No doubt: the Gutenberg of the digital age is Israeli, and his name is Benny Landa
With 12 installations announced (including the S10 and S10P), the manufacturer dispels all doubts about his invention, and how the printing industry will soon be digitalized
If Gutenberg is traditionally credited with the invention of printing, Benny Landa can undoubtedly be credited with the invention of digital printing. Or rather, that of the first digital technology that print shops have actually considered useful to their business. Rather than an invention, we could describe Gutenberg’s accomplishment as a synthesis of preexisting techniques and tools (among them the press, until then used to produce wine) applied to the serial reproduction of text and graphics. Likewise, Benny Landa, Israeli inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist has worked since the 1970s to reinvent printing, first with Indigo, then with Landa Corporation. After sixteen years and hundreds of millions of dollars invested in research and development, Landa removed every veil from its technology during the Landa VIP Event 2019, which was held at its headquarters and attended by customers, prospects, and influencers from the packaging and commercial print markets.
We were among the guests at the event. Thus, we were able to participate in the global launch of the S10 and S10P, which coincided with the start of mass production of the equipment, as well as immerse ourselves for two days in the company’s life. It was an opportunity to discuss vis-à-vis with Landa and his team on what they have already achieved and their visions for the future.
Digital printing, from niche to mainstream
To understand what is inside Landa’s technology, one must first understand the character and spirit of its founder. Benny Landa is not a businessman who puts the sales potential of a press before the dream it embodies. For this reason, even with the strength of the now stable technology, the founder of Landa Digital Printing welcomed his guests by telling his very personal, intimate and extraordinary story. The story of a boy born in Poland at the end of the Second World War, whose parents, survivors of the Holocaust, tried to leave Europe for Israel. After years in a refugee camp, they reached Canada, where their father Oscar found work as a carpenter and eventually took over a tobacco shop with an adjoining photographic studio. From here began a path of redemption, made of challenges systematically faced and won, which brought out Benny’s inventive vein, suspended between his father’s dogmatic and ambitious character and his mother’s creative and intellectual one. “Between capitalism and socialism,” Landa himself summarized. A dualism that inspired the young talent in his studies — first technical, then humanistic, then artistic — and that guided him in every stage of his growth, both personal and professional. After a brief interlude in London, where he founded his first start-up (Imtec), Landa moved permanently to Israel in 1974. Here he developed his particular perception of technology, which bridges the traditional gulf between machine and creativity. “Science and engineering are no less creative than sculpture, painting, and music,” explained Landa. “You start with a blank sheet of paper, and you create something that no one has ever done, so you change society, industry, people’s lives. In our industry, in particular, you create machines that produce art.”
Three years later, in 1977, Indigo was born, conceived as a research and development laboratory. For years the company financed itself with patents licensed to multinational imaging companies — until a lightbulb came on, and they developed a liquid ink that could be used in conjunction with electrophotographic technology.
“Our vision was to combine the attributes of conventional printing with the computer to electronically achieve the beauty, brilliance, creativity, and productivity of offset,” continued Landa. “My goal was to put Israel on the map of this industry, making it the leader in digital printing.”
This was the birth of the special ElectroInk inks, around which Landa and his team developed the first Indigo-branded digital printer (the E-Print 1000), which they launched on the market at the 1993 IPEX trade fair.
Between 2000 and 2002, Landa ferried Indigo into the HP’s orbit and, shortly after, left the scene: “When I realized that electrophotography was too complicated and expensive to become mainstream, I decided it was no longer for me. I didn’t want to live my life in a niche market, no matter how big. To transform, this industry needed technology that could become mainstream, thanks to quality, speed and costs comparable to offset.”
So, Landa moved away from the world of printing and founded Landa Group, which includes Landa Labs, a start-up dedicated to innovation in the energy field through the use of nanotechnology and nanoparticles. During some tests on pigments, the Landa Labs team developed nanocolorants, capable of transmitting light in an unprecedented way and reproducing, with primary colors alone, an extremely wide gamut. This is how the Landa Digital Printing project took shape, which for the first seven years focused on the process (inks, printheads, blankets, etc.) and for the last nine years on the press.
A unique recipe to change the industry
While many consider historicity and size to be essential requirements for a manufacturer who wants to lead the technological evolution of our industry, Landa, on the contrary, counts on making its way by focusing on a combination of disruptive innovations. “Over the last 600 years after Gutenberg, the printing industry has been led by German companies,” explained Landa. “My prediction is that we will bring the crown back to Israel. I am convinced of it. Not so much through the technology we’ve created, but through the people behind it. I’m not just referring to the staff of Landa Digital Printing, but to Israelis in general. I believe that the success we have in technology is related to that healthy bit of irreverence that is part of all of us. Here, people are trying to work for a higher purpose, which goes beyond money and is about the joy of creating, of changing society, of leading a revolution.”
The attitude described by Landa is one that, when you are on Israeli soil, you perceive in every conversation and in every enterprise you visit. The same attitude has allowed Landa Digital Printing to come out of the long phase of research, development and beta testing to start mass production of the equipment and carry out installations in the four corners of the planet.
The installations of Graphica Bezalel (2017, Israel) and Edelmann (2018, Germany) have recently been joined by those of Schelling AG (Switzerland), Route1Print (UK) and Groupe Prenant (France) as well as those of Virtual Packaging, Mercury Print and Marketing Alliance (USA), and ZRP (China).
Testifying to their enthusiasm to be part of a group of pioneers dedicated to innovation, all of these companies took part in the Landa VIP Event 2019.
“We haven’t brought together just any printer here, but people who are looking for opportunities to grow their businesses,” explained Yishai Amir, then CEO of Landa Digital Printing. “Companies who are able to deal constructively with changes in the market and not be unprepared for new customer demands.” In the retail sector, two crucial revolutions are underway: the migration from physical stores to online and the consequent proliferation of new brands aimed at specific consumer niches. This process implies a greater fragmentation of the audience, which makes mass marketing obsolete and imposes approaches based on accurately targeted products, supported by appropriate packaging and communication materials. “We are facing globalization of demand and supply, but also an increase in the number of different products available on the market,” explained Amir. “This will result in major changes for brands and the supply chain, a shorter product life cycle and shorter time-to-market.”
Infrastructure and services to grow globally
While it is true that digitally printed volumes have grown exponentially since the early 1990s, it should also be remembered that they still do not exceed 3% of global print volumes. The opportunity for digital printing is therefore still enormous, but the technologies currently available on the market do not allow us to seize it. This is where the innovation introduced by Landa comes into play, but the company is dealing with the skepticism of large printers about the Israeli manufacturer’s actual ability to produce machines and inks and to provide support and assistance on a global scale.
During our trip to Israel, we were able to visit the facilities of Landa Digital Printing, which has recently expanded its production capacity. The first site, which houses the R&D labs and demo center, was soon joined by two additional buildings, System Plant 2 (2017) and System Plant 3 (2019), for testing and construction of the S10 and S10P machines. System Plant 3 also houses a space dedicated to the development of the new web-fed W10 for flexible packaging.
“More than technology, we want to make sure that we can offer our customers everything they need to use it successfully on a daily basis,” explained Nachum Korman, CCO of Landa Digital Printing. “We are working on a System Plant 4, which will allow us to go from a few dozen to hundreds of machines every year. In parallel, we are strengthening the support team, building IT infrastructure and making shipment of consumables and spare parts more efficient. We want to make sure that we can support and assist each installed machine, and make it ‘take off’.”
Solid technical foundations
In recent years, Landa Digital Printing’s engineers have invested considerable energy in analyzing and removing any bottlenecks from the printing process as well as improving print quality, color management, feeding of different media formats, productivity, production cost, and process sustainability.
On the color front, in its 7-color (CMYK-OBG) configuration, Landa S10 can reproduce 96% of the Pantone colors — an important plus for equipment that primarily targets packaging manufacturers. In the same way, thanks to the color control and correction system, the press guarantees color consistency over long runs and in jobs distributed over several units, even if located on different production sites.
Image quality is then guaranteed by the combination of Fujifilm SAMBA’s 1200 dpi printheads, proprietary inks called NanoInk, and the unique “one-shot” image transfer system — the image is first printed on a heated belt and then transferred from it to the paper. This last aspect of the process makes it possible to obtain dots with a defined contour using a very thin layer of ink and to use the same paper used for offset printing.
As far as productivity is concerned, Landa S10 reaches 6,500 sheets per hour (B1 format) but the development team’s goal is to bring it up to 13,000 sheets per hour soon.
The early adopters agree: Landa is here!
The Landa VIP Event 2019 brought together under one roof both printers who have already installed a Landa machine and those who have confirmed their investment and will install the machine in the coming months. For them, the event was an opportunity to share the scope of their challenges as well as the results achieved with the new machine.
“When Landa introduced us to the technology, we made it clear that four colors alone were not enough and that we couldn’t do without a coating unit. We were looking for a solution to print packaging in a more flexible way, but none of the existing solutions met our requirements,” explained Eyal Harpak, Deputy GM at Graphica Bezalel, the first printer in the world to have installed Landa S10. “The results were amazing. Especially in low-coverage jobs, the process is more stable and controllable than offset, allowing us to print on 60- to 800-micron material, even with variable data, while maintaining cruising speed.”
The same tenor was echoed by Christian Schamberger, President of Mercury Print, and Gerhard Meier, CEO of BluePrint AG. Both emphasize how the features of the S10 and S10P make it possible to profitably produce both editorial and commercial print. Philippe Vanheste, Marketing Manager at Paris-based Groupe Prenant, also spoke about Landa S10P: “When we met Landa, we expressed three wishes: to be able to print on offset paper; to be able to print at or above offset quality; to be able to produce at the same offset speed. After a few months, we tested the S10 with image files of jewelry, watches and fashion accessories. We were impressed by the colors and details obtained. At the same time, we discovered that with Landa we could change the way we operate.” Vanheste also called for the creation of a network among Landa’s users that would facilitate collaborations.
The German company Edelmann reported on their experience as an S10 beta tester, underlining the value of the partnership built with the Landa team. “It’ s not all sunny days, but we’ve had more good days than bad. And in the end, we always found a solution to do better. With every update of the machine, we have seen great progress in performance and quality,” explained Oliver Sattel, Managing Director at Edelmann. “We are happy to be part of this family and are convinced that our customers are interested in digital printing. Our sales team has been offering it to brands for years, without success, but today they are asking for it themselves.”
A digital and economically sustainable technology
When it comes to the economics of digital printing, many consider it inappropriate to make direct comparisons with offset. They prefer to focus on the higher value of the products that can be produced with this technology, rather than on their actual production cost. But such an approach cannot be applied as is to a technology that aims to replace offset. Again, the first users of the S10 offer new insights. According to Graphica Bezalel, the main advantage of this machine is that setup and job change times are very short, especially for jobs requiring two or more spot colors in addition to CMYK. “Reducing the time and costs associated with prepress also makes orders of 5 or 6,000 sheets profitable,” explained Eyal Harpak. The Israeli printer also told how, thanks to Landa S10, he can print film posters in a few copies for dozens of different subjects, and make prototypes and contract proofs directly in the machine to submit to customers. “It is an operational and economic advantage, especially with expensive papers and very low print runs. If you only have to make 200–300 pieces, you can’t throw away 50 or 100 for start-up,” Harpak continued. “If I had been asked about S10 two years ago, I would have said it wasn’t a mature technology yet. But today, my answer would be different: the progress made is incredible, and we can use the machine to print high-quality packaging. Maybe the S10 won’t make offset technology obsolete, but today I think I would invest more in a second Landa than in offset.”
Apparently, Landa’s digital technology not only bridges the gap between offset and digital but is also appealing in the eyes of customers. Cheryl Kahanec from Quantum Group — who signed the order for an S10P during the event — finally saw that the prospect of working with such an innovative machine also proves to be an attractive factor for new generations of employees in the company.
