Heidelberg and Fujifilm Seek Future Collaboration

From left, Heidelberg CEO Dr. Gerold Linzbach and Fujifilm CEO Shigetaka Komori shake hands at drupa 2016.

At drupa 2016, the CEOs of Fujifilm and Heidelberg, Shigetaka Komori and Dr. Gerold Linzbach, confirmed a successful partnership and agreed to seek further collaboration between the two companies to target growth potentials in the printing industry.

World Premiere of New Industrial Digital Printing Machine Sets Industry Benchmark

In the digital area, Fujifilm and Heidelberg celebrated the successful world premiere of the Heidelberg Primefire 106, powered by Fujifilm Inkjet Technology at drupa 2016, and are looking forward to driving further growth of the digital printing market. The completely new sheetfed production inkjet device is the first commercial offering resulting from the collaboration, establishing a new category for industrial printing applications in the B1 format. The launch at drupa 2016 will be followed by a planned first customer shipment in 2017.

Exploring New Market Segments Strengthens Service and Consumables Business

Additional synergies are expected by leveraging sales strengths and the global customer service network in each organization. In combination with the application knowledge and skills, the high performing products from both partners support future customer needs. By introducing the new digital system into the graphic arts market, Heidelberg and Fujifilm expect respective consumables businesses to benefit as customers focus on sourcing the best performing consumables from partners with a strong global reach.

Both Companies Will Continue to Seek Collaboration Areas Together

Both companies have complementary expertise, with Fujifilm enjoying deep strengths in material science, core inkjet capability, and system development. Heidelberg offers second to none system design, manufacturing and end-to-end workflow capabilities.

“The great response we are experiencing here during drupa is very exciting," said Komori. "We are now seeing the outcome of our strong partnership resulting in this completely new system design in less than 24 months through our co-development with Heidelberg. This collaboration illustrates the unwavering commitment of Fujifilm to drive innovation from our proven Fujifilm Inkjet Technology as a key element of our strategic direction."

Fujifilm is releasing a new branding campaign “Fujifilm Inkjet Technology” during drupa to highlight unique strengths in high quality imaging and reliable inkjet printing from state-of-the-art printheads, digital inks, and the image optimization technologies. Fujifilm will expand this capability to industrial manufacturing for high quality imaging and process improvement to simplify the process.

Linzbach said, “Heidelberg’s customers have been waiting for an industrial digital inkjet printing solution to enable both operational excellence and new business models for an expanding set of new applications. This collaboration is a great example of our “Simply Smart” campaign, the launch of Primefire underscores the traction we are getting with our new digital strategy.”

The two organizations are continuing to explore new opportunities for cooperation through utilizing their respective proven technologies as they introduce the Primefire.

Source: Heidelberg.