Imagine and print

The New Printing Possibilities Area is one of the big new attractions at Graphispag 2015: A strategic corner which will be featuring everything you can print today using digital technology and new supports. It will be a showcase for discovering how some companies are innovating in sectors that were unthinkable up to very recently. Here are four success stories of printing technical fabrics, furniture, boats and replicas of people. Now there are no limits to what you can print.

"MUTABLE" FURNITURE
TOTTETRIS, the new personalized furniture store in Barcelona

The idea seems simple: using small pieces of wood printed with images and arranged Tetris-style to decorate panels, doors, headboards or even creating a picture. And if you add a magnet to these pieces you've got a 'mutating' piece of furniture with which to play at making infinite combinations. Tottetris was dreamt up by Sonia Cía and Alberto Fernández, who exude imagination and art in all the furniture of their new store in Barcelona which opened last July. They have taken out a patent for this attractive system of printed magnets in different sizes for decoration. They've been surprised by the variety of customers: "from a man who wanted to use a photo of his grandson in a picture, to large format prints for panels for conventions, trade fairs, and so on", says Sonia, one of the two brains behind this particular application of digital printing, a fusion of art and decoration.

PRINTED CLONES
3d- GAme prints any object in any size in 3D. They also produce human body scans and print them in situ. Plus with two photos, one face-on and one in profile, they can reproduce a bust of whoever you like to make a truly one-off gift: the bride or bridegroom for a wedding cake, a grandparent's birthday¿ Joaquín Rodríguez, director of 3D-Game, is convinced that "3D printing is the future." And as soon as he had the opportunity, just four months ago, he launched the business in Madrid. He has one of the three most advanced scanners in Spain for making ¿clones' of people and printing them on plastics or ceramic. Rodríguez has it very clear that the possibilities are endless. "3D printing will end up becoming hugely important, not as competition to the traditional printing sector but rather as a complement to it, going hand-in-hand with it," he forecasts, and by way of example cites the architectural sector.

VINYL SAILS
Although it is known as one of the great traditional photography laboratories and an expert in large format colour printing, Laboratorios COLOR EGM has now burst onto the nautical scene. It's latest challenge has been to 'vinylize' the Sterna, an ocean-going yacht of over 30 metres, for the North Pole route. The company's manager, Enric Galve, acknowledges that "although we had already had previous experience with other boats, this was a much bigger challenge because of the extreme weather conditions, and it has been a success." The Sterna has already embarked on its voyage, travelling to the USA, and will probably be on show at the forthcoming Barcelona Boat Show. Galve acknowledges that this could be an emerging market for his company, not only providing services for the nautical sector but also for decorating aircraft, for example. "In recent years," he adds, "we've reached a level of stability in digital printing equipment with very high quality standards and greater productivity, which means that prices are now more affordable for the end client." The result: it's cheaper to vinyl-coat a boat than paint it.

TOP CYCLING BODY SUITS
Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde and the other cyclists in the Spanish Federation compete in Inverse body suits (Ciro Sport), a Barcelona -based company that creates personalized clothing for cyclists. With a tradition going back more than 40 years, Ciro Sport dressed Eddy Merckx in 1969 and is now one of the five leading companies in Europe in its sector. Under the Inverse brand, Ciro Sport seeks out the best textiles, creates patterns according to the sportsperson's particular needs and prints them with original, customized designs. "Digital printing machines these days are excellent, we get much better speed and quality which increases our productivity," notes production manager Victor Peral. However, this does not mean they can lower prices, because textiles are constantly being upgraded which makes them more expensive. Ciro Sport has expanded its catalogue to include running and triathlon gear and its products now sell in over 25 countries.

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