Nanography printing combines the characteristics of offset printing with the flexibility of digital printing.

No longer do we have to choose between the versatility of digital printing and a low cost per page and high productivity of offset printing.

With nanography we get both.

Short Evolution of Nanography

We are surrounded by different offset printings with annual incomes in the world of approximately 800 billion dollars.

Digital printing is fast replacing many traditional printed products.

What does this mean for the future?

Nowadays digital printing takes a very small percentage of the total revenue.

To be truly able to take a larger slice of the pie, digital printing has to be competitive in terms of quality, speed, cost, size format and the ability to print on all kinds of material.

Today, the industry offers devices capable of printing on almost all materials, and digital printing is experiencing explosive growth of income.

Currently, there are approximately around 50 billion pages that are annually printed worldwide, of which only 2% are printed with digital techniques.

Nanography is preparing a revolution (at least so they say) and wants to take the lead in the field of printing between 5000-30000 pages.

Classical techniques of digital printing can not match the price and speed of offset machines in this segment of printing.

The nanography will try to change this.

Komori and EFI Jumped Into the Game

After presenting the project at Drupa 2012, Landa group continued with the development of technology and the development of the first commercial devices Landa S10 in the last quarter of 2014.

A hundred test device is already in use and scientists from Landa groups are working on their enhancements based on customer experiences.

The seriousness of the project is confirmed by reputable companies that are involved in the project of Nanography.

The production of nanographic printing devices takes over a prominent global manufacturer of printing presses Komori from Japan.

Landa group will deliver technology and ink and Komori will deliver hardware.

The company EFI Fiery is also involved in this project with rip software to help nanographic printing devices.

The newest is that the specialty chemicals Group Altana invests US $135 million in Landa Digital Printing.

The Working Principle of Nanography

At nanography it comes to an inkjet-system that works with special “nanoink” inks.

These water based inks are used pigments with dimensions of only a few nanometers and at the same time has excellent absorption and remission of light.

According to the manufacturer, with this ink we can get very sharp, tiny screens.

Extremely lifelike color prints are enabled by using a larger CMYK color range than it was possible by using the previous printing technology.

With the ink thickness of only half a micrometer, this procedure gets a much thinner layer of ink than with offset printing which in turn results in lower cost of printing.

This is aggravated by the fact that for the transfer of the image needs no further transfer medium, such as a plate in offset-printing, no additional treatment of the surface on which the print is transmitted.

The procedure of printing is relatively simple.

By using up to eight colors, the negative with Inkjet ejectors (which are very similar heads) is applied to a heated rubber roller.

Because ink contains very little water, it immediately evaporates on contact with the heated roller and remains only 500 nanometers thick film that is, without any residue, transferred directly to the paper.

In this procedure paper is not heated, but only roller, so the paper can immediately continue with the rest phases in production.

The polymer film when transmitting only slightly enters into the structure of the media on which is transferred because virtually is free of moisture.

Nevertheless, it sticks, similar to the label, on almost any surface.

Thus, it is possible to print not only on paper, but also on the surfaces without absorption properties. It is possible, therefore print on cheaper materials, without loss of print quality.