Our Highlights From the drupa Blog 2021
The year 2021 is coming to an end and looking back, a lot has happened. We have been able to experience many events and topics and kept hold of them in our drupa blog, and we would like to thank all our readers. From virtual.drupa to sustainability and 3D printing to printing processes, we have covered a wide variety of areas and would like to share some of our highlights with you before 2022 arrives and we start looking into the future to what lies ahead.
virtual.drupa
This year we opened our digital doors for our first-ever fully-digital drupa event. Meaning: You didn’t have to go to the exhibitors, they came to you. And to keep the tradition of the beloved drupa song alive, virtual.drupa also got its own hit song “we embrace the future”, which was created as a collaborative project by Düsseldorf-based musician Dieter Falk with his son Paul Falk and The Voice of Germany 2017 finalist BB Thomaz.
Sustainability
Sustainability was, and still is, a very important issue. We provided particularly extensive information this year on what measures are being taken and what measures can be taken to take a big step closer to achieving it. ACTEGA, a manufacturer of specialty inks, coatings, sealants and adhesives for the packaging and printing industries, for example, has developed and launched a solution that helps brand owners meet their sustainability goals while achieving unique aesthetics for premium labels:
➡ ACTEGA Provides Sustainable Options in The Printing Industry.
And if you take a look at the latest invention from Hong Kong, the “Planstic”, you quickly realize how efficient and environmentally friendly 3D printing can really be and how promising this method can be for the future, bringing us much closer to the goal of climate neutrality:
➡ „Planstic“: The Filament of the Future?
Towards the end of the year, we also investigated the question of how far it is possible to enable sustainable print finishing, and if so, how. We pointed out the problems and possible solutions that have already been researched and partially implemented, such as Siegwerk‘s UV/LED offset ink system:
➡ Is Sustainable Print Finishing Actually Possible?
3D Printing
The age of 3D printing has now impacted the food market, and in a very positive way. In addition to “Alt Steak“, a plant-based meat substitute that looks, cooks and tastes just like a real animal product, Revo Foods is solving the environmental problem of overfishing by producing plant-based fish food that is “free of heavy metals and toxic waste:
➡ Revo Foods Is Bringing 3D Printing To The Global Plant-Based Fish Arena
And what sounds mundane became reality: 3D-printed buildings exist, as 14 Trees, a joint venture between the CDC Group and the multinational building materials company Lafarge Holcim, has already demonstrated by building a school with it:
Just as 3D-printed cars do. Making car parts? No problem. The future of car part production is already underway, and Volkswagen has set the stage for the first step. What it will look like by 2025 is unknown – but this year’s progress has been immense:
➡ Volkswagen, Siemens and HP Partnership to 3D Print Car Parts.
#PrintingProcesses
This year we also had the pleasure to finish our series “#PrintingProcesses” and presented relief printing as well as flat printing at the end. The former is basically nothing more than creating a stamp to transfer the desired image from one surface to another. The latter, on the other hand, is the cheaper version and has become one of the most popular techniques throughout Europe. Necessity was the mother of invention.
Closing Remarks
In summary, everything in 2021 has gone in the direction of resource conservation and this has also been strongly reflected in our drupa blog. We look forward to more insightful topics in the new year and thank every reader for their interest in our contributions. Have a good start in 2022!
