Inkjet’s Journey. From Transaction to Collaboration. An interview with Dave Varty, Ricoh Europe.

Dave Varty is a key member of the industrial print business group at Ricoh Europe and has been a part of various digital transformations throughout his career.  In this interview, he provides insight into the marketplace and charts the journey of inkjet past, present and future whilst outlining some of the advantages of working with Ricoh.

How did you get involved with printing?

My first step into the print industry came when I joined DuPont after graduating. I worked in the film department, which at that time included pre-press and Xray. In the print industry, Eddy Shah was just finalising his move to Wapping which saw a significant change in the Newspaper Industry, high-end drum scanners were revolutionising colour separation and new daylight films were rapidly moving planning away from the darkroom. The European market was further ahead than other markets so I was in the middle of the mix during this time. Very soon after I moved to a sales area in the North of England which was a good education for all forms of print: Litho, Screen, labelling, gravure and especially flexo packaging which was very strong in the Hull area. I learned a lot, especially from my customers.

Before the dust had settled we saw how the introduction of the Apple Mac changed everything when it came along around 1990, particularly challenging the need for specialist ‘repro’ houses. Typesetting was moving from the dark art of coding to WYSIWYG and then of course came Postscript. Then the computer to plate (CTP)revolution took place too. Within a cycle of 10 years, something new always seemed to change the print sector. 

Of course, right now there is the disruption caused by the Internet. A huge disruptor in the Commercial markets servicing Marketing materials and publications. But in Industrial people still, want the product printed. Not everything is becoming ‘virtual’ thankfully! The process may be digital, but not the end product; it is still a physical 3D product. You cannot have a virtual carpet or tile your bathroom with virtual tiles!

How did you get involved with inkjet?

At the time Dupont and Agfa who I subsequently transferred to saw the growth of inkjet in certain markets, especially screen print, and realised that their competence and manufacturing technologies could be adapted to the demand for high-end coatings rather than just the chalk receptive substrates to that date. Hand in hand with the growth of CTP was a demand for high-quality proofing, now in the hands of the printers and Agfa quickly rose to take the mantle as number one in this market. With this experience over time, I have an understanding now of what is required for an analogue industry to integrate digital. I found I enjoyed working in this sales role, building businesses and living in the world of ambiguity. At this point, I became a Product Manager for Film, Proofing and Wide Format at Agfa eventually becoming global sales manager for wide format. This was a major seed for the development of collaboration.

In 2006, Agfa had a strategic change; I then went to the EFI Fiery EMEA business at the time that most major traditionally perceived ‘copier’ Companies were developing new systems to challenge Commercial Print. After a time seeing the world from the ‘bottom-up’ in the industry I gained further experience with developing new markets for industrial printing at Xennia before a superb opportunity came up to join the growing industrial print business at Ricoh and I have been here ever since. 

Overall, my work experience has given me a lot of understanding of the value of digital technology in printing with its unique characteristics that add value – in particular for short-run, on-demand, reduced stock, supply chain disruption, and no pattern repeats etc. The main point is that I have learned a lot during this time and have knowledge of the dynamics of the shift from analogue to digital across industries and this is really helpful in my role at Ricoh now.

In your view, why has inkjet faced a big challenge to be accepted into new manufacturing segments?

I was part of the analogue sector for some time and had been involved in early inkjet since 1996, so I’ve seen at first hand some of the stages and trends. I think that the difference now is that historically, machines have been developed in isolation from the existing production line in order to replace standalone analogue applications servicing consumer or B2B markets. The machine would not be used in an existing production line, but rather a separate process. Our vision is for inkjet to be used in the line. This is taking some time because the drive is to make inkjet printing part of the entire industrial production process.  This is where the print is not the end product but rather a part of a larger production process. This is how we define industrial printing, where print is not the final product, but rather part of the process.

Why is it such a challenge to introduce inkjet into manufacturing?

Traditionally, printer manufacturers have made their machines to work offline and have therefore not had to connect with the complexity of a manufacturing production line. To do so means a large technical jump to create machines that work in a more challenging environment and which are integrated into a more complicated production line.

Allied to the technical challenge, one of the key reasons why people haven’t adopted inkjet quickly enough is the risk involved. As a result, our biggest competitor, we think, is not another company, but rather people deciding to do nothing at all because the economic and emotional risk is too high.

What we have tried to do with our Industrial business is to move the discussion upstream.  So, the point is that for customers, you no longer need to ‘DIY’, as we (Ricoh) can do it for you. We can produce and box a technical solution for you. We build a module and put this into an analogue system and add digital performance that customers will like.

As a business, we are trying to get close to the specific need of inline processes as this speeds up the ability for the customer to be able to adopt inkjet. 5 years ago, at the first InPrint, many exhibitors were showing a specific component that might fit into an industrial model. We all showed and sold. It was transactional. Things have moved on significantly since then. We are now more consultative and collaborative and we now sell complete solutions, and this is helping the market develop at a more productive rate. 

Ricoh is famous for inkjet head production, you now offer more than this?

Yes, Ricoh’s Industrial Print Business has evolved a lot since then. Ricoh has always had the precision engineering and manufacturing capability and now we can provide inkjet machines, products and partnerships that work well in an analogue manufacturing operation from heads, Inks to software and machinery and experienced project management and integration.

What has changed more recently of note that may be making a difference for inkjet?

The Industrial markets we address now are looking for solutions in their production to do things they have now been able to do before or to be efficient in their product offerings. It is not about back office but their actual product production.

Water-based ink is increasing in its appeal with flooring, and for binding over laminates. The ceramics industry also want to move to water-based inks as legislation becomes a driver this way as oil bases inks are damaging the kilns. Added to this, a couple of European countries have implemented legislation regulating emissions. Legislation is a huge driver to change in the Industrial markets.

One industry that hasn’t yet adopted inkjet is flexible packaging, partly because the substrate is so difficult and the run lengths are often long, but the requirement for POD, flexible data and high-value marketing campaigns is becoming a disruptor. The flexible packaging trend is conservative, seeking instead to move towards hybrid digital on analogue presses, but it is not moving completely because this has high demands within the packaging sector demanding food-grade inks. In the labelling sector, some companies such as Dantex are having success with the introduction of new narrow web digital presses and this market will start to see a digital dominance in the near future.

My experience is that once you have a convergence of fluid, printhead and OEM equipment any industry will take a big step forward and this is one to watch, along with Corrugated packaging. As a result, we are also developing vegetable oil inks for inkjet that would certainly be of interest to these companies. This is a work in progress.

In your view is manufacturing changing in line with Industry 4.0?

It is, but there are very few, if any, examples of inkjet playing a role in a true Industry 4.0 model - but of course eventually, it will do. All manufacturers in various industries are looking to change their processes and make themselves more efficient, responsive and agile. And inkjet can help here. BlockChain will also drag all processes into their manufacturing supply chain and ledgers but not as ‘print’ but part of their process development.

One thing that binds them all together is they are trying to do something with digital on an R&D level which has nothing to do with printing per se, but the print is part of it. Effectively, they are saying they need to improve their processes and printing becomes one of the viable technical solutions. Conversely, I sometimes say to customers there is no point in applying inkjet just for the sake of it, why introduce complexity unnecessarily? As there may be a different way to achieve the result.

Within the pharma market, we have seen that products taken for granted in the print market can deliver efficiencies and compliance. We have introduced some graphics software to help improve global consistency, colour, versioning and very secure handling of packaging. Remote printing, innovations in blister packs and even Binderjet AM systems may ultimately lead to designer drugs at the pharma level. It is no longer what is convenient but what is achievable. We have many major clients looking actively at how to implement Inkjet in their production process and achieving great successes. Large corporations are taking inkjet seriously as part of their process innovation. 

What has changed since 2014?

What has happened since the last Drupa is that individual components have come together into an end-to-end solution. The heads have improved but so too have the inks and the general level of collaboration throughout the supply chain. Back in 2014, as a sector, our dealings with customers was much more like a binary transaction. You would price what the customer wanted and leave it to them to integrate, whereas now it is much more collaborative. This is what the market wants and as a result, it has moved forward significantly.

By 2016, we saw the beginning of fragmentation within the industrial inkjet segment.  The initial phase of adoption, what Moore calls the ‘early market’ had likely reached its peak and all the different market segments then went back into their own industries. 5 years ago people thought inkjet could help them in a variety of industries. They didn’t know how relevant it would be to them but they had to find out by trying. And now they understand the relevance but are demanding to know how it can help them. As I say, many are weighing up the risk involved. What we are saying is that by working with Ricoh we can help to dramatically reduce the risk as we have the scale, the expertise and the constituent technology elements to provide a complete solution.

One of the early markets that appeared to be a big opportunity for inkjet is flooring. However, this seems to be taking longer than expected. What is the challenge with flooring? We saw the first solutions back at InPrint in 2014!

Back in 2014, the flooring industry thought that UV was the way to go. Therefore, the focus for inkjet was on UV, and not on developing new products because there wasn’t a demand for it. This has changed over time, as there has been with food-grade applications, that there is not a desire for anything toxic in contact with human skin. The prolonged use is a problem as the ink doesn’t necessarily bind and the cross-linking might not happen. All those blocks were there and then a realisation that what was needed was alternative based ink. So basically things have taken longer than expected due to a shift in demand. We have had to develop the technology to meet this demand and this has taken a little time.

So this is where we are now, the focus is on water-based ink or new technologies for decor and also packaging and as soon as a solution is found for flexible packaging, this will become a growing concern for inkjet as well.

If Indigo and Xeikon were already serving a purpose for digital printing in flexible packaging, what kind of a role would/will inkjet play? 

Again, legislation is a driver in this market. There are existing digital suppliers and hybrid suppliers but they are going to be driven, I feel, by legislation more than anything. The need for recyclability, attitudes to de inking, the drive away from plastics may simplify or confuse ink adherence. Another indicator where change may impact print.

With inkjet, as we can see with the label industry, you will see hybrid solutions with companies like Edale.  I personally think we will see labels and flexible packaging merge and eventually, you will have companies printing direct to shape as opposed to a label.

Will we see another inkjet revolution for an industrial market in the future?

At Drupa, we will see a significant focus on packaging particularly corrugated, and labels. In 2016, there was a lot of embellishment to digital output with companies like Scodix. We were showing possibilities for late-stage printing and printing onto finished cartons and this is getting better all of the time. 

When I first started at Ricoh, Graham Kennedy and I looked at every market segment individually. We looked at the theoretical steps. The ceramics revolution at this stage had already come and gone, the UV flatbed market was mature, and wide format graphics customers were all really focused on development in Japan. It was clear we had to look at new markets.

Clearly corrugated is developing with companies such as HP, Bobst/Mouvent, Barberan, EFI, Durst/KBA - this is a huge industry and it has taken a step forward for sure.

Inkjet in additive manufacturing is also developing now. There has been a switched from hot resin fluids to binder based with a coated powder and this took a step forward around 18 months ago. 

Why? 

Because now, you can effectively use any material, glass, ceramics, stainless steel or precious metals but you have got to be able to put a binder around the material. What this means is the fluid that you jet is a simple water-based liquid that activates that binder. It opens the whole market up to be able to utilise all sorts of different materials. Numerous projects are being worked on including digital graphene and a lot of companies are looking at coatings too. 

One of the other major opportunities we can see is coding and marking and product decoration directly in the manufacturing line. Additionally, labels, DTS (direct to shape) and Packaging all of which I believe will all merge into one eventually. This means there will be no ‘one size fits all’. Lastly, we see continuous inkjet, and people wanted more quality to be more nicely presented and less functional in appearance.

But I am not sure we want another complete revolution! Inkjet adds tremendous value to traditional processes and can play a growing role without replacing existing technology. We just need to help our customers understand how to deploy it in the best way possible.

How can Ricoh help?

What many people do not realise is that Ricoh has 40 years of manufacturing experience with inkjet. Initially, we acquired Hitachi who had an established print head business. People don’t know that and we have to make a point of telling them!

We also have to differentiate ourselves, making sure we work with relevant customers and then we have to be close to the market in Europe. Then on the other side, the industry is changing and becoming more connected internally and externally and we want to be part of that growth.

But we have some advantages over other companies. For example, Ricoh already has a lot of relationships with some of the largest blue-chip brands in the world through our office equipment so why could we not go to these companies and offer them a complete solution? One of the key factors is that large brands like to buy from large companies. We know that they get a sense of nervousness if they are asked to work with a small company. So being a large multinational such as Ricoh really helps in this regard. 

Industrial print companies that have an analogue operation may want to digitise the process they have to take care of the infrastructure and designs, and may mean they have to employ a design studio. But our concept is to help customers apply industrial inkjet and then help to manage it for them.

But it is a journey and we must all accept this. Some things happen quickly, then demand can change and it is hard to predict exactly what will happen and when. But we clearly have evolved as a market from transactional selling of components through to collaboration and co-creation. Customers also like the reassurance, strength and stability that come with a big name such as Ricoh. Add to this the expertise and technology that is fit for purpose. I know at Ricoh that we have all of this along with a passion for inkjet, many years of experience and the ability to help our customers in their own digital inkjet journey.

If you’re interested contacting Dave, email: dave.varty@ricoh-europe.com