Some News

The drupa is the largest printing equipment exhibition in the world, held every four years by Messe Düsseldorf in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. We had the opportunity to send two of our print experts to the exhibition not only to gain knowledge of the print industry, but also seeking new solutions to keep up with the demand of customers for faster printing, smaller jobs and shorter delivery times.

Thursday morning 9 June

With just three days to go 212,000 visitors from 183 countries had visited drupa 2016; we set out with one goal – to see what the future holds in terms of printing technology advancements.

Our first day at drupa was amazing with eight hours of walking we have not even got through half of the exhibition. Towards the end of the day it feels like you have devil thorns in your shoes!

News from drupa is that they will stick to a four-year cycle and the next drupa will be held from June 23 to 3 July 2020

In the spotlight and with each passing drupa, the need for speed is greater. The development of printing presses and indeed general printing technology is now more aligned to with “touchscreen” vs. “push-button” technology.

As a business we identify with the need to “make small runs big business” and seek the ability to cost-effectively decrease our run size to increase our offerings to clients.

We are striving to keep abreast of the new technologies in order to be in a position to deliver a small print run which doesn’t cost a fortune. Our customers should be able to take advantage of on-demand, ultra-short and one-off runs to increase their business opportunities.

Monday 13 June

The exhibition ended on Friday 10^th of June with over 260,000 visitors in attendance from over 188 countries with 76% of them coming from outside Germany.

Materials based on printing plates continue to dominate for print service providers, but the innovation interests of companies investing for the future lie in digital printing and its countless applications.

There is definitely a shift from static, long-running offset applications to printing dynamic, flexible and variable products of good quality. Looking into the future the expansion of printing beyond its traditional markets is exciting particularly with the latest developments in 3D printing for the printing of three-dimensional objects.

This is the focus on Cards Plus where our existing digital printing processes are being addressed to bring on board the latest digital technologies and applications driven by the rapid advancement in various liquid toner types. This is our core differentiator.

We will remain bold in exploring new ideas around PVC card print that will grow not only our but our customers businesses at the same time. As a business we will continue to work closely with our suppliers to experiment with new techniques that will result in expanding into new markets.

Cards Plus will continue to listen to its customers and will strive to turn print opportunities into business opportunities for our customers by offering additional value-add services.