The firm is the sales wing for Konica Minolta’s inkjet technology and is exhibiting on the Japanese manufacturer’s booth, M10S. The robotic arm, nicknamed “Bob” is programmed to pick up a batch of items, which are then printed in CMYK using Konica Minolta’s KM1024im heads. The placement accuracy is +/- one micron. The heads can use UV- or water-based inks, have a resolution of 360x720dpi and a linear print speed of 1.2m/sec. It’s an industrial solution. You can throw 300 items at it and 300 come out at the bottom,” explained IIJ managing director John Corrall. “A system like this could print large cell phone covers at 18-25 parts per minute.” An XYPrint 200 would cost around £100,000 depending on configuration. IIJ has also develop a rotary chuck for printing onto bottles and tubes “It’s a flexible system, you could also run it with a conveyor belt,” Corrall added. Konica Minolta is showing its latest high-performance textile printing system, the Nassenger Pro 120, on the booth....

The augmented reality application has been co-developed with interactive media specialist Kangaroo, and uses HP’s Aurasma app and is on show on stand F66N. Live content plays when the t-shirt is viewed via a tablet or smartphone using Kangaroo’s implementation of the app. Potential applications include branded t-shirts at music gigs, with added-value extras such as album tracks or video available to those who purchase a garment. “A lot of young people will access media in this way, because they’ve grown up through apps,” said Kangaroo director Sonny Sharma. Separately, Magic Touch managing director Jim Nicol said demand for transfer printing onto binders and hard surfaces had “gone berserk.”...

The Viper can print on products up to 300mm in height, which, said the vendor, accommodates most printable objects. With a speed of 80 seconds per bed of parts, the printer is designed for runs of at least 20,000 products. It’s UV curing technology is designed to enable printing of sensitive plastics. “Speed is the especially exciting feature of this machine,” said Tamara Vroomen, print specialist at Bergstein. “But it also has ionization to reduce static and so misplaced spray of ink, and very easy to use software.” The Viper is priced at £120,000....

Created by UK POS with an undisclosed Chinese partner company, the transparent acrylic signage range is aimed predominantly at the retail and hospitality industries. The signs are made to order and customers are able to specify lettering and visual designs that will be etched into the cut acrylic sheets and illuminated by a plain or coloured LED bulb sited within chrome wall mounts. The acrylic sheets, which are cut to size and etched at UK POS’s Manchester facility, are available in a wide range of thicknesses to a minimum depth of 2mm. The wall mounts with incorporated LED bulbs are assembled in China. Meanwhile the 45-staff £8m turnover company, which produces signange for the likes of Selfridges, B&Q and Morrisons, hinted at a major expansion on the horizon at its UK facility....

The augmented reality application has been co-developed with interactive media specialist Kangaroo, and uses HP’s Aurasma app and is on show on stand F66N. Live content plays when the t-shirt is viewed via a tablet or smartphone using Kangaroo’s implementation of the app. Potential applications include branded t-shirts at music gigs, with added-value extras such as album tracks or video available to those who purchase a garment. “A lot of young people will access media in this way, because they’ve grown up through apps,” said Kangaroo director Sonny Sharma. Separately, Magic Touch managing director Jim Nicol said demand for transfer printing onto binders and hard surfaces had “gone berserk.”...