drupa 2016 to focus on innovation

With the slogan ‘Touch the Future’, the quadrennial show will look to focus on the print industry’s strength in innovation and to establish a platform for future technologies.

This is supported by revision to the profile of the show, which has been reduced from seven categories to six and updated to now be: pre-press/print, pre-media/multichannel, post-press/converting/package printing, future technologies, materials and equipment/services/infrastructure.

drupa has already undergone a major change, with the show being reduced in length from two weeks to 11 days, and eliminating one of the weekends over which the show ran. As such, it will run from May 31 to June 10, 2016 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Messe Düsseldorf, the organizer of drupa, states that, at present, the printing industry is undergoing structural changes and consolidation, while at the same time, new technologies such as functional printing, printed electronics and 3D printing, which have significantly increased their market share, provide major opportunities and potential for growth. The same applies to applications and solutions in the area of digital printing, package and label printing as well as to the industrial production segment.

Werner Matthias Dornscheidt, president and chief executive officer of Messe Düsseldorf, said: ‘It is precisely on these areas that drupa’s structural realignment and repositioning measures are focused, highlighting the industry’s innovative strength. Together with our partners, the VDMA, our member companies Heidelberg, Koenig & Bauer, Kolbus, Leonhard Kurz, manroland web systems, Polar-Mohr, technotrans, Voith, Windmöller & Hölscher to name but a few, and global players such as Bobst, Canon, EFI, Gallus, HP, Ricoh and Xerox, we have developed the concept for drupa’s relaunch.’

The strategic focus on future technologies will shine a spotlight on areas such as printed electronics and 3D printing, and include development of work started at drupa 2012 in cooperation with the Organic Electronics Association and Association in Europe for Specialist Printing Manufacturers of Screen, Digital and Flexo Technology) to launch the Printed Electronics Products and Solutions (PEPSO) brand.

In the field of 3D printing, drupa has introduced the ‘3D fab + print’ brand, which is supported by the VDMA with its affiliated printing and paper technology association.

Other areas to be highlighted cover green printing and multichannel publishing.