Australian book printing companies will benefit from agreement on the introduction of the Book Industry Speed to Market initiative, according to Printing Industries.

Eighteen months after the installation of its second HP Scitex FB7500, Melbourne-based Magnify Media has signed for a third machine at drupa. This brings the total number of HP commercial and industrial machines operated by the company to 12.

Colour management software developer GMG is taking its core expertise into the cloud, launching multi-channel proofing for packagers and launching a new workflow for wide format printers.

The world’s biggest foiling company had a raft of new developments at drupa, including metallic effects for digital printing, visual enhancements of barcodes, anti-counterfeiting solutions and cold foils for UV offset.

Bobst launched a series of new automated solutions at drupa, which the company says will ensure it remains as the benchmark in packaging finishing.

The world’s first digital cut and crease system is being launched at the show by Highcon, another start-up Israeli company.

Breaking news from drupa sees Kodak and Ryobi signing a global statement of cooperation to provide a fully-integrated hybrid sheet fed press combining offset and digital technologies in one system.

At drupa, Gallus demonstrated its modular Gallus ICS 670 inline machine system, which it ran in conjunction with other solutions from its portfolio for gravure printing, converting and packaging technology.

PrintNZ has once again partnered with BJ Ball Papers to show their support for breast cancer awareness with a pink ribbon breakfast for printing industry members next week in Auckland.

Taking the spotlight in the Xerox drupa booth was the new 150 sheets a minute iGen4 150, with the company also focusing on finishing solutions across the stand.

Konica Minolta New Zealand has hailed a new champion in its bizhub Press C7000, after the production printer won Buyers Laboratory's BLI Pro Award for the first time.

Plockmatic is well known for supplying the finishing solutions to a host of digital printers including those from Fuji Xeror, Ricoh, Sharp and Oce, but at drupa the company took the opportunity to show its range of off line finishing and mailing systems, including the new ACF510 collator.

Printing companies wanting to test the robustness of their businesses operations can do so through a comprehensive Enterprise Connect Business Review, according to Printing Industries.

Epson has unveiled six new wide-format and label printers, as well as the company's first UV ink suitable for uncoated paper and film label substrates, and a new print-head.

Centre stage on the Atlas Titan stand at drupa was the new dual turret SR9-DT slitter rewinder, which comes in a three module configuration of unwinder, slitter and rewinder, with Amcor in Melbourne taking the first in the world.

Rayne Simpson, bindery manager at Ferrostaal claims the proper title for this year’s show should be the finishing drupa, saying that printers are fully recognising the business opportunities that the new generation of finishing solutions is providing.

Andy Molnar, managing director of Ideal Solutions spent much of drupa on the Kodak stand promoting the new Flexcel NX flexo platemaker, which he describes as a game changer.

At drupa, Komori presented a number of fresh innovations for the printer’s to increase and broaden their output, including its new Lithrone GX40 carton press which comes with H-UV, designed for printing on heavy stock.

Swiss finishing giant Muller Martini launched a host of new finishing and printing solutions aimed at ensuring printers are able to meet the requirements of the future, and it also launched an upgrade programme for existing equipment.

Raj Chandiok from Lanier emphasised the company’s solutions approach at drupa, pointing out the inline finishing on the engines it supplies and the future oriented direction of the company.