September 6-7 TLMI held its first printTHINK Summit
printTHINK has replaced the former bi-annual TLMI Technical Conference. printTHINK was held at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, where over 325 attendees from the Tag & Label market shared technology, experiences, and ideas.
The conference was divided into 3 tracks:
- Strategy & Success
- Shops & Systems
- Science & Sustainability
- Future of Operations
- Color Management
- Inkjet
- Workflow
- UV vs LED
So there was definitely something for everyone.
I focused on Strategy & Success, Color Management, and Inkjet tracks. In every session I attended, Digital Inkjet production was the main subject. Specifically the use of Digital Inkjet to augment or replace Flexo in the print process. Digital Hybrid was the key term. I blogged about this in June (Click here to read that post.)
This was the first conference I attended where it was apparent digital inkjet production or Digital Hybrid has moved from an idea to a reality. From the first day, some amazing statements were being made, so much so I started to jot them down. I was going to review them here but then I noticed, via Twitter, (yes even old guys can access Twitter), that Steve Katz of Labels & Narrow Web had already tweeted most of them. Since the first time I heard and understood the term ‘plagiarize’ I have lovingly embraced it! 😉 So here are some of Steve’s Tweets. (click on the images to enlarge.)
Thanks Steve for capturing this, I especially love the last one!
Some of the other statements about Digital Hybrid that I jotted down were:
"can do most jobs in 50% of the time"
"20-50% substrate reduction"
"Some our press hybrid operators had never run a press before"
"a job that took 320 hours a week to run was reduced to 168 hours using Hybrid Digital"
"digital is not a journey you should take on by yourself"
"choose a partner you trust"
"having a strong Partner is the key to success"
Some very interesting and powerful statements. All of which I agree with and have seen in the market. Hybrid Digital Flexo or Digital Hybrid Flexo is now a part of the Tag & Label (narrow web) market and will only continue to grow. In a few weeks, the focus on digital label production will be prominent at the upcoming Label Expo in Brussels.
Who would have thought what a bunch of strategically placed and printed 1s and 0s could create!
Click here to learn about APR's Hybrid Digital Flexo offering, the Colordyne 3600 Series Retrofit. www.teamflexo.com/products/colordyne-3600-series-retrofit/