Printers - SIGN İstanbul

September 2014
Second edition
UV-Cured
Printers
Textile
Printers
Media
& Inks
2014
Nicholas Hellmuth and Sofia Monzon
Copyright FLAAR 2014
2014
Big Name Brands are readily visible at Sign Istanbul
MS is here from Italy. Very surprising to see such a major textile brand here. MS normally
exhibits only at textile expos and textile section of the main FESPA in Germany.
FUJIFILM is back. Anyone who missed by not exhibiting at Sign Istanbul 2014 realized they
should have been here, so FUJIFILM is back (after not being here last year). It is nice to see
the strong FUJIFILM brand here again.
Mimaki brand is everywhere, in part due to the strength of the master distributor, PIMMS.
There are many booths featuring Mimaki printers.
The reason we look for the top distributors (those who have enough
strength to be present at Sign Istanbul) is because manufacturers around
the world often ask us to recommend distributors.
If a distributor is not at Sign Istanbul, we have no way to know them, so
thus have no way to give their name to the manufacturer. And, if a distributor is not at Sign Istanbul, perhaps they are not yet large enough to
afford being at the leading expo.
We wish all distributors, at all levels, success, but when we have to recommend a team to a manufacturer, it is logical to select a distributor who has
“presence.”
We also saw Roland printers in many booths and a nice Mutoh Turkey booth. Seiko and
Epson are also present, so all major Japanese brands are clearly visible at Sign Istanbul.
Of the really big brand names, HP of course would not miss out, and efi VUTEk is clearly
visible in the booth of fleksmedia.
Distributors
What makes a brand provide good service is their local distributor. Turkey has many distributors who have continued to provide products and service for many many years. PIMMS is
one of the larger and best known. PIMMS, and Fleksmedia, each has a team which I see at
every major international exposition in Shanghai and at the main FESPA Digital in Germany.
So fleksmedia and PIMMS are booths I always visit at every Sign Istanbul.
I have known the experienced owners of Future Digital. I always stop at the booth of
InkaTeknik at every expo. FLAAR has a separate report which provides a complete list of
every distributor in Turkey.
We categorize distributors in three levels:
• Distributors who are present, with a booth, at the main expo in a country.
• Distributors who are not at the main expo (which in Turkey is clearly Sign Istanbul), but
perhaps in a smaller expo and show up in an ad in a trade magazine.
• Distributors who are not at any main expo or other expo and are only in a trade magazine.
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Workflow Components which were well represented
at Sign Istanbul
UV-cured Printers
There tend to be more UV-cured printers than all solvent and all latex printers put together. So
for an expo to be significant, it needs to have all the pertinent brands:
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Durst,
Efi VUTEk,
Fujifilm,
SwissQprint
Dilli,
Seiko,
Mimaki,
Roland,
Mutoh,
etc.
Sign Istanbul had excellent presence of the leading brands of UV-cured printers from China:
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Human Digital
JHF
Handtop
RTZ Flora
And others.
We provide a complete list of 100% of the brands and model names of every single UV-cured
printer at Sign Istanbul in a separate TRENDs level FLAAR Report. Plus we list any SUV printers
which were exhibited.
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Textile Printers
Normally there are twice as many brands and models of UV-cured printers than there are
textile printers. At Sign Istanbul there were a healthy number of textile printers; more than I
expected.
Plus there was the leading brand of calendaring machine.
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T-Shirt Printers
Several T-shirt printer brands were present, and of course other kinds of dye sublimation: onto
coffee mugs, aluminum panels, etc.
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Solvent: Lite-, mild-, full, eco-, and bioThere were more solvent printers than any other kind of printer: lots of brands and lots of
models. This is because solvent printers provide better color gamut than latex; more color
pop than most other inks, and the solvent inks are lower cost.
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Between solvent and water-based: Latex
Latex printers are now in their third generation. HP has worked hard to improve several of the
deficiencies and weaknesses of the first generation and then the continued questions about
even the second generation.
The most important thing in looking at a latex printer is to realize that it can do some things
well but (no printer) can do everything perfectly. Over the years Mimaki has been the most
realistic in honestly listing what a particular ink or printer technology cannot handle. It would
also help if the disclaimers are a tad more open than just footnotes in 5 pt font.
Water-based Printers
True water-based printers still exist but are not shown with much pizzazz anywhere. The only
expo in the world which used to feature water-based printers in recent years was Photokina
and at Photokina 2014, in Cologne the week after Sign Istanbul, there was only one in the HP
booth, one or two abandoned against a back wall in the Canon booth. At Photokina only Epson had water-based printers with a strong presence.
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Flatbed roll laminators
I saw at least two brands of flatbed roll laminators. Flatbed laminators are not as often talked
about as the old-fashioned roll-laminators.
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Roll-fed Media
Plenty of basic brands of roll-fed media. If you want over 150 brands, then you should consider
attending APPPEXPO 2015 in Shanghai (now moved to a March date for 2015). But if you wish
to see the traditional roll-fed media available via distributors in Turkey, you can find plenty at
Sign Istanbul.
Thick Rigid Media: Aluminum Composite
Sign Istanbul has always been strong in displays of rigid aluminum panels (more at Sign Istanbul than any expo in USA, for example).
Honeycomb Sandwich Board
You tend to find honeycomb sandwich board in the booths of the big-name cutter brands
such as Kongsberg and Zünd.
Foamcore & other Rigid Printable Materials
Foamcore has been around for a long time. It comes in many forms, under many slightly different names. Thick and rigid material continue to be important since so many flatbed UV-cured
inkjet printers are available.
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Cutters:
CNC Routers, CO2 laser engravers, XY flatbed cutters
Plenty of CNC routers and CO2 laser engravers from China. Plus the big name brands of XY
flatbed cutters were exhibited, most notably Zünd and Kongsberg.
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Dynamic Digital Signage
Most signage expos tend to have a few booths of LED and LCD monitors for dynamic digital
signage, but so far the biggest such expos are still in China.
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After-market Inks are displayed in many booths
Sam Ink we found quickly due to its bright yellow logo color. We expect to see many other
third-party ink companies here as well. Plus there are many ink factories in Turkey.
We have a separate report on after-market ink based on an A to Z annotated list of every
booth at Sign Istanbul which offered third-party ink. Most print shop owners and managers
seek after-market ink because of the low price.
Cheap-low bid ink means getting only a few months outdoor life even with supposedly
“pigmented ink.”
Cheap ink provides weak image for backlit; indeed most of the prints in and outside the
airport were weak low-color backlit or billboards. And next to the hotel entrance inside,
there was a stand-up banner with a pathetically weak-color image. This is the result of
using cheap ink (and perhaps setting your ink limit low on your RIP software).
The problems with cheap third-party ink is why we make the effort to visit the actual ink
factories (such as Sam Ink factory in Singapore). We need to be sure they have a factory
with good equipment.
Plus, we visit end-users who actually use Sam Ink out in the real world. We have visited
printshops in Istanbul, Singapore, and USA who are using Sam Ink for many years, and
usually for many different printers in their print shop.
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Toner Printers also Present
It is sad to see signage and printer expos which have only wide-format inkjet. It is much better if toner printers can also be featured. So it is nice to see toner printers at AFRICA Print in
Johannesburg.
And here at Sign Istanbul, OKI has a nicely decorated booth. Other office printer brands are
also present.
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You can learn a lot by seeing which models are featured, and which models are present, but
effective abandoned in a booth. This Xerox 42” printer with Memjet printheads was not printing and no one was focused on this Memjet printer; not one of the four days of the expo. This
fact is very helpful to know. So visiting a printer expo helps in many aspects of learning.
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3D Printers
Every time we go to fairs, we see how the technologies are improving on 3D Printers. This exhibition had a variety of printers in which we could compare the printers. The features vary, on
the amount of material colors that they have available and the accuracy with which the technology elaborates the details of object printed.
3D Ultimaker booth
3D Fab booth
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This is the 3D printer that impressed me most, because it
has a very different technology and can create objects with
many details. Plus the objects can be printed in colors.
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3D Systems booth
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How to decide which Expo to attend?
Safe, Friendly Venue is one point
There are too many expos, so I tend to skip those which:
• Have overpriced hotels (Moscow, good example)
• Have crime or grime (expos in Atlanta, Georgia, USA are not safe after 5 pm; even as early
as 8 pm downtown Atlanta is not an area I would want to walk through).
• Do not have people who speak English (or Spanish or German).
I am tri-lingual plus understand basic French and basic Italian (so total of 5 languages), but
expos in two countries had very few people who spoke any of these languages. Actually there
are more people in China who speak English than people in other nearby countries).
Korea is safe; Japan is really safe (I lived in Osaka for six months, indeed the first FLAAR Reports were written there).
Orlando and Las Vegas are pretty safe.
I like all Chinese cities; I never had any safety problems (but on any metro anywhere in the
world keep your camera protected if you fall asleep).
So for venue alone, Sign Istanbul has many plus points: friendly, not overpriced, and
the Turkish airlines lounge is one of the largest in the world (and has full meals at no
cost (if you are Gold Status or above on OneWorld alliance)).
Istanbul is safe.
People are hospitable.
Lots of people speak English oder Deustch.
Really a lot to see in terms of museums, historical architecture.
Since there is plenty of printer brands, lots of inks and media brands, and many distributors, we at FLAAR Reports look forward to returning to Sign Istanbul in September 2015.
September is a good time of year to visit Istanbul. November is a tad cold and December often more cold. The benefits of Sign Istanbul in September is you can bring
your colleagues and they can experience this cosmopolitan city.
Also consider bringing your traveling companion. Istanbul is a very romantic place to
be.
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How to decide which Expo to attend?
Ability to have access to many brands plus meet with
key people
Sign Istanbul does not need to fake things by making aisles triple wide (Viscom Milano was ridiculous
with triple-width aisles to hide the number of booths who cancelled each year).
I enjoy exploring printer, digital camera, and 3D imaging expos around the world.
Sign Istanbul does not have to take things by putting restaurants in the middle or putting “sitting areas” in abandoned booths. Graph Expo had to hide a lot of unused space even at Print ’13 last year.
Attendance at Sign Istanbul
Booth space is more or less comparable; there is no embarrassing empty space (like Viscom Milano
each year in a row). Viscom Madrid (Sign Madrid) collapsed and finally evaporated from their schedule: this is unheard of for most expos.
PR releases tend to hide the truth and use fluff and puff to bamboozle people. Some of the
most silly claims have been made. It is embarrassing how many expos even in Western Europe and USA have slicked and tricked the PR releases (in the years 2008, 2009, when attendance plunged down).
Similar claims for printer speed… ‘blazing speed…” (means the printer is slow and the PR
agency is paid to try to cover over that embarrassing fact…).
First day of Sign Istanbul had people in the aisles but was not packed whatsoever. Second
morning a tad more. Afternoon lots more.
Third day PACKED.
Fourth day PACKED.
Most USA expos are a tad weak first day and really weak final day. So Sign Istanbul beat most
expos that I have attended this year in terms of people-per-aisle. The only expo which beat
Sign Istanbul was Photokina. Photokina was packed beyond expectation the second, third,
fourth, and fifth. First day had lots of people but even more every following day.
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Booth space
Reklama Moscow has shrunk so much I did not bother to attend the last two years. I enjoy visiting
Moscow and would consider attending if our team were hosted, but otherwise will not return.
Viscom Paris had a great year this year (2014; though it conflicted with Sign Istanbul so I skipped the
Paris show). FESPA Mexico did very well this year also. And I expect SGIA to be same size or even a
tad larger than before (though the fabric expo co-located last year will not return, thus reducing total
space dramatically).
I do not have time to attend an expo unless I can see LOTS OF PRODUCTS, unless I can see diversity
(more than just three or four big brands). I want to see products from Korea, Taiwan. Mainland China,
Japan, USA, Canada, and Europe. All this you get with Sign Istanbul.
In other words, I am content with every day I was at the Sign Istanbul expo and our team looks forward to returning in 2015. In fact there is almost a waiting list among FLAAR Reports team, since they
all want to experience the country of Turkey and the city of Istanbul and see all the printers, inks,
media, cutters, etc at Sign Istanbul.
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The Venue in Istanbul
This year the expo is in Halls 11, 12 and 14
In the last several years the show was always in halls 7, 8, 9 (the right
side of the original set of buildings). I never attended a Sign Istanbul
on the left side of the original convention center.
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Here is the old entrance plaza, with the Halls on the right (7, 8, 9) and the other
old Halls on the left.
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Here is the old entrance plaza with the main part of the convention center at
the left (Halls 1 through 6). In recent years Sign Istanbul was never in this left
part. The New Halls 12 and 14 are out of view, much further to the left. Hall 11 is
the bottom level.
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Here is a view of the “Halls on the left” (Halls 1 through 6) as seen from the 13th
floor of the Hotel Tuyap Palas, above Hall 12
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Now, in 2014, there is an entirely new set of buildings. Indeed there are buildings on the left of the Hotel Tuyap Palas which are still under construction. Last year I was not even aware of this new wing of the
expo center.
But now, in 2014, the Sign Istanbul is in Halls 11, 12 and 14. So the Hotel Kaya Ramada Plaza is no longer “next to” Sign Istanbul. This year in 2014 the Hotel Tuyap Palas is not only next door, this hotel is
physically part of the expo center. You walk out the side door of the hotel directly into the expo halls!
So if you are staying at the Kaya Ramada Plaza, this year you have a healthy walk to Halls 11, 12 and 14.
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You start with Hall 12; Hall 11 is a lower level (use an elevator, escalator, or
stairs); Hall 14 is inside parallel to Hall 12. Hall 13 is another entire lower level,
not yet open.
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Here is the main entrance to Sign Istanbul, entering at Hall 12, which is part of
the Hotel Tuyap Palas complex.
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Signs outside indicate that the expo is in three halls. When you get to the new
expo center area you find that 12 and 14 are above, and Hall 11 is below.
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The advantage of the new halls is that they are all next to each other. In past
years the expo was a bit fragmented since some of the halls were at 90 degrees
rather than being parallel. However I will admit that after attending Sign Istanbul so many past years I learned where each stand was. Now in 2014 I have to
learn an entirely new layout (good exercise for your brain).
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What other hotels?
Find out which hotels have a shuttle? But realize that it can be 45 to 90 minute drive from expo
center to “downtown” area hotels (even at night).
But there are many romantic areas of Istanbul to stay in if this is your preference. However we
ourselves come to study printers, inks, media, and workflow, plus to visit with all our friends
and colleagues at the expo, so we prefer to stay physically next to the expo center.
Sign Istanbul is earlier in the year for 2014
In past years Sign Istanbul was always later in the year. This year it is mid-September. It is warm
(but not hot) during the day.
At night it is cooler than I would have expected considering the warm temperature of the day.
But a sweater, or light jacket or scarf would be plenty at night.
There are two expo centers in Istanbul
Some expos are at another different trade show center in front of the airport. But Sign Istanbul
has been at the Tuyap expo center for many years. This is about a 40 minute drive from the
airport (depending on traffic).
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Turkey is a friendly hospitable country
The people here really are open and friendly. Total strangers come up to say hello and ask
where I am from. People smile. Even if they can’t speak English they try to communicate.
In Burger King restaurant they used smiles and sign language to communicate (I know we
should have gone to a local restaurant, but it is easier if I can pay with credit card to keep track
of costs).
After being in one or two countries in Europe, infamous in being not hospitable to people
from other countries, it sure is pleasant to be in Istanbul. I was at a MacDonald’s in a EU country two weeks after Sign Istanbul and the staff was unhelpful, unpleasant, botched the order
and even demanded money for a single blob of Ketchup! Turkey in general is more friendly.
The airport is easy to navigate and entrance is definitely more polite than several other countries. In Canada they ask repeatedly what is the purpose of a visit to Canada. If they see a
camera they demand that I not use it because I don’t have a permit to “work” in Canada.
Once they even confiscated my camera equipment. Welcome to Canada.
Another time the Canadian immigration demanded to know what was the purpose of my
visit. When I said I had a meeting with a Canadian company they demanded to see an official
Work Permit. This is about as stupid and unfriendly as you can get. Once they realized I was
a professor they let me in. Sorry, I rate Canada as the most obstructive immigration system in
the world. And I apologize to people trying to get visa or into USA, as I understand some US
restrictions may make Canada seem welcoming.
Turkey is a nice place to attend a trade show, and an equally pleasant place to visit.
We started at Sign Istanbul 2014 two days before
(set-up days)
We arrived in Istanbul Monday after midnight. (after 9 hour layover in Rome airport, which is
the best schedule to get the lowest price ticket on the Internet). We had access to the expo
center the two set-up days. So we have seen how busy the show is already now for two days,
before it even opened.
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The organizers of Sign Istanbul
We noticed that the team members worked long hard hours before and during the expo. Thus
we at FLAAR Reports enjoy cooperating with them.
Many many years ago another expo invited us; their venue was near the main Istanbul airport.
But once we experienced Sign Istanbul, we noticed that this was the longest-running printer
and signage expo in Turkey.
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Here is the capable and experienced team whose many months of work resulted in
a successful Sign Istanbul. We at FLAAR Reports look forward to having our team
attend Sign Istanbul 2015. We look forward to seeing you in Istanbul in 2015.
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Contact for Sign Istanbul, to attend or exhibit in 2015
The web site is www.signistanbul.com. This is bi-lingual, so
all is available in English.
The expo is organized by iFO in Turkey, [email protected]. IFO
is associated with Tarsus in the UK, who also organize the
prestigious LABELEXPO.
Tarsus also has the Flower Show Turkey (www.flowershow.com.tr); ironically FLAAR has a division which is a world leader in the study and high-resolution photography of the flowers of
Neotropical Mesoamerica, especially in Guatemala, as can be seen on our www.maya-ethnobotany.org. This site is also available in Turkish language, www.maya-ethnobotany.org/tr/
How to recognize that you are near Tuyap expo center?
When taking a cab or bus once you see the tall needle tower, you know you are near. Here
are views of the tower. You can see two stories illuminated at night, as though there were
a restaurant here. But it does not rotate and the base of the tower is fenced off and abandoned (except for a watchman). Other than the lights on the two floors, it is unlikely that the
restaurant is open.
The end of the bus line is across from the Hotel Kaya Ramada Plaza. You can take the pedestrian overpass from the bus stop plaza area over towards the hotel and then turn left to walk
to the Hotel Tuyap Palas, where you enter Hall 12.
Visa Info
Most countries do not require a visa to enter Turkey. If from USA it takes about 3 minutes
to get your visa. You can even pay with a credit card. This is one of the best organized visa
systems in the world. No paperwork; you do not need it in advance (get it at the airport upon
arrival).
Cost is $30 but the visa is multi-entry for a certain period. I had been in Istanbul a few weeks
before and they accepted the same visa so I did not have to pay for another one.
Money exchange
Money exchanges of course are in the airport, and at some hotels.
So far we have not been exposed to counterfeit money in Turkey, but have three times ended
up being stuck (even at official airport exchanges) with counterfeit money in Asia (not Turkish
Lira, but the local money in the Asian country).
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