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Actually there is no centre-stage at drupa for packaging. The 17 halls are spread out and although the organizers presented packaging award exhibitions and high level discussions on the concepts and future considerations for the packaging industry, the subject is too large to be contained just in the centre of the stage. Packaging has always been an integral part of drupa – especially since it has been the key platform for multicolor offset presses and monocarton converting. drupa has also had exhibitors such as W&H and Comexi, Uteco and Bobst and many others including the electronic gravure and flexo prepress suppliers for the longest time.

Fujifilm exhibited reference models of a pigment ink for water-based inkjet, to be used in flexible packaging, at drupa 2016. Fujifilm also showed its webfed inkjet press running at its drupa stand but that press was based on the use of LED UV inks. Not many in the industry are aware that Fujifilm is in fact one of the largest ink ingredient, inks and chemical suppliers to the global print industry because many of its products are sold through other original equipment manufacturers or OEMs.

The first few days at drupa have been busy and well attended. Total occupied exhibition space has been reduced, to the delight of the software and paper vendors who finally got rid of the unpopular upper floors in Hall 7. The number of exhibitors remained relatively stable with 1,837, and we wouldn’t be surprised if visitor numbers will turn out to be on the rise. The industry’s multinational players appear to be upbeat, and there are many new developments to be discovered in all printing segments. From Asia, several new exhibitors are showcasing CtP systems, diecutters, cutting and milling plotters, curing systems and consumables.

There has been a great deal of capacity building in the South Asian packaging industry since the last drupa. The last four years have seen an influx of high speed gravure presses built both in Europe and in Asia. India itself has five quality manufacturers of gravure presses. Wide web flexo has also taken off, finally in India with the influx of presses increasing from two a year to something like a 10 to 12 new CI flexo presses from the likes of W&H, Bobst F&K, Soma and CMYK just in India. Flexible packaging continues to grow in double digits throughout the subcontinent with half a dozen new film manufacturing lines scheduled for installation in the next two years in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. As we had written earlier, major investors include Jindal Polymers and Cosmos as well as a new entrant to film manufacturing in Bangladesh.

Dusseldorf  31 May 2016 – On the first day of the exhibition, it seems that the halls are busy. I think it would be hasty to say too much about what is happening without a better and deeper look at what the exhibitors are actually showing but it is clear that apart from the obsessive interest in inkjet presses that are not ready to buy or to ship, a predominant trend is packaging. Even at the press go-round of the Heidelberg stand yesterday, while on the one hand there was a lot of talk about the B1 Primefire 106 inkjet which was demonstrated with the help of three robots, a more practical and ready to buy product was the Polar laser diecutter in line to a robot that picks up the diecut pieces and stacks them.

Noida-based Nutech Packagings has become India’s first company to sign a deal with Monotech Systems for the Scodix E106, which was launched at drupa 2016. The new digital press, which will be shipped in Q2 2017, will be installed at Nutech Packagings’ 1,200,000 square-foot green plant in Greater Noida. However, Nutech will be allowed to use a Scodix Ultra at its plant till the E106 arrives. Nutech has asked for some customization of the Scodix E106 to fit its needs.