Irish Printer - August 2015

AUGUST 2015 || THE VOICE OF THE INDUSTRY || WWW.IRISHPRINTER.IE

THE NEW PAPER PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

BUYOUT STRENGTHENS PRINT SUPPLY CHAIN

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GPMI Graphic & Paper Merchants Ireland

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AUGUST 2015 CONTENTS

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News

A round up of some of the latest news from the Irish print industry.

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Sponsors Preview

In the second of our pre-awards previews, we profile some of the category sponsors in the Irish Print Awards who are supporting print companies and helping to drive innovation and profitability in the industry.

Packaging

Packaging specialist and freelance journalist Des King provides some brand new perspectives on packaging print in advance of drupa 2016.

Exhibition Preview

Irish Printer gives readers a sneak preview of some of the innovations that are worth a visit at Labelexpo 2015.

Colour Management

Gary Orr, Managing Director of Equator Design, examines a solution that could give all stakeholders what they require on a packaging job.

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Cover Story It has been an uncertain and turbulent few months for the former Paperlinx Ireland. However, in this issue of Irish Printer, Enda Brophy, Managing Director of the new Graphic & Paper Merchants Ireland, tells the industry why it is now business as usual at Fonthill.

Litho

We reveal why the UK’s first KBA LED press a four-colour B1 Rapida 105 - is a ‘marketing dream’ for Dorset print house, Blackmore Ltd.

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The Big Picture Bjorn Willems, Director of Product Management at Enfocus, looks at how automation can help printers manage the unique challenges of large format production.

What’s New in Print

■ Anti-Counterfeit Design ■ Mimaki’s Greenguard Gold certification

■ Gandy Digital’s Gladi8tor UV flatbed printer

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EDITOR’S LETTER

elcome to the August edition of Irish Printer magazine.

As we move into the quiet time of year for Irish printers it is good to reflect on the fortunes of the industry in 2015 and to ponder the prospects for the remainder of the year. September to December is always the busiest period for print companies and it appears that this year is likely to be no exception.

While many companies are still struggling to stay in business, a number of operators have reached a point where they are in a position to invest in new equipment. This is always a sign that trading is beginning to improve in our sector.

Cashin Print has recently taken delivery of a Speedmaster SX 102-2-P and is also currently installing a Xerox iGen 150 digital press. A Speedmaster SX 52-4-P, a B3 four-colour perfector, has been installed at Gortreagh Printing in Co Tyrone, and Browne Printers in Donegal invested in a HP L360 press earlier this year.

One of the interesting aspects of the recent spate of investments, which we will also be reporting on in the September issue, is that they are in the litho as well as the digital space. Litho printers and litho press manufacturers have been hit hard by the growth of digital print in recent years and by the global economic downturn. That is why it is so encouraging to hear that for every month this year business at Browne Printers’ litho printing operation is up on the corresponding month last year.

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But the development that should give the industry the most confidence is the resilience of a major Irish paper supplier. It has been an uncertain and turbulent few months for the former Paperlinx Ireland. However, following a recent management buy out, the company is trading as Graphic & Paper Merchants Ireland and is now the largest independent merchant on the island.

What is most heartening about the happy ending for Graphic & Paper Merchants Ireland is that, despite major problems in Paperlinx companies in other jurisdictions, the Irish operation, which many assumed would be vulnerable to these developments, was able to stay in business and face the future with its brands, supply chain and customers intact.

GPMI’s emergence from a turbulent period should boost confidence in the strength of the Irish printing industry’s supply chain at home and abroad. It may also provide those print companies that aren’t engaging in a race to the bottom with the inspiration to struggle on, safe in the knowledge that they can win out in the end.

Maev Martin, Editor Email: maev.martin@ashvillemediagroup.com Tel: (01) 432 2271

THE TEAM Editor: Maev Martin Editorial Manager: Mary Connaughton Creative Director: Jane Matthews Layout: Antoinette Sinclair Production Manager: Mary Connaughton Production: Claire Kiernan Printed by: Walsh Colour Print on 130gsm Cyclus Print, a 100% recycled matt coated sheet, manufactured by Arjowiggins Graphic and supplied by Antalis.

Contact: Irish Printer, Ashville Media Group, Old Stone Building, Blackhall Green, Dublin 7 Tel: (01) 432 2200 Web: www.irishprinter.ie

All rights reserved. Every care has been taken to ensure that the information contained in this magazine is accurate. The publishers cannot, however, accept responsibility for errors or omissions. Reproduction by any means in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. © Ashville Media Group 2015.

All discounts, promotions and competitions contained in this magazine are run independently of Irish Printer. The promoter/ advertiser is responsible for honouring the prize.

ISSN 0790-2026

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TEN TOP STORIES

A paper showcase for corporate buyers.

Paperworld 2016 Paperworld, the world’s leading trade fair for the office supplies, stationery products and paper sector, opens its doors from January 30th to February 2nd 2015 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Pulling the industry together in one location, Paperworld is an industry forum, source of ideas and order platform for the wholesaler and retailer sectors, as well as for corporate buyers. With over 1,641 international exhibitors and 42,152 visitors from all over the globe in 2015, Paperworld showcases new products, from office supplies, writing and drawing utensils, to school articles, gifts, wrapping materials, stationery and greeting cards. Apart from the latest product innovations, the show will also look at trends, including the impact of the rise in electronic media on the greeting cards sector.

Electronic media and the greeting cards sector.

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TEN TOP STORIES Tim O’Dea, Director of Development, Barretstown, Karen O’Connor, General Manager Service Delivery, Datapac, and Dee Ahearn, CEO, Barretstown.

Datapac Transforms Technology Services for Barretstown Datapac has been working with Barretstown, the charity for children suffering from serious illness, to upgrade its ICT infrastructure on its 500 acre facility in Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare. Barretstown was set up in 1994 and has welcomed more than 30,000 campers from across Ireland and Europe since opening. It runs residential camps throughout the year for children and families living with serious illness, an expanding hospital outreach programme and a bereavement programme for families dealing with the loss of a child. Datapac was chosen as the technology advisor and partner for Barretstown, with responsibility for the upgrading of its ICT infrastructure which included existing networks, servers, business continuity systems, PCs, laptops and the introduction of a high-speed broadband service for the first time. Barretstown’s rural setting in the foothills of the mountains in east Kildare meant that broadband speeds had only ever achieved maximum speeds of less than 5 Mbps. The solutions provided will now see the charity benefit from dedicated speeds in excess of 50 Mbps. Datapac redesigned the network across the campus, including the onsite medical facility, activity rooms, accommodation units and the administration centre. With upgraded hardware, each staff member can now get instant access to their applications and data from any location across the campus, resulting in improved productivity and better ways of working.

New virtual servers were also installed with a view to improving data speeds, increasing uptime and allowing data to be moved easily and securely into the cloud.

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Cashin Beefs Up Water Treatment Cashin Print has installed a technotrans alpha.r 10 water treatment unit, a more robust system to cope with the higher print output at its Castlebar pressroom.

The company, which has started work on a 15,000 square foot pressroom extension, has recently taken delivery of a Speedmaster SX 102-2-P for its pharma manuals section work. It is the company’s fourth Heidelberg press so there is quite a demand for dampening solution, and the quality and control will be enhanced by having water with predictable pH and hardness. “We had a smaller technotrans unit running a few presses but with the installation of an additional press we needed a larger capacity unit to run the entire pressroom,” says Managing Director Damien Cashin.

“We control as many aspects of the print process as possible. This results in consistent print quality on all shifts at all times, which increases production efficiency. The technotrans alpha.r is a reliable and well proven unit and we like the low maintenance and long filter life. We will change filters approximately every three months. The technotrans technology is familiar to the operators and we found the installation to be well planned and efficient.” Cashin Print operates a double day shift, giving 16 hours a day cover. It is also currently installing a Xerox iGen 150 digital press.

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TEN TOP STORIES

Latex Upgrade Working Well in Letterkenny (l-r): Managing Director Seamus Browne, Darren Browne, and Diatec’s Peter Morrow.

A reduced requirement for lamination, unattended overnight printing, and an expanded substrate capability are just some of the benefits that Letterkennybased Browne Printers Ltd are reporting since they upgraded from a solvent to a latex wide format machine earlier this year. The HP L360 press was installed in January and was supplied by HP Gold Partner, Dublin-based Diatec Ltd. It replaced a HP wide format digital machine that Browne had been operating. “The HP L360 offers unattended printing so they can print overnight and leave it to dry immediately and there are no fumes,” says Peter Morrow, Graphic Sales Manager, Diatec. “They did pop ups for the Donegal Rally in an afternoon whereas with the solvent press they would have had to wait a couple of days to complete the job. Also, the latex press prints onto a wider range of substrates, including fabrics. Browne Printers like it because they can print onto reflective materials for road signage and they particularly like the good adhesion and anti-scratch properties which means they don’t have to laminate as much. They were also happily surprised that it was a cheaper machine to run than the solvent model. Darren told me that he was asked by a supplier to do up a sample book of 20 different materials and because the machine has its own spectrophotometer he could profile all 20 materials himself. The HP L360 can download ICC Profiles from the HP media finder – it is the only model in the L300 series that can do that. The machine also has a five year guarantee from 3M.” Browne Printers Managing Director Seamus Browne says that while litho printing is their core business, large format became an increasingly important part of their operation during the recession and continues to be growing sector for them. “We also operate an Epson press – we do a lot of fine art reproduction for both large format and litho,” he says. ”And we have a Xerox press for general SRA 3 digital jobs. 65% of our total output is trade work for litho, digital, and large format.” So why did they invest in the latex machine? “We believed that having this technology in our service portfolio would be a good move for us and it has paid off,” says Seamus. “We couldn’t give any of the materials that were coming off our solvent printer to clients in the food and medical industries.

Also, the inks are non-scratch and are instantly dry coming off the machine, which means we can make up banners and similar items right away instead of having to wait overnight for them to dry. We can get roll-up banners and posters out on the same day that the artwork arrives in.” There has been very little in the way of positive news about litho printing or its prospects in the Irish or global market in recent years but Browne Printers is reporting strong growth in its litho printing business over the past year. “Every month this year our litho printing operation is up on the corresponding month last year,” says Seamus. “Browne Printers Ltd is celebrating 25 years in business on September 1st and

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I am in the trade 44 years in January. It is a changing market – if we were depending on our litho output 10 years ago, which was stationery, flyers and brochures, we would be out of business. We have moved to where the litho print market is and that means that the printer has to have a lot of strings to their bow. We are always trying to increase innovation within the company by providing more services in print and design. For example, the short run book market has grown beyond expectation and we provide a full service from concept to print. Our litho output is varied but it is now mainly magazines, catalogues, and short run history book publications. We have grown the latter significantly over the past 20 years, both thread sewn and case bound books.

Our main litho press is a B2 Manroland 500 four colour with coater and we also operate a two-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster and a Printmaster, also from Heidelberg.” Browne Printers finish all of the magazines that they print in-house. “We fold, section and finish them on a Muller Martini and we have a Duplo system that we use for short run book work,” he says. “We also operate a Polar guillotine on the print floor and on the finishing floor.”

The manroland 500 B2 press

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TEN TOP STORIES

Ricoh Promotes ‘Mobile First’ Strategy

New Print Technologies at drupa Cube Visitors to drupa 2016 will experience a new approach to innovation in print when they stop by the drupa cube. This special conference and event programme will feature a wide range of applications for printed products in numerous industries and walks of life. “New technologies like printed electronics and 3D printing, creative multi-channel applications, and the use of digital printing techniques in packaging and other sectors continue to illustrate the amazing potential of print,” says Sabine Geldermann, Director of drupa. “This potential is the focus of drupa cube, with its international conference and event programme. Through an interdisciplinary approach, it is also designed to bridge the knowledge gap about the relevancy and functionality of print that often exists between printing professionals and their creative agency, marketing, and brand owner clients across a variety of vertical markets.”

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It may seem counter-intuitive for printing companies to be concerned about a mobile-first strategy. Not so, according to a new white paper sponsored by Ricoh Europe called Making the Most of Mobile: What a ‘Mobile-First’ Strategy Means for Your Business. Ricoh commissioned the white paper, written by industry expert Cary Sherburne, to identify the opportunities that mobile technologies present for printing businesses of all sizes. The paper explores three aspects of mobile that apply to industries but focuses on how they can be applied by printing companies. The first aspect is how mobile technologies can be leveraged in your own business to improve productivity in terms of production and business management and employee satisfaction. The second focus is on what you need to consider in terms of client-facing applications in order to give them the flexibility of conveniently and comfortably accessing your business from any device, anywhere, anytime to order print and other products and review job status. The third area looks at how you can take advantage of the rapid adoption of mobile technologies to add new (profitable) products and services to your portfolio that not only generate new revenue streams but add value to your clients’ businesses. “These days, the rules of the game change quickly and both printing firms and their customers need to be able to change along with them,” says Cary Sherburne. “Printing firms that have employed a mobile-first strategy are uniquely positioned to help their clients in marketing departments play a different game and this white paper provides a good base to start from, either to re-evaluate existing strategies or to establish and execute new ones.”

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TEN TOP STORIES

IN BRIEF Fespa to Run Textile Event in October

Fespa UK Association is to run a textile print event on October 7th and 8th. Fabric Printing Now will be held at the Textile Centre of Excellence in Huddersfield and will examine fabric printing, coating and surface modification techniques, both analogue and digital. The event will comprise presentations, practical demonstrations, and a table-top exhibition.

Horizon Launches Point of Sale Pods

Leading large format printers Horizon are introducing new Point of Sale (POS) pods to the Irish market. Using cloud technology, their pods deliver remotely managed advertising content to targeted audiences through highdefinition display screens. In addition, the pods have six safe and secure individual key-coded compartments for charging smartphones. “POS advertising is going through a really exciting time at the moment,” says Tony Gillen, Sales Director of the Dublin-based printer. “These digital pods will add incredible value to a variety of businesses, including retail, hospitality, tourism, food and travel.”

The pods come fully resourced with a technical team trained to install them and provide a maintenance service. Horizon is on hand to create and manage the artwork displayed, providing a full back-up service every step of the way. Currently installed in The Dundrum Shopping Centre, Horizon is working with a variety of brands to roll out the new product nationwide.

The Roland SolJet Pro XR-640 – available from Neopost Ireland.

Visit a Neopost Roadshow Near You Neopost Ireland is hosting two events in September and October that will showcase some of the latest finishing technologies to hit the Irish market.

First stop is Dublin’s Croke Park where Neopost will exhibit on September 8th and 9th. Printers will be treated to demonstrations of two new systems – the Duplo 600i and iSaddle. “The 600i and the iSaddle are changing the landscape of booklet making for print houses,” says Neopost Marketing Executive Yvonne Maguire. “The 600i booklet system is a fully automatic system offering intelligent versatility and precision to both offset and digital printers. Combining the high speed intelligent DSC-10/60i collator towers and the easy to use DBM-600 booklet maker and trimmer provides the operator with the ability to finish booklets of all sizes, including A4 landscape. The iSaddle family offers a wealth of features that allows commercial and digital printers to grow and improve the profitability of their business. The iSaddle is a future proof investment because of its new revolutionary saddle stitching technology and A4 landscape capabilities.” Neopost Ireland’s Croke Park event will run from 8:30am to 7pm each day and those who attend will also receive a free stadium tour. The final stop for the Neopost roadshow is Belfast where they will exhibit in the Culloden Hotel on October 6th. “We will take a full range of print and sign kit with us on the day,” says Yvonne. “Our ‘Change Gear’ print roadshow will show you how to expand into exciting, high margin segments such as wide-format print, promotional printing, vehicle graphics, sign-making, print finishing, direct mail fulfilment and more. You will receive one-on-one demonstrations, updates on the latest technology, and sample prints. We are also delighted to announce that The Magic Touch, suppliers of image transfer papers and equipment, will be joining us in Belfast to showcase and talk about their product and service range.”

To find out more about each of the upcoming events call 01 6250900 or email info@neopost.ie

Digital Pods at Dundrum Shopping Centre.

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TEN TOP STORIES

Magazines Ireland Campaign for Zero VAT Rate Magazines Ireland, the association of Irish magazine publishers, has asked the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan to reduce the VAT rate on magazines to zero per cent in Budget 2016, which will be announced in October.

“While recognising that the recession has impacted on virtually all elements of the economy, the magazine sector has suffered disproportionately, with increased competition from other jurisdictions,” says Rebecca Markey, Chairman, Magazines Ireland. “The proximity of the UK market with its plethora of titles flooding the Irish magazine market provides an ongoing threat to the Irish magazine sector.

Many of our European neighbours enjoy more attractive rates of VAT on magazines. Our nearest neighbour, the UK, enjoys a zero per cent VAT rate, giving them significant advantages over indigenous Irish publishers. Furthermore, in the last few years our members have been hit with huge increases across the entire cost base, including paper, printing, distribution and postage.” The association says that reducing the VAT on magazines to zero per cent would be a positive move for the industry. “There is a benefit for society as a whole,” says Rebecca Markey. “It is our view that reduced VAT rates for printed editions would help to ease consumer access to the press and contribute greatly to public policy goals, while helping to guarantee a strong independent and vibrant press sector. Over 750 people are directly employed in the industry with a further 2,874 jobs, such as freelance journalists, photographers and models, reliant on the sector. A zero VAT rate would help to sustain an industry under threat, protect employment, encourage more people to read magazines, support local communities and assist in improving education and literacy levels. We urge the Minister to address this issue and to reduce the VAT rate on magazines to zero per cent on Budget Day.”

Gortreagh Printing Upgrades Four-Colour Capability A Speedmaster SX 52-4-P, a B3 four-colour perfector, has been delivered to Gortreagh Printing in Co Tyrone, which has had at least 60 printing machines from Heidelberg since it began trading in 1956. Managing director Winston McAdoo has been with the company for 52 years and remembers the battery of platens and cylinders already in place when he arrived. Today the Cookstown company still has two cylinders (used for cutting, creasing and perforating) and two platens for handling board work and preparing it for print.

The four-colour SX 52 replaces a four-colour GTO and will run alongside two other B3 presses, a singlecolour and a two-colour. These all operate on flexible day shifts to meet customer demand. “The GTO was ten years old and press technology has moved on so we needed to invest,” says Winston McAdoo. “The installation and training took place over 10 days and we now have a machine with a top speed of 15,000sph which will safely and reliably output 12,000 sheets an hour. It will run four-colour work most of the time but the perfecting gives us back up for the spot colour pharmaceutical leaflet work we handle.” Gortreagh Printing has also updated its guillotining over the past two years with two new Polar 92s. It also has collators and booklet-makers in house as well as a full graphics service. Heidelberg offers both litho and digital options in B3 format. These include the Speedmaster SX 52 Anicolor and the conventional Speedmaster SX 52 and Speedmaster SM 52, as well as latest generation digital machines – the Linoprint CP and CV models.

The Speedmaster SX 52-4-P.

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COVER STORY

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STEAM AHEAD It has been an uncertain and turbulent few months for the former Paperlinx Ireland. However, in this issue of Irish Printer, Enda Brophy, Managing Director of the new Graphic & Paper Merchants Ireland, tells the industry why it is now business as usual at Fonthill.

BELOW: The Magno uncoated paper range and Stora Enso’s LumiArt & LumiSilk brands.

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AT GPMI

M

ark Twain famously said “reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

It is probably an overused quotation but it seems to be a particularly appropriate one, given the rumours that circulated in the Irish print industry about the future of Paperlinx Ireland following the demise of the UK operation a few months ago.

However, in June, instead of a diluted or nonexistent Irish operation, Paperlinx Ireland was the subject of a successful Management Buy Out. The business was acquired by Paperlinx’s former Divisional Director Ireland Enda Brophy. The new company is trading as Graphic & Paper Merchants Ireland (GPMI).

“When Paperlinx in the UK went into Administration it was a shock for all UK customers and staff,” says GPMI Managing Director Enda Brophy. “The Paperlinx brand had became toxic overnight! Despite Paperlinx Ireland being a successful business and never even coming close to entering administration, some of the larger paper suppliers had lost or were about to lose millions and, as a direct result of that, we had a challenging time keeping credit lines open as we were part of the same organisation. Although we

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COVER STORY were fully up-to-date with all of our suppliers, several of them would only supply on a proforma basis. This was difficult for a while as we were trying to maintain the service and availability levels to all commercial print and sign & display customers that had existed prior to Paperlinx in the UK going into administration. But the situation in the UK was well documented in the trade press and this led to uncertainty with some customers who became concerned about reliability of supply and then engaged alternative merchants. It was quite uplifting for Sonny and I and the rest of the sales team to see the support and the loyalty of our customers, their kind words and phone calls and, most of all, their understanding when we were going through this. This a tribute to the solid relationships that we have built up with them over the years and the relationships that we hope will continue for years to come. Also, despite the uncertainty following the Paperlinx UK administration, the vast majority of our staff in both sites stayed totally motivated and loyal and this, in addition to our excellent customer base, inspired the moves for a takeover.”

Leaving aside the negative assumptions that many in the trade made about the viability of the Irish operation, did the collapse of Paperlinx UK result in the loss of any brands or distribution agreements? “We had a few issues but supply lines for four of our largest paper suppliers remained open throughout the period (albeit on a reduced credit line basis),” says Enda. “These suppliers had all indicated that they would resume normal service if we left the Paperlinx group and that happened on June 11th following 11 weeks of negotiations. On the coated paper side, we are continuing to sell all grades and sizes of Lumi. We are very proud to have built up the Lumi brand in Ireland over the past few years and we will continue to be the largest distributor. On the uncoated side, we are selling the Magno brand. We also stock recycled, alongside a full range of copier and digital papers. For the remainder of this year and into 2016, we will be continuing our supply of coated papers and offset papers and of our sign & display portfolio, which is a steadily growing business for us throughout the island of Ireland. All of the market leaders are on board with us, including Stora Enso, Sappi, Brett Martin, Avery, NI Plastics and 3M, and we will be strengthening their brands in our market place by continuing to grow our business as a whole.”

Now that there is a new ownership structure in place and a new company name, will the company be prioritising different product lines with customers? “GPMI will continue to offer the same service levels as before and we don’t have any plans to change the way that we operate with our customers regarding supply,” says Enda. “We will continue in the same vein and we will have an even greater focus on our stock range to ensure that we can service all of our market sectors in Ireland. I feel we have a great opportunity to make a real impact in Ireland and the business is already growing rapidly. GPMI are now the largest independent merchant in Ireland and we will continue to operate from our custom built facility in Fonthill Business Park in Dublin and Mallusk in Belfast.

Following the MBO, and now that the uncertainty is behind us, we would like to sincerely thank all of our customers for sticking with us and having the patience to work with us in the past few months.”

BELOW: Foamalux PVC.

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An unbeatable paper, packaging and sign & display portfolio.

GPMI Packaging GPMI Packaging are one of the largest industrial packaging suppliers within the commercial print,VTS and industrial plastics trade in Ireland. “We provide quality products at competitive prices alongside branded products so, depending on your budget or requirement, we have a suitable product for you,” says Enda Brophy.

“Our sales team is capable of reducing your packaging spend, providing free audits, and working with you to suggest alternative products or methods to reduce your overall costs.” GPMI Packaging offer: corrugated boxes; packing tapes; specialised tapes; stretch films; polythene sheets and hood; postal packaging; palletisation strapping and tools; protective packaging; shrink films; pallet wrapping machines; heat shrink chambers; VTS accessories (hook and loops, glue dots, surface cleaner, primer and rollers); and poly bags.“We can also offer a full printed range for most of our packaging lines so if print companies require help on a bespoke job they shouldn’t hesitate to contact a member of our packaging sales team,” says Enda.

GPMI’s Sign & Display division will be rolling out a number of promotions on its product ranges to reward the loyalty of its customers in recent months, starting with the new product launch of Avery 1104 printable cast vinyl. “We advise customers to contact our sales team or their sales representative for our current promotions,” says Enda. “We would like to thank all of our sign and display customers for their continued support throughout the transition from Paperlinx to our new company - Graphic & Paper Merchants Ireland. We are delighted to be able to continue to offer the widest product range available to the sign and graphics, digital wide format and plastics for industry in Ireland. Throughout our 30 plus years of serving this industry in Ireland, from both Dublin and Belfast, we have been synonymous with supplying quality products, coupled with a high level of service, from our long-established and knowledgeable account managers and inside sales team. We have been working hard to retain all of the brands and quality products that our loyal customers have been used to and we will continue to develop and expand this range as we grow over the next few years. A number of brands that we have been supplying over the years, such as the complete Avery portfolio, Skybond aluminium composite, Foamalux PVC, Huntsman fluted display and dtec, will make a welcome return over the coming weeks. Our industrial plastics division, headed up by Stephen McCann and Shane Martin in Dublin and Joanna Long in Belfast, will be bringing new and exciting products to the industry in the near future. Our industrial plastics division will continue to offer brands such as Lexan, Simona, Altuglas, Polycassa and Lumex, and our Bright Green Technology LED range, which has experienced fantastic growth since its launch three years ago, will continue to support the retail and shop-fitting industries.”

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COLOUR MANAGEMENT

Fixed palette printing (FCP) is the process of working with a common set of inks to produce a desired print result. Gary Orr, Managing Director of Equator Design, examines a solution that could give all stakeholders what they require in a packaging job.

Fixed Colour

PALETTE

hen designers are given a blank canvas with no limitations they will shine and produce wonderful, creative visuals. However, bringing such blue sky imagination to life can be challenging and it is a challenge that production/ repro teams and printers have been dealing with on an almost daily basis. For me, the design and print world is similar to the construction industry. Designers are our architects, production/repro are our engineers and printers are the builders. Like architects, designers will generally create something that will be difficult to build.

Engineers are like production/repro – they think

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about and devise ways to keep the essence of the project while allowing it to be built (printed). And, finally, printers are the builders who take the visual and the technically prepared file and bring it all to life. This analogy highlights the role of each stakeholder and further emphasises the part that each plays in the creative process. But if we truly want to receive the rewards that fixed colour palette offers, we must cross the demarcation line and unify all the stakeholders. The success of a fixed colour palette starts at the very beginning with the creatives and not at the press side. Building designs that incorporate the FCP process provide all stakeholders with the best opportunity to meet the expectations of the client. Therefore, design agencies must design with a knowledge of FCP capabilities, while engaging with the client early in the process to ascertain their expectations and to, ultimately, create graphics that stand out on the shelf.

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COLOUR MANAGEMENT Costs

The rising price of commodities is putting huge pressures on the design and print industries,so we have to research alternative solutions that might help to ease these pressures. Fixed palette printing could be one way to reduce your commodity requirements and achieve overall cost reductions on jobs. I would like to gear the conversation towards flexo printing as this is where I believe we could see the most significant possibilities for FCP. The introduction of HD Flexo plates into the market has really accelerated developments and has enabled the quality to edge even closer to that produced by gravure printing. PPP, a plate maker in Manchester that Equator Design has worked with for the last six years, has made huge advancements with their Fusion plate technology and their understanding of FCP. Fixed palette printing will require the new standards of flexo printing as the processes involved have to be quite rigid. We have to change our whole mentality in the industry. All stakeholders need to work more closely together and each stakeholder has to get involved in the process from the start of the project so that we can manage expectations.

Starting Point

The starting point for a printer when considering FCP printing comes well before the selection of the right combination of colours.

FCP printing is evolving and it requires that printers know what they are trying to accomplish and what level of commitment is needed. In the first instance, it is important to have a clear understanding about why you want to move in this direction. Is it driven by a customer or is it because you want to optimise a new press or gain new business? To really get the economic benefits that can flow from the adoption of FCP printing a printer must have a have a clear path for implementation and have a sufficient amount of work/jobs that they can deliver using the process. This also requires a clear communication path with customers and/ or potential customers as to their interest and commitment.

Efficiency and cost savings from FCP printing are derived from reduced changeover time between jobs, the ability to gang up multiple items, less plates (depending on your FCP configuration), quicker make-ready, lower ink inventory, bulk ink purchasing, and reduced demand for spot ink formulation.

Clearly, a high degree of collaboration and early engagement between all of the key stakeholders in the process – brand owners, designers, art workers/repro and printers – is needed for the successful implementation of FCP printing. This earlier engagement will allow all of the stakeholders more confidence in the process and help them to understand the possible end result as well as allowing them to showcase and discuss the expectations and achievable results. Creating realistic expectations about the accuracy of spot colour matching is a critical part of this, along with education of personnel throughout the process. Designers must create artwork that is to a standard that will allow the process to work.

A fundamental question in the workflow is the colour standard.

Is the plan to match a spot colour, or present a known set of colours that the colour space has produced and work within those parameters? Working from a known result is always better than trying to match a spot colour. So we must work from the build of the colour and not from the actual spot colour. Ideally, the creation of a client colour palette based on the FCP and created

With the processes, equipment,tools,and software that are available now, Fixed Colour Palette has become less of a magic show and more of a practical show.

with an industry standard will have the best chance of success.

In some cases this may require shifts in the colours of the brands to a colour space that is more consistently reproduced than the former brand colour. The most common challenge for FCP is that it can be more challenging to obtain tight colour reproduction using halftone overprinting than it is when printing a solid spot colour ink, or where previously you had two spot colours interacting.

Process Control

Tight registration is mandatory if you are to match spot colours with process inks. The ability to hold tight registration is a primary requirement, but not the only one. Process control and colour management are also fundamentals. All stakeholders must understand what it means to aim for targets and then establish those targets as well as have the tools to measure the targets. Having these processes in place will help with the achievement of consistency, which is essential. Typical brand specifications require the achievement of under two DeltaE over the entire run. This requires a lot of process control. If the expectation of the client is less restrictive, then less process control is required. However, process control can’t be something that you dip in and out of. Managing colour on the press beyond density and dot gain/tonal value now becomes an absolute necessity. Spectrophotometers are our friends and shouldn’t be seen as a big brother resource. They are required to monitor our outputs, densities and LAB numbers etc to aid consistency.

FCP Benefits BELOW: Walkers crisps - printed four colour process fixed palette.

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There are a lot of benefits. These include a reduction in makeready and waste, the ability to gang jobs on a single press run, the ability to use finer anilox rollers for lighter ink laydown, and the possibility to increase press speeds, ultimately leading to less ink consumption. On the client side, they will notice time-tomarket improvements, lower prices, improved quality, and they will be afforded greater flexibility to adjust to market changes and to therefore engage in promotional activity as they strive to differentiate themselves in the market place. So, with the processes, equipment, tools, and software that are available now, Fixed Colour Palette has become less of a magic show and more of a practical show. Maybe it is time for designers and printers to help their clients adapt their brand/artwork and demonstrate the innovation and cost savings that can be achieved when all stakeholders adopt a mutually beneficial process – Fixed Colour Palette.

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PACKAGING

BRAND

NEW

PERSPECTIVES

IN PACKAGING PRINT

It is often a particular spot colour, a distinctive font, or the artful application of a metallic ink on the exterior of the pack that initiates the relationship between a brand and a consumer.

Packaging specialist and freelance journalist Des King reports.

ooks count and first impressions matter. How products are judged by their many differing attributes – not least fitness for purpose, consistent reliability and value for money – will determine the extent to which they build market share on an ongoing basis.

Prior to that, however, with impressive print packaging, brands can seduce a customer into changing their mind at the point of purchase.

“We would end up with less brand and more bland were it not for the attention that the packaging attracts,” says Superbrands Founder Marcel Knobil. Superbrands is acclaimed worldwide as being an independent authority and arbiter of branding

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excellence and is committed to paying tribute to exceptional brands and promoting the discipline of branding. As well as being the ‘eye candy’ that hooks the consumer in the first instance, a perfectly reproduced external image provides consumers with an often subliminal product recognition and reassurance that can be the brand owner’s banker in a congested retail space. Today’s packaging trends are driven by longer supermarket opening hours, continually enhanced print technologies and capabilities, and the demand to protect brands and increase recognition. Not only surviving but attaining the status as the preferred choice under such highly testing conditions is one half of the brand owner’s greatest challenge. The other is to meet it at an affordable cost.

Controlling Quality With the high probability of colour variations occurring not only between different substrates, but also print processes and, indeed, from one printer to another, not only in different locations but even when they are running presses made by the same manufacturer, maintaining consistency can be a complex undertaking. The best way to meet it is to ensure that all the contributory links

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PACKAGING

within the supply chain that are engaged in steering the progress of a printed pack from hatch to despatch are all able to interact via an open entry web-based platform. “Our vision is to connect the supply chain from the brand owner to the retailer and to make that flow broader and richer,” says Esko Marketing Director Jef Stoffels. “We do this by adding greater functionality which meets the go-to-market and quality needs of CPG (consumer packaged goods) businesses and retailers. We also make it possible for the brand owner to ensure that the flow of data is secure and transparent - mistakes and errors can be picked up early or avoided altogether and the net result is to get products to market faster.”

Similarly, web-based colour management systems can extend the same degree of comfort and control to brand owners over how pre-determined colour parameters are then replicated accurately, irrespective of substrate or supplier. This ensures a guaranteed consistency of colour reproduction that underpins brand authenticity and integrity. The X-Rite PantoneLIVE colour management solution is ideal for the brand owner as it has control over the pre-determined colour parameters. These are then stored in the cloud for use as and when required by their supply chain. This ensures accurate replication of the accredited brand image, irrespective of substrate or supplier.

is still the sector’s most widely used print process and accounts for over 40% of a current global printed packaging market worth around an estimated €250bn per annum. Speed on the press and consistency across substrates are key. Ultimate Packaging has recently installed two additional servo-driven Bobst flexo presses ahead of drupa. Offset has also responded positively to deliver cost-efficient shorter run-lengths. For example, Heidelberg’s Speedmaster Prinect Inpress Control inline automated turbo charged system can change plates between jobs within 10 minutes.

ABOVE: Printers see and hear about the latest technology. BELOW: The 3D effect achieved using Fresnel lens technology provides instant retail standout for cartons containing the global gin brand Bombay Sapphire.

Pressed to Perform Converters equipped with smarter production facilities can be more directly instrumental in achieving cost and performance benefits for brand owners. Using highdefinition flexo plate and software technologies, it is now possible to meet the requirements of 85% of current flexo-printed, flexible packaging without the quality of the finished result being jeopardised by using CMYK + white rather than special inks. “Working out of a reduced colour palette means there are less plates and less waste ink,” says Ultimate Packaging (UK) Sales Director, Chris Tonge. “It ticks a lot of boxes. While global players like Unilever and P&G have been specifying these solutions for the past 10 to 15 years, smaller brands are realising that there is a cost advantage in that you can control the colours a lot better if you set the right standards.”

It is not just improvement at the front-end that is raising quality and performance standards in flexo, which

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PACKAGING

Digital Mindset What has sparked these improvements in analogue press technology is the increasingly potent challenge posed by digital print, not least in meeting brand owner requirements for cost-efficient shorter run lengths – and thereby, lower inventory levels – and the ability to differentiate products on-shelf through customisation. While variable data has always been part and parcel of the digital print proposition, it is now clearly on the retail marketing radar following its successful adoption by high-profile retail marketing campaigns such as those run by Coca Cola, Heineken, Nutella, and a steadily growing band of global blue-chip brands. “To take our brand off the packaging and replace it with something other than the Coca Cola script wasn’t easy to do within a structure like ours, where we operate according to very tight brand guidelines to protect it,” says Coca Cola Packaging Innovator Greg Bentley. “The digital print capability enabled it to happen, but the marketing campaign is the really smart thing.”

Paul Randall, HP Worldwide Brands Business Development Manager, says it is about breaking away from the mindset of packaging being the static bearer of logos and ingredients tables and using it as a media opportunity for consumer engagement to the benefit of the brand. “The combination of technological muscle and marketing inspiration is what it takes to make customisation fly,” he says. “The media landscape has changed. It is becoming increasingly fragmented between above the line spend (bought media), PR and below the line (earned media), and packaging (owned media), with the latter two increasingly linked together. Not surprisingly, brand owners are now regular visitors to HP’s Graphics Experience Centre in Barcelona.” Xeikon operates a similar experience at its technology centre in Antwerp.

“For brand owners attending our Xeikon Café programme, it is a two-track learning curve,” says Labels & Packaging Marketing Director, Filip Weymans. “First, understanding how the benefits of digital production can be translated into diversifying communication towards the audience they are reaching out to and, second, how the technology can address needs within their business model – notably, being faster to market and making better use of working capital.”

While the adoption of digital is an accelerating trend, despite the buzz being created it’s still under-selling its potential. That’s according to SAB Miller Global Packaging Manager, Doug Hutt. “The top 10 brand owners in the world are generating over a quarter of a trillion dollars in sales,” he says. “If just 10% to 20% of these were digitised with the balance going to analogue that is still a very large potential revenue that converters haven’t yet grasped. FMCG companies should be more proactive in going out and talking to the packaging industry – and the packaging industry should be addressing those issues and coming up with solutions.” Meanwhile, faster-running inkjet technology looks poised to dictate the next chapter in the digital packaging print story, not least via the keenly anticipated commercialisation of digital guru Benny Landa’s ‘nanographic’ presses, which are engineered to deliver variable data printed material at offset speeds.

The Finishing Touch Customisation is not the only route to catching the consumer’s eye on-shelf. Short-run, cost-effective special effects such as high gloss, glitter, metallic without recourse to hot-foil stamping, and even Braille, are also within the remit of next-generation digital post-press enhancement technology which is now establishing itself within the finishing sector. Also, cold foiling using the analogue process – notably as an alternative to laminated/ metallised substrates for labels and cartons – is providing

IP August 2015 _Packaging.indd 16

a more cost-effective means of achieving greater stand-out. Meanwhile, at the higher end of the scale is the arresting 3D effect achieved through the use of Fresnel lens technology, which provides instant ‘stand-out’ in retail duty-free for cartons containing the global gin brand Bombay Sapphire. “It’s obviously more expensive than a normal foil by about one-third, but you do get significantly greater impact,” says Dominic Burke, Webb deVlam UK Managing Director. “If you want something that is undeniably eye-catching and alluring then that’s what it takes.”

The New Frontier Gillian Garside-Wight, Sun Branding Solutions Packaging Technology Director, says that the adoption of online-oriented technologies is pointing the way towards next generation applications that are aimed at facilitating greater engagement between brand and consumer.

“Who would have thought that the Apple watch would be available five years ago?” she says. “Brand owners need to deliver what consumers want, including smarter packs that integrate with a digitally-driven smarter lifestyle.” Quite a number of applications on the market bring mobile technology into play. On-pack augmented reality (AR) applications pioneered by Blippar allow users to simply look at an object through the camera on their smartphone to activate an instantaneous digital search and draw down information from the web. In a recent campaign for Perrier, the invitation to consumers to shake their phone like a cocktail shaker to reveal a recipe was a typically innovative way to highlight the overall concept and add fun by using the technology to give the brand a unique advantage.

Rather than position an icon on-pack to facilitate interaction, UK-based pre-press specialist Reproflex3’s proprietary ‘PackLinc’ scanning technology embeds a hidden code within the ink itself, enabling the consumer to effectively treat the entire pack as a portal. Most recently applied within a limited edition run of the children’s POM-BEAR crisp packet, the system was the recipient of EFIA (European Flexographic Industry Association) and the prestigious Starpack gold awards last year.

“Brand owners need a deeper understanding of the processes so that they can help make considered decisions on what is best suited for their brand,” says EFIA Director Debbie Waldron-Hoines. “Both flexo and digital can work wonderfully together to enhance the brand.” Underpinning product security and thereby underpinning brand integrity is another obvious avenue being explored by smart technologies. A fully printed near-field communication sensor tag (NFC) developed by Thin Film Electronics for Diageo’s Johnnie Walker whiskey doubles as a security and anti-counterfeiting device as well as interacting with smartphones to dispense product advice and information.

As a lot of the labelling and pre-printed information currently required to be displayed on-pack is gradually phased out; just imagine the potential for branding afforded by that freed-up real estate. Brands are currently getting maybe only 40% of the pack’s surface for its primary purpose.

However, if one small interactive barcode resolves all the regulatory and legal requirements, 90% of the print surface could be released for marketing the product. “Ironically, the most practical bridge linking brand and consumer might simply entail upgrading the humble linear barcode into a 2D format,” says Domino Printing Sciences Global Account Manager, Craig Stobie.

Whether it be products that communicate with your tablet, or temperature or time sensitive thermochromic inks that indicate when your lager is perfectly chilled or provide the reassurance that pre-packaged meat is safe to eat, the facility for interactivity ticks all the right boxes for forward-looking brand owners. “Brand owners need to meet the challenges faced by counterfeiting, product security in the supply chain, consumer engagement and ‘Big Data’ management,” says Eef de Ferrante, Managing Director of the Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Association (AIPIA). “Brand protection and better marketing of their products are major starting points towards averting potential reputational damage and simply saving money.”

Eye-catching and innovative printed packaging is a shrewd investment towards building a loyal and enduring customer-base. Packaging offers the brand owner a uniquely guaranteed opportunity to control how they communicate with prospective customers face to face in-store at the point of purchase. No surprise then that the way in which the package is printed will occupy centre-stage at drupa 2016.

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COMMERCIAL PROFILE

THE INDUSTRY’S

PARTNER IN PAPER

Irish printers have faced many challenges in recent years, including the ongoing digital revolution and widespread growth of social media platforms. By focusing on innovation, customer service and added value, printers who are supported by trusted suppliers can adapt to these changes and look forward to a positive future.

A

ntalis, the leading paper, packaging and sign and display merchant in Ireland, takes a visionary approach to the market, bringing together the shared expertise and strength of all aspects of its business operations. As a result, the company provides outstanding and trusted customer service while delivering the widest and most innovative range of products and solutions for the print community.

Antalis recognises that if print businesses are to succeed in the current competitive environment they need the tools to be able to add value to their client’s offering.

By keeping their print customers well supplied with the latest and most creative cutting edge substrates, Antalis is playing its part in enabling the printing industry to continue to push the boundaries of print and maintain its place as a key communications media.

An Added Dimension to Print Antalis has recently introduced a number of exclusive new product ranges that offer an added dimension to printed output and are taking innovation to the next level. These include Polyart, the market leading range of environmentally-friendly synthetic paper sheets which provide an ideal alternative when paper and board performance is not enough. With over 40 years of market development, Polyart synthetic paper offers a complete range of films that are designed to withstand the most demanding applications and is easily printed by offset, flexo, thermal transfer and digital technologies.

Polyart comprises a creative and durable polyethylene plastic film, which makes it both UV, water and tearresistant, while its unique print-receptive clay coating gives it a premium matt coated paper-like feel. In addition, its excellent print properties and rapid drying characteristics ensure rich, vivid images without requiring any special preparation or over lamination. With the quality and feel of the paper, and its high levels of tear and water resistance, the versatile range of Polyart

Environmentally friendly carton

products are suited for a wide array of uses. These range from the demands of retail industrial applications, including direct food contact, to the production of manuals, menus, guidebooks, waterproof maps and outdoor signage, as well as labels, tickets, and tags.

The company has also added to its portfolio of plastic substrates with the addition of Priplak, a range of strong yet flexible polypropylene sheets that are ideal for a wide range of applications. This innovative substrate is 100% recyclable, PVC free and is a 35% lighter alternative plastic substrate, providing printers and their customers with a versatile and eco-friendly solution, allowing fine image detail to create high impact communication in campaigns. From point-of-sale and display applications, such as illuminated displays and backlit posters, to packaging, labelling and stationery products, Priplak is corona treated on both sides, enabling it to be printed in UV offset, UV screen and UV digital. Adding to its versatility, Priplak comes in a wide choice of embossed, white, coloured, translucent and opaque finishes, as well as a backlit option for illuminated signs and backlit posters.

For carton package printers, Antalis can now offer the eco-friendly Kromopak, an extremely high gloss, impressively smooth, and exceptionally bright looking carton board manufactured using a combination of high quality recovered paper and certified wood pulp for the more environmentally-conscious customers. Combining a bright attractive look guaranteeing outstanding ‘shelf-presence’ with excellent economic and environmental performance, Kromopak offers yet further choice for carton printers.

An Evolving Range “We understand our customers and their ongoing need to create something new,” says Mark Horgan, Sales Director at Antalis Ireland. “It is therefore important that we stay one step ahead of what is currently happening in the market so that we are constantly providing a choice of products, substrates and solutions that will allow printers to adds that little bit extra to their client offering.” With a market-leading range of over 13,000 products, from paper envelopes and consumables to packaging and sign and display materials, Antalis has something to offer any print business to help them get the best and most cost-effective solution for their specific demands.

Priplak

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For more information, visit www.antalis.ie or call 353 1876 31 00.

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EXHIBITION PREVIEW

BOOSTING SHELF

STAND OUT

IN STORE

Increasing automation, digital flexo plate making, UV curing, and smart prepress solutions are helping printers to help their label and packaging sector clients stand out from the crowd. Irish Printer gives readers a sneak preview of some of the innovations that are worth a visit at Labelexpo 2015 (September 29th - October 2nd at the Brussels Expo in Belgium). t Labelexpo 2015, Esko will present Esko Software Suite 14, its collection of pre-production software tools for labels produced digitally, in offset, flexo, gravure or screen print. Workflow automation is a top priority for successful label manufacturers and with this in mind Esko will be showcasing the Esko Automation Engine, a modular workflow server, and WebCenter, the company’s web-based platform that manages the entire packaging and label project life cycle, including specifications and approvals.

Also on show will be Esko’s portfolio of digital flexo platemaking solutions and the Cyrel Digital Imager (CDI) will take centre stage. “By extending the CDI with Esko HD Flexo and Full HD Flexo technology, flexo print quality has stepped up to previously unseen quality levels comparable to gravure and offset,” says Thomas Kelin, VP Hardware Business at Esko. “Flexo print today delivers high quality results for labels, flexible packaging, corrugated boxes and more.” Esko’s partners at Labelexpo Europe 2015 include – among others –press manufacturers Gallus, Nuova GIDUE, HP Indigo, Mark Andy and Nilpeter; plate vendors Dantex, DuPont, Flint, Fujifilm and MacDermid; and software partners CERM and CHILI Publish.

Fujifilm has extensive experience in the label and packaging market, with the company already a major supplier of aluminium plates to offset packaging printers and UV ink to narrow web label converters. This year’s Labelexpo show will mark the official European debut of its Flenex FW water-washable flexo plate. Flenex FW is a photopolymer plate containing a special rubber-based compound that is not oxygen sensitive, minimising the effect oxygen has on the dot shape. As a result, Fujifilm claims that Flenex guarantees reduced dot gain and better ink transfer for cleaner and brighter print results.

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The plate delivers longer runs for label converters, while producing a consistent 200lpi at 4,400 dpi, one per cent flat top process dot structure. Visitors to the Fujifilm stand will see how Flenex FW reduces plate making processing times to less than 40 minutes which, the manufacturer claims, is three times faster than leading solvent systems and 1.5 times faster than current thermal and water-wash technologies. Fujifilm will also be highlighting how Flenex FW eliminates the expense of higher-cost solvent and thermal processors and why it represents the lowest cost-in-use flexo plate production system. The Flenex FW plate will be part of an integrated production environment at the show, which will also

Esko 3D beer and wine label application.

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EXHIBITION PREVIEW include a dedicated label workflow solution on Fujifilm’s stand. “The plate has been very well received in the US since its introduction there 18 months ago, with installations increasing by the week,” says Peter Verryt, Strategic Business Development, Fujifilm Graphic Systems Europe. MIS specialist Shuttleworth will reveal the latest label industry-specific developments to its MIS package at Labelexpo. The company will demonstrate how they can deliver bespoke software solutions through ‘Shuttleworth Plus’, which is a team of specialist software developers dedicated to delivering bespoke software to customers.

Shuttleworth Plus is able to: deliver integration projects – automating shop floor operations through both JDF/JMF and direct links to machines; provide fully integrating trading websites tailored to meet customers’ individual requirements; help customers develop cross media campaigns through the use of QR codes, mobile apps, websites, purls etc; identify and exploit the use of social media to take advantage of the Big Data opportunities for brand owners; and deliver cloud-based solutions.

Pioneering Presses Mimaki will display new products for the label market that can be created with the Mimaki family of printers. Highlighted at the show will be eye-catching labels embellished with Mimaki’s eco-solvent silver ink, alongside flexible and rigid labels for safety applications such as fire exits and assembly point indicators, delivered on the UJF-6042. Among the wide format printers that Mimaki will be showcasing at Labelexpo are the CJV150 series and the UJF6042 A2 format UV LED flatbed printer. The CJV150 series comes in four different print widths, can print at speeds of up to 56 square metres per hour, and features automatic switching from printing to cutting. The series also offers continuous crop mark detection to deliver accurate contour cutting for even the most complex label layouts, and a new eco-solvent silver ink. With 1800x1800 print quality, the UJF6042 flatbed with LED UV curing has multiple ink options, including white ink, clear varnish and inkjet primer, and can print on a variety of substrates, including glass, metals and acrylics. This printer is suited to the production of rigid or flexible labels, promotional material and packaging prototypes.

More commonly perceived as a wide web press manufacturer, Soma has developed the Optima as a mid web CI press optimised to run label stock paper and film packaging materials. The press, which will be on display at Labelexpo, also bridges the gap between narrow and wide web printing for products such as in-mold and wrap around labels, shrink sleeves, and retort stand-up pouches and sachets, as well as paper sacks, cups and plates. “The Optima has been a great success with our wide web customers, but we are now also identifying label printers that want to offer a wider portfolio of products such as, for example, shrink sleeves,” says Soma Engineering Marketing Manager Peter Blasko. “The Optima is a completely new concept in flexographic printing presses and can handle virtually any product in the mid web field.” Available in 620mm (24 inch) and 820mm (32 inch) widths in up to eight colours, the Optima is capable of speeds of up to 300m/min (984ft/min). The press, which will be running live job demonstrations throughout the show, will be equipped with eight printing units and will feature fast web changeover for reverse printing, intelligent impression adjustment to reduce start-up waste, and Soma’s new print cartridge system for spot colours. Soma claims that the latter offers printers a means of significantly reducing ink costs on printing jobs where expensive colours, special effect and metallic ink formulations are required.

The Optima is a mid web CI press optimised to run label stock paper and film packaging materials.

Dawn Safford, Marketing Executive, Shuttleworth MIS.

Inspection Innovation Pharmaceutical companies, brand owners and label manufacturers who want to ensure high quality and error free labels should stop at the EyeC stand at Labelexpo Europe to see the company’s latest advances in print inspection. One of the new features is 100% inspection of composite jobs. Until now, printing different labels in one repeat presented a problem for inspection systems, especially if you wanted to check against the signed-off PDF proof, which is a very important feature. Now, in one click, label printers can verify jobs with different labels, for instance front and back labels, against their corresponding PDFs for the whole production run. In addition, because no one wants to produce a perfect print job off the wrong artwork, EyeC will also be displaying the EyeC Proofiler Content. This new artwork inspection system integrates text and artwork inspection for complete artwork proofing.

Future Proof UV-Curing Responding to the move towards UV-curing with LEDs, UV curing systems manufacturer GEW (EC) Ltd are claiming to have developed the first truly futureproof hybrid UV curing system called ArcLED. ArcLED enables an investment in arc technology now to be upgraded later with LEDs using the same lamphead casing and the same power supply and control. The printer simply adds LED cassettes and connects water-cooling, and the RHINO ArcLED power supply automatically recognises which type of cassette is installed in the machine. Then, on the same press, it seamlessly switches the power supply from high voltage AC for the arc lamps to DC power for the LEDs. The company claims that the new ArcLED UV curing system is the first truly future proof technology for upgradeability and uncomplicated swapping of arc lamp and LED UV systems.

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The new ArcLED UV curing system promises easy upgradeability and uncomplicated swapping of arc lamp and LED UV systems.

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SPONSORS PREVIEW

AWARDS RECOGNITION

BOOSTS BUSINESS PROFILE

Participating in the Irish Print Awards is an excellent opportunity to promote your business nationally and to gain recognition as an outstanding print company that meets the highest quality standards.

The 37th Awards, which take place in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Santry, Dublin, on November 27th, will be judged by a select team of industry experts. Entries opened on June 26th and will close on September 17th.

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The Self Adhesive Roll Label Printer of the Year

Neopost Ireland Print Finishing Award

The Digital Self Adhesive Roll Label Printer of the Year Both categories are sponsored by Avery Dennison Labels & Packaging Materials Ireland. “Avery Dennison Label & Packaging Materials Ireland is sponsoring this year’s prestigious Irish Print Awards to recognise the excellence and level of innovation that is consistently achieved in the Irish label printing industry,” says Sandra Tarr, Country Manager Ireland, Avery Dennison. “Avery Dennison Label & Packaging Materials Ireland provides innovative products and solutions, as well as service and support to Irish label printers. Reflecting its strong commitment to the Irish label printing industry, Avery Dennison Label & Packaging Materials Ireland has proudly committed to ongoing sponsorship of future Irish Print Awards. Changing print technologies and recent industry innovations have made this year’s Awards extremely competitive. We look forward to seeing which entries will be honoured, and we wish our customers who are competing the best of luck.”

Neopost Ireland is looking forward to this year’s Irish Print Awards on November 27th. “The print sector in Ireland has experienced significant changes in the last year and there have also been many changes at Neopost Ireland,” says Marketing Executive Yvonne Maguire. “In February 2015 Neopost incorporated a new look and feel with a full company rebrand that reflected changing industry trends.”

Apart from the major corporate rebrand, the launch of new products from the company’s key suppliers has been another key feature of the year to date.

These include the new Duplo 150 CR booklet maker, 600i booklet system, and the new iSaddle, which is capable of printing landscape books. “We are also delighted to launch the Mohr laser Digicut machine, which is ideal for cutting, creasing, perforating and engraving single sheets,” says Yvonne.

“And we will be rolling out many more exciting products. As the leading supplier of print finishing and wide format equipment, we are delighted to be sponsoring the Print Finishing category again at this year’s awards and we are looking forward to another enjoyable and rewarding event.”

Sun Chemical Magazine Printer of the Year

Agfa Graphics Award for Regional Newspapers

“Sun Chemical is proud to sponsor the Magazine Printer of the Year Award for the second year in succession, recognising its importance as a showcase and celebration of the best that Irish graphic arts professionals have to offer,” says Eamonn Dunne, Business & Technical Support Manager, Publications Division Ireland, Sun Chemical Ltd. “As a company closely involved in the magazine production sector, Sun Chemical is committed to providing the best products and solutions for the market. These include a range of heatset inks, coldset inks, publication gravure and sheet-fed inks, as well as energy-curable inks (UV and EB), all designed to optimise quality and efficiency. Over the past year Sun Chemical has introduced numerous new products for the print industry to serve the many different sectors, including solvent alternative inkjet inks and inks and systems for packaging and metal decoration. In addition, we will be launching our latest innovations for the label and narrow web market at Labelexpo Europe 2015 in the autumn.”

Agfa Graphics is continuing its sponsorship of the Regional Newspaper Printer of the Year Award.“Newspapers are a very important segment of our business, with over 50% of newspapers globally produced with the aid of Agfa Graphics,” says Peter Doyle, Sales Director – Ireland, Agfa Graphics. “Our continued product innovation, whether it is on the workflow, pre-press or press side, shows how important this sector is to us in Ireland and globally. With our Eversify tablet publishing product, for example, we are bringing Agfa Graphics’ automation expertise to mobile publishing. The Eversify mobile publishing service automates the delivery of content to tablets and smartphones and provides a smooth and tailored integration with existing publishing systems and web CMS solutions. “We believe in print as an essential and powerful medium of communication,” says Peter. “Our mission is to enable graphic arts businesses to achieve profitability and stay ahead of their competitors so supporting the Irish Print Awards is an important part of our mission in the Irish market.”

05/08/2015 10:53

LITHO

OFFSET FIGHTS BACK WITH Nigel Hunt (left) and David Bland.

The KBA LED printing solution resolves so many issues that are beginning to impact on offset litho printers… environmental, financial, quality, colour and operational.

hose are the words of KBA UK Managing Director Andrew Pang. Well, he would say that wouldn’t he? But the press manufacturing giant has the experience of a major UK client to back up its claims. The UK’s first KBA LED press, a four-colour B1 Rapida 105, has been described as a ‘marketing dream’ by Dorset print house, Blackmore Ltd. While LED technology mightn’t be an option for many smaller litho printers in Ireland, if litho output is still a big part of your operation it is certainly worth looking at the benefits that a conversion to LED could bring.

“The Rapida LED press is a high quality output machine with more environmental benefits than you can shake a stick at!” says Sales and Marketing Director David Bland. “Massive power savings, a reduction in, or complete elimination of, the raw materials being used in the process with no spray powder or coatings necessary…reduction in waste sheets, no marking, quicker throughput, no waiting for drying, better match to the inkjet proof…and all with QualityPass verification of the printed sheets. The results in terms of quality and productivity are the best I’ve ever seen…it’s a marketing dream. LED-UV is a perfect fit for clients looking for the most socially-responsible, technologically advanced and environmentally sound qualities available from print.”

Shaftesbury’s Blackmore Ltd and Reading-based sister company Lamport Gilbert comprise the £11m turnover Blackmore Group with a joint staff of nearly 100. Together they have a broad range of offset printing equipment, which includes Goss cold-set and Komori and Heidelberg litho, digital print engines, and a bindery operation. In addition to its general commercial work, the Group focuses on three distinct product areas: high volume publications such as the weekly 160-plus page Blackmore Vale magazine which has a circulation of more than 55,000; puzzle books in their millions and leaflets for insertion into the UK national press and many overseas titles, and design-led ethical print for blue-chip global brands. It is the latter category for which the new KBA Rapida was commissioned, supplying clients involved in the charity, leisure, cosmetics, educational, automotive and sports sectors.

The Future for ‘Offset-On-Demand’ When an ageing B2 Heidelberg CD74 at the Shaftesbury site was reaching its replacement date two years ago, the company’s Production Director Nigel Hunt began to research the available UV systems as an alternative to conventional litho. “Looking at the traditional UV and more recent H-UV and LE-UV systems, it was clear that we could not make the numbers work in our commercial printing operation,” says David Bland. “The issues with ozone and heat, coupled with the ink prices and ongoing lamp replacement costs – not to mention the enormous

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electricity requirement – quickly persuaded us that these systems were non-starters. We also had concerns regarding the environmental issues around the mercury lamps and a potential ban by the EU. The LED-UV option quickly became of interest owing to the potentially huge reduction in energy necessary to power it and the additional benefits of the lack of ozone and heat from the process. The testing that we carried out in the KBA factory with the AMS LED lamps fitted to a Rapida 106 press convinced us that we were on the right track.

The tests included timed trials for makeready, running and job changeover across a range of stocks, including lightweight coated and uncoated papers of various weights, both sides of a one-sided board at 600 microns and, finally, polypropylene.

The press ran at 16,000sph and the automated colour control with QualityPass software was very impressive – with obvious benefits for us since our next programme is to qualify for the UKAS-endorsed, BPIF ISO-12647-2 colour accreditation.”

Back in the UK the printed results were judged against Blackmore’s conventional litho output and tested through various post-press operations to determine if there were any marking issues that would become apparent during processing: there were none. The sheets proved to be more robust than conventional litho with the added benefit of being totally dry in the delivery of the press, meaning they could be passed to the finishing operations without any delay.

From Theory to Practice Production Director Nigel Hunt says that now that they are in production with the new technology their ink usage is already proving to be approximately 30% lower than conventional litho. “Also, because the inks and consumables manufacturers realise this technology is going to be so dominant in the future, they are putting a lot of resources into refining their products even further,” he says. “Added to this, we are producing around three times the output of our old B2 press, so the benefits are obvious – especially as we are using the cable that used to run just the drying unit of the old press to power the entire new B1 KBA! When you add in the savings in spray powder (we run all stocks without anti-set-off spray), coatings (no longer required) and so on, the payback figures become very impressive. And they are made even more so when you take into account the significantly reduced footprint of the press (LED does not require an extended delivery), the quicker makereadies, the faster running speeds on all stocks and the reduction in run-up sheets.”

The absence of heat in the drying process means that no extraction is required in the delivery and other less tangible benefits are becoming evident; the life of the AMS LED lamp is guaranteed for 20,000 hours as opposed to conventional UV mercury based lamps (of which there are many more) that usually have to be replaced between every 600/800 hours.

Also, because the ink sits on the surface of the substrate with little absorption, the printed image is a much better match to hard copy inkjet proofs, particularly on uncoated papers.

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THE BIG PICTURE

AUTOMATION = PROFITABILITY

FOR LARGE FORMAT PRINTERS A Challenging Environment

Bjorn Willems, Director of Product Management at Enfocus, looks at how automation can help printers manage the unique challenges of large format production.

Bjorn Willems, Director of Product Management at Enfocus

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n recent years, one of the most dramatic changes businesses have experienced is in the area of technology. Companies who had always counted on having the best hardware to improve their business operations must now adjust and seek out the best software solutions if they are to achieve profitability and growth. Enfocus has played a leading role in helping companies in the graphic arts industry to navigate this change. Now, as change comes to large format production, Enfocus is ready to support print companies with a range of powerful software solutions.

There are several factors driving the need for large format printers to embark on or develop the automation of their production workflow. For a start, there is the cost of production.

Materials used in large format printing are generally much more expensive. There is also a large amount of labour needed to produce what is usually a very small print run. If a mistake happens in the production process, it will likely mean that the whole job will need to be completely redone. And redoing a job is often just as expensive and time consuming as producing it the first time. And these mistakes don’t just cost money – mistakes negatively affect customer satisfaction and the opportunity for repeat business. For large format printers to succeed today and grow in the future, they must improve their processes and ensure that small mistakes don’t become big problems. This means that files that get submitted for production need to be right the first time – and every time.

An Industry in Flux In the past, companies in the graphic arts sector could be financially successful by investing in hardware that could produce longer and faster print runs. Then came the digital revolution and the landscape for print production was changed forever. A printer could no longer rely on hardware alone to be successful. To support this evolution, many printers turned to software solutions that could help them improve their margins and achieve a faster return on investment.

These solutions promised key benefits such as error-free production, smoother workflow, higher turnaround times, and improved throughput that boosted capacity. The large format industry is now facing these challenges and the opportunities that come with this evolution. In this industry, there are many factors that can impact on production time and hardware alone cannot solve these challenges anymore. To be successful today, large format printers must bring an automated solution to their business processes.

Taking Control of The Process Enfocus has been a household name in the graphic arts industry for many years. The company now brings that experience to the service of the large format printer. Our solutions enable these printers to achieve the level of consistency and accuracy that they need to keep their customers happy, increase production, and make their business profitable. The range of solutions offered by Enfocus can be used separately or together to achieve these goals. Let’s look at how these solutions work to support the large format market:

1

Ensuring the Accuracy of Incoming Files

Like commercial printers, the files that large format printers receive for production can vary quite a bit in their quality and format. Fixing these files – or asking the customer for a new file – takes time and resources that the printer could be using elsewhere. Enfocus PitStop, with 130,000 users worldwide, stops these problem files from becoming a bigger problem by fixing the incoming PDFs so that they output as the customer intended them to be output. This dramatically improves turnaround time and, most importantly, it reduces the amount of expensive reprints that are associated with large format production.

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2

THE BIG PICTURE Eliminating Manual Intervention

Once these files are ready for production, Enfocus solutions continue to support the large format printers by helping them to eliminate the manual, repetitive tasks that are part of the process.

Using Enfocus Switch, large format printers can automate repetitive tasks such as how files are created, shared and received. Switch also integrates and connects to the third party applications used by the large format printer, linking everything together into one customised production flow.

Automating these tasks removes the manual touches that are part of the workflow, and fewer touches mean less possibility for errors. Automating also means that the large format printer is able to service more customers each day.

The reduced manual involvement and greater capacity leads to improved operations today and positions the printer for growth in the future.

3

Customer Service

Providing customers with excellent service is part of what will keep them returning to you. This is true for printers of all types but it is especially true in the large format market.

Enfocus solutions enable large format printers to provide a high level of service to their customers without having to add more time or resources. Enfocus Connect supports the printers’ effort to help their customers deliver files that have the right settings each time. Using Connect, printers create applications called Connectors that have all the PDF creation and job delivery information already set. The customer simply drags and drops the files to the Connector, reassured that the file is correct and delivered to the right

location. The customer is happy with the ease and accuracy of the files they deliver and the printer benefits from knowing that the files are in the consistent format they need. Best of all, production flows much more smoothly, enabling the printer to grow their capacity over time.

Automation In Action To see the value of automation in the large format market, let’s take a look at a company that manufactures flags and has adopted Enfocus solutions. For this company, adding grommets to the flag is part of their production process.

To insert the grommets, the flag manufacturer had to print the flag and then manually measure where each grommet needed to be placed. This process took time and held with it the possibility of error. A misplaced grommet would mean the job would need to be repaired or, worse, have to be redone. By implementing Enfocus’ basic workflow and pre-press action, grommet markers are automatically placed on the flag. The automatic placement of the grommets saves up to ten minutes per job. By automating just one step in the process, the flag manufacturer saved a significant amount of time. By automating other steps in the process, he could save even more time. More time means he can take on more jobs. Over time, more jobs run more efficiently will result in a greater level of profitability that the printer could not have achieved with hardware alone.

5

CALL FOR ENTRIES YEAR 27th November 2015 Crown Plaza Dublin for further information contact michelle.morrisroe@ashvillemediagroup.com

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WHAT’S NEW IN PRINT Anti-Counterfeit Design Arziro is a new design tool from Agfa Graphics for the ‘General-Security Print’ market.

The plugin for Adobe Illustrator is a new addition to the company’s software portfolio, offering an anti-counterfeit design solution for general-security printing and personalisation. Inspired by Fortuna, Agfa Graphics’ design software for the high-security print market, Arziro Design can create very complex, security patterns in seconds for general-security print applications. Arziro Design is easy to use, running on a standard Adobe Illustrator CC 2014 system for Mac and Windows. According to a European Commission report, nearly seven per cent to 10% of world trade is infected by counterfeit goods, costing brand owners approximately €500bn. The report calculates counterfeiting as being responsible for the loss of around 2.5 million jobs across the G20 countries. Arziro Design was created for general-security printers and designers in brand protection and those who feel the need for protection against counterfeiting and ‘digifeiting’. Arziro Design is ideal for companies involved in the design and production of packaging and labels, tickets and coupons, tax stamps, post stamps, company access cards, bank cards, and general document security such as breeder documents, certificates or diplomas.

Greenguard Gold Certification Mimaki has received the Greenguard Gold certification for its SS21, LX101, LH-100, LUS-150 and LUS-200 inks.

The certification demands strict criteria and considers safety factors to ensure that a product is acceptable for use in environments such as educational and medical facilities. Greenguard certification is part of UL Environment, a business unit of UL (Underwriters Laboratories). As an ISO-IEC Guide 65:1996 accredited, third-party certifying body, the Greenguard Environmental Institute

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Gladiator Regroups

issues the Greenguard certification to help manufacturers create - and help buyers identify - superior products and materials that have low chemical emissions, improving the quality of the air in environments in which the products are used.

Gandy Digital’s new Gladi8tor UV flatbed printer is now available in two print widths. The Gladi8tor 1224 has a print size of 1.22m (4ft) X 2.44m (8ft) and the Gladi8tor 2030 has a print size of 2m (6ft6in) X 3.05m (10ft). Both versions were unveiled at Fespa 2015. Using 6-picolitre variable dot Ricoh printheads, the new Gandy Digital Gladi8tor UV flatbed printer eliminates head-to-head alignment issues and allows users to enjoy increased engine reliability and extremely sharp, high-quality images. Available in two key production settings - the first uses six-colours (CMYK&LM&LC) plus double white, and the second uses eight colours and a double CMYK set-up to deliver twice the speed.

With automatic head height adjustment, customers can also print on a wide variety of substrates up to 50mm / 2” thick. The device enables users to undertake a range of print operations, including step and repeat, artwork rotation, deletion of ripped images and creation of new jobs on press or remotely via its online software.

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