In the middle of our presentations from Standard Finishing at PRINTING United, we suddenly see Rosemarie Garvey from Blooming Color. Of course, we ask her for a short statement about Horizon; as we know, Blooming Color focuses on HP, Horizon (sold by Standard Finishing), and Ultimate - so listen to her words here.

A few days before Rosemarie Breske Garvey and her team headed to Indianapolis to be part of DSCOOP, we visited Blooming Color in a sub-urban in Chicago - and it's super great to see Rosemarie Breske Garvey again. The last time we met was at DSCOOP Rockies in Denver, and now, I guess you understand that we are visiting a very dedicated businesswoman working with HP. A few days before our visit, the LAST offset press was removed from the site - and the digital transformation is complete. We are visiting Blooming Color because they use Ultimate Tech Impostrip and Bindery in the company, and with an increasing number of orders of one, the Ultimate Tech software has become a cornerstone in the company. Enjoy the film, and GREAT visiting this super smart company. Long live Commercial Print.

Great to talk to the newly appointed sales director for Komfi, shedding some light on their newly built business strategy that will emphasize more the worldwide rollout of their product portfolio through direct representation and also new partnerships. We learn that they see a bright future and growth for print embellishment, for which they offer a great array of solutions. Exciting to hear that this Chech company is establishing itself even more as one of the go-to brands for digital and traditional printed products. It's exciting go-to

In this film, Rolf Scmidtke from Kurz discusses sustainability and how the entire life-cycle solution is developed. For now, in the northern part of Europe, later - enjoy!  

Though HP didn't bring an Advantage T2200 to Indianapolis, you could still learn a lot - on the product site, they released a plus pack that enables the press to run colors at 800 feet per minute, the same speed as monochrome - so with that said we got an opportunity to learn more about the print heads that are rather unique to HP. But rather than having me explain these, here is Rolando Martinez - enjoy!

RolandDG is one of the leading companies in the printing industry for large format, contour cutting, and machines that extend the boundaries of what's possible. See for yourself at www.argosinspirationdays.com in Brussels

Roland DG has always been considered a work-horse and in the upper segment of their segment and at Argos Inspiration Days we got the chance to talk to Business Development Manager Jeroen Kooij from Roland DG Benelux. In this short film, you can the amazing products and what opportunities i.e. the VersaUV offer printing companies and their customers.

Think about it. A family-owned ink manufacturer more than 250 years old and still on the top of the development curve. In this interview with Roland Schröder from Huber Group, we get some interesting background about the Munich-based Huber Group, and not only do we see and learn about the company, but also why UV inks are increasingly interesting, as the LED-technology becomes more and more capable. Roland Schröder shows a magazine printed on a web-offset press where the gas heating has been replaced with LED-UV. Super great result, and shown as it explains why the higher price on UV inks isn't a problem if you look at the entire production process - but don't take my word for it, listen to Roland Schröder - Super cool guy :-)

Business goes well in Switzerland, according to CEO Roland Eicher. With his company placed in beautiful Lucern, he has changed his business from a purely offset printing company to an almost entirely digital printing company today. Besides print and binding for his customers, Eicher Druck also operates as a binding partner for several other Swiss companies. Roland Eicher is at The Finishing First event to learn and invest in new technology - and the deal has been signed - a new Horizon Stitchliner MK III is on its way to Switzerland!

Nouvelle stratégie commerciale chez Roland DG où ils ciblent plus qu'avant le marché d'entrée de gamme. Lorsque ces débutants et adoptants grandissent et doivent adapter leurs machines et vitesses de production actuelles, Roland a tout ce dont ils ont besoin pour soutenir leur croissance. —— New commercial strategy at Roland DG where they are targeting the entry-level market more than before. When these beginners and adopters grow larger and need to adapt their current production machines and speeds, Roland has everything they would need to support their growth.

Roger Popovec talks about US converter DRG Technologies' experience integrating CERM's workflow software into its production of labels, tags, and flexible packaging across multiple sites and the productivity and efficiency gains brought to the company.

At IGAS, we saw more robots than ever before at any tradeshow. Henrik Christiansen from Cool Graphics is a well-known robot/cobot specialist in the printing industry. In this film, he walks us through several different types of robots and explains when it's called a cobot and when it's called a robot. What is the difference between an AMR and an AGV, and why two arms instead of one? We also get a view of the different types of grippers, so in short, a guided tour of the different types of robots and how they are utilized in our industry. GREAT - so watch it :-)

German language with English/German subtitles Richard Müller is the production manager of one of Europe's largest online printing companies, Saxoprint. We were invited by Horizon to see how robots are used along with Horizon's BQ series of binding machines, and the result is a solution that requires a minimum of operator intervention. Amazing to see, but in this film, we try to cover the full story of how automation has become increasingly important in digital and analog production. We also published an article on INKISH.NEWS about SAXOPRINT (In English) - you can read it here: https://inkish.news/article/MTMyOQ== -- add on --- our friends from Printmedianieuws found inspiration in the article above and the film published on INKISH.TV, and wrote this follow-up article in Dutch - you can read it here, requires a premium subscription!

Wayne has an interesting chat with Robin Asmuss from Mercedes Benz. Robin is responsible for the selection of internal paint for Mercedes and explains why UV curing so so important to them.

Large format press manufacturer swissQprint are demonstrating a wide range of large format applications using UV curing. Roberto talks about how business is growing in this market and the wide range of solutions his company can offer.

At the Seiko Open Week 2022, you get the opportunity to get kind of behind the scene. How do ink- and substrate manufacturers test their products? Even printhead manufacturers need test equipment, and that is exactly what Roberto Campos from People&Technology show in this interview. The company has two main products - one is the above-mentioned ink testers. The second product line is machines made to clean printheads when they start making stripes or have other artifacts. Interesting to see how this works, and a world, that many most likely don't know! Enjoy!

Robert Olsson from DS Smith has one of the most exciting job titles in our mind - Print Performance Development Manager. In this interview, we get a chance to understand how changes in the market influence demand and production and how DS-Smith manages this. DS Smith is a customer with BHS and uses the opportunity of the BHS Open House to learn more :-)

Robert provides insight into how sales teams must be brought into the loop when it comes to introducing new technologies to the shop. Explains the value of digital label printing while still offering flexo solutions. Educating sales so they can educate the client is crucial to success.

It must be super exciting for Rob McCann, as he is moving from the US to Switzerland with his family to start a new position with BOBST—namely, the Tooling Director. In this interview, Rob McCann talks about how IoT is not just nice to have but a must to have. We, of course, also ask about how he will be bridging services, tools, new machines, etc., together as the entire ecosystem seems to be more and more integrated. Super interesting interview!

Robert Lugg works for the company GIS. GIS is deeply involved in digital inkjet development and delivers hardware and software. As laymen, we often talk about Inkjet as a single and straightforward technology, but it really consists of various elements from the controller, to the driers, to ink, to the ink supply system, to the printhead, and probably many more things. GIS delivers software and ink-supply systems to Inkjet partners, and at PRINTING United, the software that turned the IST Intech lamps on/off, as you could see in the episode with Holly Steedman (IST Intech), was developed by GIS. Listen to Robert Lugg here, and learn :-)

I must admit that I have given up counting how many 'Over the Skype' interviews I have done since the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world - BUT - I love each and every interview I have done. In this 'Over the Skype,' I am talking to Robert Godwin - an American who now lives in Chile. I was curious about one of his businesses, Rent-a-press.com, but I believe it was almost the only thing we didn't talk about in this 48 minutes long conversation. Robert Godwin has such great storytelling skills and knowledge that I am sure you will love every second.

In the morning when I first start, I work with two monitors. And I don't want to stare at the monitor all day. So I've set it up with a window background, which no one recommends. But it gives me a chance to take a look at the view. You know the activity as the morning rises - because I start very early. Look at all the emails, different newsletters, especially INKISH. No kidding. And that's what I do. That is how I start my day. The pandemic has allowed me to take deeper contact with a lot of people. Because they have more time to spend in communication on the computer than they would have ever had before. Absent a formal webinar circumstance where people are generally stiffer. There's a lot more interaction of conversational type of communication that takes place. You learn more about the person when you do that. So that's one benefit of the pandemic. I hope the communication doesn't go away. Books are extremely important. This is merely a small amount of the books that I have. It's well over two thousand. And that's been shaved down when I moved down to Chile. A lot of them are reference books that I have. That I use on a constant basis. I'll think of something and I want to verify it. But I like the books. And if you can read any of the titles that are in the background. There's a lot of art books. I think that books have an interactivity that is important. So I think printing industry and its relationship to books is really important. I have a wall that I look at. Prominent on the wall is a portrait of Pablo Picasso and Henry Moores. These are important to me as inspiration. As people who, with their own path, spoke their own minds and did creative things. I think of myself in business as being a creative person. In the upper left hand corner there's a sketch of my mother when she was young. And a sketch of my father when he was old. He loved sailing and he is there working on the chart. And he would always dress up whatever character he was playing. As a photographer, as a sailor, as a businessman. And I don't have his fashion skills. But I appreciate the photos that he's created. And I love that portrait of him.

Amazing to see how Inkjet keeps evolving. Robert Ellis is the President, owner, and founder - and, we bet, also very involved in developing unique Inkjet solutions. At PRINTING United, we saw one of his machines with a small footprint delivered high-speed inkjet in a duplex, but even more important, with just one print-head configuration enabling the machine to turn and print the paper inside a tiny space. Solid hardware, own developed software, and a vast range of options for customers to choose technologies for the type of applications required.

Rob Mayerson, on a quest to conquer more of Europe’s fine Label and Packaging PSPs. We learn about Label Traxx an MIS designed specifically for the Labels and Flexible Packaging sectors. Label Traxx and Batched also demonstrate their automated planning and scheduling extension. This powerful tool features a blend of artificial intelligence and machine learning with human engagement. Siteline, Label Traxx’s Customer Engagement Module, offers new features to further simplify the product management and reordering processes. It now includes a simple yet advanced artwork approvals process to help get jobs on press faster.