Printer Manufacturing

The US printing machinery and equipment manufacturing industry includes about 400 companies with combined annual revenue of about $3 billion. Major companies include Canon USA, Goss International, Hewlett-Packard, Presstek, and Xerox. The industry is concentrated: the 50 largest companies generate about 70 percent of revenue.

The printing machinery and equipment industry doesn't include textile printers or home and office printers connected to PCs or small office/home office desktop publishing systems. Home and office printers are covered in the Computer Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing industry profile.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is driven by commercial print volume, which depends primarily on advertising and other business needs for printed material. Profitability of individual companies depends primarily on manufacturing efficiencies. Large companies enjoy economies of scale in purchasing and manufacturing. Small companies can compete effectively by serving niche markets, such as envelope printing.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Major products are printing presses and related parts, accessories, and attachments (about 40 percent of industry revenue); prepress equipment (20 percent); and binding machinery (10 percent). The predominant printing press technology used is offset lithography, but the industry is transitioning to digital presses for many applications. Other types of printing technologies include rotogravure, flexography, screen printing, and letterpress. Rotogravure is used for high-quality printing and is expensive. Flexography is used primarily for printing on packaging materials. Screen printing has applications ranging from art prints to stationary. An ancient printing technique, letterpress remains popular among hobbyists, but virtually ...