FuturePrint Podcast
FuturePrint is dedicated to and passionate about the power of print technology to enable new opportunities and create new value. This pod features deep-dive discussions with the people behind the tech as well as market analysis, trends, marketing and storytelling!
FuturePrint Podcast
#313 - Back to Business: Why Thieme Is Reasserting Its Role in Industrial Digital Print
In this episode of the FuturePrint Podcast, we speak with Oliver Beck of Thieme, one of Germany’s most established family-owned manufacturers of high-end industrial screen and digital printing systems. Based in the Black Forest region, Thieme has long been recognised for its deep engineering expertise and close collaboration with industrial customers.
Oliver explains why Thieme has re-engaged strongly with digital printing – not as a general-purpose solution, but as a highly targeted tool for demanding industrial applications. He outlines the company’s three core digital pillars: a specialist digital coin-printing system with automatic alignment for high-value collector coins; modular digital print engines designed to be integrated directly into existing production lines; and fully bespoke digital printers built for 24/7 industrial operation with up to 95% machine availability.
The discussion highlights Thieme’s process-led approach. Rather than starting with a predefined machine, projects begin with customer requirements – from ink chemistry and printhead selection to single-pass or multi-pass architecture – often progressing through prototype development before full-scale production. Real-world examples include inline digital printing on saw guide bars and saw blades, operating at industrial speeds and volumes, as well as applications ranging from metal components to glass and functional coatings.
Oliver also explains why Thieme chose to support the new FuturePrint Industrial Print event in Munich, drawing parallels with the original InPrint show and praising the focused, single-hall format and strong technical conference programme.
This episode offers a clear, grounded view of where industrial digital print delivers real value today – not as a replacement for analogue, but as a precisely engineered solution for advanced manufacturing challenges.
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FuturePrint TECH: Industrial Print: 21-22 January '26, Munich, Germany
And hi there. Welcome to this week's FuturePrint podcast. I'm very pleased to have with me Oliver Beck of Tima. Oliver, good to hear you. Hello, Fraser. Good to hear you two. Lovely to speak to you again. It's been a little bit of time. Tima back in the game in terms of digital, which is great news. And I'm very pleased that Oliver's going to talk a little bit about what Tima are going to be doing at the future print event in the next few days.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Okay. Maybe a quick introduction of Team itself. That'd be great. Yeah, yeah. Well, only uh two uh three sentences. We are a team is an independent family, uh uh located in Turning, close to Freiburg in Germany, to the Black Ferms in the Black Forest area. And uh we have two completely different divisions. You do one is uh production of large format polyurethine part. This is not um our our uh responsibility at our market, we are talking today, and the second division is uh high-end screen and digital printing machines for the industrial market, really for the industrial uh customers, not for this classical tropical market, as uh we all know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and as you say, you're in a very beautiful part of Germany, yeah, the uh southwest, and uh it's a family-run business, been around a few years. So uh interesting to find out where you're at at the moment. Find out a little bit more about particularly the digital printing side, which I know that you're gonna focus on. So tell us a bit more about that digital printing side.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the digital printing side. Uh we have uh basically uh in our uh digital uh uh printing uh uh direction, we uh we see this uh market at the moment, or coming back to the show itself. We see for the for the screen printing market, we see uh a quite good show uh uh situation uh on the market with low-pack last new SPR. And for the digital printing, we see few shows uh for this real industrial market. And uh Tima, we have uh basically in this uh digital field, we are concentrated on uh three market, three directions, three pillars. One pillar is uh producing uh a very special uh uh printing machine for printing on mines and coins with uh automatic digital alignment. We uh we scan the the coins when they move in uh in in uh 40-50 coins in one step uh in the machine, and then we prepare PDF on the back side only for this print bed and uh print uh with uh with uh primer with white cmk and a varnish in a very high end quality of this collector coins. Very, very special thing, and we are uh uh we offer exclusive such a complete solution to this customer. The second uh uh area where we are in digital print activities are uh uh offering digital print engines to integrate in external production lines, means that team does not offer uh the complete machine. Very often customer they have uh running transport system in a in a uh in one row, and they have uh several technologies integrated, and then can Team integrate uh the uh print engine on this transport uh line and uh can directly print in the inline production. This is the second area, and uh the third one is pure special design printers, uh, with very often with uh high level of automation, yeah. 24 hours uh uh production, uh seven days per week, with a high-end uh availability of the machine of 95 percent. This is for uh uh digital printing, uh something as we know from from customers untypical, such a high uh availability of the machine. Uh, we start with our customer from the beginning, from the demands, from the requirement they have, and define which ink do they want or do they need to fulfill the requirements. Uh, which printhead do we need? Do we have a multi-pass print or do we have a single pass print? This all starts from the beginning, very often uh with uh also with a uh or even with uh a prototype, and then together it will completely uh develop the process, and uh this is something uh which is uh really uh complete uh or which on the market really a special situation that uh that we uh developed the digital process together with the customer, and um and this is very special for team.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, sounds interesting. Um just can I go back to the coins? Yeah. Um, so what application? Obviously, it's shorter run production of coins. Um what is the typical kind of use application? Are you is it casinos? Is it oh no, it's it's it's uh it's uh collector coins.
SPEAKER_00:Gotcha. Gotcha. Yep. Um understand. Okay, when when maybe you can can have a look when when uh when you want to check for only a uh example which is very good, uh uh shows the the printing quality. When you go in Germany, we have at the moment uh uh uh a euro uh series uh called Infectenreich. And Infectenreich coins uh they have uh several different images on the coin, and you can such such products will be uh produced on our machines. Uh such money can be used as money, but such colored uh coins are not uh official in the market.
SPEAKER_01:But yeah, yeah, like a short run special occasion celebrating something. That's a nice, it's a nice kind of application, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. And it's this machine with this special alignment, with this digital alignment. It's typical for this mind uh machine, but this technology and this uh special development can also use uh for other uh topics. For example, you you had in uh in uh you you mentioned it uh casino, for example, uh that we uh you could use such a machine also for uh casinos, but also for other things. In on every on every project where we need a really high-end uh uh retreat on smaller sheets and uh with automatic alignment that's every sheet will align uh separately, and this can you know you can only do with uh uh is a digital alignment, we call it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, very interesting. So really quite a very specific application, but as you said, the other side of things, you can uh do anything from smartphone chips up to architectural glass.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. We can we we are we do it. We we also have project where we uh uh print an uh shielding. This is a cooperation project together with uh Hereos, where we uh print a particle-free silver ink for shielding of smartphone chips. Got it, got it. And this is also a very interesting project, very uh high volume uh project, was also I think four years together with development, building prototypes. Now we are in the serien production, and uh Heraus is the uh ink supplier, is also the the turnkey for the complete machine. So it's all all running over Hereos, but uh team is the producer of that, and uh we we can build and rebuild uh machines up to a uh glass size uh of 7.2 by uh I think two 2.6 or 3 meters. But this was uh screen printing theoretically also possible in uh digital, but clear uh such such big machines uh needs development, needs the ink, needs the head, uh but uh theoretically also possible in digital. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um now going back a few years, Oliver, you and I obviously have known each other for quite a long time, but you were with us uh when we launched the inprint show back in 2014, which was as as you will remember in Hanover, and then moved to Munich in 2015. And you were with us then, which was uh really good to have your support. And uh I guess the reiteration of this industrial print, digital industrial print concept uh event uh in Munich in Motorworld uh in a few days. Well, that is uh that is something that obviously you've chosen to be part of. Why why have you chosen to be part of this?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Okay. Uh one topic uh is you know, uh, you mentioned that uh we was also a part of the uh I say uh pilot group of the inprint. You were yeah, yeah, and we had at this time uh we had uh extremely good experience with uh with you and Marcus uh with the in-print show. The the inprint show was over here uh our best show. It was uh at this time the really one haul, one hall uh with comparable uh payable uh booth. Customer have really been happy to say, okay, I'm coming to the show in one hall, uh see all the uh the partners I need to see. And uh unfortunately the inprint died, you know that when when uh you and Mike was uh uh have uh uh given it over. And uh this was really at this time uh our best show. And when when we heard now from the future print that that you will also start such a new event, and in in such a great location, Munich was fantastic, always fantastic. Yep, and uh also in the motor world, yeah. I think you found a very good uh uh place, and what I personally find very good is also this uh this uh uniform uh booth design uh and uh that you have this separate small exhibition area where we are not uh uh inside because special machines it's uh uh hard to show something on such an exhibition area, and I have a really a very good feeling that we uh will really have there at an interesting event, interesting show that uh with in also interesting uh program with presenters, and so I have a very good feeling of the show.
SPEAKER_01:Good, good. I'm really pleased that you're with us. It's uh it's always a pleasure to have T-mail working with us because as you said, you were very much part of that development of the concept. Um, and uh, you know, as as things run today, we're a week away from the event and we have about 300 people registered, which is really good, and there's some very, very good people on there. I'm looking forward to seeing the people that will come through the door. So so I and I'm hoping for for you it'll be uh very good in terms of uh the kind of focus. Well, talking about the focus, um, what is it that you at Tima will be focusing on specifically at the event?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, as mentioned before, we are focused on these three pillars means uh uh means this uh coin, yep, coin printer, then this print engine. What what is really uh not uh very uh known or not very uh active launched on the market? This is quite new. We started two years ago with this strategic with this strategic direction, yeah, and also this is special special design. These three pillars will be our focus on uh on the show.
SPEAKER_01:And and of course, Stefan Holtzer is gonna be speaking in the conference. Yeah, what's he gonna be talking about?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Stefan, our uh tech head of technical uh uh or our technical director will present uh two very interesting uh industrial digital projects. Uh one it's really high-end, it's uh full automatic printing line for uh guide bars of uh saw plates. And uh we we supplied such five of such systems to one customer the last four years in three different countries, really running in a in a uh full automation uh process coming from the process uh before uh the lacquering, then it's uh flaming, then our printing station coming, and then the sheets are going directly uh to the packaging, printing uh every three and a half seconds uh one uh uh sheet on both sides, inclusive primer, inclusive uh CMYK. This is one project Stefan will present, and the other project is uh a single price project where we integrate our print engine in an existing customer transport system. Yeah, but we print uh small saw plates in a printing speed of uh as a real thaw plates, not another the guide bar, it's a different customer. We print saw plates uh in a volume of 18,000 sheets per hour.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, that's pretty impressive.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And Stefan will present the uh these uh two projects, inclusive uh video sequences of it. Yeah, and uh I think will really be very interesting.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think you're right. That's gonna be quite exciting. Um are there any other things that you're particularly doing at the moment that might be interesting for the audience?
SPEAKER_00:Uh from from the from the digital uh side, I think uh uh we we can explain well, we have explained uh now such a lot of uh things of them. So uh then uh what what we do in in uh screen screen printing, this is also maybe interesting, is we launched uh uh on the on the SPI show last show, our uh new full automatic uh screen printing machine with automatic uh uh uh alignment of the sheet and also of the screen. Will be this project is very interesting. Uh so means today uh a huge volume of machines um are integrated with camera assistance. Team had uh a fantastic year last year, uh will also be seems to be that this year will also be very good. So uh I will all customer I can invite come come to us, come to team, use our uh technology center with uh several screen printing machines, several digital printer, uh drawing uh possibilities with our partner Ludgraph. So you are invited uh for printing tests. We are well available. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good.
SPEAKER_01:Um, well, listen, it's gonna be good and interesting to see you. Uh, thank you for joining us uh for the podcast. It's good to find out a bit more about what Tima are doing. Particularly interested in store blades, that's interesting. I know you've been doing that for a few years. That's quite an interesting application. Um and and I guess when you show a store blade, that you there's other ways that you can use that kind of same technology for other materials. Uh obviously, metal is one of them. Does it print on other things like plastic and glass?
SPEAKER_00:We we can print on on all. The question is always uh material handling, glass, uh, metal, all other is uh we can uh use it uh without problem. The question is always what are the customer demands regarding uh adhesion and uh scratch resistance. This project for the for the soaps was uh the side bars. There are this was very special with high requirements to adhesion and uh scratch resistance. It depends on the material and what on what and what the customer needs. We are flexible in ink, means we can use inks that we are using already, but we can also use uh customized inks or that the customer has already inks from his other process completely free. We are we have a uh uh ink-free system, we have a head-free system, and depends about the needs of the customer, and uh then we integrate it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that sounds quite interesting. Um, well, listen, uh it's been good to chat to you. Is there anything else that you wanted to just add as a final comment um before we see you next week?
SPEAKER_00:No, final comment. Come to see us, bring us your problems, and we help to solve it. Brilliant.
SPEAKER_01:Listen, good to speak to you, Oliver. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for being part of this. Thank you very much, Brent. It's great to speak to you, and I look forward to seeing you in a few days.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, thank you. Thanks for the possibility. to talk. Okay, see you next week. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
