Landa unveils nanographic printing process

Led by the father of digital commercial printing, Benny Landa, who started the digital printing revolution in 1993 with the launch of the iconic Indigo digital press, Landa is now set to ignite the second digital revolution in print, the company said. The Landa Nanographic Printing Presses is designed to offer the versatility of digital with the qualities and speed of offset printing — at unmatched cost-per-page.

“It’s good to be back", said Benny Landa, Chairman and CEO. “The Landa Nanographic Printing process is the result of ten years of nanotechnology research. It is a true breakthrough that enables our presses to achieve amazing results".

At the heart of the Nanographic Printing process is Landa NanoInk. Comprised of pigment particles only tens of nanometres in size (a human hair is about 100,000 nanometres wide), these nano-pigments are extremely powerful absorbers of light and enable outstanding image qualities. Landa Nanographic Printing is characterized by ultra-sharp dots of extremely high uniformity, high gloss fidelity and the broadest CMYK colour gamut of any printing process, according to Landa.

The Landa Nanographic Printing process can print on any off-the-shelf substrate, from coated and uncoated paper stocks to recycled carton; from newsprint to plastic packaging films — all without requiring any kind of pre-treatment or special coating — and no post-drying. Adding to this cost benefit is the fact that Nanographic images remarkably resistant to abrasion and scratches. Since Nanographic images are only 500 nanometres thick — about half the thickness of offset images — Landa NanoInk is said to produce the lowest cost-per-page digital images in the industry in a water-based, energy-efficient and eco-friendly process.

Landa Nanographic Printing Presses employ ink ejectors to create the digital ink images which get applied to the printing stock in a process that can operate at extremely high speeds. Each Landa press, which has a small footprint even when compared to other digital presses, can print in up to eight colours and can operate at 600 dpi or 1200 dpi resolution.

“Nanography is a truly ground-breaking development" Landa stated. "At drupa, we will be unveiling a complete family of sheetfed and web presses. These include B3, B2 and B1 sheetfed perfecting presses which operate at up to 11,000 sheets per hour for commercial and packaging printing as well as web presses for publishing and flexible packaging that range in width from 52 cm to 104 cm and operate at up to 200 metres per minute. Such performance places Landa Nanographic Printing presses squarely in the heart of mainstream commercial printing. For the first time, commercial printers don’t have to choose between the versatility and short-run economics of digital printing and the low cost-per-page and high productivity of offset printing. Now they can have both".

The Landa family of six Nanographic Printing presses will be of interest to commercial printers and packaging converters for applications that include general commercial printing, books, magazines, direct mail, labels, folding carton and flexible packaging for food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and more.

Benny Landa will personally be hosting each of the Company’s five daily theatre presentations in its 300-seat auditorium at the heart of Landa’s 1,400 square metre stand, the largest ever for a first time exhibitor at drupa. The theatre presentation, entitled Nano. Bigger Than You Think., will provide the audience with an inside tour of Nanography — the technology, the products and the opportunity — as well as insights into the future of our industry.

Landa Corporation was founded by Benny Landa in 2002 following the acquisition by Hewlett-Packard Company of Indigo, which Landa had founded 25 years earlier. The company has four operational units: Landa Digital Printing, which develops Nanographic Printing systems for the commercial, packaging and publishing markets; Landa Labs, which develops alternative energy technology as well as nano-materials for applications ranging from pigments and drug delivery to hair colorants and composite materials; Landa Ventures, which invests in promising technology companies in fields related to nanotechnology, imaging, printing and energy; and Landa Fund, a philanthropic entity dedicated to the narrowing of socioeconomic gaps in society by enabling youth of “privileged minds and underprivileged means” to achieve higher education. To date, the Landa Fund has enabled thousands of underprivileged youth to acquire university degrees.

Benny Landa is the Chairman and CEO of Landa Corporation and continues to add to the portfolio of over 700 patents granted to him worldwide, including over 170 U.S. patents, which provide the companies which he founded with a solid intellectual property base.