The third day of EFI’s Engage user conference featured a General Session with EFI Chief Operating Officer, Inkjet Business Scott Schinlever who provided an update on the trends driving EFI’s inkjet business.
These are the highlights from Schinlever’s “Imaging of Things” presentation, which should take two minutes or less to read.
Analog Technology Dominates Industrial Print Market
“When you combine all the print in all the markets EFI serves in the different industrial segments we’re in, it’s still over 80% analog.”
Five Trends Driving Analog to Digital Transition
- Custom expression, personalization, and versioning where you quickly have the ability to reach a small audience in a targeted way.
- Online sales are accelerating and creating opportunity for digital print, especially in the different packaging sectors that EFI serves.
- Social media is driving the transition. How consumers are influenced and make purchasing decisions correlates to digital print. It’s one-to-one marketing to small micro audiences.
- Near shoring and supply chain optimization has shortened supply chains, bringing products closer to customers, enabling quicker turnaround times, and less excess inventory as printers just print what’s needed.
- Environmental considerations grow in importance. Print what you need so you’re not creating a excess waste and extra inventory. Digital processes are inherently cleaner and don’t have many of the byproducts of analog print processes.
Sign & Display Solutions
“The sign and display graphics business has been leveraging digital for the past two and a half decades and is undergoing a significant consolidation. Our focus is ensuring we’re bringing out state-of-the-art highly productive equipment that enables consolidation of older digital print technology, as well as driving longer runs of analog to digital. We offer the broadest portfolio of production level inkjet technology with our VUTEk hybrids roll-to-roll soft signage printers, and our entry level EFI wide-format products.”
Versatile Printing Platform
“As retail and out-of-home signage continue to be challenged or are in a recovery mode after the pandemic, there’s other adjacent markets, especially with hybrid and roll-to-roll technology. We’re seeing more customers target architectural graphics and elements, simulated wood, luxury vinyl tile, all the way on through to different permanent types of directional signage.”
Corrugated Packaging
“With online sales exploding, the box has become abranding platform and not just for visibility on a store shelf, but visibility on your porch when it’s delivered.”
Industrial Textile Printing
“The major trend driving this is near shoring. At the same time, there has been the idea of fast turnaround. Digital plays into this in fashion. Instead of a handful of fashion seasons a year, it’s now 11 or 12, or beyond. Beyond the fast fashion cycles, an ability to customize to particular audiences is the next step of mass production.”
Ceramic and Wood Decoration
“Ceramics is about 90% digital today. Digital brings the ability to customize and offer more quality in terms of intricate designs. Much of what you see in a home improvement store today is done digitally.”
Single-Pass Technology
“We see a strong growth trajectory in single-pass systems in textile, packaging, and display graphics. even in display graphics.”
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