation: the Océ ProStream 1000 continuous feed inkjet press, the Océ VarioPrint i300 sheetfed inkjet press and the Canon imagePRESS C10000VP sheetfed toner press.

All Canon’s live demos are supported by PRISMA workflow solutions – a versatile and intuitive portfolio of workflow software that addresses the print production demands of industrial customers, from data input and pre-press tasks, to production management and workflow design. PRISMA workflow solutions enable customers to take full advantage of automation across the entire workflow.

Automating processes

Consistent with the event theme of ‘Success with automation’, the Océ VarioPrint i300 is working inline with the newly launched Hunkeler DocuTrim cutsheet finishing solution. The multifunctional workflow will enable customers to automate cutting, perforating, and sequential stacking. This gives customers the flexibility to produce a wide variety of applications, including high quality direct mailers and magazines, while achieving optimal productivity for increased operational efficiency.

“Hunkeler is entering the fast growing inkjet sheet market with new UNIVERSAL SHEET PROCESSING solutions”, says Michel Hunkeler, CEO Hunkeler AG. “The first product in that portfolio is the DocuTrim. This unique system reduces the processing and finishing time by cutting, dynamically perforating, collating and stacking of documents inline in one process step with the digital printer. We are happy to work with our long standing partner Canon to showcase the DocuTrim inline with the Océ VarioPrint i300 at Hunkeler Innovationdays 2019.”

Other live workflow solutions being demonstrated at the show include the Océ ProStream inline with the Hunkeler Generation 8, a finishing line for cut-to-stack production, delivering applications such as posters and magazines in real-time, while other pre-finished applications including customised mailers are also on display.

The Canon imagePRESS C10000VP with inline booklet maker on show at Hunkeler Innovationdays demonstrates the device’s outstanding media handling capabilities. To date, the sheetfed toner press has more than 1000 successful customer installations in the EMEA region.

New enhanced technologies

Canon has enhanced the Océ ProStream with the addition of a new optional Inline Quality Control system enabled by a high-speed camera. This new option provides print quality feedback based on dedicated detection patterns and automatically initiates compensation measures, ensuring superior print quality and minimising waste and operator intervention.

In addition to handling dynamic variable format lengths, the Océ ProStream can now work with an even broader range of media, supporting papers up to 300gsm, due to an enhanced paper transport and drying station. This enables customers to produce applications such as postcards or cover material for catalogues or magazines on a much wider scale.

At Hunkeler Innovationdays, Canon is introducing the latest edition of the Océ JetStream Graphira continuous feed monochrome inkjet production press, designed to meet the needs of high volume book producers looking for high quality at faster speeds up to 254 metres/minute. The press now works with new Graphira inks, which deliver deep blacks and smooth shadings and are optimised for improved droplet generation, resulting in superior and stable long-term print quality. The Océ JetStream Graphira also offers reduced ink consumption for less demanding jobs and improved cleaning performance for minimal operator intervention.

From publishing to promotion

To demonstrate print’s leading role in any multichannel marketing campaign, Canon is producing printed promotional communication and merchandising assets to support the coffee table book ‘Speed’. Launched in September 2018, the book features images of British subcultures from the last two decades, captured by photojournalist Horst A. Friedrichs. Printed on the Océ ProStream 1000, it demonstrates in a visually compelling manner how brand owners and content publishers can fuel emotion with print.

To showcase the breadth of application possibilities, Canon is exhibiting a number of print applications for ‘Speed’, such as calendars, magazines, brochures, booklets, flyers, postcards, premium direct mail, as well as posters and invoices. The calendar won the Silver award at the Gregor Calendar Award 2019, the largest creative calendar contest in Europe.

Canon is demonstrating how customers can derive further value from promotional campaigns using print and data in real-time, enabled by Canon’s digital print solutions, to create customised communication that increases engagement and response.

Peter Wolff, Vice President PPP EMEA Commercial Printing, comments, “Many brands are struggling to engage with customers through digital channels alone. Thanks to digital print technology, print is helping to fuel emotional engagement with consumers through different formats and more customised content that can be created in almost real-time. Marketers can now run dynamic brand campaigns and book producers can develop tailored content using the insights they have about their customers. We’re working closely with our customers to demonstrate how print can offer added value and open up new growth opportunities.”

A strategic partner

A number of Canon applications are being finished live at Hunkeler Innovationdays with partner solutions including: Horizon for perfect binding; Kern for inserting; GUK and Matthias Bäuerle for automated inserting; Meccanotecnica for thread-sewing and Hunkeler for complete book of one solutions inline with Müller Martini binding equipment.

Many Canon applications have been preprinted on the Océ ColorStream 6000 Chroma, highlighting its broad applications capability, and are being finished live with some of these partner solutions.

As in previous years, Canon has been chosen as the strategic partner to print books for the annual writing contest for Swiss students, hosted by national newspaper Neue Luzerner Zeitung. The best stories from the competition are being printed in the newspaper and also published in a book titled ‘Klub der Jungen Dichter’. Sponsored by Hunkeler and Canon customer Edubook, a major Swiss print service provider, the books are being printed on the Océ ColorStream 6000 Chroma.

Peter Wolff concludes, “At Hunkeler Innovationdays, we’re here to fuel our customers’ vision of how automation can be part of their business success story. Our close collaboration with expert partners such as Hunkeler creates intelligent end-to-end solutions that are critical to improving efficiency and profitability. More importantly, automation is enabling new business models that allow our customers to be more creative and offer exciting new products and services that address changing market dynamics, from a single ‘book of one’ to completely individualised mailers that redefine contemporary direct marketing.”