Feb 2015 PWA

Print World Asia Magazine

Issue 2 2015 US$8.50

Covering the Printing, Packaging and Publishing Industries across Asia.

MICA (P) 155/12/2013 - KDN PPS1529/05/2013(025527) (Formally Print Pack Publish Asia)

XEIKON CAFÉ

PACKAGING INNOVATIONS Experience and learn how digital production can enhance and transform the label and packaging industry!

DIGITAL PRODUCTION IN EVERY ASPECT, GET IMMERSED. Visit the Xeikon Café Packaing Innovations Info: www.xeikoncafe.com

10-12 MARCH 2015 ANTWERP - BELGIUM

Asian PrintAwards 2015 th

Gold

Silver

Bronze

Contents Page

Issue 2 2015

4 Xeikon Unveils its First Technology Center in Asia 6 Myanmar – The Last Digital Frontier 10 Epson Centre of Print Innovation Opens Doors in Singapore 12 HP Increases Production Inkjet Quality, Versatility with

High Definition Nozzle Architecture 14 Doubling productivity & revenue 18 Domino enters the transactional and direct mail market 20 Print efficiently in accordance with ISO 12647-2 in the pressroom 24 Yokohama Litera hones state-of-the-art facilities 28 Understanding the worries about sales people, get the

most from them 34 The Story Behind LED-UV Printing System's Development 38 Why Is Good Customer Service Essential to Every Business?

40 After 2016, drupa will switch to a three-year cycle,

running in May of 2019, 2022 and 2025 42 The FlexLiner Gets a New Opening Method For

Magazine Inserts 44 Fuji Xerox Launches its First Gold and Silver Inks for

Production Printing 46 BOBST at ProPak Vietnam 2015 48 Agfa Graphics with automatic board feeder and varnish

printing 50 News from around the world

57 Ubi Ave. 1, #03-06 Ubi Centre, Singapore 408936. tel+65 6733 5342 fax +65 6733 3586 Publisher

Paul Callaghan paul@cpublish.com.sg

Events

Elizabeth Liew eliew@cpublish.com.sg Advertising sales@cpublish.com.sg Journalist

Sha Jumari editorasia@cpublish.com.sg Advertising Sales

Matthew Callahan matt@cpublish.com.sg Accounts/Circulation accounts@cpublish.com.sg

Get your BEST work ready for this year's Asian Print Awards (held in Singapore).

It will be the hardest event to win in the Awards 13 year History

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

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Digital Technology

Xeikon Unveils its First Technology Center in Asia In February 2015, Xeikon celebrated the inauguration of the Xeikon Asia Technology Center and label open house in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to better serve the Asian market.

The state-of-the-art 450 square metres facility will focus on fully supporting the growing needs of the local industry, addressing the business and educational demands of Xeikon customers for more testing, benchmarking and product demonstrations.

“We see an unprecedented growth in the Asia Pacific printing industry for digital,” said Bent Serritslev, managing director, Xeikon Asia Pacific. “Xeikon is expanding fast in this region and we find it very important to build and foster close bonds with our customers there.”

With the opening of the center, Xeikon is ramping up efforts on expanding its digital presence in Xeikon in the labels and packaging market in Asia Pacific. One of the goals of the center is to strengthen the support structure in the region. There are plans to open another demo center in Tokyo, Japan this year.

Bent Serritslev

“Xeikon is building a strong sales channel network in Asia supported by a long-standing market and industry knowledge. Through a vast array of digital solutions offering flexibility, quality and creativity, Xeikon helps its customers to stay ahead of developing trends. The new Malaysia-based Technology Center will allow us to further improve our service to new and existing customers in the region,” Serritslev commented.

The event featured the Xeikon 3500 digital printing press and hosted a technology seminar on digital label production, coupled with a focus on digital printing for folding carton.

Future visitors and customers will have the chance to view Xeikon’s comprehensive set of solution suites developed in collaboration with its Aura partners.

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Digital Technology

Xeikon Café 2015 Goes Full Throttle The event returns bigger and better as Xeikon promises to go global and further expand on ground-breaking innovations in digital production in labels and folding cartons.

Visitors to the 2015 edition of the Xeikon Café Packaging Innovations can expect to take away invaluable insight, information and business prospects.

Hosted by Xeikon and its impressive line-up of Aura partners, the event will take place from 10 March through to 12 March 2015 in Xeikon’s R&D and production site in Lier, Belgium.

Xeikon experienced impressive growth in the label and packaging industry and continue to show good growth potential. The digital press manufacturer has revealed that this sector alone accounted for an impressive 51% in 2014 of overall business revenue, up from 45% in 2013. Xeikon Café dedicates itself to helping label and folding cartons converters and print buyers worldwide to enhance and transform their digital production into a profitable business.

The event will present opportunities to participants to witness how digital is

enhancing and transforming the label and folding carton industry, and how short and medium runs can turn into a profitable business.

InfoTrends analyst for Color Digital Label and Packaging, Robert Leahey, has also confirmed his attendance as a speaker for the Business Conference programme. Leahey will be presenting brand owner survey data, accumulated from custom research on numerous print technologies. Visitors can look forward to a stimulating discussion on the latest market trends, innovative developments in digital print, and insight on colour digital print for packaging from the industry expert.

The annual event functions as an informal knowledge exchange platform covering the different aspects of digitalising print production, while cutting through the information overload. In 2014, the highly applauded Xeikon Café Packaging Innovations was organised over a period of three days. Following its success, Xeikon reported that many past participants have already confirmed attendance for the upcoming edition.

There will be live demonstrations on Xeikon’s wide range of digital label presses, including on the brand new Xeikon Cheetah digital colour label press. Touted to be the fastest label press of its class, the Cheetah has generated much buzz since its launch.

Participants will also see the full

range of Xeikon’s label and packaging application suites in action, i.e. the Folding Carton Suite, the Self-Adhesive Label Suite, the Heat Transfer Label Suite and the In-Mold Label Suite.

To enhance the visitor experience, the event will be featuring live job preparation, production and finishing of real-life and purpose-designed applications. In addition, a variety of applications will be on display, illustrating what digital production can achieve. Xeikon customers will be on deck to share their experience of using their application suites and talk about how this has helped secure new business sales and growth.

Aura Partners involved in the development of the label and packaging application suites will be exhibiting supplies, finishing equipment and software for digital production. The partners will also participate in a series of seminars in the Technical Conference programme.

Aura Partners attending the event are as follows: AB Graphic International, ACTEGA Terra, BOGRAMA, CERM, Esko, Grafisk Maskinfabrik, HYBRID Software, KURZ, Label Traxx, Meech International, Metsä Board, Michelman, OneVision Software, Taghleef, Rietstack, Shobertechnologies, Spartanics, Stora Enso, Treofan Group, Tronics and Zünd.

Attendance to Xeikon Café 2015 is free, but registration is required online at www.xeikoncafé.com.

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Digital Technology

Myanmar – The Last Digital Frontier The opening up of the country’s economy is paving the way for opportunities for digital printing. Fuji Xerox is on deck to grow the market with its customers. Sha Jumari reports.

In late 2014, continuing its digital printing series, Fuji Xerox held a Digital Printing Seminar in Yangon, Myanmar. Co-organised with its local distributor, Concordia International, the seminar was attended by almost seventy customers, most of which are commercial and quick printers with traditional offset press technology.

Customers from the creative and corporate segments were also in attendance.

“The event is important because it highlights the opportunity this market presents,” said Hideaki Kato, general manager, Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Myanmar branch. “Our aim is to not just be a typical vendor, but to play a bigger role in developing our customer’s business through a proactive and partnering approach.”

Variable data printing and personalisation, key drivers for the digital movement, were hot topics during the seminar. The Color C75 Press was at the event, and attendees received a number of print samples from across the Fuji Xerox production colour portfolio. To reinforce the concept of personalisation, each attendee took home three ‘personalised pieces’, developed using proprietary XM Pie applications and the Color 1000 Press.

As Myanmar joins the ranks of developing nations, there will be higher demands for print, including the growth of personalisation, and ultimately increased accessibility to digital. Consequently, steady growth is projected for digital printing over the next decade.

The challenge for Burmese printers

will become incorporating digital print technology within their existing environment and workflow. “Fuji Xerox, having established itself in Myanmar in 2013, is determined to have a partnering role in helping customers evolve their businesses to embrace the new print environment,” added Kato.

Highlighting the importance and focus upon the Myanmar print market, the seminar and future activities continue to be directly supported by Fuji Xerox’s Asia Pacific operations in Singapore.

A key message “…is the need to highlight to our customers that

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Digital Technology

Agfa Asean Sdn Bhd Level 1, MENARA AmFIRST, Jalan19/3, 46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia Tel: +603-79535800 Fax: +603-79535900

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Digital Technology

digital should integrate and enhance, instead of replace, current offset print volumes, by putting jobs on the most profitable and appropriate press in their environment,” said Timothy Howard, senior manager, Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., and also a guest speaker at the event.

The Growth of a Middle Class and it’s Impact Upon Print Myanmar’s economy opened up in 2011, in the face of its new government with President Thein Sein. In 2012, a new foreign investment law was passed that lead to the creation of a special economic zone. Foreign corporations, including Fuji Xerox, streamed in to set up base in the country to take advantage of the economic growth.

Since then, the nation became widely known as the fastest growing economy in Southeast Asia.

“In terms of GDP, Myanmar is outperforming the average for developing Asia, which is a positive indicator for the print industry. As the economy grows, so will the middle class, and with it, the flourishing of print,” said Kato.

The World Bank projected that Myanmar’s economy will grow at a rate

of 8.5% in 2015, a figure higher than any other nation surveyed. According to the International Monetary Fund, the republic’s GDP grew 8.25% in the fiscal year 2013-14, up from 7.3% the previous year.

“A higher level of disposable income opens up more opportunities for domestic print, there is a direct correlation, and just some of the print application opportunities available include photo books, newspapers, and promotional collateral for luxury goods,” Kato continued.

The consumption of Asia’s everexpanding mass middle-income population is a force that can drive demand for many industries, including education, infrastructure, travel and luxury goods. The growth of a middle class means that Burmese are now spending more on things that they want, versus things that they need.

“As we have seen from other countries that have made this transition, it will have a direct impact on the print industry size per capita,” concluded Kato.

Print Opportunities Abound After decades of isolation, tourism is thriving in Myanmar. Tourist arrivals

are rapidly increasing, with a majority of tourists hailing from within Asia – highlighting a potential for return visits, and an opportunity for direct marketing. In 2013, the country saw two million visitors, and there is an estimated 50% rise to three million visitors for the past year. According to the Myanmar Ministry of Hotels and Tourism, the total income and GDP impact from tourism has shown steady growth from 2006 to 2012, directly impacting total income and GDP impact from tourism.

Tourism’s direct impact on the country’s economy and GDP is expected to indirectly drive the increased need for digital print, especially variable data printing. For example, as the number of hotels across the country increases so will tourism marketing needs.

Fuji Xerox’s variable data and personalisation solutions enable customers to reach clients by using relevant customised messaging to reach their target audience. These solutions are growing in importance, as direct marketing materials and trans-promotional documents are projected to make up a sizeable share of digital colour prints by year 2021, according to a study done by Caslon & Company.

Through the Digital Print Seminar Series, Fuji Xerox continues to offer not just its comprehensive portfolio of products and services, but accumulated expertise of the print industry and business development.

With a clear focus to grow and develop the Myanmar print market, Fuji Xerox is indeed proving itself to be a true business partner for print service providers.

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Digital Technology

More Performance. Built in automation plus unique press

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technologies take the finite resource of time and multiply it for you. You get more out of every shift and enhanced relationship with your clients.

The Versant™ 2100 Press allows you to manage colour more easily and simply with automated calibration and proofing. The result is higher quality without operator involvement, a positive impact on your productivity as well as your print output.

Do More. With More.

For more information: www.fxap.com.sg/product/production/versant_2100p.jsp The Versant™ 2100 Press

Xerox, Xerox and Design, as well as Fuji Xerox and Design and Versant are registered trademarks or trademarks of Xerox Corporation in Japan and/or other countries.

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

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Digital Technology

Epson Centre of Print Innovation Opens Doors in Singapore The new one-stop centre provides Epson solutions and developments in printing for professional customers. By Sha Jumari.

Epson recently announced the opening of its first ever Centre of Print Innovation in Singapore, dedicated to customers in the Southeast Asian region. Aiming to be a one-stop centre for the professional print industry, the centre houses the entire range of Epson products and solutions in three central areas: Commercial Printing, Label Solutions, and The Digital Lab.

Due to the differing needs of customers in different spaces, the centre provides the training facilities and the ability for customers to test out their unique requirements. The centre’s full facilities allow customers to better craft solutions to cater to any need, whether it is grow their businesses or to automate, without making an initial investment.

“We view this centre strategically for the main reason of focusing on developing talent and to ensure that we maintain a level of value of communication to the customer,” said Shaun See, general manager, Epson Singapore Pte Ltd.

“This centre mainly serves our partners, and our core business is through them. Most of our partners do not have the entire range of our products, so we do it for them. By investing in this center, our partners are able to bring their customers here to have full access to Epson’s entire range of products and solutions,” said Ng Ngee Khiang, general manager, Epson Singapore Pte Ltd.

The centre came into fruition after realising the need to cater to more vertical segments of the business: “As we move along the journey from the retail space to the corporate, SME enterprise space, we need to ensure that not only our staff, but our customers are knowledgeable in what they can recommend to their clients,” See continued.

Since Epson’s partners are able to test out applications and solutions on the machines before going back to their customers with recommendations, a sense of confidence is also cultivated: “We eradicate the capability gap that

our partners have, and provide them with full access to our portfolio. We believe this would provide more value to our customers, that they’re able to make more precise recommendations,” Ng continued.

“Here, in this one-stop centre, customers can be exposed to more business opportunities and expand their horizons.

For example, customers who are focused on photo printing, may find out that their skill set can be transferable to perhaps, textile or label printing. This is one of the core objectives of this centre,” Ng continued.

The Commercial Printing area houses the Epson SureColor series F and S series of printers, to serve the signage printing, fabric printing and colour proofing industries. Customers can have access to Epson technicians, who will be on-deck to aid in finding solutions for the most specialised and demanding print applications.

A new player in the label solutions industry, the Label Solutions corner showcases digital labeling solutions that cover the spectrum of large run, mass produced labels to short run, customisable labels. Epson has also made available a media and printer evaluation lab within the centre. The lab tests out label media to ensure compatibility with Epson printers. At the same time, partners can determine which printers would best serve their business needs.

The Digital Lab corner presents the entire photo print process from selection to print to payment and collection. The area showcases the software capabilities of Epson, through a centralised control hub.

Here, customers can be introduced to a wider range of capabilities and

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Digital Technology

expand their offerings, thus improving versatility and productivity.

“This centre is good, because when we research with our customers, not only can they come here with us to take part in the research, we can have access to the technical side of Epson printers. They’ll be here to assist in any complicated questions that even I, as a partner, would not know. Most importantly, the testing is all paid for

by Epson, so as a partner, this is great news for me!” quipped Neo Hwee

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available and what developments they can look forward to.

For Epson, the centre represents an opportunity to receive direct feedback from the customers: “Whenever testing is done, or a new print application is being researched by our partners and their customers, it gets relayed to our engineers. As a result, we have a collation of data and information. Our partners have a full range of equipment to experiment with, while we have a collation of data and information to benefit our business,” said See.

“At Epson, we stress a lot on moving towards the vertical business. This centre is part of that ongoing effort.

We are aiming to have closer relations with our customers, and have even higher engagement with the end-user, so this centre is not going to be static.

We have places to expand our services at this centre, although we’ll keep that under wraps for now,” See concluded.

The centre operates as an extended marketing arm for Epson’s partners.

To enhance customer engagement, partners can structure open houses and talks at the centre. By targeting specific areas of the print businesses, they can tap on to Epson resources directly.

Epson can share with them how the industry is moving, what technology is

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PrePress

HP Increases Production Inkjet Quality, Versatility with High Definition Nozzle Architecture HP announced new High Definition Nozzle Architecture technology for HP Inkjet Web Presses, providing print service providers breakthrough print quality, versatility, reliability and productivity.

The new High Definition Nozzle Architecture printhead doubles the native print resolution of current HP inkjet printheads from 10,560 to 21,120 nozzles, delivering 2400 nozzles per inch1, and supports dual drop weight per colour for sharp text, fine lines, accurate skin tones, smooth grey and colour transitions, and enhanced highlight and shadow detail. Built-in nozzle redundancy ensures reliable and consistent printing.

HP will also offer a new quality mode, which prints up to 122 metres (400 feet) per minute in colour with dual drop weight for a step function improvement in print quality2. Powered

by High Definition Nozzle Architecture technology, the maximum print speed enabled will be up to 244 metres (800 feet) per minute, while still delivering the excellent print quality HP customers depend on today.

“High Definition Nozzle Architecture technology enables our HP Inkjet Web Press customers to address a broader range of applications from general commercial printing to production mail to publishing by resetting the bar for inkjet quality and performance,” said Aurelio Maruggi, vice president and general manager, Inkjet Highspeed Production Solutions, HP. “HP is committed to continuous investments in inkjet technology across a broad portfolio of products, driving unparalleled economies of scale, and providing upgradable solutions so that existing and future customers can take advantage of advancements.”

High Definition Nozzle Architecture technology will be incorporated into

all HP Inkjet Web Press platforms, including the HP T200, T300 and T400 Inkjet Web Press families and those sold through resellers. Current customers can upgrade to the new technology. HP T200, T300 and T400 series Inkjet Web Press customers have printed more than 90 billion A4 equivalent pages since 2009.

Service advancements Building on its commitment to customer service and support, HP also introduced a cloud-based inventory management system that helps HP Inkjet Web Press customers improve uptime and productivity. The HP Smart Uptime Kit for HP Inkjet Web Presses enables customers to manage parts, track usage and extract reports to enhance productivity and access data and parts quickly and securely.

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Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

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Digital Technology

Doubling productivity & revenue Japanese commercial printer Harata Printing Co., based in Osaka, is keeping the focus on offset print business, while aggressively promoting and steadily expanding its digital print business. Agfa Graphics’ Apogee software helps them to establish an optimized workflow and to be successful in process improvements.

"The main business of our company is offset printing and we use digital presses for short run, quick turnaround color jobs as well as for black & white jobs," says Suzuno Harata, CEO of the company. "We have two digital color presses, the bizhub PRESS C7000 and C6000. We started in-house printing jobs on the bizhub PRESS C7000 that used to be outsourced.

The C6000 is mainly used for design proofs and color checks. bizhub PRESS provides prints with less glossiness and its color is close to that offset inks. This is an advantage for an offset printer like us in terms of practical usage. We have two black & white digital presses too: a bizhub PRO 951 and a bizhub PRESS 1250. We often had to outsource black & white jobs after our light-duty offset press broke down, but now, with the 1250, we can print them ourselves."

At Ag fa Graphics we're dedicated to offer our customers like Harata Printing a streamlined workflow supporting all types of output devices. The open and constructive relation between Ag fa Graphics and Konica Minolta results in a powerful customer-oriented solution.

Apogee masters production preparation and management while Konica Minolta has the right feature set for digital print production.

Erik Peeters, Marketing Manager Commercial-Security Software Integration of offset and digital print using Apogee for automated workflow Before workflow improvement: a lot of manual labor "Our digital press team planned to use the imposition software we already had and originally employed for offset printing (brand A) in combination with a CtP Workflow RIP (Brand B), but we found that the system was not so easy to utilize unless the team has

About Harata Head Office: 1-7-43 Nagaenishi, Kitaku, Osaka-city, Osaka 5310061, Japan Established: July, 1958 Employees: 63 Business Lines: Elegant "Super Vision Printing"/Brilliant "HiFi Color Printing", DTP, information processing, general printing

'We are now capable of handling jobs of high page counts which we had to outsource to subcontractors before.'

Suzuno Harata CEO

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Management/General 15

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Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

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Digital Technology

to subcontractors before. At the same time, human errors and labor for tasks other than imposition have also been cut down. The digital press team is thus motivated to increase in-house processing because the imposition process is automatically completed while another job is being printed.

Labor-saving and reduced man-hours in effect allow us to process all jobs inhouse."

Doubling the productivity and revenue "Integration of offset printing and digital workflow using Apogee almost doubled the productivity on the bizhub PRESS. With two presses operating at full capacity, jobs are seamlessly processed in parallel to imposition work, enabling us to take on all jobs including those that we rejected in the past due to overflow.

sufficient knowledge of CtP. To cope with this problem, the team adopted a process where pages were first imposed using InDesign and then exported to PDF.

Suzuno Harata CEO

After being opened and checked, this PDF was sent to Bizhub PRESS C7000 for output via printer driver.

This meant that the operator needed to manually perform imposition, checks and print operation of a vast volume of pages. This resulted in increased work time and a greater risk of human error, and often made it necessary to go back to previous processes."

The result is increased operation rate and fewer human errors, leading to a steady increase in sales.

Apogee is also capable of 'profile' setting, which provides us with the considerable advantage of consistent color reproduction, whether output directly or via pdf. Because more time is available due to resolution of issues concerning color reproduction and imposition work, we can spend more time on machine maintenance and front-to-rear registration checks, leading to less print waste.

After workflow improvement: time to process more jobs in-house Suzuno Harata continues: "Thanks to Apogee, the integration of offset printing and digital processing made imposition work much easier. For example, even brochures of several hundred pages can now be produced smoothly once the template is ready.

While, in the past, more time was often spent on preparation than printing, now jobs are quickly transferred to the printing process. As a result, we are now capable of handling jobs of high page counts which we had to outsource

Customers often request that we use the same paper for digital printing as for offset, and this means that we have to set a different paper and size each time. It is, therefore, extremely important for us to have a workflow that can manage front-to-rear registration issues with ease." Looking at the future, Mrs Harata says: "We plan to increase the number of jobs output from Apogee and printed on bizhub PRESS. As well as handling increased volumes of offset printing, we plan to take on preceding and variable printing."

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Digital Technology

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Digital Technology

Domino enters the transactional and direct mail market Domino Printing Sciences will mark its entry into transactional, direct mail and book printing applications with the launch of the K630i high speed monochrome printing press at the Hunkeler Innovation Days Philip Easton, Director of Domino’s Digital Printing Solutions Division, comments: “The K630i is a natural progression in digital printing for Domino after launching the K600i digital module in 2010, and the four colour N600i digital label press in 2012, now available as the N610i in up to seven colours. The K630i is based on the same proven technology that has seen both these products take leadership positions in their respective markets.”

The K630i is an evolution of the Graph Tech AG (Switzerland) Mono-

Cube product that was first released in 2012, just before Domino, already a shareholder, acquired the remaining shares of the company. There are currently four installations in Europe and North America, each running between 2-12 million A4 impressions a month. A further five presses are now on order.

Bryan Palphreyman, Domino K630i Product Manager, comments: “I am delighted that this product has become part of the Domino product offering. Although we have already had a number of successful installations, by

adding Domino’s global service structure and additional ink jet expertise, it means we can now offer our customers the complete solution.”

The K630i is configured for 75m/min (246ft/min) or 150m/min (492ft/min) with print width options of 333mm (13.1”), 445mm (17.54”) or 558mm (21.96”) as either simplex or duplex in the same frame. It is supplied with the modular Domino Editor RIP digital front end, which includes support for PDF, IPDS and AFP data formats.

The press is offered with either cost effective aqueous pigmented ink or a unique high impact UV ink designed for high gloss coated stocks commonly required in direct marketing applications.

“The UV-curable ink option represents a real alternative for printers who are looking to differentiate themselves in the direct mail sector,” adds Easton.

“This high gloss ink stands out on the page and enables the use of coated matt and gloss substrates, which is not possible with aqueous inks.”

The cost effective pigmented aqueous ink, AQ90BK, was launched by Domino last year. It has class-leading optical density, but is at the same time designed to limit show through for low grammage substrates. There are no click charges, the ink is sold in litres, and Domino offers its ‘Relax’ finance deal and ‘TotalCare plus’ service option for customers who want a comprehensive total support package.

The duplex solution is based on a sin-

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Digital Technology

gle enclosure and offers one of the smallest footprints in the industry with a print section (excluding unwind and rewind) of only 2m x 3m (7ft x 10ft) in size.

Palphreyman points out: “The K630i has proven to be significantly more reliable and cost effective to operate in a site where we are replacing a number of existing toner units. The press has allowed the customer to almost double production output, but now out of less floor space.”

The K630i benefits from the inclusion of Domino’s unique i-Tech intelligent Technology productivity-enhancing smart features designed to optimise printer performance and maintain the highest levels of productivity. Domino’s i-Tech ActiFlow ink circulating system ensures that the ink is always moving around the print head, even when the print head has stopped, while the revolutionary i-Tech CleanCap automated print head cleaning and capping technology reduces manual operator intervention. In addition, the i-Tech StitchLink micro-motor controller technology ensures that all heads are automatically and precisely calibrated to print as one, enabling seamless print across the full web width.

nology that will provide higher levels of reliability than other ink jet offerings. The UV-curable ink solution offers something quite unique for the progressive direct mail printer. For aqueous applications, we strongly recommend printers look at the business model associated with monochrome ink jet. It offers the simplicity and reliability compared to toner, and we believe that, in most cases, this solution represents the lowest cost per page solution. In a market where the printer sells on one cost per page and effectively incurs print costs at another, the Domino K630i often delivers the most attractive profit position.”

Easton summarises: “The K630i is based on proven Domino i-Tech tech-

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Management/General

In connection with KBA QualiTronic ColorControl inline colour control or online with KBA ErgoTronic ColorControl, the PSO-Match software tool supports printers to reliably comply with ProcessStandard Offset (PSO) directly at the console: Shown here in action on a new Rapida 106 at Cinram in Alsdorf near Aachen, Germany (1)

Print efficiently in accordance with ISO 126 47-2 in the pressroom Many print providers like to work in accordance with ProcessStandard Offset (ISO 12647-2) and some are even certified. However, the cost savings generated often fail to meet expectations as the printing process with its various print parameters requires manual intervention during set-up and production.

KBA offers a raft of automation solutions for its Rapidas, including modules for fast inking-up and stable solid densities during production.

PSO-Match is a solution which efficiently supports compliance with ProcessStandard Offset (PSO).

PSO defines the CMYK solid L*a*b* values in the printing process for vari-

ous types of paper as well as dot gain in the mid-tones and its spread. In case all of the parameters cannot be maintained within the tolerances dot gain should be given a higher priority. Even the best printers are not able to check all of the parameters in each single ink zone and control the application of ink accordingly. Nevertheless, printing within the solid density tolerance

and also in line with solid L*a*b* values does not mean a match with PSO. Conventional solid control systems only take into account one parameter and therefore only one comprehensive solution can guarantee permanent conformity with PSO. PSO-Match excels in the pressroom This is where PSO-Match’s strengths

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Management/General 21

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

22

Sheetfed Offset

QualiTronic PSO-Match: All ten PSO criteria are given the green light at a rating index of 80% lie. This product was launched in 2012 and has since been successfully implemented in a host of printing companies, including the new Rapida 106 at Cinram in Alsdorf, Germany.

Measuring at the control strips is done either inline via KBA QualiTronic ColorControl – with previous external spectrophotometric calibration – or online with KBA ErgoTronic ColorControl. In a matter of seconds PSO-Match instantly analyses all parameters in each ink zone in accordance with the PSO standard selected and calculates colour corrections in every ink zone. The optimum balance is made between dot gain, spread, solid L*a*b* values and the corresponding density. This set point is then adjusted automatically within a specific tolerance range by the “best match” function. Colour correction is executed automatically (closed loop) with QualiTronic or simply by pressing a button with ErgoTronic ColorControl and ErgoTronic ColorDrive.

PSO-Match displays the colour corrections calculated as well as the measuring values clearly on the monitor. In addition, the press operator is continuously provided with information on how the current print result compares to PSO. Eight out of a total of ten PSO parameters have to be within set limits in order for PSO-Match to verify conformity with PSO tolerances for every measurement.

Ideal for industrial quality printing PSO-Match is the ideal solution for printing firms to match PSO’s quality standard and for those wishing to reduce makeready and waste. The press operator selects a particular PSO standard provided for different paper qualities. An optimal product is achieved after some measurements and corrections using online measuring equipment (ErgoTronic-ColorControl), which measures outside the press on the main console. After a fast referencing procedure inline control quickly leads to compliance with

the selected standard and maintains it throughout an entire job using inline measuring equipment (QualiTronicColorControl).

Accurate jobs printed without manual corrections in a reproducible quality lead to optimised colour presetting for future jobs. PSO-Match thus offers a good starting point for cutting waste during job set-up. This even takes place without any interruptions when used in connection with KBA QualiTronic ColorControl. A higher level of automation and excellent control strategies prevent press downtimes and manual intervention during production. On average this results in a higher press speed and reduced personnel costs.

Depending on job size the time saved during set-up and production is three to ten minutes per job. Complaints are prevented, communication between pre-press and printing is improved, and production reliability is increased by the permanent use of the PSO-

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Sheetfed Offset 23 Match tool. This is in addition to potential paper and personnel savings.

The required quality is predictable and reproducible. Resulting experiences from PSO-Match regarding the use of consumables, paper and press settings which affect the final product lead to further savings. PSO-Match is an important tool in making the printing process more efficient and predictable.

KBA QualiTronic ColorControl shows the operator which colour corrections are carried out automatically

We wish all readers a Happy Year of the Goat

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

24

Sheetfed Offset Yokohama Litera, Japan - Lithrone S44 [LS-744]

Yokohama Litera hones state-of-the-art facilities Founded in 1933, Yokohama Litera plans, prints and delivers packaging as well as an enormous variety of other printed items, including POP materials, seals and flexo-printed cardboard boxes. The company built the industry’s first completely clean plant in October 2009, meeting the world’s most stringent standards, including countermeasures for insects, dust and microbes.

In May of last year, Yokohama Litera commissioned the latest UV-spec sevencolor Lithrone S44 with coater to better meet customer needs by providing even more consistent quality and improving productivity. On Press spoke with President Tadashi Hoshino, Advisor Mamoru Suzuki, Manufacturing Section Printing Chief Yosuke Wakamatsu, Quality Assurance Department Manager Kazuhira Urushizaki, and Manufacturing Department Instructor Yutaka Okubo.

Tadashi Hoshino, President

Seven-color machine for workload and multicolor demand Yokohama Litera aims to be a onestop, full-service solution provider in the printing and packaging industry by achieving the perfect balance of quality, production environment and human resources. The clean plant — incorporating a failsafe production system consisting of an integrated, automated production line and the most up-to-date equipment obtainable — reliably handles the full spectrum of customer needs, including high print quality, short runs of a wide range of items, and quick turnarounds.

“Our company has grown by specializing in package printing, as we pursue our vision of expanding with the food and pharmaceutical industries,” says Mr. Hoshino in explaining the reasons for the Lithrone S44 installation. “What our customers seek most in package production is a facility and environment that assure high print quality. This is the reason that we constructed a clean plant and a clean production environment that is impervious to insects, dust and

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

26

Sheetfed Offset microbes — a printing facility unlike any other in the world. On the print quality front, Yokohama Litera is not only ISO 9001-certified but also the only operator in the package printing industry to have Japan Color recognition. As a result, we decided to install the Lithrone S44 two years ahead of schedule because otherwise we would have been unable to handle the increase in work. We decided on a seven-color machine to meet the greater demand for printing in more than four colors and to produce high-end work with the greater freedom in the design stage that this configuration allows. We wanted to break free from hardware limitations on design potentials.”

In May 2013, Yokohama Litera installed the seven-color Lithrone S44 UV sheetfed offset 44-inch press with coater, PQA-S and double delivery as the latest weapon in its arsenal. This machine is in full operation alongside the six-color Lithrone SX40 UV press with coater that was commissioned when the plant was constructed.

Mamoru Suzuki, Advisor

Lithrone S44 saves energy “Energy saving was the goal in installing this press,” says Mr. Suzuki.

“This Lithrone S44 is packed

throughout with specifications that we requested, such as for energy saving. At the same time, we implemented modifications for energy saving on all of our installed machines, and Komori gave us full backup every step of the way. This takes knowhow, but we succeeded in reducing the amount of power consumption needed for air Y o s u k e W a k a m a t s u , conditioning by cutting the Manufacturing Section amount of heat generated by Printing Chief printing. The amount of power consumption by the entire printing line of four presses, including the new Lithrone S44, is almost unchanged from that of the three-press setup that was used until last year. The energy-saving effect is equivalent to the power required by an entire printing press,” says Suzuki with a smile.

The ease of use of the Lithrone S44 was addressed by Mr. Wakamatsu.

“I believe this machine gives us just what we need to meet the diverse requirements of our customers. Compared to our previous setup, the times for makeready, plate changing and color matching are shorter and the processes are easier. Once the operators grew accustomed to the double delivery, they Kazuhira Urushizaki, couldn’t get by without it. Seven Quality Assurance colors with the coater basically Department Manager means four colors plus one special color with a surface treatment. If the job uses UV coating, a base coat of varnish and drip-off gloss coating is applied.”

Meeting stringent quality demands “Customers are becoming more exacting every year. And food packaging is gradually becoming more like cosmetics packaging in the demand for more colors as well as sophisticated designs and constructions that have never been tried before,” says Mr. Urushizaki in discussing quality assurance.

“We are raising our level of quality control by anticipating our customers’ demands and looking for ways of controlling the process that will meet these requirements. It is also necessary to cultivate the sense

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Sheetfed Offset 27 of the operators.” Describing the meticulousness of quality control measures, Urushizaki says: “In ensuring high print quality, pinhole defects — one cause of NG sheets — can be eliminated down to 0.3 mm by means of the PQA-S inspection camera and the double delivery system. Plus, the entire work area is actually a clean room, with fewer than 300,000 suspended particles of dust per cubic meter.”

Yokohama Litera is endowed with a fully automated production line. The supply of production materials and inventory management for finished products, the allocation of work in process to various manufacturing areas, and stocking and removing items from the enormous automated warehouse are all performed by the unmanned production management system. In manufacturing areas, unmanned forklifts transport necessary materials and work in process to the various stations. Even the setting of printing paper in the feeders is performed by unmanned machinery. Adds Suzuki: “Human intervention causes problems, so production management is computer controlled by means of barcodes to keep operators’ hands out of the process.”

Y u t a k a O k u b o , M a n u f a c t u r i n g Department Instructor

in about 20 new hires.

Mr. Okubo, who is in charge of employee training, says: “Doing the right thing as a matter of course is not easy. Digital control of machine maintenance, for example, is certainly important but that in itself is not enough. We teach our new employees that they must discern the sound and vibration of the press when it is working perfectly by using their own senses.

This can be learned if one cannot do it at the outset. I think these strengths lead to high aspirations and tenacity regarding the job.”

Personnel with ambition and tenacity Once the production environment and equipment are in place, the key point becomes the issue of personnel.

Yokohama Litera aims to train people who not only have the skills required for the job but also are capable of contributing to society. Thus, the company gives high priority to meticulous employee education.

Every year the company takes

At Yokohama Litera, veteran employees teach the rookies printing and finishing from the ground up by means of on-thejob training. For what is not covered by on-the-job training, the new employees attend practical training classes such as the beginner’s course and chief operator’s course at the Komori Graphic Technology Center.

Cultivating people leads to results President Hoshino offers his thoughts on the future of the company: “If employees sense that through their work they can realize their dreams, the company will be empowered by highly motivated workers. Such empowerment will enable the company to continuously improve product quality. We have readied the production environment and carried out extensive employee training, but in the end, I think, making the company a one-stop, full-service solution provider depends on the ease of working here and whether employees can do their job with a sense of fulfillment. Therefore I want to see more employees taking the initiative — offering their views on issues as professionals. I want to extend our abilities to propose, plan and design. I firmly believe that cultivating our personnel leads to outstanding results.” With his faith in employee education as the key to the growth of the company, the president is looking forward to the 100th anniversary of Yokohama Litera in 20 years time.

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Management/General

Understanding the worries about sales people, get the most from them Questions and Answers for Sales Leaders Q. Which of these two choices is more likely to result in an effective sales person: 1. hiring someone with technical expertise or industry experience and training them to become a sales person, 2. hiring someone with sales aptitude, and training them in the product knowledge and technical aspects of the job?

A. That's simple. I think you are almost always better off hiring someone with sales aptitude and educating them in the technical part of the job.

Here's why...

1. In any population of people, there are far more people with technical aptitude than there are with genuine sales aptitude. So, good sales people are harder to find than good technicians.

That's one of the reasons why a good sales person earns more than a good technician.

2. Sales is a more difficult job than engineering, technical repair, or any of the other highly technical professions. Technicians invariably work with things, and things have reliable and known characteristics. Sales people, on the other hand, invariably work with people. And each individual person is an ultimately unknowable combination of thoughts, feelings, values, goals and beliefs - incredibly complex. Now add together a group of people in the context of a business, and you have a very difficult and complex situation, full of unknowable variables.

If you can find someone with the qualities to handle this chaos -- the discipline to work an unsupervised effective work week, the personal self-image strong enough to withstand daily rejection, the personal motivation to press on no matter what - then believe me, training them in technical details is the easy part.

3. Technical people who become sales people almost always view their job as essentially uncovering technical problems to solve, and then proposing solutions to those technical problems.

While this is a component of the job, it dramatically limits the sales person's effectiveness.

Those of you who are familiar with my "peeling the onion" analogy will recognize that "technical problems" are very near the surface of the onion. As

long as a sales person views his/her job as that of finding solutions to technical problems, they'll never penetrate to the heart of a customer's goals and motivations.

While technical problem solvers are working at the surface of things, the professional sales people are working with their customers on systems and partnerships.

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Management/General

The largest sales I ever made were always at deep levels in the organization, where systems and corporate philosophies and values were more important than technical issues.

4. Finally, from a very pragmatic point of view, it is easier to educate someone in product knowledge and technical applications than it is to train someone in sales skills. Ultimately, product knowledge and technical issues are knowledge, and knowledge can be learned. Sales, on the other hand, requires a complex combination of aptitudes, motivations, beliefs, concepts, skills, processes and tools. You are far better off hiring someone who has the raw material to develop into an accomplished sales person, than someone who has gained knowledge, but doesn't have the aptitude.

Here's an example from my life. At one time, I sold surgical staplers. That sales process required us to scrub into surgery and be part of the sterile team, right there with the surgeon as he used our instruments. You can imagine the depth of knowledge that we had to have in order to be there. In addition to all the practices of the operating room, we had to know the appropriate human biology, the methods of this particular surgery, and the application of the product. Quite a bit to learn. Yet, the company was able to instill all that knowledge into us in about six weeks.

After the six week's training program, we could go into any operating room in the county, comfortably comport ourselves and instruct the surgeon in the detailed aspects of using our instruments All of that was just knowledge, and knowledge is far more easily obtained, when compared with the task of helping someone develop sales skills.

A. Yes. I just had a phone conversation with a client who had a familiar story to tell. He had built his business on the model of an entrepreneurial sales force.

Give them a territory, pay them straight commission, and tell them they are in business for themselves, free to develop the customers they chose with the products they wanted.

Having said all that, I have one last thought. Don't think that just because someone has sales aptitude they don't need instruction in the competencies that make one an effective sales person.

And for a couple decades it had worked well. The business grew and expanded.

More entrepreneurial sales people were added, and the model was duplicated over and over again.

Just like any other profession, there are specific competencies that effective sales practitioner's practice. You can make a person's success in sales far more likely by seeing to it that they are trained in those competencies and then stimulated to continually develop their skills than if you allow them to learn by trial and error.

The world is full of technical people who should not be in sales, and sales people who plateau and never reach their potential because no one has invested in helping them to develop the competencies of a professional sales person.

So far so good. But then the growth in sales began to slow down. Three flat or declining years in a row has caused this company president to question the status quo. Not only is business flat, but he's unable to get his sales force to promote the lines that he wants to promote, he's unable to get them to use some of the new technology that the company wants them to use, and he's unable to get them to prospect for new customers. Now he's faced with an experienced sales force, who for the most part, are unmanageable.

Q. I'm frustrated. My sales force just doesn't seem to be motivated. They agree with me at sales meetings, but then don't follow through. Any ideas?

The culprit? A sales model that was built on the concept of the entrepreneurial sales person. There was a time when this model was effective, but in today's competitive economy, there are serious difficulties with the entrepreneurial model.

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Management/General 31 This model works best when the market is growing. As long as there is more and more business out there to be had, the focus of most companies is to grab as much as they can, without caring a whole lot as to which customers and which products make up the business.

Employing a group of entrepreneurial sales people reduces the demands on sales management so that the company's executives can focus on building the infrastructure necessary to keep up with the consistent growth.

As we all know, this was the case for most of the previous decade. By shifting the responsibility for sales management onto the sales people, however, you give up much of your management influence. In effect, you cede management of the sales force to the sales people. And they generally make decisions that are in their own self interest, not yours. The very concept of an entrepreneurial sales person is that he/she will manage himself. By definition, you abdicate your managerial role and cede management to the sales person.

Is it any wonder that you can't direct the sales person?

As long as business was consistently growing, this wasn't an issue. But now it is a concern. Most distributors have experienced a reduction in sales volume over the last few years. Many have come to the conclusion that they have to initiate significant changes in their sales organizations if they are going to be profitable and growing.

Now, instead of just more business, progressive distributors want to expand the business in target accounts, emphasize key product lines, and acquire new accounts. In other words, they want to direct the sales force more precisely, to focus them on the behaviors that further the company's strategic objectives.

At just the time that they want to more precisely focus the sales force, they are faced with a group of experienced sales people who have become satisfied and content.

These sales people would rather not move out of their comfort zones of established customers and established products. They have no desire to do

the hard work of prospecting for new accounts. And many are content with the diminished incomes of the past few years.

The culprit in this difficult situation is the entrepreneurial model. This is not to say that there are no entrepreneurial sales people. Certainly a certain percentage of every large group of sales people will turn out to be highly motivated, constantly improving, driven to succeed and willing to accept your direction. From my experience, this is about one of 20 sales people. The chances of your entire group fitting this mold are slight. The issue is not the occasional exception to the rule; the issue is the model that no longer supports your strategic interests.

What to do?

The solution is going to require strenuous work.

Wipe the slate clean and start over.

Begin with the definition of what you would like the sales people to do. What do you really want your sales force to do? Noodle your ideas onto a blank sheet of paper, and review it for a cou-

ple of days. When you have a well-articulated full page of detail, you will have taken a major step forward.

Once you have a clear and specific idea of what you want them to do, then start dealing with implications of that. For example, does you compensation plan support the behavior you want? If not, then change it.

Does your training and development program equip the sales people with the skills that support your vision? If not, it's time to revise it.

Does your infrastructure support your idea of what the sales people should be doing? In other words, does customer service, purchasing, delivery, operations, sales management, etc., all support the revised job description? If not, make some refinements.

Finally, do you have the kind of people who will whole-heartedly embrace your new vision? If not, then it's time to begin the process of recruiting new sales people.

Each of these is a difficult and chal-

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Sheetfed Offset

lenging issue that speaks to the heart of how you have your sales force structured. Designing and implementing these changes can take the better part of a year or two. Each of these initiatives will be met with resistance from some. It won't be easy. Before you rush into the fray, however, make sure you count the cost. You may decide that you are not up for the task and that it is easier to continue to cede management to your sales people.

Should you decide to revise your sales force, you can anticipate arriving at a focused and directable sales force - an enormously powerful asset for any company.

Q. Here's an issue that I confront with my sales people all of the time. They are afraid to press for the next step, because they don't want to experience the rejection of hearing a "NO." So, they try to keep the sale alive by not asking for resolution. This keeps them involved with customers who aren't interested and prevents them from moving on. Any thoughts?

A. Great question. There are two issues here. First, dealing with the sense of rejection that very often comes with hearing a "no," and, second, pushing for a resolution so that you don't waste time with people who aren't going to say "yes."

Let's deal with each of these issues.

First, the sense of rejection. Very few sales people have such thick skin that

hearing a "no" doesn't bother them at all. On the other hand, having people say "no" to you is a regular part of the job. Given these two realities, that means that every professional sales person, if he is committed to a career in sales, has to develop a strategy for dealing with the continuous stream of "nos" that comes with the job.

I'm not sure this is a training issue. I think it is a self-management challenge, in that, regardless of how sensitive and impacted a sales person is by hearing "no", he/she still must develop his own means of handling it. Every sales person can have a different strategy, but it is important that they do have a strategy.

It sounds like your guys haven't developed their strategies. I suspect that they have never really thought about it. If that's the case, then you have a role to play in helping them identify the issue and develop self-management strategies to cope with it.

You may want to bring these issues up with your sales force in a frank discussion at a sales meeting. It should go like this: * Hearing "no" is a regular part of the job of the sales person. * If you expect to be a sales person, you will hear a lot of "nos." * You cannot allow yourself to be effected by the rejection. * Therefore, you need to develop a selfmanagement method of dealing with your response to "no." * Let's brainstorm some ways we can do this.

By bringing it up in a group meeting, you send the message that this is a part of what it means to be a professional salesperson, and you would have helped each of them formulate a personal strategy.

At this point, you may still have some people who are petrified of hearing a "no." If someone consistently avoids hearing a "no" because they can't deal with it personally, it may be time for that person to look for another line of work. It may also be that they are not really committed to a career in sales, and therefore see no reason to invest the time and energy in something so intimately connected with the job. You can help this person to recognize that via a one-on-one meeting.

In regards to the second issue -- pushing for a resolution so that you don't waste time with people who aren't going to say "yes" -- I'm of the school of professional sales people who believe that it is better to hear a "no" early on in the sales process than it is to linger for months with uninterested prospects.

This is a training issue. That means that you can address this in a training session in which this concept is addressed.

A simple, easily remembered rule: Always Ask for Action. (AAA). Teach that concept, and then help them to implement it by creating some sample "closing" questions. Your sales force develop closing questions, and then practice those questions. At this point, you'll have done everything you can to imbed that competency into them. Time to expect them to improve their performance on this issue, and hold them accountable for doing so.

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Packaging Technology

33

M-600: World’s best selling 16-page commercial web press

Goss print quality, reliability and high-speed performance features combine with sheetfed quality and run lengths to make the 16-page M-600 press a leader in application versatility.

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Print World Asia • 1/ 2015

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Web Offset Technology

The Story Behind LED-UV Printing System's Development RYOBI was the first to successfully develop an energy-saving, environment-friendly LED-UV printing system, which was launched onto the market in 2008 and offers numerous advantages over a conventional UV curing system.

We talked with the RYOBI staff about the system's development, its future marketability, and its environmental contribution in a roundtable discussion moderated by Mr. Atsushi Okuyama, director of the Society for the study ecology printings.

Moderator: Atsushi Okuyama Mr. Okuyama served in the Paper and Printing Industry Section of Japan's former Ministry of International Trade and Industry. After leaving the ministry, he served as a solutions specialist in management positions for software developers and other companies. Mr. Okayama established Com-Design Co., Ltd. in 2003, providing various services related to IT and communications design. He now operates the Society for the study ecology printings, which conducts research on environmentfriendly printing, and he is a member of the Eco Mark Printed Matter / Paper Products Standards Revision WG Committee.

Okuyama: What was the reaction to the announcement of the LED-UV printing system at Drupa 2008?

Kuroki: There was a tremendous response.

Throngs of visitors were attracted to the RYOBI booth, not only from printing

companies, but also from advanced technology research organizations and other groups. While I believe it was already anticipated that someone would be announcing this kind of technology, there was a great deal of excitement when it was actually exhibited and the dry printed sheets came out.

Shibata: After Drupa 2004, one development theme proposed for Drupa 20080 was "a drying system that would reduce electricity consumption by half." In preparation for the coming age of environment-friendly printing, this was considered a theme that RYOBI definitely had to tackle.

Kuroki: Mr. Ikeda here had the opportunity to look at the LED-UV system exhibited at 2005 Electrotest Japan, and reported back that he thought it would someday replace the lamp type system we were currently using. That was a key factor in our decision.

Okuyama: I've heard that development of the LED-UV printing system involved collaboration with Panasonic Electric Works and Toyo Ink. As RYOBI was responsible for developing the printing equipment parts of the system, what kinds

Hideki Ikeda Assistant Manager Engineering & Development Section Engineering Department Graphic Systems Division Nobuyoshi Shibata Manager Planning & Development Section Sales Department Graphic Systems Division Hiroyuki Kuroki General Manager Engineering Department Graphic Systems Division Katsushi Hirokawa Deputy General Manager Engineering Department Graphic Systems Division

of difficulties or innovations were involved in making the printing equipment compatible with this new system?

Hirokawa: Achieving good LED irradiation efficiency requires moving the LED source as close as possible to the paper.

This creates the problem of possible contact with the paper. In this system the LED source is installed above the impression cylinder, where paper transport is most stable. A sheet paper offset printing press uses various paper sizes, both large and small. To maximize the LED-UV printing system's electrical efficiency, we had many discussions with Panasonic Electric Works on how to control the electrical power output to suit paper width.

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Wide Format / Proofing Technology

35

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your clients use to evaluate you. The Versant™ 2100 Press makes achieving new levels of stunning image quality easier than ever.

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Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

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Sheetfed Offset through collaboration with various manufacturers. We believe that printing companies who are getting their customers concerned about environment-friendly printing as part of their business strategy are likely to be very interested in the LED-UV printing system.

Okuyama: Our Society for the study of ecology printings presents printing industry trends relating to environmental issues, and reports various research results. What kinds of advantages, including from an environmental viewpoint, does this LED-UV printing system offer printing companies?

Shibata: Well, while fast drying using UV ink is very attractive from the viewpoint of preventing ink smears on the back of printed sheets and reducing the use of spray powder, previous UV printing systems presented various hurdles, such as high electricity consumption and the large size of the peripheral equipment.

For customers who were hesitating to introduce UV printing for those reasons, this LED-UV printing system represents a major breakthrough.

Ikeda: The biggest advantage is, of course, lower power consumption. The system also reduces CO2 emissions, an environmental issue of concern. After stopping a press, previous UV printing systems always required time for the lamp to warm up before printing could be resumed. With the LEDUV printing system there's never any waiting time. Printing can be resumed just like when you use oil based ink.

Shibata: And the LED light source has a life of 15,000 hours, about 15 times longer than a lamp type system, so replacement is less frequent.

Okuyama: One area that our Society of the study of ecology printings focuses on is the reduction of VOCs (volatile organic compounds). The printing industry is said to account for 13% of all the VOCs generated.

Does the LED-UV printing system also reduce VOCs? Kuroki: The ink developed for the LED-UV printing system is a non-VOC type, so the system is effective at reducing VOCs. Ink manufacturers other than TOYO Ink have also begun to offer non-VOC ink, so in the future the selection available is expected to increase.

Okuyama: While various conventional inks are non-VOC and environment-friendly soy inks have also been developed, UV ink has the distinct advantage of speed thanks to UV curing.

Shorter lead times through instant drying and environment-friendly printing are definitely major advantages.

Okuyama: Changing the subject, could you tell me what kind of customers RYOBI is targeting with the LEDUV printing system?

Shibata: Up until now we've been targeting printing companies that are aggressively promoting environmentfriendly printing. Such companies actively publicize that they're involved in environmental activities

Okuyama: RYOBI exhibited an A-3 plus size press equipped with LED-UV printing system at Drupa 2008, and development of a system for B2-size presses has also been announced. Tell us about this development and what future you see for the LED-UV printing system.

Hirokawa: The basic technical elements of the LED-UV printing system have now been established, including the drying performance, development of compatible ink, and printing knowhow. Based on these technical elements, RYOBI will now gradually develop various press variations. Regarding printing on film and coating, which may be our next development themes, we are already collaborating with ink manufacturers and may come up with some solutions addressing those issues in the very near future.

Kuroki: System integration with an offset press makes various control methods and applications possible. It's also possible that the LED unit itself can be made more compact, and various combinations may be tailored to match specific applications, such as installation of multiple LED-UV printing systems on a single press. We plan to work together with our customers to come up with more applications.

Okuyama: Working on development together with customers is very important.

And, if you can take that a step further, I'd hope that you'll also look at things from the viewpoint of the customers' customers - the people ordering the printing work.

I think that accurately discerning their real needs, whether immediate and pressing or deep level, is key to proposing the best solutions.

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Packaging Technology

37

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Management/General

Why Is Good Customer Service Essential to Every Business?

Customer service is the end-all to any company's success or failure. The customer is what provides the income that a company needs to thrive and determines whether or not a company can continue to stay in business. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that a high level of customer service always be something to strive for. Without continued excellence in customer service, a company's success is over before it starts.

So many times we see a company provide what the customer is looking for and then send them on their way. In a bicycle shop, for example, a customer walks in and is obviously searching for something related to a bicycle. He or she mentions that a desire to purchase a new bicycle is what has brought them into the store that day. The shop owner has plenty of bicycles for sale, lets the customer find one they like, receives payment, and lets the transaction end there.

One thing to remember is that, often, the businessman or woman knows more about the product or service they are providing than even the most informed customer. Suppose that the customer in the bicycle shop picked out a street racing, ten-speed bicycle and the shop owner, neglecting to develop a personal relationship with the customer, let the customer's choice be the beginning of the transaction and the payment for said bicycle be the end of it.

Now, suppose that the same customer with a new street racing ten-speed bicycle was planning on taking that bicycle on a mountain trip through rugged and desolate trails. Obviously, the street racing ten-speed is not the best of choices for doing so. If the shop owner had taken the time to talk to the customer and asked questions such as, So, planning on doing some riding? Where at? the shop owner would have been able to suggest a better product for the customer and, hence, developed an appreciative bond between the business and the customer, causing the customer to, more-thanlikely, make a return visit.

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Management/General 39 for creativity. Happy employees love their job and it shows when they provide a service or product to your customers.

Time's Up If an idea, plan, or strategy is not working, bring it to an end. So often, managers are faced with the realization that perhaps the system which was put in place to increase customer service is not going to produce positive results after all. Still, they are reluctant to drop the curtain due to pride or hoping that with just a little more time the plan could still be effective. Forget it. If it's not working, move on to something else. Shut it down and start something else. sThere is no use in wasting customers time and business in the hope that whatever method is being used will eventually work out. Out with the old, in with the new is good advice.

Above all, remember that customer service is the single most important thing to consider in your business, second only to taking care of your employees. Be willing to be flexible and get involved in the process of customer service in any way possible, no matter how high on the food chain you are.

Not only will this serve as a good example to your employees but it will increase the level of service that your customers receive.

About the Author: Myron Curry is the President of Business Training Media, a leading provider of customer service training videos for improving management and employee productivity.

Make It Special Sometimes, excellent customer service calls for the unusual. Make an effort to go the extra mile and provide what is known as customer-led services.

Some customers might work until 5:00 p.m., which is just when your store closes. Offering to let the customer shop after the store closes is catering to a customer's special needs and goes a LONG way in the relationship department. This sort of action also goes hand-in-hand with developing a personal relationship with the customer, as mentioned earlier. This example of customer service is something that can be used anywhere, from a

small storefront business to a large corporation. The point is, pay attention to special needs of your customers, whether a customer is a casual shopper or a corporate client, and you will be rewarded with continued business from that customer again and again.

Customer Service Starts at Home It is important to remember that good customer service starts with employees that are happy to serve the customer.

Take care of your employees and they will take care of you. Make sure their needs are met and do what you can to create a workplace free from negativity and full of motivation and recognition

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Finishing Technology

After 2016, drupa will switch to a three-year cycle,running in May of 2019, 2022 and 2025 drupa, the world's leading trade fair for print and cross-media solutions, will switch to a three-year cycle after 2016, when it runs from 31 May to 10 June.

This decision was taken by the drupa committee at today's meeting in Düsseldorf. “The entire print process chain has changed radically because of the Internet and digital technologies.

New applications and solutions are developing and opening up new fields of business. At the same time, there is more focus on innovative technologies, such as 3D printing, printed electronics and functional printing,” explains Claus Bolza-Schünemann, Chairman of the drupa Advisory Board and President Koenig & Bauer Group. “It’s more important than ever before that our customers have an overview of the

latest technology and are also inspired to use new business models and solutions. drupa is the only specialist trade fair in the world to offer this– and will do so every three years in the future.”

One positive side-effect of this change is that drupa will no longer run in 2020, the same year as interpack, the world's most important trade fair for the packaging industry and the closely related process industry.

"The drupa exhibitors who specialise in packaging printing would have found

2020 an incredibly stressful year so the change will clearly benefit customers," emphasises Werner Matthias Dornscheidt, President & CEO Messe Düsseldorf. The precise dates haven't yet been finalised, but it's clear that drupa will take place in the traditional drupa month of May in 2019, 2022 and 2025 in Düsseldorf.

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Finishing Technology

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KBA Rapida 106 World champion in medium format

KBA.R.642.d

Capable of printing fifteen 500-sheet jobs per hour, the Rapida 106 has been the world makeready champion since Drupa 2008. Now it has broken the records for speed and length as well. Its output of 20,000sph in straight printing or 18,000sph in perfecting mode, and configurations of up to 19 printing and finishing units, are virtually unrivalled. While simultaneous processes that include automatic changes of coating formes and anilox rollers have trimmed costly down times. So drop by and test the medium-format world champion for yourself.

KBA Printing Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., +86 10 8447 5909, w.zehner@kbachina.com KBA (HK) Co. Ltd., +852 2742 8368, jkwan@kba.com.hk KBA Asia Pacific Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia, +60 3 788 588-60, KBA@KBAasiapacific.com KBA Asia Pacific Sdn. Bhd., Singapore, +65 6562 8582, ssegger@KBAasiapacific.com Intergraphics (Thailand) Co. Ltd., +66 2 259 3071, jtsuwan@igraph.co.th www.kba.com

Koenig & Bauer AG

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Management/General

The FlexLiner Gets a New Opening Method For Magazine Inserts Even products without a low folio lap can now be easily opened and processed using the FlexLiner inserting system. That extends the range of applications of the FlexLiner and the processing options in the mailroom.

Muller Martini's FlexLiner inserting system is now even more flexible. It can now also open products without a low folio lap or high folio lap. Products trimmed on three sides and products in the tabloid format, such as magazines or municipal gazettes, are gently opened in the center using a blade-like slide and prepared for the inserting process. The inserts are then inserted without any loss in performance.

Magazine opening is available as an option and can be easily retrofitted on existing FlexLiners.

Flexible Uses Newspapers have not been the only products to be finished in the mailroom

for some time now. Direct-mailing companies also use the FlexLiner inserting system from Muller Martini to put together mail shots. Carrier products, whether they are covers or tabloid products, are opened using a sucker unit or low folio lap unit, and the gathered inserts are reliably inserted.

The FlexLiner is also used with suction opening to place inserts into inserts at high production speeds. This is an additional attractive business model that has proven itself in the market and now accounts for around 5 to 10 percent of insert volume.

New Product Configuration Options With FlexFeed selective main product

feeding, customers have entirely new opportunities to set themselves apart from the competition with the FlexLiner. The main sections can be fed selectively to the inserting machine via up to five feeding stations, which can be loaded manually from the FlexiRoll buffer system or directly from the printing press. Alternatively, up to four inserts can be positioned on the front or back page of a main section as FlexAds (onserting). In addition, an insert can be affixed to the front or back page of a main section as an AddOn. In that prominent position, every FlexAd stands out from the crowd.

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Management/General 43

THE QUALITY BENCHMARK JUST GOT FASTER The Xeikon digital presses for labels and packaging excel in productivity and high quality printing. With its top speed of 30 m/min (98 ft/min), the Xeikon Cheetah is the fastest top quality five color digital label press. Furthermore, it offers all the other benefits that make Xeikon label presses unique. With the Xeikon Cheetah, the quality benchmark has just become significantly faster!

Top quality, true 1200 x 3600 dpi Dry toner electrophotography 98 ft/min (30 m/min) 5 colors Full rotary printing

www.xeikon.com

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Packaging Technology

Fuji Xerox Launches its First Gold and Silver Inks for Production Printing The new Color 1000i Press is set to revolutionise the way the industry prints metallics. Sha Jumari reports.

Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific introduced its latest production colour press, the Color 1000i, a first in the industry to offer both gold and silver dry inks. The xerographic production press is aimed at the high-end professional printing market, and is available in the AsiaPacific region, including China.

Metallic printing that can reflect light has been growing in popularity in recent years. Traditionally, the metallic look is produced by offset printing and hot foil stamping, which can be time consuming. Furthermore, such conventional processes are not suited to the growing demands of short-run and on-demand printing.

With the Color 1000i, such print jobs can now be produced through a single digital printer, to significantly improve workflow in addition to helping print companies expand their business.

Printing application capabilities is greatly widened with the gold and silver dry toners, in addition to the clear dry ink already available with the previous model.

“Having the metallic ink directly within the digital printing machine helps cut out processes. The Gold and Silver inks widen up the creative capabilities and applications, such as business cards, certificates, photo applications, and direct mail,” said Yamazaki Toru, general manager, production go-tomarket, Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific.

“The inks can be integrated into personalised communication. It boosts customer perception of quality through

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Packaging Technology

eye-catching prints and can facilitate premium customisation that will help the consumer feel more connected to the brand,” Yamazaki continued.

Luxury packaging is also a potential market that presents a large opportunity, especially for seasonal looks and limited edition products. These products, usually created in digital printing using cyan, magenta, yellow and black (CMYK), can now use the Color 1000i Press and its specialty inks, to increase the value of each print job and augment marketing effects, thanks to its versatility and ability to create opulence and class.

The Color 1000i Press inherits the professional functions of the Color 1000 press, offering print productivity of 100 prints per minute with media as thick as 350gsm. The new printer comes equipped with Fuji Xerox’s Full Width Array, which automates printing adjustments, such as colour calibration and front and back alignment. This reduces the operator’s workload and improves working efficiency in making printing adjustments. It also uses the FreeFlow® Print Server and EX Print Sever Powered by Fiery®, which enables higher processing speeds for digital data, assisting with faster processing of high volume and variable data.

“The Color 1000i is a technological breakthrough for the print industry, as gold and silver colours can now be printed very easily to enhance communication via documents,” said Nawata Takashi, senior general manager, marketing, Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific. “As Fuji Xerox continues to work harder to bring forth new innovations, we look forward to presenting breakthrough solutions, service and knowledge for the industry.”

Printing Precious Metals Developed through Fuji Xerox’s Emulsion Aggregation (EA) technology, the new gold and silver dry inks are capable of the energy-efficient, low-temperature fusing achievable with EA-Eco toner while having a high sheen.

The toners are ellipsoid-shaped inks with flat reflective

pigments, completely covered by toner particles. By making the shape of each ink particle ellipsoid-shaped, it is now possible to align the orientation of the reflective pigment particles contained within with the long direction of the ink particles. As a result, when the image is fused onto the media, the pigment particles lay parallel to the media, allowing for higher reflection of light from the pigment. This achieves a high sheen and creates the metallic appearance.

In addition, the reflective pigments do not allow light to pass through, so the colour of the underlying media does not show through. This allows metallic printing on various media, including media that already has printed text, transparent film and even dark-coloured paper.

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Packaging Technology

BOBST at ProPak Vietnam 2015 BOBST will be present at ProPak Vietnam from 31st March - 2nd April 2015 on stand #P3 where the latest technologies for the printing and converting industries will be presented.

For flexo printing the main focus will be on the F&K 20SIX which features print widths up to 1'650 mm, repeats up to 1'200 mm, and speeds up to 600 m/min. Designed to cover the whole range of packaging printing demands, the models of the F&K 20SIX platform provide technologies all with the aim of improving productivity in order to minimize waste, change-over time and energy consumption.

In the field of vacuum metallizing, the focus will be on two key innovations - BOBST General Hawkeye Pinhole Detector and the AlOx process. The BOBST General Hawkeye Pinhole Detector is a monitoring system which at full metallizer speed, detects defects which results in increased production

speed and increases in the quality of the final product. The AlOx process produces clear film with good water and oxygen barrier levels and can be used for products including baked goods and microwaveable food where product visibility is required.

BOBST’s gravure presses cover the widest spectrum of applications, such as the Rotomec platform solutions for flexible packaging and the LEMANIC® lines for carton tobacco packaging. At ProPak the focus will be on the brand new RS 5002 gravure printing press. A compact machine delivering great performance, this shaftless gravure press can add to Asian converters’ productions the extra value that only a market-

customized solution can provide.

Information and displays will also available to illustrate the effectiveness and performance of the range of BOBST multi-technology and solventless laminators, as well as the extrusion coating and laminating lines for flexible packaging and paper and board applications. In coating, the updates will be on BOBST latest developments in technologies for the market segments of labelstock, release liners, adhesive tapes, siliconizing, aluminium lacquering and printed electronics.

Division ContiTech of Continental AG Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Packaging Technology

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Laid-back efficiency.

Global-warming-neutral CLIMATE Xtra BLANKETS printing blankets let you lean back and relax. That’s because they enable you to up your efficiency while at the same time effortlessly satisfying your customers' sustainability wishes. More at www.pxp.de

Your Needs First.

www.pxp.de

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Wide Format / Proofing Technology

Agfa Graphics with automatic board feeder and varnish printing At C!Print, the exhibition for the Visual Communication Industry, which took place at the beginning of February in Lyon, Agfa Graphics showed the Anapurna M2500i with optional automated board feeder (ABF) for the first time in Europe.

It will be demonstrated in the Atelier Plug &Play, a 1000 m² creative workshop at the centre of the hall. Here printing/finishing machines in realtime production are displayed along with encouraging meetings, innovation and demonstration. The Anapurna M2500i prints six colors plus white for roll or rigid substrates and will be used to create several live products at the centre of the show. The new Automatic Board Feeder allows for feeding up to

five boards automatically, offering 30% gain in productivity.

In addition, Agfa Graphics also demonstrated the Jeti Titan HS, its industry-leading true flatbed printer.

It will be shown on the Agfa Graphics booth with both varnish and white.

Varnish is the perfect opportunity for sign & display printing companies to differentiate themselves. Used as 'spot' varnish, it can add dramatic effects to

many applications like POP displays, packaging, decorative prints, trade show graphics etc. Agfa Graphics' specially formulated UV-curable varnish is compatible with most standard UVprinting media and cures to a perfect sheen in gloss, or with a semi-gloss effect.

“At C!Print it is about the people in this industry and about challenging their creativity," said David Watson, Marketing Manager Agfa Graphics in France. "We bring two solutions to the show that can help bring creative ideas to life. The Anapurna M2500i is ideal for art reproductions, architectural and interior decorations, lenticular displays and more. And the Jeti Titan maries productivity with splendid varnish effects."

About Agfa The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world's leading companies in imaging and information technology. Agfa develops, manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), for the healthcare sector (Agfa Healthcare), and for specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa is headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries around the globe. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 2,865 million euros in 2013.

Print World Asia • 1 / 2015

Game changer The HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press will take your packaging business to the next level with offset-quality digital printing.

Engineered for folding carton packaging printing, the HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press is the next big thing in packaging. Versatile, efficient and cost-effective, it will bring offset-matching quality to your operation, while introducing new opportunities enabled by digital.

Get ready to expand your business with HP Indigo 30000.

Find out more at hp.com/go/hpindigo30000 or contact Edcent Chan; Hp: +65 9862 6092 or Email: edcent.chan@hp.com

Š 2014 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Wide Format / Proofing Technology

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NEWS Compact Flatbed Cutting Plotter Mimaki, a global industry leader and manufacturer of wide-format inkjet printers and cutting plotters, today launches the CFL-605RT Compact Flatbed Cutting Plotter that offers both creasing and cutting and will enable operations to create and deliver high quality, cost-effective, designs, smoothly and quickly. The CFL-605RT is designed with Mimaki’s well-established technology to support immediate finishing of packaging and prototypes with multiple functions.

“There is growing demand for ondemand production of prototypes and small lots, both for products and their packaging,” explains Mike Horsten, General Manager Marketing EMEA at Mimaki Europe. “This includes fast, efficient prototyping and production of samples as well as small lots of products and packaging that may be modified to reflect different seasonal and regional requirements. There are promotional and special event opportunities, too. In particular, we believe markets such as cosmetics and luxury items will benefit from the ability to produce highly responsive eye-catching packaging with short lead times. Our solutions are specifically designed to meet that need, and we are excited to witness the impact we believe they will have on the market as brand owners and converters alike learn about their many benefits.”

New to the Market The newest addition to Mimaki’s family

of cutting plotters, the CFL-605RT, is a multifunction flatbed plotter that accommodates material sizes up to A2 extra and features a variety of functions including creasing and eccentric, tangential and reciprocating cutting. Used in combination with the UJF-6042, the new compact flatbed cutting plotter can achieve on-demand production of the original goods by providing the whole production process, including printing onto goods and packages, and cutting of cushioning materials.

The eccentric cutter has a maximum cutting thickness of 1 mm with an optimal downforce setting between 30 and 1,000 g.

The tangential cutter features a maximum cutting thickness of 2 mm with high downforce pressure, including materials such as reflective vinyl and rubber sheets.

The reciprocating cutter has a maximum 10 mm cutting thickness for materials such as foam or cardboard and uses a vertical reciprocating motion.

The creasing roller creases materials for a perfect package. Downforce pressures are adjustable from 500 to 1,000 g.

Horsten adds, “We are also developing a complete end-to-end solution that will not only reduce the time required for prototyping and small lot production, but will also significantly reduce costs and enable a faster time to market. In many cases, these functions can be performed

in-house, eliminating outsourcing and further reducing cycle time. These latest portfolio additions are an outstanding example of our mantra of ‘Let’s Create…

Together!’ coming to life.”

Third Rapida 106 in three years for one of India’s largest packaging printers TCPL Packaging, one of the biggest packaging printers in India, has ordered another high-end Rapida 106 in medium format from Koenig & Bauer (KBA).

The new eight-colour press with coater will be equipped for printing board and film.

TCPL was founded in 1990 by the Kanoria family and today it is one of the country’s largest manufacturers of folding carton with six production sites. The company prints and finishes 3,600 tonnes of carton every month or 43,360 tonnes per year. Its sales have risen from $1.31m in 1990/91 to $69m today. TCPL’s products regularly receive national and international awards.

Three of the firm’s plants are located in Silvassa about 180km (112 miles) from Mumbai, two others in Haridwar, near the city of Delhi, and one in Guwahti. Every plant is ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 22000 (food safety) accredited, and follows strict standards set for vendors of food packaging (BRC/IOP). Additionally, the plants in Silvassa and Haridwar are FSC certified. Each of the plants in Silvassa is specialised in gravure, sheetfed offset and the production of E- and F-flute.

A new sheetfed offset press from KBA goes into operation annually at the sheetfed offset plant in Silvassa: a Rapida 106 with six inking units and coater in 2013, a Rapida 106 with seven inking units and coater in 2014 and an eight-colour Rapida 106 with coater and delivery extension will go live in 2015. It will be set up for UV mixed operation allowing the firm to offer maximum flexibility in terms of inline finishing.

The press which will be raised by 450mm (17.7in) is equipped with features typical for packaging printing, such as nonstop automatic facilities at the feeder and delivery, a coating supply and cleaning system, IR/TA/UV drying systems in the delivery extension as well as four VariDry UV interdeck dryers. Automatic plate changers, impression cylinder,

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NEWS program at the Xeikon Café. Jules Lejeune, Managing Director of FINAT who will be sharing his latest views and insights on the label industry, comments:

blanket and roller washing units for conventional and UV printing and EES exhaust-air cleaning system round off the press’ kit boosting productivity.

A Rapida 106 with six printing units, coater and delivery extension mainly for handling plastic film has also been in operation at the company’s plant in Haridwar for three years. Products combining the sheetfed offset and sheetfed gravure printing processes are also produced there.

Xeikon Café highlights full potential of Self-Adhesive label production Increased legislation requirements, greater versioning, language changes, more tactile and eye-catching finishes – today’s label market requires dedicated production solutions from specialized suppliers to maintain profitability. That is why Xeikon, together with its Aura partners, is hosting the Xeikon Café Packaging Innovations at its premises in Belgium, from March 10 to 12. During the three-day event, visitors will get firsthand updates on the latest trends and innovations in digital label production and have the opportunity to share insights, success stories and technological developments with industry peers.

“As a worldwide specialist in the field of self-adhesive label printing, Xeikon has built up an extensive network of Aura partners which are all leading suppliers in their field. These partners and Xeikon’s label experts are joining forces at the Xeikon Café. That allows us to cover all aspects of digital production and offer visitors a unique expert knowledge base”, says Filip Weymans, Xeikon’s Director Segment Marketing Labels & Packaging. “With such an extensive

range of industry expertise present at the Xeikon Café, we can help operations explore the full potential of digital label production, and deliver solutions that make a difference.”

FINAT complements conference program Xeikon is pleased to announce that FINAT, a key international association for the self-adhesive label industry, will take part in the Business Conference

“The self-adhesive label industry accounts for approximately 50% of the total market as it continues to expand with new technologies, materials and external influences bringing about a diversity of exciting new innovations and formats. Self-adhesive labels are by far the most versatile, flexible and innovative labeling format available, with users able to combine a wealth of both decorative and functional attributes into a system that are applied in a productive and costeffective way. FINAT’s role is to raise awareness about the latest developments and versatility of the self-adhesive labeling technologies and as such, we are delighted to share our profound market knowledge at the Xeikon Café.”

Integrated solutions dedicated to selfadhesive label production At the event, Xeikon and its Aura partners will showcase their industry expertise through different self-adhesive

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NEWS containing a myriad of information on the different self-adhesive labeling technologies and configurations that are available through Xeikon and its Aura partners.

applications, produced using the Xeikon Self-Adhesive Label Suite. This Suite is an integrated solution to print and convert high quality labels, powered by a highly versatile Xeikon digital press and complemented with four supporting components from Aura partners – software, print media, consumables and finishing equipment.

"Self-adhesive labels are most commonly used for decorating packaging as they offer the highest flexibility to meet market needs. They are available in a wide range of substrates, colors and adhesives, and are compatible with a variety of printing processes and finishing techniques. In addition, selfadhesive labels stick to most materials and can be applied at the very last moment, just before the products are put on the shelves. That's why they are used in many different industries, such as food, beverages, health & beauty, household and pharmaceuticals,” explains Weymans.

A myriad of information on the different possibilities Attending visitors will see that even the sky is not the limit when it comes to producing creative labels. No less than eight different applications will be produced, emphasizing that digital print is capable of meeting the market requirements while maintaining profitability. Visitors will have the opportunity to talk with leading experts and walk away with a detailed brochure

Several samples of wine labels produced and on display at the event, will highlight the specific requirements of this kind of labels. With designs changing every year, volumes depending on the harvest, and vineyards looking to diversify their product as much as possible, high quality digital printing provides the answer. The ability of Xeikon presses to print on a wide range of challenging materials, including very thin substrates, combined with the specific technical capabilities of the Xeikon QA-I and SuperBlack toners enable printers to produce wine labels of an exceptional high quality that differentiate from the competition.

A combination of evolving legislation, products with a high number of SKU’s, language variations and increased demand for more space to communicate, coupled with smaller containers, is requiring label printers to be ever more creative. This is where extended content labels come in to play – with peel-andreveal labels, booklet labels and leaflets all increasing in popularity. How digital print provides the right answer will be demonstrated with on the spot produced samples of each of these applications.

Also typical applications including Variable Data Printing used for more personal communication or to drive logistical processes will be demonstrated.

What will be printed are logistical labels of products, ordered through an online shop. The challenge for these kind of labels is that quantity and design vary from day to day; first customer impression is crucial and the only solution for this challenge is high quality full color digital printing.

Finally, there will be examples from the food, health and beauty markets which are becoming very competitive and need to follow stricter legal regulations, with larger volumes driven by a greater variety of taste and products. Also here the Xeikon solutions provide the most costeffective solution for both small and high volumes, with the highest quality print.

Specifically for food labels, Xeikon’s 516mm (20.3”) wide label press and dry-toner technology that meets FDA

regulations for food contact offer a vital advantage.

In addition to the extensive range of Self-Adhesive label applications on display, visitors to the Xeikon Café will also learn more about the dedicated solutions for Folding Carton, Heat Transfer and In-Mold Labels. the ROLAND 700 EVOLUTION.” Cuban Printer Opts for UNISET from manroland web systems The Cuban printer Empresa de Artes Gráficas Federico Engels is one of the largest printing houses in Cuba. Based in the capital Havana, the company produces several tabloid products and, what is the main business, books.

With this investment an extension of the production capacity was intended.

Therefore the printer decided to invest in a new UNISET press from manroland web systems.

The new UNISET newspaper press consist of one H/H printing tower and two reel splicers and shows a maximum web width of 965 mm. The PFN 2:3:1 pin folder enables format changes from tabloid to broadsheet and several book formats and it offers highest folding flexibility and quality. The UNISET runs with a production speed of 75,000 copies per hour. The new press will also be equipped with the manroland web systems automation system PECOM extended. This allows pre-settings, which ensure shorter production and makeready times and significantly lower waste rates.

The main focus lies on the book production. Empresa de Artes Gráficas Federico Engels prints educational books with different formats from 1 to 4 color printing.

Strong Investments for the Future Empresa de Artes Gráficas Federico Engels makes strong investments: besides investing in a new UNISET press, the printer from Cuba also decided to upgrade the drive and PECOM press controls of their existing Uniset pressline. This enables a smoother and faster production, less makeready times and, in connection with the new UNISET, helps to achieve highest productivity, flexibility and printing quality.

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NEWS options including an InlineColorPilot measurement system, which automatically detects and corrects inline even the slightest variation and saving on makeready time whilst ensuring constant high printing quality over the entire run.

CEO Christian Bayerlein says "To meet the quality requirements of certain applications we have in addition to the InlineColorPilot measurement system opted for an InlineInspector system.

Here, each sheet is scanned with a high resolution camera where even the slightest deviation or defect is detected and marked.

Successful in Cuba With this project manroland web systems strengthens its market presence in Cuba. Besides another UNISET and COROMAN press at Empresa de Artes Gráficas Federico Engels, there are several RONDOSET installations from the former manroland web systems company group member Plamag Plauen.

These lines are producing the main Cuban newspaper Granma and several tabloid products for more than 30 years now.

Reliable Partnership The new UNISET will be delivered end of 2015 and starts its production in the first quarter of 2016.

“We are very happy about the decision to invest in a new press from manroland web systems. We have worked together for many years now and always considered the printing manufacturer from Germany as reliable partner that offers best quality products. The investment decision was also a strategic decision and an investment in the future of our company. We are happy to rely on manroland web systems as our strong partner that helps us keeping our leading market position and improve the productivity of our company as well as the quality of our products”, Juan José Valdez, Director General at Empresa de Artes Gráficas Federico Engels states.

“We are very proud about the long lasting partnership with Empresa de Artes Gráficas Federico Engels. The company is an outstanding printer in Cuba. With the new UNISET, the

production can be more flexible and cost-effective and at the same time meets the changed market requirements. The investment really is an investment in the future and we are happy that Empresa de Artes Gráficas Federico Engels has chosen manroland web systems for realizing this”, Heiko Ritscher, Regional Sales Manager at manroland web system explains.

Bayerlein of Augsburg welcomes 2015 with new ROLAND 705 HiPrint Bayerlein is a family business operating from a 4,500m2 facility located in Bavaria, Germany. With more than 50 years’ experience in supplying an array of printed products from their Augsburg works, they provide a turnkey print service from the initial design and customized print through to modern warehouse, logistics and distribution services. The company pride themselves in offering customers both offset and digital printing, as well as in-house finishing services.

In January 2015, Bayerlein will install a new ROLAND HiPrint with 5 printing units and coater fitted with all the latest

Plant Manager, Heiko Sonnenleitner, is equally as enthusiastic: "We continuously monitor our circulation during long printing runs with the InlineColorPilot.

The new control console with state-ofthe-art touch screen panels and new Process Monitor software provides us with even greater quality and stability monitoring, including in-house logging and analysis; providing customers with maximum security ".

For Dieter Bayerlein, the decision was clear: "This replaces our ROLAND 4-color press with coater which has given us many years of excellent service. This is what distinguishes the ROLAND machines from others; and if at any time we required any assistance, Manroland service was there immediately. " The company’s slogan Umweltbewusste Qualität aus Augsburg (environmentally conscious quality from Augsburg) is based on fact. Highly sustainable and environmentally friendly practices are at the forefront at Bayerlein; the new press prints alcohol-free. “We have made this our practice for many years” Heiko adds.

Production start-up of the new R705 LV HiPrint is scheduled for the end of this month.

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More Results. Everyone’s results are different. But, whatever your goals may be, the Versant™ 2100 Press is the ideal solution to help you achieve yours.

• Grow your business with new applications enabled by the incredible media latitude.

• Reduce your costs by automating critical tasks.

• Produce more jobs with state-of-the-art innovations included as standard.

• Delight your customers with a new level of image quality.

Do More. With More.

For more information: www.fxap.com.sg/product/production/versant_2100p.jsp The Versant™ 2100 Press

Xerox, Xerox and Design, as well as Fuji Xerox and Design and Versant are registered trademarks or trademarks of Xerox Corporation in Japan and/or other countries.