The Print Loop - Week of October 13th

📌 Top Highlights

• Construction robots are becoming a thing

• Lighter airplanes heading for the runway

• Cannon launches new inkjet press

🔍 Deep Dive: The Psychology of Packaging

While you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, it’s only human to judge a product by its packaging. The psychology of packaging can’t be dismissed by companies focused on branding, marketing, and selling. Strong packaging can offer a competitive edge, being the difference between a product staying on a shelf or landing in a shopping cart. 

Sleek and high-quality packaging can help make a good, all-important first impression, tap into emotions and memories, tell a story, and increase word-of-mouth potential.

🖨️ Technology Trailblazers

• MIT engineers have developed an innovative technique that 3D prints aluminum alloys much stronger than conventional versions. This could lead to lighter aircraft parts; when trying to keep a 90,000-pound plane in the sky, lighter is probably a good thing.

• Cannon’s new inkjet press has homed in on the corrugated market, hoping to invite medium-run jobs into the digital age. This should offer operators higher quality with lower operational costs.

• Hybrid Software is debuting major upgrades to its product line during Printing United Expo 2025. Stop by booth 3610 to check out the latest and greatest in prepress workflow acceleration, complex packaging automation, and design-to-print accuracy.

• Epson is also coming to Printing United Expo 2025 and is set to showcase its latest printing applications. Stop by booth 3970 to see the latest tech and get some hands-on practice.

• Dragon Signs has lauded the HP Latex 800W printer for its vehicle wrap abilities, claiming the printer has allowed for improved quality, increased output, and better business. 

🤖 Construction Robots Raising the Roof

A construction robot named Charlotte recently made headlines in Australia due to its (or her) potential to revolutionize the future of the building industry. A spider-like machine, Charlotte is designed to 3-D print an entire home (roughly 2,000 sqft.) in a single day.

While this could threaten to eliminate jobs in the construction industry, it’s not all bad news: Charlotte could make home-building safer by taking on dangerous or overly challenging tasks.

🏢 Movers and Shakers

• Lisa Daniell, the operating manager of the all-volunteer Women’s Press Collective, is highlighting the importance of community and camaraderie in the industry.

• Cummings Aerospace has completed a flight test of a 3D-printed drone with a potential max range of 60 kilometers (for us Americans who don’t believe in the metric system, that’s 37 miles). 

• The Morgan County Correspondent, a weekly newspaper for a small hometown, is celebrating its second anniversary southwest of Indianapolis. Bucking the trends of going online, this publication is showing that print may still have a future after all.

• Steve Trkla, a Lake County entrepreneur, has opened a Signarama in Volo, Illinois, offering locals high-quality sign solutions.

🥸 Printing Ponderings

International Printing Day was celebrated on October 9th. This day is a worldwide event centered on 24 hours of open knowledge and sharing. It’s designed to celebrate print through webinars and social media. #PrintSmart #GiveHPSomeTLC