There have been more changes in the world of printing in the last fifty years than from the time of Gutenberg to the post-World War II period. The advent of digitalisation has changed the face of printing presses and machines for the graphic arts and personalisation, bringing innovation to both products and processes.

The exhibitors at PTE 2024 have shown that they are perfectly at home amid this sudden technological acceleration. Market Screentypographic, for example, uses AI platforms to create images during training courses at its Atelier della Stampa, in Rozzano (Milan). Just choose from the huge range provided by image generators such as leonardo.ai or getimg.ai and you're ready to go. Or almost. "Sometimes we get a human figure with six fingers," says Fabrizio Selis, CEO of Market Screentypographic. “We do this exercise together with our students to show them the great opportunities such tools offer, but also their limitations. The images are then processed and screen printed or printed with other customisation techniques such as DTG and sublimation”.

Meanwhile, Hurricane has added Artificial Intelligence to Freddie, the brand new machine that is the first in a series of DTF printers (compliant with 5.0 regulations) from this company whose operations are all 100% Italian. Freddie's remote control system uses AI to not only allow operators to monitor and manage the machine from anywhere, but also to ensure that the maintenance schedule is carried out without the aid of an operator. That means the system can predict and solve any maintenance problems, ensuring continuous and uninterrupted operation. Freddie can also count on AI for print performance: through proprietary algorithms, the technology visualises and verifies the quality of the image and colours, as well as other parameters during the first steps of printing, thereby reducing film and ink waste.

There are also increasingly intelligent and user-friendly interfaces for heat presses, which are key components in thermal transfer printing. This is the core business of Awservice, whose range spans manual, pneumatic, electric and magnetic heat presses, all equipped with an electronic display to facilitate use of the machine. And if problems arise, you can still always count on support, including, in its most technologically advanced form, guided assistance online. Massimo Leva, owner of Awservice, explains: "This form of support, which allows our operators to access the customer's PC, accounts for 30% of our interventions, with a success rate of 90%. It’s a completely free service that we offer even outside the warranty period.”

Gi-an was a forerunner of "bespoke-digital" assistance. In fact, it has been possible to place orders directly on its website sublimazione.it since 2017, displaying the delivery time in real time and receiving tailor-made offers: "Each of our customers has their own particular conditions, depending on the various commercial agreements, their history and therefore the reliability of the customer themselves," explains Luca Mancini, co-owner of Gi-an. Needless to say, an ecommerce site such as sublimazione.it relies on Gi-an’s own server to guarantee maximum transaction security. This goes for processing too, which is not always the case for imported machines that do not have proprietary backup systems (unlike Epsons). Gi-an always has access to special print RIPs that reconstruct the history of the files produced, which also allows them to be recovered. Goodbye fear of crashing...