At drupa 2016, Marabu presented its comprehensive portfolio of screen, pad, and digital printing inks as well as liquid coatings. The ink manufacturer was requested as well-known contact person in terms of its widespread know-how of systems for industrial and graphic applications. The Marabu booth at drupa 2016 wasn’t just a feast for the eyes because of its eye-catching design, it was quite more than this. The expert audience appreciated the wide range of Marabu’s product portfolio, which stretched from screen, digital and pad printing applications to highlights such as the new Plug & Print inkjet ink for ECO-SOL MAX 3, a concept for digital textile transfer printing, and the variety of UV direct printing onto glass. By partnering with SCREEN Marabu took additional hardware in its program and presented the wide format UV printing system Truepress Jet W3200UV for the first time.

For graphical digital printing applications Marabu showcased the solvent-based Mara® Jet DI-SX Plug&Print inkjet ink suitable for the latest generation of Roland printers. Including the new 500ml cartridges as the economical alternative for ECO-SOL MAX 3. The 440ml cartridges provide a chip for ECO-SOL MAX 2. Both containers deliver perfectly adjusted colour shades for excellent Plug & Print compatibility, changeover without profiling, excellent scratch and chemical resistance. The health-friendly ink system provides a nickel-free yellow, light black and shiny metallic shades. Thanks to fast production speeds, the DI-SX is especially suited for roll-to-roll prints.

In cooperation with Mutoh, Marabu presented its digital concept for "cold peel" textile transfer printing onto T-shirts. One plus in comparison to sublimation printing is the wide range of fabrics, which can be printed. With the new pigmented resin Texa® Jet DX-DTE ink, Marabu combines the advantages of current transfer printing technologies in one application: The design is printed in CMYK colour mode directly onto the foil without a time-consuming pre-press process.

Only the white barrier layer is applied using screen printing. The final patches are transferred via a heat press. The small layer thickness of the final patches allows a soft look and feel, thus increasing the wearing comfort of the printed T-shirts. In this time and effort saving process low and medium size orders can be produced with excellent resistance in high definition and bright colours. The digital textile transfer concept was shown on a Mutoh ValueJet 628 live at the Marabu booth, a very popular attraction among the target group of digital textile experts.

At drupa, Marabu showcased the wide range of digital UV direct printing onto glass. The Ultra Jet inkjet series can be used for high-end designs on flat or curved glass surfaces. Additionally, Marabu presented its Mara® Glass MGL solvent-based screen printing ink and its Tampa® Glass TPGL pad printing ink for glass decoration. MGL is ideal for high-gloss results on flat and hollow glass. Furthermore its colour range is supplemented by new high-opaque shades. Durable TPGL ink is suitable for a variety of tasks, and performs especially well on rounded objects such as small glass jars for cosmetics. As a universal ink solution for glass printing, the UV-curable Ultra Glass UV ink series has proven its strengths in the market over years. They feature the most comprehensive portfolio of their kind including a new high-gloss silver as well as a new varnish for tactile effects.

SCREEN announced Marabu as partner and official reseller for the Truepress Jet W32000UV wide-format UV printer series in Germany, Switzerland, France and Italy. This partnership was a very popular conversation topic at the Marabu booth. Andreas Koch, Executive Vice President of the Business Unit Digital Inks at Marabu, gives a statement: “We are now able to offer our customers a complete package of printing machine, ink and technical support – a one-stop service. This gives us an outstanding position in a strongly contested market.” Marabu is very pleased in terms of the strong demand for this complete solution: “It shows us that we are on the right track”, emphasizes Koch. The project is proved as a big prospect of success, because of the “Mara Beer” exhibits, which were admired by many of the fair visitors. Before becoming a beer barrel, the panel sheet was printed with a SCREEN Truepress Jet using UV-curable ink of the Ultra Jet ink series. This printing machine has an enormous application range, which enables printing materials, such as flexible and rigid substrates. Printed can be effective and solid communication mediums, signage and POS products.

Give and take – therefore stands drupa 2016. For the first time at the booth of Marabu, screen and digital printers from different industrial sectors were sitting together and were taking part in lively discussions. Thereby a clearly trend can be seen towards the two disciplines screen and digital printing, which have to cooperate closer, if each of them wants to have a profitable perspective in the future nearby. An exchange of experts is indispensable to bring up innovations. There is a common agreement between the two parties that there is no use in questioning the counterpart. Instead, there is a great chance of improvement in working together. The subject itself is not new – that’s for sure, because screen printing can’t be replaced through digital printing so far, but printing in combination is the key to success. The combination of the two printing techniques allows the use of the best applications, which isn’t fully exhausted yet. We may look forward to an exciting “printing future” according to the motto of drupa 2016 “touch the future”.