Build the Printer You Need · Charles Tonna · Buskro
What if an inkjet printer worked a little more like Lego?
At LOUPE Americas in Chicago, Wayne Beckett meets Charles from Buskro to look at Argo — a new modular printing platform designed around a very different idea.
Instead of building separate printers for every width, orientation, and application, Buskro has developed a system of individual Argo nodes that can be combined and reconfigured as production requires.
Need 4.25 inches of full-color printing?
Configure it that way.
Need 8 inches of monochrome instead?
Separate the modules and rearrange them.
Want to print on the top and side of a box simultaneously?
Reconfigure the same technology again.
A controller can manage up to eight printheads, and multiple controllers can be chained together, enabling significantly larger and more complex configurations.
The platform is powered by HP thermal inkjet technology, but much of what makes Argo different comes from Buskro itself. The company develops its electronics, software, mechanical design, metalwork, and manufacturing in-house — giving it the ability to design the complete architecture around modularity.
And that also changes the economics.
Instead of manufacturing dozens of different enclosures, electronics packages, and configurations, Buskro can use common components across multiple applications. For customers, the same principle means an investment can potentially be adapted when requirements change rather than replaced.
Argo also represents an interesting evolution for Buskro.
The Canadian company built much of its history around high-speed mailing and variable-data printing, where systems need to read, print, and verify information at very high speeds.
Now that experience is being taken into packaging and end-of-line production.
Argo can print at speeds of up to 3 meters per second, achieve greater throw distances than traditional systems, and be configured for different print orientations. Combined with Buskro’s RFID read, write, and verification technology, the company sees opportunities to build increasingly modular production and fulfillment environments.
In this INKISH film, Wayne talks with Charles about Argo, HP inkjet technology, modularity, RFID, packaging, high-speed variable data, and why Buskro is moving away from telling customers exactly what a printing system should look like.
Their new philosophy is considerably simpler:
Your printer. Your way.
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Thu September 17th
Turning Production Data into Decisions · Ki...
Printers today have access to enormous amounts of production data. The challenge is knowing what to do with it. At Loupe Americas in Chicago, Wayne Beckett catches up with Kieran Palmer from HP Professional Services to talk about PrintOS, workflow integration, automation, APIs — and HP Nio. HP PrintOS can collect information directly from the press about jobs, productivity, waste, OEE, and overall equipment performance. But Kieran's team works beyond the HP ecosystem as well, connecting PrintOS with MIS, web-to-print, reporting platforms, and other third-party systems already being used by customers. Because data becomes much more valuable when it moves. Through PrintOS and Print Beat APIs, production information can be fed directly into MIS and reporting environments, giving companies a broader understanding of what is happening across production. Then comes Nio. Rather than requiring an operator or production manager to search through dashboards and reports, Nio introduces a more conversational way of working with production information. Ask how productive the press has been today. Ask how well it is performing. Ask where improvements could potentially be made. The objective is to make the data easier to understand and easier to act upon. And that is important because many print companies aren't short of information — they are short of time and people who know how to turn that information into meaningful action. That is also where HP Professional Services comes into the picture. Kieran and his team help customers understand what is possible, connect the systems, and turn individual technologies into an actual production workflow. Automation is becoming increasingly important as labor costs rise, skilled people become harder to find, and businesses look for ways to reduce operating costs. But for Kieran, automation isn't necessarily about removing people. It is about removing repetitive work, improving the jobs people already perform, and allowing those employees to contribute where they create more value. In this INKISH film, Wayne talks with Kieran Palmer about HP PrintOS, Nio, Site Flow, APIs, MIS integration, OEE, automation, and why the value of production data isn't really in collecting it. It's in turning it into better decisions.