Around 391,000 visitors representing 138 countries attended this year's drupa trade fair, held in Düsseldorf, Germany. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries filled its 1600-square-meter exhibition space with the largest number of printing units the company has ever brought into a single event.
The Paper & Printing Machinery Division of Mitsubishi adopted the theme of "Net Production Nets Profits" for the drupa event, highlighting unparalleled levels of productivity. At the top of the product lineup were three new Diamond V3000 series sheetfed presses. Visitors got the first public look at the wide stock range and perfector models from the new series. The show presses included a six-color Diamond V3000LX, an eight-color Diamond V3000R convertible perfector and a 10-color Diamond V3000TP Tandem Perfector.

Here are some of the show highlights:

The V3000 series handles a larger sheet size (750mm x 1050mm) than the previous Diamond 3000 series and offers faster printing speed (16,200 sheets per hour). At 16,200 sheets per hour, the maximum perfecting speed on the V3000R and V3000TP ranks as the fastest in the world.

Daily demonstrations on the V3000LX featured a strike-through varnish technique refined by Mitsubishi's Paper & Printing Research & Development Center. On the V3000TP three job changes were run during each presentation to highlight the remarkable makeready speed of the SimulChanger simultaneous plate-changing system. And on the V3000R, visitors witnessed the world's fastest four-over-four perfector printing.

All three V3000 presses were outfitted with the Diamond Color Navigator, a revolutionary new approach to color matching and press control operations. The press control console on the V3000LX at drupa was void of all push buttons, including ink key controls, register controls and dampening adjustments, which were all executed via the dual touch-type monitors of the Diamond Color Navigator.

A key focus of Drupa 2008 was sustainable printing. Improvements in the Diamond series have made the presses more efficient, with less setup time and lower setup waste.

Mitsubishi also presented examples of its newspaper and commercial web offset presses at Drupa. Both lines demonstrated a new inline color control system.

The Diamond V3000 series will receive its North American debut at Graph Expo 2008, October 26-29 at Chicago's McCormick Place. In booth #629, Mitsubishi will demonstrate a six-color V3000LX with aqueous coater, SimulChanger, Diamond Color Navigator and more. Two weeks later, China will get its first up-close look at the V3000 during All in Print China 2008, November 14-17 at the Shanghai New International Exhibition Centre. Mitsubishi will be showcasing a five-color V3000LS, also equipped with SimulChanger and Diamond Color Navigator, in booth #E6C57.