Three-dimensional (3D) printing, also known as additive manufacturing, will be a key highlight at this year’s Drupa, the world’s leading trade show for graphic and industrial printing, as well as media and multichannel sectors, states Drupa advisory board chairperson Claus Bolza-Schünemann.

Several world-leading printing companies will also provide demonstrations in additive manufacturing at Drupa 2016, which will run from May 31 to June 10 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Speaking at a conference preview in Johannesburg last month, hosted by Drupa organisers Messe Düsseldorf and the Southern-African German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bolza-Schünemann noted that the trade show would provide lessons on the possibilities and limitations of additive manufacturing and the growing new market of professional 3D printers and service providers.

3D industrial printing is a full-digital 3D design process that involves the printing of complex 3D components through the stacking of two-dimensional layers, which are then heat-fused to form a physical object.

“Industry should experience and explore the technology behind this rapid prototype, as addi-tive manufacturing is crossing many vertical mar-kets,” Drupa director Sabine Geldermann added.

Bolza-Schünemann emphasised that printing remained part of daily life, claiming that the global print industries were larger than the global automotive industries.

He cited forecasts from market research, which indicated that, by about 2020, the sales volumes of industrial printing would double to more than $100-billion. “Additionally, recent market studies predict that the digital print market will grow about 7.5% a year for the next ten years. This technology will spread from the graphic industry to many other industrial applications.”

He, nevertheless, claimed that, even with the rapid growth of digital printing, analog printing will remain the guarantor of revenue in the industry and “the solution of choice for high-quality, cost-effective printing in high volumes”.

The Printing Industries Federation of South Africa (also known by the brand Printing SA) CEO Steve Thobela encouraged the local printing industry to explore the innovations at Drupa 2016, emphasising that, despite industry challenges, such as digitalisation, the industry still had a future.

Thobela noted that there were an estimated 1 228 printing companies in South Africa, about 286 publishing companies and about 1 000 com- panies that are suppliers to the trade and provide prepress and postpress services.

The printing industry in South Africa employs about 4 500 people, with indirect employment amounting to about 60 000, according to research conducted by research group BMI on the federation’s behalf.

“The turnover [of the industry], including packaging, is estimated to be about R60-billion, which puts it at a contribution of about 2% of the country’s gross domestic product,” Thobela pointed out.

The trade show will include innovations in packaging solutions for food, nonfood, fast-moving consumer goods, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

“According to current forecasts, growing demand for packaging will boost sales to about $975-billion in 2018. “This is mainly driven by the urgent need for nonperishable food, the increasing demands from the growing middle class in developing countries and recent industrialisation,” stated Bolza-Schünemann.

Sub-Saharan Africa printing, bar coding and labelling industry supplier Kemtek Imaging Systems, based in Johannesburg, Gauteng, will attend Drupa this year and exhibit more than 56 presses and printers.

Kemtek national packaging and export manager Gordon Smith pointed out that the exponential growth of packaging solutions, as the portfolio split for commercial solutions and industrial solutions had increased from a 90/10 to a 50/50 ratio in the past six years.

Printing and publishing industry solutions provider Heidelberg Southern Africa MD Ryan Miles reiterated the need for printing companies to take bold decisions and recreate and build sustainable businesses for the next five to ten years. He argued that printing companies could not continue to operate in the way they used to and expect to survive in a world that was constantly changing.

He averred that Drupa 2016 provided the neces-sary insight and exposure for the development of new technologies.

Theme areas at the trade show will include the Drupa Innovation Park and the Drupa Cube, while product categories to be highlighted include premedia and print, premedia and multichannel, postpress, converting and packaging, materials and future technologies, as well as equipment, services and infrastructure.

Drupa will have about 1 600 exhibitors, while visitors from about 130 countries are expected to attend the event.