Wide-Format UV-Cured Inkjet Printers at Guangzhou China ... · wide-format inkjet printers. The...

Wide-Format UV Curable Inkjet Printers at

Guangzhou 2010 1

at GuangzhouChina Sign (Spring) Expo 2010

Nicholas Hellmuth April 2010

Wide-Format UV-Cured Inkjet Printers

Trends in Wide-Format Inkjet Printers at

Guangzhou 2010

Contents

Sign China 2010, Guangzhou 1

Agfa 2

Wide-Format UV Printers at Guangzhou Trade Show 2

Formosa Fieldcenter 3

Flora (RTZ) 5

HP 5

Yishan 7

Zhongye 9

Solvent printer companies 13

Water-based Printers 17

Ink companies 18

Media, Substrate and Coating chemical companies 20

Venue: the city 21

Venue: the expo complex 22

Sponsoring organizations 23

China provides a Welcome mat for International Visitors 23

Sign China Expo in 2011? Still worth Attending? 24

Appendix A: Photo Essay of the Enormous Guangzhou Trade Show Complex 25

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Copyright 2010

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1

The largest Signage Printer Trade Show in the beginning of the year

GuangzhouChina Sign (Spring) Expo 2010

Whereas the Dubai sign & graph-ics expo is the first international

printer trade show on the world scene, the Guangzhou show is the first really large event of the year. Graphics of the Americas in Florida is small and relatively regional in comparison, albeit is a week before Guangshou. Unfortunately the Guang-zhou 2010 show split into two competing events, as we describe below.

Just before APPPEXPO Shanghai 2009, Infiniti tried to stage a boycott to get booth space prices lowered. But I did not hear specifically about a plan to move to a rival building elsewhere. The Infiniti boycott failed and they were the only major Chinese printer manufacturer who was conspicuous by their absence from APPPEXPO Shanghai that year.

Then this year (or probably during late 2009), a large group of Chinese printer manufacturers decided to boycott Sign China in Guangzhou. Impressively they got 90% of the printer manufacturers to defect from Guangzhou and set up in the rival expo center in Dongguan.

Frankly the convention center in Dong-guan is great; the hotel across the street has all the comfort and tasty food I could ever want, and it is only 1 hour drive from the Guangzhou airport. I was fully content at the Dongguan show. But the Guang-zhou show, even after the major printer manufacturers abandoned it, was still worth visiting, at least for one or two days.

What I especially liked about the Dong-guan expo is that you did not have to search through four or more halls filled with signage lighting equipment (Neon

and LED) and plastic lettering equipment or digital signage monitors just to find wide-format inkjet printers. The Dong-guan show had 90% pure wide-format inkjet printers (and about three ink companies and a few media companies). Everything was conveniently concentrat-ed in a single hall.

What was unfortunate is that few in-ternational visitors were aware that the printer manufacturers had all moved from Guangzhou to Dongguan. Many that were informed said they had read about it first on the FLAAR web site, otherwise they said they would not have known.

But here are some comments from my visit to the Guangzhou exposition.

Sign China 2010, GuangzhouThe Guangzhou event was March 2 to 5th; the Dongguan event was March 2 to 6th.

The Guangzhou organizers provided a huge map, fully in English. I have never seen this kind of directory for any other Chinese trade show. The map showed each hall and had a clear and easy to follow list of every Chinese exhibitor, in English.

At APPPEXPO in Shanghai the exhibit directory is on the wall; same with Dong-guan (I don’t remember a printed direc-tory; perhaps it exhibited but maybe I simply did not notice it). It is the tradition in China to put the directory on the walls, and often only in Chinese. The other issue is that since company names are tradition-ally preceded by the city where they are located, unless you know the city in which

your company-of-interest is located, you can never find it in a long list.

A few printer manufacturers (such as Flora) had an exhibit in both locations, but Yishan was about the only manufacturer that did not set up in Dongguan. Hi-Jet Digital is the same as Rodin and other brands, so they were in both locations (but under a different name in each). I was not able to find Hi-Jet digital at Guang-zhou; perhaps another company occupied their abandoned booth space. Since their partner Rodin was at Dongguan, I did not waste much time looking for whether they were also at Guangzhou.

Kincolor was in both, as was Zhongye and I believe Yinghe. Fieldcenter is a Taiwan company so would not be likely to follow Mainland Chinese printer manufacturer’s association boycott. Agfa, Oce , HP, Mutoh, and Roland were only in Guangzhou. None of these is a Chinese company.Companies that were listed in the Guang-zhou exhibitor list the day before the show started were:

• Hi-Jet Digital, Hall 9.1 ( did not find them however; only in Dong-guan under Rodin name)• Kincolor, Hall 9.1• Yishan, Hall 9.1• Zhongye, Hall 9.1 (in both shows)• Beijing ChinaSigns, Hall 11.1• Fieldcenter, Hall 11.1• Oce, Hall 11.1• Yinghe, Hall 11.1

Flora also had a booth at both events, as did Inkwin ink company. For Flora their largest booth was at Dongguan. For Ink-win their larger and busiest booth was in Guangzhou.

2

Wide-Format UV Printers at Guangzhou Trade ShowAgfa

Agfa exhibited their Korean made :Anapurna M 4F.

This :Anapurna M4F is a basic combo printer that comes with four printheads (CMYK). There are at least other 3 versions of the M series, although the main difference between each one is the quantity of inks offered.


Guangzhou 2010 3

Formosa FieldcenterFormosa Fieldcenter had their combo UV printer on display. DPC (Digital Photonics Corp) manufactures this COJET-1422 printer. But their parent corporate group (Anderson Group) has never appeared at any European or US trade show that I am familiar with. Since this company is a woodworking and flatbed CNC router company, perhaps they do not exhibit at signage expos but do exhibit at other kinds of trade shows not focused on wide-format inkjet printers.

This same Taiwan UV printer is now being distributed by Lukio in Japan. Lukio is considering distributing it in other countries.

This printer is comparable in size to the entry level GCC combo printer and to the entry-level of the Dilli and Agfa-branded :Anapurna M series. The EFI Rastek H650 is a model that seeks to be comparable (entry-level but with transport belt) but even lower cost. It would be interesting to compare Taiwan quality (GCC and DPC / Formosa) with Korean quality (Dilli and Agfa) with Chinese quality (several printers coming out later this year) with Chinese quality from US partners (EFI Rastek H650).

The model exhibited by Fieldcenter Formosa is a combo printer very similar to the Agfa :Anapurna model.


Guangzhou 2010 4

Formosa booth. In most cases, accessories like front and rear tables are easily detachable in entry-level printers.

Chinese trade shows in some ways are better providing English language services than Japanese trade shows such as Japan Shop in Tokyo, where in most booths there was absolutely no one who spoke a word of any language other than Japanese.


Guangzhou 2010 5

Flora (RTZ)Flora had a booth both at Guangzhou as well as at Dongguan. At Guangzhou they exhibited one dedicated flatbed UV-cured printer. Most of the top managers tended to be at the Dongguan show, though a lot of managers went back and forth.

The UV flatbed exhibited by Flora is a wider version than the model exhibited at APPPEXPO last year. In the United States, CET rebrands some of the models manufactured by Flora.

HPHP still had a left-over NUR Expedio Revolution on exhibit. But their booth colors were more lively than the dull dark HP booth colors in their Dubai booth.

HP usually exhibits several models in every trade show. The company has a wide variety of inkjet printers for

different purposes, from industrial UV-cured printers to small water-based printers for fine-art photography.


Guangzhou 2010 6

Under HP, this NUR model is now known as the HP Scitex XP5300 printer. The NUR models are one of the oldest in the market, although they are not sold anymore other than by Hewlett Packard.


Guangzhou 2010 7

YishanYishan was the only Chinese printer manufacturer to be conspicuously absent from the Dongguan expo. Several people discretely indicated that ei-ther Yishan was not a member of the manufac-turers association or otherwise was on its own.

Yishan exhibited two dedicated flatbed printers.

A major Turkish distributor featured Yishan print-ers about four years ago, but could not really get their Yishan UV printer to function adequately.

CET tried to sell a Yishan flatbed printer at SGIA 2009 but quickly abandoned it and switched to Flora (RTZ). The owner of CET said that Yishan would not make the improvements that were needed to make this printer usable in a North American class of printshop.

A Chinese company in Florida tried to sell re-branded Yishan solvent printers for two or three years via Graphics of the Americas trade show. He never exhibited the Yishan UV printer and finally dropped even their solvent printers.

I have not seen any major European or North American distributor pick up the Yishan brand.

Yishan YS2407 GN flatbed printer. The Yishan YS907 GP is a smaller UV flatbed printer.

Yishan booth.


Guangzhou 2010 8

Chinese companies that are recognized interna-tionally meet the standards of reliable manufac-turing processes that should translate into good print quality. In China people in the wide-format inkjet printer industry handle the concepts of printers with components for domestic and the same printer model number but with components acceptable for international markets. The price, and quality, are dramatically different for the two versions. Unfortunately the domestic version is often put into the international marketplace with the result being a typical breakdown pattern and wearing out of weak components during the first months and continuously thereafter. The authentic international versions, if they escape using counterfeit parts, tend to last longer before initial breakdown.

Printhead carriage of the Yishan YS2407 GN flatbed printer. Printhead carriage of the Yishan YS907 GP printer.


Guangzhou 2010 9

ZhongyeZhongye had a booth both in Guangzhou and Dongguan. In Dongguan they had two UV flatbeds. Here in Guangzhou they had one of the same flatbeds that was in Dongguan plus a wide combo with a really old-fashioned Chinese style housing (sort of style of 2003).

Zhongye ZY-UV2814B dedicated flatbed printer. There are three widths of this model and they handle media up to 10cm. (4”).


Guangzhou 2010 10

Apparently the ZY-UV2814B exhibited in Guangzhou uses LED lamps. Otherwise it would have been too hot for the operator to stick his hand under the lamp.


Guangzhou 2010 11

As far as UV printers is concerned, Zhongye seems to be focusing in flatbed structures. Here, the smaller ZY-UVC model. Since none of the printers are labeled, it is hard to know whether this is a UV1306C or a UV0906C.


Guangzhou 2010 12

Sets of UV lamps of both Zhongye UV models. One of the crucial aspects for companies that wish to be accepted in the USA and Europe is

proper UV light protection. UV lamps emit heat and the light can seriously damage the opera-

tor’s eyes. This is one of the main disadvan-tage of UV printers—and often not adequately

addressed in the design stage—compared to a solvent printer. Since the price of a UV

printer is already a downside compared with a solvent machine, these health aspects should be more carefully observed by manufacturers.

Both printers use Seiko SPT255 printheads. This brand is more

common in solvent printers. UV printers tend to use either XAAR,

Konica Minolta or Spectra. The only other UV printers we know about that use Seiko heads are

the VUTEk machines.


Guangzhou 2010 13

Solvent printer companiesSince I had only a few hours at Guangzhou, and as I had a major client with me, I did not have an opportunity to list every solvent printer or even manufacturer’s booth. So I show just what I happened to photograph.

Micolor had basic wide-format printers on display. Looked sort of like local versions of a Mimaki or Mutoh ValueJet or basic Roland.

Micolor solvent printers. These printers seem to be based on Roland models, although it is unlikely that these are retrofitted Roland printers.


Guangzhou 2010 14

HP exhibited their latex ink: more latex ink than anything else, but they did also display an elderly NUR Expedio Revolution, from the days before HP bought NUR.

HP Designjet L25500 latex printer. After the launch of the HP Scitex L6000 in 2008, the company has used smaller chassis to feature new models.


Guangzhou 2010 15

I was told elsewhere that last year Mimaki took over most of Mutoh’s share of eco-solvent ink sales. Mutoh had a large exhibit of Value-Jet printers.

Although Mutoh printers were exhibited in the booth of Supercad, the Mutoh logo was even more prominently displayed than the distributor’s itself.

Mimaki was present through Flyingup Technology (above).


Guangzhou 2010 16

Roland exhibited their VS-640 and ex-tolled their metallic ink, but their booth was not as fully metallicized as was their booth at Japan Shop in Tokyo a few weeks later.

Roland exhibited mainly their entry-level eco-solvent models. The Versa LEC-300 printer was absent.


Guangzhou 2010 17

Water-based PrintersEpson had a booth of respectable size.

DGI exhibited the biggest model, the PolaJet 3204DX solvent printer.

A number of print shop owners have commented about the reliability of their DGI machines. FLAAR visited DGI facilities in late 2009 during a series of visits to manufacturers in Korea.


Guangzhou 2010 18

Ink companies

Inkwin had one booth at Guanzhou and one booth at Dongguan. Their booth at Guangzhou was busy, very busy.

Most other Chinese ink companies do not yet have brand recognition in-ternationally. FLAAR does not list or evaluate any after-market ink until we have information about the company from a variety of sources. We discuss Inkwin because I have inspected their factory in northeast China, have been invited to their company headquarters in Shanghai, and because I have vis-ited their booth for the last two years in major international trade shows around the world.

Jetbest was a booth worth visiting. They have a good reputation and in-teresting inks. However I have not yet been to their factory nor their offices in Taiwan.


Guangzhou 2010 19

Samples printed with alcohol-based Jetbest ink.


Guangzhou 2010 20

Media, Substrate and Coating chemical companiesWhere the Guangzhou show was strong is for media, substrates and the companies that make the chemicals to coat materials so they can be printable with eco-solvent, latex, or water-based inks (all of which require inkjet receptor layers as coating).

Several samples printed with one of the Zhongye flatbeds.

Textiles at Union International booth. Plexiglas sample at JetBest booth.


Guangzhou 2010 21

Venue: the cityGuangzhou city is not known to outsiders: typically we have heard of only Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. But actually RTZ (Flora) is only less than 3 hours by train or bus away (to the south). There are substrate manufacturers within two hours, and one UV flatbed printer manufacturer even closer than RTZ.

The one downside of this venue is the lack of hotels within easy walking distance. The trade show complex is so large that just walking from one side of the area to the other end is a significant hike. Indeed you better be prepared for a long walk just to get from the street to inside your hall.

The city is probably more populated than New York! I did not spend the night there since it was easier to have one hotel the entire time in Dongguan. But next year I will spend the first or last night in Guangzhou so I can spend a longer day at their expo. Even with 90% of the Chinese printer manufacturers in Dongguan, as long as you have flown all the way to China you might as well spend a full day at Guangzhou. If next year the Guangzhou show ends one day before the Dongguan show, I would suggest attending the Guangzhou show the first one or two days (and stay in a hotel as close to the expo center as possible). Then take a shuttle bus (or car and driver) and head for Dongguan and stay in some of the convenient hotels there. You should consider staying at the Dongguan show at least two days (I stayed for four days; or five if you count the pre-show last set-up day; as VIP guest I could get entry before the show opened to the public).

Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong, and is located to the north of Dongguan, a thriving city that holds another signage expo show.


Guangzhou 2010 22

Venue: the expo complexThe trade show center makes anywhere in America or Europe look aged or at least a bit passé. In size the only word I can think of is endless. Each building is huge beyond words to describe the size. There are about 16 halls. The wide-format areas were Hall 9.1, 10.1, and 11.1. There were several other signage related expos the same days: LED lighting for example.

As is the trend, the inkjet printing expo was simultaneous with an LED Display, Neon, LCD, and Lightbox exposition. These were in the top floor: Halls 9.2, 10.2, 11.2, and 12.2.

The wide-format inkjet portions, consumables and acrylic sheets sections were in 9.1, 10.1, and 11.1, which was the basement.

Laser engraver and plastic vacuum forming machines were in Hall 13.1. It is essential that they are separated as the odor (and health hazard) of lasers incinerating plastics of unknown chemicals is a significant health hazard. This is an issue at Dubai and APPPEXPO and even VISCOM: laser cutters and CNC routers are mixed in with everything else.


Guangzhou 2010 23

Sponsoring organizationsTrust Exhibition., Ltd is one of the organizers, www.TrustExhibition.com, www.SignChina-GZ.com.

At Dubai, one of the Guangzhou organizers had a booth to advertise their show. (I am not sure if I took photo in Dubai of their booth). The two receptionists definitely knew who FLAAR Reports, remembered my secretary’s application on my behalf, and were very pleased that even with the Dongguan defection that I would still attend Guangzhou. When I arrived at Guangzhou it took only 2 minutes to obtain a badge, which turned out to be a nice VIP status.

I have heard industry people say that in past years this event was poorly organized and not worth visiting. My impression is that in 2010 it was well organized and definitely worth visiting. Everyone was pleasant and polite. China is also a great place to visit in general.

At Dubai there was also a booth to advertise the Beijing show in April. At Dubai there was probably a booth also for APPPEXPO but since I have already attended the Shanghai show for every year, I did not need to stop when I saw their information.

China provides a Welcome mat for International Visitors

International visitors are welcome in China and welcomed in the trade shows. Many booths have some brochures in English. Most booths have at least one person who speaks acceptable English and a few who speak a bit.

The contrast with Japan Shop trade show is noticeable: in Tokyo 99.9% of the booth attendants spoke no English. I did not find a single Japanese company with a single English brochure. Only a few booths had English receptionists. Some major companies, such as Toyo ink, had not one single person who spoke English and not one single manager in the booth: all seemed to be lower level sales reps. None expressed any interest whatsoever in a dialog.

In Chinese booths people interact with you and are interested in your comments.

So perhaps now you see why the Chinese economy is the fastest growing in the world, and the Japanese economy is in retreat.

Two weeks later I was in ArtExpo in the US. In the occasional Chinese booths there were English speakers; in several Japanese booths they spoke only Japanese or only a few words of English. And this was a trade show in New York City, where surely they expect an audi-ence primarily of English speakers. Curious.

Displaying indoor information in English is an important aspect that prompts foreign visitors to attend regularly and feel taken into account. Here is a team from a com-pany that attended both Dongguan and also Guangzhou trade shows together with Dr Hellmuth. FLAAR provides consulting ser-vices at all four Chinese trade shows (and also at FESPA, ISA, SGIA, and VISCOM).

http://www.trustexhibition.com

http://www.SignChina-GZ.com


Guangzhou 2010 24

Sign China Expo in 2011? Still worth Attending?Perhaps there will be a reconciliation between Dongguan and Guangzhou; that is entire up to them. Either they will rejoin or else the Dongguan venue will continue, but this time with more ink and media companies.

Despite the fact that a significant number of Chinese printer manufacturers literally boycotted the Guangzhou venue, it was still a ma-jor international trade show, albeit not for more than one or two days. The Dongguan venue I spent four days there plus one pre-show day.

I would recommend attending Guangzhou still in 2011 (and Dongguan too, if they are still separate).

Dongguan trade show was scheduled to be held in the same dates than Guangzhou event. Dr. Hellmuth was present in both expos, going back and forth between locations.


Guangzhou 2010 25

Appendix APhoto Essay on the Enormous Guangzhou Trade Show Complex

The official name is the China Import and Export Fair Pazhou Complex, Area B, Guangzhou.Here are several views, though unless we could show a 180 degree panorama it is hard to feel the actual scope.

The Guangzhou airport is of comparable dimensions, albeit only about two or three buildings (the trade show has about 16 buildings !). I did not have a camera with a wide enough angle to photograph the enormity of the Guangzhou airport.


Guangzhou 2010 26

Red of course is the national color of traditional and modern China. It is nice to be welcomed in your own language.


Guangzhou 2010 27

Since I did not stay overnight in Guangzhou, I do not yet have experience with their shuttle system. There were shuttles to the rival Dongguan venue, but obviously rather discretely marked since the two events are competitors.

The building complex extends along the river a considerable distance and inland as well. The buildings are in typical Chinese style: gigantic and extravagant.


Guangzhou 2010 28

First Issued April 2010

Here is the normal way that most Chinese trade shows provide their Exhibitor List and floor plan. Thus it was a pleasant surprise that the Guangzhou organizers also provided a hard-copy list and map. Unfortunately they did not remove several of the printer manufacturers who had abandoned Guangzhou and moved to Dongguan. But otherwise the Guangzhou show was professionally organized.


Guangzhou 2010 29

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Guangzhou 2010 30

UV Printers Manufactured in China, Korea and Taiwan

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