Dan Gelbart's Talk on CREO Systems

Sean Donovan, Staff ... Entrepreneur

Recently Dan Gelbart, president of CREO, gave a presentation on the history of CREO and what new products currently motivate his company. CREO was started to design fast, large scale data storage systems using lasers and CD technology as a basis. After realiz-ing they did not have a competetive advantage, CREO switched focus to the printing industry, applying technology they created in the data storage business.

The printing industry in North America is broken into two vague sections, the first being makers of print "engines" and makers of the printer cases, interfaces and consumables. Engines are the print heads and toner application systems and the other section deals with the ergonomics of the printer. The Japanese company Canon, for example, produces the engines in a lot of consumer laser printers.

These two sections can also be divided into industry and consumer printers. CREO's products work primarily in the engine/industrial printing division. One product of theirs is a "computer to plate" machine, which takes high quality color pages created on a computer and makes a "master" plate. This aluminum plate is covered with two layers, the outer most being silicon which repels ink. The combination of the layers on top of aluminum allows a laser to cut away the silicon so that an image can be superimposed on the aluminum plate. Using a printing machine, the plate is then stretched around a metal cylinder, ink applied and the image pressed onto paper.

This technology has launched CREO into an enviable position, with back orders of $70 million in an industry as big as the auto industry.

A good part of the presentation was used to tell the audience about future plans of CREO. This included a new innovation that would make their own "computer to plate" process obsolete. They would like to create a process where the silicon and a single layer are sprayed or applied to the metal cylinder inside the printing machine, cut with a laser and then removed for the next page. In a billion dollar industry, this small innovation could put CREO and Vancouver on the printers' map.

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