2011 - 11 for web by Print Innovation Asia

Covering the Printing, Packaging and Publishing Industries across Asia.

MICA (P) 046/11/2010 - KDN PPS 1529/8/2010

ASIA

Print Pack Publish

November 2011 US$8.50

Johnny Lam, Executive Director of Profoto Digital Services Pte Ltd with Helen Chan, Associate Director and General Manager of FUJIFILM (Singapore) Pte Ltd

Singapore-based Profoto Digital Services Pte Ltd, installs FUJIFILM's Acuity Flatbed Printer

See full story on page 53

“The bizhub PRESS C7000 offers a lot more than high-speed colour printing. Reaping the benefits of superior quality in combination with absolute reliability, print providers simply won’t go wrong when choosing Konica Minolta’s dependable digital colour presses.”

http://www.bizhubpress.com KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS (S) PTE LTD 10 Teban Gardens Crescent, Singapore 608923 Tel: (65) 6563 5533 Fax: (65) 6561 9879 Website: http://www.biz.konicaminolta.com Email: bizhubPRESS@konicaminolta.sg

Asian PrintAwards 2012 th

Gold

Silver

November 2011

Bronze

Contents Page 4 6 8 10 14 18 24 28 32 33 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 52 54 56 62 64

Agfa Graphics Debuts High-Capacity Azura No Can Do – Not With Us. What’s in your hands now? Leading the industry standard Driving movable data in the right direction Work smarter – not harder KBA presents new medium-format generation Received the Green Project Certificate printcom knows the right materials for enhancement Xingraphics’ global authorised distributors meeting ends on good note Digital offset press heads to China Shandong Hailan grows with Enthrone 29 On-the-fly high-definition dot viewing Leading Chinese printer orders eleventh new Goss web press The case for 96-page web offset production The great game of business One solution base for premier wide format print solutions Versatility and productivity are key features Offering additional value Acuity for equity More than just print, literally! Industry news from all over the world Classififed pages Some funny items collected over the last month

No 71 Geylang Lorong 23 #07-02, THK Building Singapore 388386 tel+65 6733 5342 fax +65 6733 3586 Publisher Paul Callaghan paul@cpublish.com.sg Managing Director Elizabeth Liew eliew@cpublish.com.sg Editor Ann Callahan calmor@ihug.co.nz Journalist Christel Lee editorasia@cpublish.com.sg Advertising Sales Matthew Callahan matt@cpublish.com.sg Accounts Manager Radika PS accounts@cpublish.com.sg Accounts Meynard Gloria accounts@cpublish.com.sg

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

PrePress

Agfa Graphics Debuts High-Capacity Azura Combination of new Avalon N8-80 XT with Azura TS ThermoFuse chem-free plates and new Azura Ultima Clean Out Unit brings the benefits of chemical-free plate making to high-volume printers At the IGAS 2011 (International Graphic Arts Show) held 16-21 September in Tokyo, Japan, Agfa Graphics will debut the Azura TS System. The high-volume system combines the Avalon N8-80 XT platesetter, with the new Azura Ultima, a high-capacity Clean Out Unit (COU) designed to keep pace with Agfa’s new Avalon, and Azura TS chem-free plates, based on Agfa’s patented ThermoFuse technology. The new system from Agfa Graphics easily handles 40,000m2 plates a year and offers the benefits of its chem-free Azura to high-volume users. The Avalon N8-80 XT features a new generation laser imager which improves image quality and throughput. The Azura Ultima Clean Out Unit removes the non-imaged areas from the plate after laser imaging. This new COU has been redesigned in keeping

with Agfa Graphics commitment to continually lower environmental impact without sacrificing quality or speed. It offers high-volume users even greater environmental benefits. It is easy to use and maintain, requires no water connection, and generates only a fraction of waste of comparable systems.

"The Azura system now also responds to needs of larger, high-volume printers," said Ralph Hilsdon, Head of Product Marketing at Agfa Graphics. "We can comfortably say that no other manufacturer can offer this level of productivity, quality and environmental benefit with one solution. Moreover, in combination with Agfa Graphics' Apogee workflow and the Sublima cross-modulated (XM) screening it outperforms any other solution in the market on speed, ease of use and process stability." The new design of the Avalon N8-80 XT also took the environmental impact into consideration: a new standby mode saves 88% on power consumption without compromising productivity. Agfa Graphics says the new system clearly positions Azura as a mainstream technology; it underlines Agfa's innovative approach towards more sustainability in the printing industry. Its launch at IGAS in Tokyo strengthens Agfa Graphics' position as the leading provider of chem.-free solutions in one of the largest printing markets in the world.•

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Management/General

Delighting You Always

High Precision Printing

High Quality

Higher Color Accuracy

Consistent Color Reproduction

Enhanced Productivity

The new 12-color Canon imagePROGRAF printers are perfectly optimized for GMG ColorProof, GMG DotProof XG and GMG FlexoProof XG high quality halftone and contone proofing applications. To ensure the highest production reliability and finest quality proofing results, the printer has been optimized for GMG’s superior inkjet proofing substrates. This joint solution is the result of extensive technological collaboration between GMG and Canon, bringing to market an integrated software and hardware package for high-end contract proofing applications that meet both GMG and Canon quality standards. GMG’s ColorProof contone proofing software and the FlexoProof XG and DotProof XG halftone proofing modules enable the GMG/Canon proofing system to achieve maximum color accuracy and consistency.

iPF6300/iPF6350

iPF8300

Certified Industry Color Standard

Canon Singapore Pte Ltd 1 HarbourFront Ave #04-01 Keppel Bay Tower Singapore 098632 Tel: (65) 6799 8888 www.canon-asia.com

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Digital Technology

No Can Do – Not With Us. For the media professionals at Brückner & Neuner GmbH (almost) nothing is impossible. ORIS Press Matcher gave a big boost in quality and efficiency in the highly productive digital printing department. The new building of Brückner & Neuner GmbH, located in Obertshausen about 20 km East of Frankfurt, is bright and welcoming. The company produces for customers from both Germany and neighbouring countries. The company for digital media design was founded in 1993 by two through-and-through professionals, who previously learnt the business at one of the most renowned typesetting and pre-press companies in Frankfurt. Today, the company has 35 highly motivated employees. When looking at the impressive variety of products created, you would quickly understand that both owners have a penchant for perfection, and the whole company has internalised this philosophy. The past years have seen many revolutions in the print industry, Brückner & Neuner GmbH has constantly adapted its strategy, left the beaten tracks and thrown overboard what has become outdated. A quote of the famous American industrialist Henry Ford aptly sums it up: "Success is a matter of adjusting one's efforts to obstacles and one's abilities to a service needed by others". For the most part, it has been technically complex orders which brought the necessary technology in-house. Today, the wide range of on-demand services

in digital printing and finishing covers everything from a digital short-run to complete exhibition display walls. The owners gained a first experience in digital printing as early as 1990 in a company where both were employed before they founded their own. It is therefore not surprising that they invested in digital printing soon after the company was opened, after the purchase of an imagesetter and scanner. Bernd Neuner recalls, "Relatively soon we were running three toner-based systems for short-run printing. Back then, all three printers needed to produce just 1,000 copies, and it was a disaster to print at least half-way identical colours on the printers. At that time we still even glued a lot of pages together to produce dummies for customers." Joachim Brückner, who is primarily responsible for sales in the company, adds: "Many production methods in those early days of the company appear rather absurd today. However, it was a significant advantage to use only DTP on Macs from the beginning. That we also immediately invested in digital printing. Since we are

in the vicinity of the financial centre in Frankfurt, we have many institutional customers, like investment companies from the banking sector. Although their obligatory reports can be very voluminous, only a few copies are needed. At the same time, jobs often include sensitive data, which places specific demands on data security. That is why we were one of the first media companies who invested in a Citrix solution to meet our customers' requirements. In the course of time, we have standardised and automated typesetting as much as possible, using extensive scripting. Time and again, customers are trying to create brochures, using "Word", but find out soon enough that the cost and effort are much higher than delegating these jobs to professional typesetting companies. Today we provide customers with a powerful, yet easyto-use editing system, which can be used via a secure access. In future, we will add a web-to-print system. Other service providers very often refuse jobs when confronted with data from Office programs like PowerPoint.

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Digital Technology GmbH emerged from prepress and was completely digital right from the outset. Technically, Brückner & Neuner GmbH has remained faithful to Océ and Xerox since years and continuously invested in the latest generation of black & white and color systems. In addition to several black & white systems, a full-colour Xerox DocuColor 8000 is in operation. The company also has adequate finishing capacities, which are also used for commission orders from friendly printers. With the investment in a large-format Océ Arizona flatbedprinter, another line of business was created three years ago. Soon after, it was complemented with a large-format eco-solvent printer with an appropriate cutting plotter.

By contrast, we have implemented standards which allow us to convert even these files almost effortlessly and print them digitally with correct colours. The banking crisis, also accelerated the dramatic decrease of print runs. In the past, obligatory reports were printed in several thousand copies. Within two years, this came down to mere three to ten copies, which is the bare minimum that must be submitted to the authorities. The entire rest is distributed online by now. Needless to say, that this has hit conventional printers hard." "One of our strongest points is the comprehensive full-service we can offer which always includes consultation and a dedicated training for our customers. Although the acceptance of PDF in the market made things a lot easier, we still check and edit customers' files prior to print. With this service, we differentiate ourselves from online printers. At the same time our customers frequently discover that very often we are actually less expensive. Particularly when things need to move fast and no other solution is in sight, you regularly hear 'just go and see B&N'", Bernd Neuner says with a smile. Prepress services still have a big share in the revenue, and many customers come to the media producers to see their ideas become reality - from textile printing to a three-metre-billboard. Unlike other companies, the print production at Brückner & Neuner

CGS Partner IGEPA, Dietzenbach introduced Brückner & Neuner GmbH to ORIS Press Matcher. "When IGEPA first demonstrated the CGS software in early 2010, they hit the mark. We frequently produce a wide spectrum of printed matter for demanding customers, ranging from business cards and flyers to the artwork of entire exhibition booths. We also assume responsibility for the entire offset production process. The client expects colour fidelity for his corporate identity and an identical colour reproduction on different printing systems, without getting into time-consuming colour matching processes. Since some time, we have agreed on the ISO Coated V2 standard, commonly used in offset printing, which we use as a neutral communication colour space to create output-independent data. In short, we want to produce reliable results with consistent quality on all systems, particularly important for re-runs. This continuously caused us problems

in the past, particularly on our main machine, a Xerox DC 8000. Achieving consistency within a print-run or a repeat job required considerable effort and expense, and still we would reach a limit often enough. Particularly jobs with light tints, which we have quite frequently, were extremely difficult to match visually. ORIS Press Matcher produces much better results entirely metrologically, using the iterative 4-D colour management technology", explains Rainer Bayer, operations manager at B&N and responsible for colour management. "We have a much better colour uniformity now, and with the grey optimisation feature we achieve a better grey balance throughout the entire printing process on all of our systems." "We only briefly tested the software under production conditions in our company, with close support from IGEPA and CGS. Straight after, we decided to match all existing colour systems to the ISO standard, using ORIS as a colour server, from the layout proofer in the prepress department to the large-format printer with ecosolvent inks. Within a very short time we were able to improve the quality and efficiency of our digital printing department, since we now use a largely automated colour transformation process, anyone here can perform. This allows us to produce perfect results in the shortest time, instead of having to go through a tedious profiling process", Bernd Neuner concludes.

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Management/General

What’s in your hands now? The late Steve Jobs shook the world with his recent departure, leaving many people around the globe saluting him for the milestones he created in media consumption. The debate continues on whether we should continue consuming media the paperless way. Christel Lee thinks aloud… Some two years ago, the industry went into panic mode – especially the newspaper sector when the iPad stormed into the market, wiping out many newspaper setups. It didn’t help that the global economic crisis had already wounded many enterprises with the dwindling number of advertisements – their main source of revenue. A Yahoo! survey has reported a surge in usage of Flickr!, Finance and Sports sites through the iPad. Publishing houses have also re-evaluated their strategies to keep their heads above water after book printing also suffered a decline. This excludes the sector of academic titles where updated editions are common. It would be a fair comment to make that Jobs (through his invention of gadgets) has revolutionalised the way we consume media. Status vs Stature If one is to argue along the lines of lifestyle, I recall my conversation with one of the world’s leading paper suppliers, Gold East Paper. L.T. Huang, former VP, commented, “…the feel of a physical book and an electronic book is different. Native Chinese like us particularly enjoy the “book scent”, as well as the physical feel of holding a book. Making notes on a book versus on an electronic book has a different feel. “The internet audience demographics still favour young people. Moreover, the book-buying power of internet surfers is not substantial. The impact therefore is not as big as what many assume.” Incidentally, that tallies with Yahoo!’s findings in the survey which reflected

reported in June 2011 that print sales fell by a steep 9.5% in the first three months of the year, dropping industry-wide print sales to $4.7 billion, a level not seen since 1983. Alan D. Mutter, a well-known consultant in the United States, specialising in corporate initiatives and new media ventures involving journalism and technology, notes in his findings: “Print sales in the first quarter of 2011 were only 45% of the $10.5 billion in revenues produced by the industry in the first quarter of 2006, the last threemonth period in which newspapers collectively showed positive year-to-year growth. As illustrated in the chart below, print sales have been falling relentlessly since April 1, 2006.

most users are from the 30-54 age range (peaking in the 35-44 age group). The report adds that 94% of iPad users are more likely to be affluent consumers with solid wealth and strong incomes. Clearly, it’s where the advertising dollars are pumped into to get more dollars! Kindle eBook sales reportedly surpassed Amazon’s hardcover sales back in July 2010, and they surpassed paperback sales in January of this year. In May this year, Amazon.com officially announced its site in the United Kingdom is selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, notwithstanding hardcover book sales are still growing. The rate of eBook purchases versus that of hardcover books is at a shocking ratio of 2:1! News bi(y)tes! The Newspaper Association of America, the industry’s trade association,

“In the first quarter of 2011, real estate classified advertising slid by 19.3% from the prior year, while national tumbled 11%, retail fell 9.5% and auto classified was down 4.7%. Only employment classifieds gained 4.3%.” In spite of the wide geographical difference, the similarity is conspicuous in Asia. Singapore’s dominant news provider, Singapore Press Holdings Ltd, has rolled out its iPhone app so “consumers” can have their fix while on-the-move. The Wall Street Journal, Asia News Network, China Daily, to name a few, offer the same for their share of readers. Such methods to capture an audience, leaving the latter literally no breathing space, have found their way to the movies! In Hongkong, film developers have even resorted to the same method rather than using the traditional news platform to announce the latest films! With that in mind, what is in your hands now

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Management/General

SOLVENT UV. WIDE SUPERWIDE. PAST FUTURE. MAKE THE MOVE TO A NEW ERA IN PROFITABLE PRINTING. Introducing the EFI VUTEk GS3250r. The print quality of wide format. The speed of superwide. The economics that only comes from EFI digital UV.

The new EFI ™ VUTEk ® GS3250r replaces superwide solvent printers and multiple wide-format printers with 3.2 meter UV roll-to-roll productivity and true 1000 dpi print capability for high-margin, closely viewed applications. Or choose a faster printing mode for outdoor applications. Either way, you profit from increased production speeds and lower costs on a wider range of substrates and applications. Digital economics means you get the best ROI and hourly breakeven in the industry – monthly payback can be achieved with less than one hour of run time per day. And with EFI integrated digital inkjet workflow solutions from job acquisition to production – and industry-leading inks and service – you’re always ready to print to win.

Scan or visit efi.com/economics5 to discover the future of superwide printing. Or call +65 6220 1355 (EFI Singapore) or e-mail to sales.asia@efi.com for more information ©2011 EFI. All rights reserved.

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Digital Technology

LEADING THE INDUSTRY STANDARD Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific introduces the world’s largest team of accredited Digital Print Experts.

Colour workflow requires colour management. A successful colour matching partnership makes saying ‘yes’ so much easier.

By Paul Dimmock, Graphic Communications Strategy Manager at Fuji Xerox

Recently 30 Fuji Xerox employees working across the Asia Pacific region became the world’s largest team of FOGRA Digital Print Experts (DPE) following successful training and certification held in Australia and Singapore. Worldwide, the Fuji Xerox team represents 50% of qualified industry people who to date have achieved DPE certification. The certification 'Digital Print Expert' (DPE) relates to an individual’s capabilities in setting up systems. They must meet certain requirements and in doing so comply with the validation print according to ISO/CD 12647-8 standard. Participants need to demonstrate extensive practical experience with digital output systems. This includes PDFbased workflows, expertise in (ICC) colour management and communication, colour difference evaluation, and an understanding of how ISO standardisation works in graphic arts imaging technology. Andreas Kraushaar from FOGRA’s headquarters in Germany conducted the Fuji Xerox training and certification. In 2008, FOGRA launched the Digital Print Experts certification program. The certification means all Fuji Xerox DPEs are able to set up and evaluate a digital printing system according to ISO 12647-8, and offer a profiling service

certified by a professional body to ensure colour quality and accuracy from their customers’ print devices. DPEs are also able to support their customers in getting prepared for a FOGRA Cert Validation Print Creation. The DPE certification is a very new credential and while certification has existed for some time now in offset printing, nothing of a comparable level has existed for digital printing before. Prepress workflows require a colour managed process to achieve a consistent expectation and result. Today, the use of Colour Management is rapidly gaining popularity with many Asian Commercial Printers who specialise in quality colour printing. Part of the challenge succeeding in digital print is to understand the elements that must be controlled to ensure predictable and colour accuracy. Commercial print or-

ganisations today recognise the inherent advantages, promoting their products in the workflow chain to be colour management capable. “If you have multiple imaging devices including offset presses, even if they’re the same make and model, you will find each has a unique inherent print characteristic. The difference can be caused by many things including the environmental surrounds, the equipments age and condition, how the print file was created, paper stocks, ink pigments, operator expertise.” said Paul Dimmock, Graphic Communications Strategy Manager at Fuji Xerox. Using the same CMYK file when imaged across multiple devices will almost always produce a different colour result. In some workflows this would be okay and nothing more would be needed. But in many modern digital workflows we

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Management/General 11

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Digital Technology often see the production process being output to various devices be it inkjet, laser or offset. In this environment accurate colour simulation can be managed across all devices if engineered and supported correctly. The secret is to understand what it takes to build a colour managed workflow, the elements involved, and when colour management is best applied. We’ve long touted our leading position in colour and for good reason. We have the numbers to back it up including page volume, digital presses operating in the field, quality of after sales service support. Fuji Xerox print engines are capable of performing all necessary colour management because we make good use of ICC profiling; convert between color spaces as needed on the way to the intended digital output device. Supported by CGS ORIS PressMatcher Pro, this user friendly colour management tool completes a very simple and affordable production workflow for the colour critical Graphics Arts market. Dimmock goes on to say “Like all things new, adding a colour managed workflow within a commercial print operation may present some early challenges. But when supported by a qualified industry partner and implemented correctly results in better customer relationships, cost reductions and we hope many repeat print orders.”

Digital print expert team from Fuji Xerox Singapore

Innovative solutions such as ORIS PressMatcher Pro help us manage the critical colour debate across all types of technologies, across all production floors, across all production schedules. Not only does our CGS partnership support many workflow requirements, it helps Fuji Xerox sell digital print engines to customers looking for additional services making their business more effective. And if the customer has competitive equipment placements, they can

introduce Fuji Xerox to complement the existing mix supporting the investments already made. Consulting with our Digital Print Experts demonstrates a printer's commitment to the highest standards in print quality. Based on measurable criteria for proofing and printing in a production environment, achieving FOGRA certification shows a printer has the internal controls to consistently produce precise international printing standards. It also adds visible value to the branding of your business versus the competition. Having our Digital Print Experts qualify at this high level was a costly investment to make. But most importantly it sends a strong positive message to the Graphic Communications market confirming our leading position, support mechanism, ongoing industry commitment and business direction. “We recognise all Fuji Xerox technologies we sell and the services we support must provide the required image quality expectation our customers demand. We’re dealing with people focused on providing a very high print quality service to meet their customer’s expectations.” Dimmock reiterates. “For an industry to achieve this we must be ready to support each other.”

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Digital Technology

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Digital Technology

Driving movable data in the right direction By Ed Boogard

“Printing using movable type” has turned into “printing using movable data”. It has been almost eight years since Bernhard Schreier, CEO of Heidelberg, paraphrased Gutenberg’s invention to describe the transformation of the industry. And data has been moving ever faster, in ever more directions, ever since.

“Everything that can go online, will go online”, Bernhard Schreier - now appointed president of drupa 2012 - stated in his speech at GraphExpo 2011, last September. And ‘everything’, of course, includes the printing industry. Who could have imagined only three years ago to be able to access all relevant management information from your printshop by using an app on a smartphone? Or to allow your clients to view, annotate, and approve jobs - on their iPads? It was only at the time of drupa 2008 that Apple announced a new iPhone using 3G. And the iPad did not even exist. Get your App Now, Heidelberg’s Prinect Mobile app connects your smartphone directly to the workflow at work, and let you check a job’s status, monitor machine reports of all equipment and even analyze production during shifts. Agfa’s :Apogee Prepress App gets you quick check of a specific job during production on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. “A convenient status overview of the prepress equipment, including proofers, CtP systems and other output devices, can also be displayed with this App", says Erik Peeters, Marketing Manager for Apogee at Agfa Graphics. And Fujifilm’s XMF Remote app is changing the way printers and their clients interact, as John Davies, workflow solutions manager Fujifilm Europe Europe, explained at the UK Publishing Expo 2011: “Print buyers are, in the main, creative people, and it’s creatives who have been early adopters of iPad technology, using it as a professional

business tool. If we want to enhance the experience of these creatives who are responsible for commissioning and approving print work, we have to provide them with tools that they want to work with.” Shift to software Between last drupa and the 2012 edition, capital investment has been impacted by the global recession. Printing companies have been forced to find new ways to innovate and improve their business without large investments in machines or equipment. Shifting their attention to software, focusing on the handling of data and information, has proven to offer affordable solutions that enhance productivity, efficiency and margin. Also, new services and products can be provided to customers, opening up new markets as well. As software from, for example, DirectSmile and XMpie shows, variable data does not only mean

you can personalize print, but you can make it interact with e-mail, personal websites and mobile messaging as well. Information and technology Drupa 2012 is set to show printing really is all about information and technology. As lines of lead became streams of bits and bytes, digital information has been changing the printing industry dramatically. It allows the production process to become highly automated and standardized, by creating connected workflows from start to finish. Printing has not only become faster and more efficient by connecting commercial data with production data. It has also become more flexible and effective by using creative data on digital presses to produce highly segmented or even personalized printed products. Digital information is changing the business of printing, by changing the way

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Digital Technology ers became solution providers to their clients. It has weakened relationships as clients turned to the highly transparent Internet marketplace. And digital information is changing shape and form, as more and more digital alternatives to print, like e-books and tablets, become available. They attract an increasing part of the moveable data as both print buyers and print consumers start to prefer pixels to paper.

printers and clients interact, communicate and connect. ‘Web-to-print’ provides new ways to request and deliver quotes, exchange job information, upload files, do proofing and track jobs. It has strengthened relationships as print-

Automate production “The most important trend at drupa 2008 was the effort that all companies - in prepress, press and postpress - put in developing IT solutions to automate and control the entire graphic workflow”, says Italian prepress expert Ester Crisanti. “Many solutions were focused on handling the files exchange, others were specialized in checking the colour reproduction on-board of the press machine and, on top of all, there was the JDF technology. Crossmedia publishing and hybrid workflows were new at drupa 2008 and there were some interesting offers that now, after 4 years, are becoming a strong reality.” Fujifilm early on put the Adobe PDF Print Engine at the heart of its JDF based XMF workflow. Others followed soon, like Agfa’s ApogeeX, Screen’s TrueFlow, Kodaks’s Prinergy and Xerox’ FreeFlow Print Server. These endto-end PDF workflow solutions now guarantee output consistency and allow for true hybrid workflows, combining conventional and digital print, and crossmedia workflows, including all kinds of electronic media as well.

Hybrid workflows “Hybrid workflows will arrive at drupa 2012”, says Gareth Ward, editor of Print Business magazine (UK), as he analyses developments since last drupa: “They not really exist, rather co-joined workflows and there is no great appetite for them in real use. MIS moves forward, but with different demands in different countries can hardly be said to have changed the industry. Web to print has been the most significant development, though again not all countries use it in the way it is used in Germany. And automation remains a concept rather than practicality in most shops.” Eddy Hagen at VIGC, the Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic Communication, also picks ‘hybrid workflows’ as the main topic at drupa 2012, as more printers will be offering both conventional and digital printing. Also, JDF/ JMF will remain an important theme, but it will still take time for it to live up to its full potential, Hagen thinks. He would also like to stress the importance of MIS: “Every company has to be able to analyze its costs and revenues on a job-to-job basis. You have to know which jobs earn you money and which don’t, so you can turn your company into the right direction. The financial crisis has made it clear that efficiency and automation are key. That is why many printers now turn their attention to web to print.” Management information Workflow solutions have grown from separate systems controlling (part of) the production process, to managing all business related information. For exam-

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Management/General ple Kodak’s Unified Workflow Solution was designed to bring all systems together and integrate and unify all information available. More recently, Screen introduced Equiosnet, a “universal workflow environment” providing endto-end automation “from the initial job quote all the way through the invoicing of the finished project.” JDF and JMF have enabled production workflows to connect to the business information systems surrounding it. Data needs to be available throughout the complete process - to everybody concerned in every possible way. That is why, early 2011, Heidelberg acquired software specialist CERM to expand its portfolio of management information systems. Marcel Kiessling, member of the Management Board responsible for Heidelberg Services, explained the strategy behind the takeover: “We aim to present a fully integrated MIS solution with central data management in combination with our Prinect print shop workflow at drupa 2012 and start the worldwide roll-out step by step.” Connecting to customers Customers become connected to the workflow as well. Suppliers like EskoArtwork provide software that enables brand owners, designers and retailers to collaborate with packaging manufacturers and printers in artwork creation and quality assurance. Softproofing and even virtual 3D modelling of the product to be printed has opened up ways to interact in a fast and secure way, on a global scale. This interaction not only allows for automation and efficiency but also reduces costs and time related to miscommunication and technical errors. And that is exactly what also Enfocus is aiming at, by connecting designers, publisher and printers and let them at the same time to do what they are best at - be creative, or focus on content and sales, or put ink on paper. Pascale Ginguené, consultant and trainer in digital technologies for the printing industry, looks back at drupa 2004 as a workflow, MIS and JDF oriented show, with 2008 following up on that with web to print en inkjet technologies taking centre stage: “Quite logical developments, as it is first necessary to improve, automate and streamline pro-

duction before opening up your systems to the outside world via web to print.” She thinks drupa 2012 will be an opportunity for vendors to demonstrate integrated cross media workflows: “These will form both the backbone of marketing and corporate communications, as well as the heart of the services a printer has to provide.” Web to print At drupa 2008, InfoTrends published the results of an extensive survey in Western Europe finding that “only one-third of all respondents indicated that they had deployed a Web-to-print solution, and another 20 per cent were considering deploying a solution within the next few years. If all of these respondents did in fact deploy such a solution, this would result in a 68 per cent increase in installations over the next 5 years.” At the same time, Web-to-print volumes were expected to grow 264 per cent by 2010 to become worth in excess of €10.5 billion. As recent predictions concerning the US market show, this growth will continue. InfoTrends forecasts the Web-to-print share in commercial print volume to double from 15 percent in 2009 to 30 percent in 2014 - representing $31 billion on a total of $107 billion - after having increased already five-fold over the last ten years as only 3 percent of print volume was Web-enabled in 2000. Companies like Kodak have anticipated this growth and now offer a wide range of web to print solutions to be integrated into any existing workflow. Moving to the Cloud Digital workflows are yet about to take a another new direction. Although ‘Application Software Provider’ (ASP) and ‘Software-as-a-Service’ (SaaS) have been around for some time, ‘the Cloud’ is now fundamentally changing the way

data is being stored, routed and handled. Hiflex, already showing their iPhone application at drupa 2008, is taking the lead with its next major release of Hiflex MIS - called version 2012 or ‘drupa-release’. It will take the complete management information system to the cloud. In this way, both Hiflex MIS and Webshop can be entirely operated via the Internet and installed and executed on a server in a printer’s facility (a socalled ‘private cloud’), in an external data center (‘public cloud’) or at the Hiflex Data Center (‘Hiflex cloud’). It took Hiflex almost three years to develop this new architecture for its existing solutions. Using the cloud will reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) as users do not need to invest in server hardware, facilities or back-up solutions anymore. As more software solutions will be available in the cloud, more data will run through cyberspace. Information will not just be sitting in dedicated databases, waiting to be send to a designer or printing company. Data can go many directions. “The Cloud will be the overriding change”, Gareth Ward predicts, adding: “Can I be the first to claim 2012 as the Cloud drupa?” Electronic media Since drupa 2008, electronic media like e-book readers, smartphones and tablets have moved from hype to hip and happening. Especially publishers of books, magazines and newspapers have been eager to try and see how print on paper can be replaced by digital publications. Saving on print, distribution and stock on the one hand, and on the other applying new business models and trying to find new ways to serve customer’s needs. As e-books now outsell paper editions on Amazon, it is clear that ‘movable data’ are no longer always making their way to the printing press. “The evolution is so fast that is not possible to figure out the future”, says Ester Crisanti. “We could only try to imagine how the market will evolve. I like to say we are living in “a fast changing world” so it’s important to stay updated trying to understand the technology evolution, the customer needs and the trend of doing communication.” drupa 2012 will offer the opportunity to do exactly that: get up to date with the way data move and make sure you know how to best connect the dots.

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

PrePress

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Management/General

Work smarter – not harder As the possibilities and the range of applications in the world of printing, including digital, continue to expand, the manufacturers of finishing machines are having to keep pace by delivering continual innovations. In addition, faced with growing competitive pressure, businesses are increasingly seeking to optimise and automate their processes. At the same time, the proffered solutions also have to satisfy environmental standards, provide unique selling points, and be suitable for small print runs. What trends can we expect in print finishing at drupa on 3 – 16 May 2012?

One thing is for sure – at drupa 2012 there will be plenty of fresh ideas in finishing technology. All the manufacturers we spoke to confirmed to us that they are hard at work on new or enhanced products. And that’s just as well, because an industry that stands still will go backwards, and that is something none of us wants to see. Particularly when the industry again needs to gather momentum after the difficult years following the financial crisis. So drupa 2012 comes at a good time, and will surely show that the decline in the industry has been dramatically reversed since the last drupa. While booming markets such as China, India and South America are growing at an enviable rate in spite of the crisis, things are not so encouraging on the

established markets in the West. Print potential is changing and print runs are shrinking even though there are more products, margins are falling, costs need to be kept under control and customers are becoming more sensitive. This situation requires both printers and finishers to develop innovative new solutions. Time is money, and every mistake has an impact on the bottom line. This applies to both large print runs and digital prints of one. For years, finishing has been the poor cousin in the production process, but recently this traditional situation has been overturned. Why? Simple: the finishing sector has reinvented itself, being no longer a means to an end, but an essential process in the completion of a

By Michael Seidl

printing project. These days there is no point in having a fast offset printer, or the latest digital printing machine, if the finishing is not right and carefully saved paper is wasted in the folding process or the single photo book leaves the production line cut at an angle. Modern finishing technology is sophisticated and innovative, and can hold its head up high alongside other developments in the industry. Join us as we explore the latest trends in this area of the print industry. It might just give you an exciting insight into what awaits you at drupa 2012. Automation: have we reached the ceiling? In recent years, binding systems have become highly automated. As to the question of whether this trend will continue or automation has reached its limit, only drupa 2012 will tell. If there is no more progress to be made in this area, where else might development be focused? Thomas Krischke, Commercial Postpress Manager at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, believes that the dominant trend is the drive to increase efficiency and productivity. In finishing, he explains, automation serves primarily to reduce make-ready times for frequently changing small runs, the most extreme case being single-copy runs in digital printing. With large print runs, however, the productivity of the overall process is the key factor. At Müller Martini, automation has always been a key focus of development. It says simpler, smarter operation results in faster make-ready and error avoidance, and thus higher productivity. “As

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Management/General 19 print runs get smaller, workflow automation and the organisation of the associated business processes, such as logistics, become even more important,” stresses CEO Bruno Müller. “We haven’t reached the ceiling yet,” adds MBO sales manager Jan Oldenkott. “The next stage in finishing will be book-on-demand printing.” His vision is to produce every book with a different format. Olaf Wallner, Marketing, Sales and Service Manager at Kugler-Womako, sees two key trends: a high level of automation in industrialised economies and fast format changes with small to medium batch sizes. He points to productivity as the dominant force, particularly in mass production. The requirements, he says, are for low staff levels and high productivity, which can only be achieved with a high degree of automation. “In response to customer pressure, manufacturers have developed fully automatic machines,” says Kai Büntemeyer, CEO of Kolbus. “But these are not generally used to modernise traditional, manual production processes.. “Machine development has only reached a ceiling to the extent that the machines cannot be automated any further in themselves. There is still plenty of potential as far as machine users are concerned.” At Swiss magazine and newspaper specialist Ferag, automatic make-ready processes come as standard on their gatherer-stitcher drums thanks to the PreTronic presetting system. Where economically feasible, format changes are performed by precision servomotors at all the relevant positions. “In the fight for newspaper contracts, low unit costs are essential. The demand for near-parity of net and gross output takes priority,” explains Ferag CEO Jürg Möckli. But automation alone is not enough, he adds. Reaching productive speed quickly when changing from one job to the next is equally important. For Horizon, automation is also the order of the day. Because the trend is towards increasingly small print runs, efforts in automation are focusing on machine setup, which needs to be both faster and simpler. If a machine has to process five or six different jobs in a day (which is not unusual nowadays),

the difference between a highly trained operator taking 10 to 15 minutes to set it up and a semi-skilled person needing just 5 minutes to do the same job without paper waste is significant. Robin Greenhalgh, Duplo International Chairman , agrees: “Automation will develop further because more and more areas of the printing industry will have a need for it.” He cites new multifunctional finishing systems that allow more automation while delivering higher speeds as a prime example. They enable perforation in two directions for the efficient production of coupons, tickets and direct mailings, which until recently has been reserved for traditional processes such as offset printing. Digital finishing: a growing segment The increase in the number of digital production units has naturally increased the demand for high-performance finishing solutions. MBO has a wide range of solutions to offer, from unrolling, plough folding and cross-cutting (with the option of cutting to different lengths and even different chip-out lengths) to fully automated delivery systems for signatures, flyers and single sheets. “We can separate different blocks from book-on-demand production by title

and send them directly to the perfect binders. We can even handle different numbers of signatures per block,” says Jan Oldenkott. E.C.H. Will offers an integrated finishing solution for high-volume production of digitally printed books. The machine turns printed paper webs into blocks of individual sheets which can then be sent to the binding process. The system offers high productivity, reduced paper waste, complete format flexibility and minimum make-ready times. Müller Martini developed one of the first industrial integrated solutions for finishing digitally printed products, which has now been installed in saddlestitcher, perfect binder and hardcover production systems all over the world. But the company’s digital solutions are designed with more than just finishing in mind – they enable end-to-end integration of all processes, from prepress data to the finished product. As far as Kai Büntemeyer is concerned, there is no such thing as digital finishing. The outcome of the finishing process, he argues, is always a physical product. There is, however, such a thing as fin-

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Management/General in operation and not the whole machine. Each hopper has its own servo drives, which stop automatically in the event of an error. Other machines only stop after two or three brochures, which then end up as waste. With an assumed annual throughput of 15 million 36-page A4 brochures, this saves 5 tonnes of paper a year.

ishing for digitally printed products. Kolbus offers two solutions, EPCO and INDI. EPCO, or Electrophotographic and Consumer-published, involves the production of high-quality one-off products with a value of €101. INDI, or Industrial Digital Printing, refers to the fully automated production of products with a value of €100. “For the past two years EPCO has made up 25% of our sales. INDI is a large-scale experiment, but outperforms digital printing with a capacity of one million A4 pages an hour. We are waiting for printing machine manufacturers to catch us up,” says Büntemeyer. Focus on green finishing Ecology and sustainability are the subject of much interest, and not just in traditional printing. This trend is as relevant to the finishing sector as to the rest of the printing industry, and market players must respond accordingly, particularly as it is also becoming an important customer requirement. A finishing machine uses much less energy than a printing machine. Nonetheless, at Heidelberg, minimising energy consumption is still one of the primary development goals in finishing technology. Its saddle-stitcher is equipped with a modular drive system which allows the individual modules to be shut down separately to save energy. During setup, only the required feeder is

Müller Martini set up its “Going green” programme several years ago. “It’s important to us to convey this environmental commitment through our EcoBinder,” says Olaf Wallner. This binding machine makes paper-bound ring binders that are 100% eco-friendly and recyclable. These are the first products to be manufactured solely from paper – a completely new market offering. The environmental footprint of an operational finishing system needs to be considered in the light of its actual productivity. “The development of systems offering optimum net output is a highly effective way to reduce environmental footprint. This is something we are passionately committed to,” says Kai Büntemeyer. Ferag AG has always believed in stringent environmental standards. The company uses only renewable energy sources, returns surplus heat to an en-

ergy recovery system, and demands maximum energy efficiency in all its operating processes. Engineers use simulation software to design and develop optimised components and systems, while the production systems use stateof-the-art motors and electric modules. Logically enough, this results in finishing processes which are as eco-friendly as possible. What potential for innovation? The word “innovation” is frequently overused. Is there in fact any potential left for innovation in the finishing sector? Horizon points out: “Innovation is defined as ‘introducing new products, ideas or methods.” Müller Martini provides several examples: the numerous quality control features now being integrated in finishing machines; full automation; the digital workflow system Connex with standardised platforms; and the wide range of digital solutions which have recently been developed. Then there are high-output machines for multishift productionwhich now offer more intuitive operation and a wider range of variants. There is also an inserting system, which is designed to cater for the individual needs of newspaper operations of all sizes.

CMY

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Management/General 21

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Management/General So is there any potential left for innovation in finishing? “It would be an interesting conversation topic for a business lunch,” says Kai Büntemeyer. “You could take a spoon and discuss the need for innovation in this tried-and-tested utensil. That would be on a par with a book.” Between the publisher and the consumer there are certainly complex processes concealing infinite potential for innovation, but these are almost entirely exploited by recombining ideas from other areas. “So in all honesty, we would propose modest use of the word ‘innovation’,” Büntemeyer concludes. At Heidelberg, innovation is being driven by both technical development and application technology. Its latest folder with pneumatic twin lay system is a perfect example of how an ingenious technical feature can achieve a significant gain in productivity. “For me, the measure of an innovation is whether it offers a significantly enhanced benefit for our customers,” says Thomas Krischke.

The imperative at present is to develop the right applications for the new trends emerging in digital printing. In recent years we have seen an almost complete shift from film to digital cameras on the consumer market. For printers, this has meant new products such as photo books and personalised cards. Various new regulations are demanding modifications to packaging; safety requirements are becoming stricter, and in some cases Braille text is now mandatory. Future generations of web-fed and sheet-fed inkjet printers will also open up new business opportunities. All these developments will generate new requirements for the finishing industry. “What inspires us is the fact that there are still plenty of paper-based developments to come that still need solutions,” says Robin Greenhalgh. “We make a distinction between technological innovation and process innovation,” says Jürg Möckli. The two are mutually dependent, and involve

partnership between Ferag as a systems manufacturer and the customer. In addition to innovation for efficiency, aimed at minimising unit costs in mass production, there is innovation in specific solutions for companies seeking to occupy a specialist niche. The customer’s specific needs are identified through an ongoing dialogue. One example of innovation at Ferag is the integrated finishing system with polybagging, gathering, stitching, trimming, inserting and bundling. drupa 2012: the industry benchmark drupa is the showcase for the whole industry. Every four years, the print media industry comes together in Düsseldorf to set the pace for the next few years. Trying to find out months in advance of the event what new products will be on show is rather like consulting the Oracle of Delphi. But this didn’t stop us asking. Müller Martini will be presenting several new solutions covering its complete product portfolio, with a special focus on MMServices. MBO will again be exhibiting in Hall 6 along with other finishing systems manufacturers. MB Bäuerle plans to showcase its latest developments in automated folding and inserting solutions. Kugler-Womako will present a machine that sets new standards in processes, end product quality and usability, and offers real innovation in this market segment with added value for the customer. “Unfortunately, digital printing is currently proving a barrier to innovation in the industry,” says Kai Büntemeyer. “Huge budgets are being blocked while people wait to see what future role digital printing will have.” Büntemeyer believes that the printing technology industry will have to eliminate this obstacle at drupa 2012. Kolbus will be seeking to do this with its own presentations, but will also be showing completely conventional bookbinding machines at remarkably affordable prices. For Horizon, the countdown to drupa started ages ago. In 2012, the company intends to focus more on finishing technologies for digitally printed products than at the last drupa. Ferag intends to concentrate on process optimisation for greater efficiency and substantial reductions in unit costs, innovative control concepts, and new added-value solutions. It is certainly set to be an exciting event… so roll on 2012.

Print Pack Publish Asia â&#x20AC;˘ 10/2011

Sheetfed Offset

KBA presents new mediumformat generation In the next few days, the sheetfed offset facility of Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) in Radebeul will be taking up production and shipping of a new generation of sheetfed offset presses for the highly popular medium format market All that has remained of the previous Rapida 105, which has enjoyed a worldwide reputation for reliability, flexibility and performance for the past 13 years, is the familiar name. But that already sums up the advance: The new Rapida 105 (max. sheet format 74 x 105 cm) builds upon the same technology platform as its top-of-the-class sister press, the KBA Rapida 106. After completion of the usual beta tests, the new press was officially unveiled at the All in Print China trade show in Shanghai in November. Its predecessor was already especially successful on the growth market China. At the end of November, KBA is also offering an opportunity to see the new Rapida 105 in production at the KBA facility in Radebeul. Many innovative features of the highly automated and high-speed Rapida 106 are now also to be found in the new

Rapida 105. And with even more configuration variants than before, it permits tailored adaptation to an endless diversity of user requirements, from commercial and label printing through to high-quality packaging with inline finishing and the many special applications for which the flexible Rapidas are virtually predestined. The new Rapida 105 is indisputably on the heels of its high-tech counterpart, the Rapida 106. One expression of this is the maximum production speed of 16,500 sph. Further examples are to be found through the whole press: Mention can be made of the DriveTronic feeder with four dedicated drives for the main and auxiliary pile lift (the latter for non-stop pile changing), the feeder head and the feed table. The shaftless technology demands only a minimum of maintenance, is reliable

in production, and runs with universal settings for most typical substrates. The pile lift is furthermore continuous and thus jerk-free. Five monitoring functions watch over the passage of sheets through the infeed, and there are neither manual settings to make nor guide elements to be exchanged when switching between different substrates. All press programs can be started and the feeder and infeed settings can be modified at the touch panel on the first printing unit. Valuable preset functions reduce operator intervention to a minimum. All functions can naturally also be controlled through the ErgoTronic console. Technology transfer from the Rapida 106 The printing unit design is now identical to that of the Rapida 106. The shallower angle between the cylinders reduces the curvature of sheet travel

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Sheetfed Offset 25 and permits higher speeds. The multiVenturi sheet guiding system for marking-free sheet transport, air systems to prevent slapping and doubling as the sheet enters the impression zone and sheet guide elements after impression for normal and heavy board have likewise been taken over from the Rapida 106. All air parameters can be set and saved at the press control console. The grippers match the performance of the high-speed sheet guiding and require no adjustment to accommodate substrate changes. The gripper spacing has also been optimised for compatibility with all typical formats. Five washing system variants cater for the different needs of individual users. The simplest configuration incorporates blanket and roller washing. Alternatively, dual-purpose systems for blanket and impression cylinder washing (CleanTronic/CleanTronic Impact) can be combined with roller washing. With these systems, it is for the first time possible to realise parallel roller and blanket washing in this press class, and thus a time saving of over 40 per cent compared to consecutive processes. Washing cloth consumption is indicated on the console monitor, allowing roll replacement to be planned in good time. CleanTronic Multi is a washing system specifically for two different washing solvents, permitting fast system switching between conventional and UV inks. CleanTronic UV, finally, incorporates an additional safety function to eliminate the otherwise imperative waiting times in UV production. All washing systems are cloth-based systems. The return piping and waste tanks required for a brush system are thus eliminated, and there is no contaminated solvent and sludge to be collected for disposal. The used washing cloth can simply be included with normal household waste. Further benefits of the CleanTronic systems are the considerable reductions in solvent consumption and VOC emissions. The inking unit of the Rapida 105 is also new. Dynamic ink regulation provides for extremely fast reaction. Infinitely variable oscillation timing adjustment, ink train separation with impression-off and KBA's characteristic disengaging of unused towers are trademarks of the Rapida 105 inking unit. A special, easy-to-replace ink duct

foil simplifies ink removal and cleaning. Fast job changeovers also with coating Two systems with different levels of automation are available for plate changing: With SAPC (Semi Automatic Plate Change), the plate is lowered into the plate clamps by hand. All other process steps then run automatically. Changing thus takes approx. 1 minute per unit. With the fully automatic FAPC system, all plates are changed in just under 3 minutes – including register zeroing – irrespective of the length of the press. Coating is another area in which the Rapida 105 boasts many new possibilities. The coating tower can be equipped with either universal clamping bars (change time approx. 2 to 3 minutes) or automated coating forme changing (change time 1 minute). Here, too, the Rapida 105 shines with the shortest change times in its class. The printing pressure and the lateral, circumferential and diagonal register can be set remotely. The HydrocompTM blade pressure control with two-point support for the chamber, furthermore, guarantees a particularly even coating film – and minimal blade wear. The coating supply and cleaning systems are fully consoleintegrated and provide for very short cleaning and changeover times. The range of possible applications covers gloss and matt finishes, via protective seals or scented, soft-touch and gentletouch coatings, through to metal FX, special FX and pearlescent finishes. Double-coating technologies are also possible with the Rapida 105, offering access to a multitude of finishing effects through the combination of conventional and UV coatings.

New delivery, new dryers The new Rapida 105 incorporates the proven KBA VariDry dryer system. The modules can be assigned flexibly for interdeck or final drying and are perfectly matched to the geometry of the press. The combination of UV interdeck dryers and impression cylinder washing is now also possible. Furthermore, the energy-saving VariDryBLUE system is to become available shortly. This system offers significantly enhanced energy efficiency compared to conventional dryer concepts. The delivery of the Rapida 105 also rightly bears the label “Rapida 106 inside”. The high-line delivery with multi-Venturi sheet guiding is engineered for maximum production performance. The air nozzle form and layout have been optimised to ensure stable, air-cushioned sheet travel. The gripper carriages display exceptional aerodynamic qualities. The result is flutter- and marking-free sheet transport, and even powder application with minimised consumption. The delivery offers preset capabilities via a touch panel or the ErgoTronic press console. The control console of the Rapida 105 is based on the Wíndows operating system. The user interface is clear and straightforward – as Rapida users have long since come to expect – and presents extensive screen menus and programs both for the press itself and for linked peripherals. Interfaces are provided, for example, for dryer control, the cooling systems, DensiTronic and LogoTronic. With PressSupport 24 and an integrated Internet connection, the prerequisites are set for remote maintenance and online software updates. Indicator functions draw attention to pending care and maintenance measures.

Print Pack Publish Asia â&#x20AC;˘ 10/2011

Digital Technology

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Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

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Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Management/General

Received the Green Project Certificate Heidelberg customer Nets Printwork Sdn Bhd is the first printing company in Malaysia to receive the Green Project Certificate from the Malaysia Green Technology Corporation (GreenTech Malaysia). The Certificate was presented to Teh Leong Sim, managing director of Nets Printwork by Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water YB Dato’ Sri Peter Chin Fah Kui. The certificate was presented during their open house on 11th August 2011 at Nets Printwork Sdn Bhd. Addrs :56 & 58, Jalan PBS 14/4, Taman Perindustrian Bukit Serdang, Seri Kembangan, Selangor, Malaysia GreenTech Malaysia was formed in 1998 to undertake research into energy production and related industries and to provide an eco-resource for businesses to help them reduce their environmental impact. Managed under the auspice of the Malaysian Government, GreenTech Malaysia awarded Nets Printwork for the company’s commitment to reducing energy consumption and waste through a number of measures across the printing process. Nets Printwork is part of the Nets Group of Companies founded in 1997. Nets Printwork provides services from concept and design through to pre-

From left : Teh Leong Sim, director of Nets Printwork Sdn Bhd; YB Dato’ Sri Peter Chin Fah Kui, Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water; Dr Nazily Mohd Noor, CEO, Malaysian Green Technology Corporation; and Bent Serritslev, managing director of Heidelberg Malaysia Sdn Bhd press, press, finishing and packaging and its commitment to sustainable ecoprinting can be seen across the business.

The company services a diverse client base from semi-government bodies to multinational corporations, and small to medium enterprises. Its success is based on fast turnaround times, a commitment to excellence, competitive pricing and environmental responsibility. Nets Group prides itself on being “a one-stop centre for all your printing personalised business needs”. The Group works with the latest technology to enable it to fulfill its environmental mandate without compromising profits or quality.

From left : Teh Leong Sim, director of Nets Printwork Sdn Bhd; YB Dato’ Sri Peter Chin Fah Kui, Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water, Dr Nazily Mohd Noor, CEO, Malaysian Green Technology Corporation

Print Pack Publish Asia â&#x20AC;˘ 10/2011

Management/General 29

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Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Management/General In recent times Nets Printwork has installed the Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 four-colour Anicolor Press (SM52-4 Anicolor) to enable it to drastically reduce make ready times, significantly cut waste and improve delivery times. Nets Printwork’s SM52-4 Anicolor is integrated with Heidelberg’s Prinect Pressroom manager, part of the Prinect Workflow Solution, which calculates the CO2 emission for each job printed so Nets Printworks can be accurate in the assessment of the company’s energy usage. Heidelberg Malaysia works closely with Nets Printworks to assist the company in achieving its environmental targets. Bent Serritslev, managing director of Heidelberg Malaysia said because of the company’s own commitment to the environment, Heidelberg is able to share its accumulated knowledge on eco-printing and provide training to customers who want to go down this path. “Around the world the environment has become a very important issue and in Malaysia the Government is taking steps to improve the environmental footprint of companies to reduce industrial pollution. As a company Heidelberg is committed to reducing its environmental impact and developing sustainable, eco-friendly solutions for our customers. For example, we are the only press manufacturer in the world that can deliver a press with a carbon neutral footprint.” Nets Printworks’ Certificate of Eco Printing provides the company with further evidence of its ability to meet the eco standards being set by the Government, which today involve strict guidelines around recycling at every stage of the printing process. The Government offers financial incentives also to those companies who can meet the eco-production requirements. Serritslev said, “The eco market in Malaysia is growing fast and as a consequence there are growth opportunities for printers, and of course other manufacturers, who focus on the eco-aspect of their production processes. Nets Printworks has made a concerted effort to target businesses where the customer has a clear interest in being environmentally responsible such as those who

From the Left : YB Dato’ Sri Peter Chin Fah Kui, Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water; Mr. Teh Beng Khoon - Chairman, Nets Group of Companies; Mr. Teh Leong Sim, Director of Nets Printwork Sdn Bhd;Green Technology and Water are operating in eco-sensitive markets like organic produce. This approach is certainly proving successful for Nets Printworks”.

ers assurance that Nets Printworks is meeting the international standards for quality management and environmental responsibility.

The directors of Nets Printworks have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to the company’s eco-proposition by ensuring staff are also involved in the process, creating a culture of environmental responsibility across the business. Throughout the production process there are checks conducted and information gathered to enable the company to monitor its performance. Changes to its operations have also benefited the workplace creating a cleaner and safer work environment.

Education is a major factor in making eco-printing a reality said Mr Serritslev. “There are so many things that customers can do to improve their environmental footprint, but often they are confused about where to start. We have a wealth of knowledge and can work with companies to help them make the transition to a greener platform. Becoming more environmentally responsible isn’t that complicated”.

Nets Printworks’ SM52-4 Anicolor Press offers a number of eco-solutions including soy-based vegetable inks which are free of toxic metals, neutral wash ups, chemical free CtP and workflow integration through Prinect which enables the measuring of carbon emissions on a job-by-job basis. The company exclusively uses Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified media. FSC is an international, non-profit association focused on eliminating “habitat destruction, water pollution, displacement of indigenous people and violence against people and wildlife that often accompanies logging”. The company is also ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 qualified giving its custom-

Heidelberg will host an event in early December on green-printing and environmental concepts, said Serritslev. “When it comes to eco-printing, it doesn’t cost more to do it right, and it doesn’t cost less to do it wrong. You can make incremental changes, which can be as simple as using vegetable based Saphira inks, or changing your plates or using more recycled stocks. Awareness around eco-printing is increasing, as are the number of companies demanding their suppliers and producers meet environmental standards. You don’t have to make changes today, but you will have to at some point in the near future. Those companies who embrace the eco-printing model now will be well positioned in the long term to provide sustainable print solutions”.

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Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Sheetfed Offset

printcom knows the right materials for enhancement Matte, glossy, or metallic? How does a printer get the right effect? Different than the competitor? Better than the competition? The right consumable materials can help a lot here. Longer, more modern, faster, and with more multimedia apps. Printing presses are becoming ever more similar. But it’s not only printers who have invested in the latest configurations who are competitive – older presses can also deliver high-quality, enhanced print products. The key is selecting the right materials. Every printer knows them: ink, coating, printing blankets, coating blankets, fountain solution additives. But how do the individual components behave in the press and on the paper? Which of the many coatings available is exactly the right one for a certain application? And how can one get an even better result with a coating blanket or coating plate? The wrong combination of materials can lead to unwanted reactions in the press and on the substrate. That’s why printcom calls its consumable materials “process-compliant system com-

ponents”, and bundles them into packages of perfectly coordinated products for each press and application. How noble should it be? To begin with, it must be clear what enhancement effect one wants to achieve. Even protective coating can make a print product nobler because it gives the substrate a different touch sensation and protects the ink from external influences. So it’s not only a matter of choosing from the classic range of light-matte through neutral or lightgloss up to high-gloss coatings. Applied partially or over the full surface, coatings or cold foils provide haptical and visually intensified effects through structures, matte-gloss, or metallic effects. Besides that, technical criteria and requirements need to be clarified. What type of substrate? Coated on one

side or both sides, at which speed and with which dryer configuration? Only then does one know whether oil-based varnish should be applied via a normal printing unit or an aqueous dispersion coating via a coating module. With non-absorbent substrates like foil or metal, only UV-based coating works. And high-quality metallic effects are best achieved by the cold foiling application. That certain something Water-based coatings achieve gloss levels approaching those of UV coatings, and have the advantage that they are easier to process and in some cases are even suitable for foodstuff-compliant applications. In combination with oilbased varnishes, impressive structures or matte-gloss effects are possible. These are intensified if one uses UV coatings instead of water-based coatings. The procedure is the same for both variants: firstly, an oil-based varnish is applied partially or over the full surface via a printing unit, and then the water-based or UV coating is applied over this. One of the latest enhancement methods is applying cold foil inline, which provides high-quality metallic effects in silver or gold or in holographic patterns. With this system, an oil-based adhesive ink is applied to the sheet via a normal printing plate in the first printing unit. In the following printing unit, the adhesive ink separates the cold foil from the carrier material. The cold foil can be overprinted in subsequent printing units with conventional or UV inks and corresponding coatings. This provides metallic effects with all possible color shades.

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Sheetfed Offset 33

Xingraphics’ global authorised distributors meeting ends on good note Xingraphics 2011 global authorized distributors meeting ended with high praise from delegates, taking a different approach in comparison to the past meetings organised by the leading CtP systems company. Some 105 partners from 43 countries congregated between October 19 and 21, 2011 at Beijing’s Crowne Plaza Hotel not only to exchange business ideas, but also to mark Xingraphics’ fifth year in the international arena. Safwen Hijaziy1, corporate vicepresident of Xingraphics, commented: “In the past annual workshops, we focused more on corporate activities including factory tours and product training at our facilities in Chengdu, but this meeting facilitated the strengthening of our relationships with partners via networking, exchanging of ideas and strategies for the print business.” “The meeting has given us valuable feedback on how Xingraphics can improve and more effectively support partners with technologies to be viable in the market. We also mark our fifth anniversary this year in the international market through a celebration in Beijing.” added by Cathy Hu, Xingraphics regional sales manager for APAC region.

She mentions that the meeting brought together members of the R&D, manufacturing, operations, sales and marketing, and technical teams from both domestic and international departments of Xingraphics. Robert Jacob, from manroland South Africa, was one of the satisfied delegates. He noted, “This meeting was well-organised and executed. It gave me an opportunity to get a better understanding of the inner workings of Xingraphics and its distributors.” Krzysztof Malec, of Heidelberg Poland, too had good takeaways. He shared, “The meeting was professional. Everyone shared valuable information about Xingraphics’ products and new

From left: Aphichai Kongthaisereekul of Nationwide Co., Ltd, Sandy Sun of Xingraphics, Chaiyos Kongthaisereekul and Chutima Kongthaisereekul of Nationwide Co., Ltd, and Cathy Hu of Xingraphics

technology, as well as their forward marketing strategies in the global printing plate market.” Additionally, the meeting turned out to be a platform for exploring possible hosting in Thailand. Chaiyos Kongthaisereekul, managing director of Nationwide Co., Ltd, praised the event saying: “The global authorised distributor meeting in Beijing was very beneficial – allowing us to learn more about Xingraphics as well as exchange useful information and experiences with other Xingraphics dealers worldwide. We are pleased and very keen to work with Xingraphics for new and exciting marketing activities in Thailand in the near future.”

From left: Alexander Stangel of manroland Malaysia, Shan Huang of Xingraphics, Johan Laubscher of manroland Australasia, Cathy Hu of Xingraphics, Michael Choong of manroland Malaysia and Roland Guo of Xingraphics

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Digital Technology

Digital offset press heads to China All in Print China trade show marks the first showing of a Presstek DI digital offset press in China well with Chinese printers who want to deliver high quality short run colour printing at an affordable cost and without the need to purchase and maintain a computer-to-plate system.”

Presstek, Inc. a leading supplier of digital offset printing solutions to the printing and communications industries, today reported that a Presstek 52DI digital offset press was showcased for the first time in China at the All in Print China show, scheduled for November 14-17, 2011, in Shanghai. The Presstek 52DI was demonstrated in Shanghai Electric Printing & Packaging Machinery Group booth number E3A107. “Our presence at All in Print China demonstrates our continued pursuit of our geographic expansion strategy,” said Jeff Jacobson, Presstek’s Chairman, President & CEO. “China experienced more than 10% in GDP growth in 2010 along with growth in print volume, and it is unquestionably a large market.” Jacobson added, “The Presstek 52DI should resonate

The Presstek 52DI offers printers the most profitable solution for meeting the demand for quick turnaround, high quality color printing in runs from 500 to 20,000. These presses are also being adopted by digital-only, folding carton, and mailing and fulfillment companies who wish to add offset quality print to their portfolio of offerings without the complexities of conventional offset. For the highest quality personalized printing at the lowest cost, print the shells with the Presstek DI and then overprint using a toner-based or inkjet device. Capabilities are further expanded with the DI’s ability to print on a wide range of substrates from onion skin to heavy card stock, including plastics and magnetic media. Superior quality printing is produced at up to 300 lpi and FM screening—without incurring additional time or expense. Running at 10,000 sheets per hour, the Presstek 52DI also has an aqueous coating option that supports both flood and spot aqueous coating.

“We believe that Presstek DI printing is well suited to the growing and rapidly changing Chinese market,” said Jacobson. “We anticipate that the debut of the Presstek 52DI at the All in Print China show will spur interest in DI presses in China and throughout the rest of the region, as attendees look for new solutions at this important show.” About Presstek Presstek, Inc. is a leading supplier of digital offset printing solutions to the printing and communications industries. Presstek’s DI digital offset solutions bridge the gap between toner and conventional offset printing, enabling printers to cost effectively meet increasing customer demand for high quality, short run color printing with a fast turnaround time while providing improved profit margins. The Company’s CtP portfolio ranges from two-page to eight-page systems, many of which are fully automated. These systems support Presstek’s line of chemistry-free plates as well as Aeon, a no preheat thermal plate which offers run lengths up to one million impressions. Presstek also offers a range of workflow solutions, pressroom supplies, and reliable service.

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Sheetfed Offset 35

Print Pack Publish Asia â&#x20AC;˘ 10/2011

Sheetfed Offset

Shandong Hailan grows with Enthrone 29 Jinan City in Shandong Province is surrounded by the Taishan Massif mountains to the south and the Yellow River on the north. Numerous other rivers run through the city, complementing the many famous springs such as Baotu Spring, Baimai Spring, and Black Tiger Spring Shandong Hailan Printing Co. Ltd. is located in Jinan City, the provincial capital. When it was first established, the company had approximately 30 employees and only two pre-owned printing presses. After seven years of hard work, the company has grown from a small, no-name company into an exclusive general printing company with 130 employees that specializes in small-lot commercial printing.

Shandong Hailan owns several sheetfed offset printing presses made by Komori and other well-known manufacturers. Furthermore, the company also operates peripheral equipment such as a Muller Martini glue binder, a Kodak CtP system and a Polar digitally controlled guillotine. The prepress plate production employs a complete digital workflow. Shandong Hailan creates products such as posters

and sample collections using art paper and matte paper in weights from 60 to 300 gsm. The printer also produces books, including high-end picture books, magazines, product catalogues, manuals and calendars. Shandong Hailanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sales reached RMB28M (US$4.25 million) in 2010. 36 jobs per 12-hour shift Shandong Hailan first learned about

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Sheetfed Offset 37 the Komori brand through a visit from Infotech, Komori’s representative in China. Currently, there are two Komori printing presses in Shandong Hailan’s factory. One is a standard-specification fourcolour Lithrone S40 and the other is the newest four-colour Enthrone 29 sheetfed offset press. Since its establishment, Shandong Hailan Printing has followed its motto: “Our top priority is client trust and high quality.” It purchased the Komori E-429 to meet its need for high print quality. In addition to the standard features, the newest Komori fourcolour Enthrone 29 is equipped with the PDM PQC data manager. It can receive job preset data over the network from PCC (converting PPF data and CMYK-TIFF data into PQC ink key data) or from the K-Station and provide job result data such as sheets printed and paper loss to the K-Station. Thanks to the PDM system, Komori presses can by linked to other systems using standardised data.

The Komori four-colour Enthrone 29 arrived at Shandong Hailan’s factory in October 2010, and after a 10-day installation period, the press was officially commissioned. The company appreciates the press for its great accuracy with both light and heavy stocks and its high productivity. Currently, Shandong Hailan prints short-run jobs on the Enthrone. During peak periods, the press has printed as many as 36 jobs per 12-hour

shift. Small investment yields high quality and efficiency Shandong Hailan’s manager concludes: “The Enthrone requires a small investment, provides high print quality and superb efficiency, and offers high cost performance.” In the future, the printer hopes to see Komori provide even greater presses and technologies to its Chinese users. Shandong Hailan aims to grow to be the best commercial printer in the local market and to further expand by extending its focus to publication

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Web Offset Technology

On-the-fly high-definition dot viewing QuadTech aims to make off-line color measurement of web-fed packaging film a thing of the past with the introduction of in-line high-definition dot viewing and web stabilisation capabilities of its Color Measurement System with SpectralCam HD. When Peter Gänßlen took over the oldest printing house in Germany in 2009, an era came to an end and things were not going too well for the company, which had been run as a family business for 375 years. High The new high-definition viewing capability facilitates easy on-the-fly detection of dot abnormalities such as pin-holing, bridging, doughnuts and halos. Images are captured at 2500dpi and made instantly accessible through the ICONTM user interface, so that dot quality detail can be analysed by the human eye as soon as ink is transferred to the substrate. "SpectralCam HD provides an instant means of identifying dot abnormalities that until now could only have been discovered by stopping production and analyzing a magnified sample of printed work offline. The operator has reassurance that dot abnormalities will be detected to a much higher standard than was previously possible, without compromising production up-time levels," comments Laura Casale, project manager at QuadTech. The enhanced viewing capability enables print operators to react faster to changes in pressure or plate anomalies and take appropriate remedial action in a shorter

time, thereby reducing material waste and reject levels. SpectralCam HD is likely to be of particular benefit in flexible packaging printing situations, where the ability to view dot profiles is paramount, and to operators of central impressionflexo presses, which require significant pressure adjustment. The device performs at up to 3500 ft/min and is capable of working with a wide range of paper and film substrates. Another innovation found in the Color Measurement System is a web stabilizing unit that allows precise spectral color measurement of transparent and opaque films on-the-fly without risk of substrate corrugation. The web stabiliser device consists of a flat-top, low-friction platform, on to which the moving web is momentarily stabilized by suction, to enable colour measurement over two ceramic tiles: one black, to measure opacity, and one white, to measure transparency. The tiles meet the British Ceramic Research Association (BCRA) ceramic color standard, guaranteeing a longterm constant backing value The tile assembly is removable for easy cleaning.

The substrate is sucked into contact with the tile, in order to take color readings without wrinkles, bubbles and shadows that may result in distortion. Suction occurs when a vacuum is created around the tiles, by pumping pulses of high-pressure air through a channel and out through small holes along the side of the tile. After being held for no more than the few milliseconds necessary to take a reading, the substrate is released. The low friction-coefficient of the contact area prevents scratching or scuffing of either the surface area or substrate. Multiple targets can be captured at one time. The web stabiliser device provides an alternative to white rollers whose large surface areas are prone to contamination, difficult to clean, and fail to give a constant backing solution. Laura Casale, project manager at QuadTech, comments: "In package print, the need to measure colour offline is a major barrier to achieving lean production management. With the Color Measurement System, we empower packaging printers to achieve optimum spectral colour quality without interruption to the printing run, whatever the substrate or application, and further drive waste out of the workflow." The QuadTech Color Measurement System uses QuadTech's SpectralCam HD to accurately measure the spectral response and calculate L*a*b*, ΔE, Density and ΔDensity all at full press speeds, ensuring consistent and predictable results and minimal makeready waste.ccurately and reliably communicate color between the two sites", explains Przygoda.•

Print Pack Publish Asia â&#x20AC;¢ 10/2011

Sheetfed Offset 39

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Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Web Offset Technology

Leading Chinese printer orders eleventh new Goss web press C&C Joint Printing Co., one of the leading suppliers of high-quality commercial and magazine printing in China, has ordered its ninth Goss M-600 16-page web offset press and its eleventh new Goss web press since 1998.

(Front row, left to right) Wen Hong Wu, chairman, and Jackson Leung, CEO, of C&C Joint Printing sign the contract for the company's ninth new Goss M-600 web press with Tim Mercy, vice president of Goss commercial web sales in Asia, while other officials from the two companies look on. The investment is driven by growing demand in the Beijing area for the production quality and efficiencies that differentiate the multiple awardwinning C&C service offering. According to Jackson Leung, CEO of C&C, the company's strong focus on ‘green' issues was a key factor in the specification of press technologies designed for low waste and low energy consumption. "We are highly committed to providing a sustainable solution that will ensure print maintains its profile within the media mix for many years to come. Today's Goss M-600 technology package supports this objective with efficiencies that improve productivity and reduce waste." Rated at up to 61,000 impressions per hour, the new 16-page press with 598.5mm cut-off and 965mm web width will feature Goss Autoplate automatic plate changing and a JF55 Plus folder with quarterfold capabilities and a 4- and 8-page module for added versatility. The fourth M-600 press

at the C&C Beijing facility will also be equipped with a Goss SH splicer and Ecocool dryer with integrated afterburner, closed-loop controls and Goss Web Center technology for automated makereadies, presetting and control. Having installed its first Goss M-600 press in 1998, C&C Joint Printing Co. considers itself a forerunner in raising printing standards within the Chinese market. The company currently has

eight M-600 presses and two Goss Sunday 2000 presses now installed across a number of plants for highquality commercial and magazine printing. As well as satisfying high-end commercial print requirements for both domestic and international clients, C&C Joint Printing Co. also serves as China's designated ‘National Commercial Web Offset Standards Research Base'. In this role the company employs its Goss presses in print tests aimed at developing optimum standards for the commercial web offset industry in China. "C&C has spearheaded the campaign to offer true, high-quality print within the Chinese market, so that today their name is synonymous with the highest standards," according to Tim Mercy, vice president of Goss commercial web press sales in Asia. "We are very proud that our Goss M-600 press has not only kept step with the requirements of such an influential leader in the Chinese market, but also enabled them to broaden their long-term business and environmental objectives."•

Print Pack Publish Asia â&#x20AC;˘ 10/2011

Management/General 41

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Web Offset Technology

The case for 96-page web offset production 2012 will see major changes within Hannanprint, a division of IPMG: by mid July 2012 Australia’s largest heatset web press, the country’s first 96-page LITHOMAN, is expected to take up production. The twin 48-page webs that produce 96 pages through eight printing units in a stacked configuration will play an important role in a AUS90M (approximately €68M) relocation project resulting in a new production site in west of Sydney. “We’ve had a great relationship with IPMG since they bought their first Lithoman press in 1999. We are very proud to be associated with the new Warwick Farm site as it will become a showpiece for the entire printing industry on its completion,” said Gerd Finkbeiner, CEO manroland. Steve Dunwell, managing director manroland Australasia, added: “Warwick Farm is planned to be one of the most advanced and automated sites in the world. We are happy to play a major role here and are very confident Hannanprint chose the right strategy.” Instead of investing in gravure presses as originally planned IPMG decided in favor of commercial web offset. This decision was due to assessments of future requirements including run length, the ability to blend other sections produced offset, and that

Hannanprint has some of the best trained printers and operators already very familiar with the offset process and in particular the Lithoman technology. The new Hannanprint Lithoman will be one of still only a few presses in the world capable of printing 96 pages in one pass. It is the second Lithoman in stacked configuration and is to be operated with the manroland autoprint technology. It is equipped with the Aurosys fully-automatic reel transport and reel store administration system. The new production site at Warwick Farm will replace the one in Alexandria, which is going to be closed by mid 2013 and the property redeveloped. Three web presses will be moved to Warwick Farm within the next 18 months:

two 48-page Lithoman and a 32-page Rotoman in stacked configuration. They will also be upgraded by adding InlineDensity Control systems and fully-automatic reel splicers. The new plant is aimed at being as energy efficient and environmentally sustainable as possible. Just two examples of this are: air conditioning of all production areas will be assisted by the heat recovery from the press dryers. Additionally, after the completion of a new rail line, paper transport will be handled via rail taking the rolling stock directly into the paper store, thus eliminating up to 19 truck movements a day. IPMG does most of the News Limited and Fairfax externally printed newspaper inserted magazines and consumer magazines under long-term contracts.

Division ContiTech of Continental AG Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Web Offset Technology

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Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Packaging Technology

The great game of business Singapore-based Winson Press has been a regular winner at the Asian Flexo Excellence Awards. Tan Jit Khoon, CEO, shares with us his victory secret: taking the business as a game. Christel Lee reports.

Tan Jit Khoon and his team illustrating the importance of individual involvement in the great game

Before anyone assumes winning awards is nothing more than purely investing in equipment and people, Tan Jit Khoon shares that Winson Press’s secret lies in its holistic approach to running a business. “We have recently adopted the ‘Great Game of Business’ approach by Jack Stack, which has three cornerstones,” he explains. Firstly, know and teach the rules: one needs to know the rules before playing the game. Secondly, keep score and follow the action! We need to ‘keep score’ in the game and follow the developments; and just like any game, strategies need to be changed in accordance to changes in the score line.

“Lastly, have a stake in the outcome. This is not limited to business owners per se, but also involves the team. Let them know what they get if the company scores, or if it doesn’t.” He added that through this approach Winson Press has invested heavily in people in the company, including himself. Tan highlights, “The best equipment will not be the key to your success if you don’t have the right people to handle the technologies and developments in the industry.” This year, the company started to rediscover its values. The introduction to the concept of “BHAG” (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) led to the

“termination” of Tan as CEO while the company sought to find itself … and it did! Tan explains, “Having the leader out of the picture provides a more conducive environment for the team to reflect their current position and the next step. The feedback that comes out subsequent is assured to be free from biasness.” He relates the process wasn’t easy in the manner of turning into an expert after a two-day course. “We had to always revisit the principles we had learnt and keep talking about it. Eventually what we wanted was the grasp of inside-out knowledge of every individual’s scope. That led to the conceptualisation

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Packaging Technology

r-l Tan Jit Khoon, CEO of Winson Press Pte Ltd, Jack Stack, Creator of Great Game of Business and Dr Ilan Kogus, the Great Game coach of improvising and ways to enhance our company’s profitability.” However, Tan also swiftly highlights it was a challenging process to get to the open-book phase of managing – relating to bouts of crisis the company overcame. “When all is well, it’s easy to swear loyalty. Values are challenged when the crunch comes,” he laments. Adopting the great game of business was not an easy journey for Jit Khoon and his team either. “The concept is simple but it is not easy to implement. The devil is in the details. We have many questions and have to slowly figure what is best for us in the long term before we can really get the game going, it all start from the top” he adds. Road mapping Winson Press invested in an HP Indigo in 2008. The press had been a hit with many other players much earlier. However, while companies jumped on the bandwagon with the investment, Jit Khoon instead was contemplating the company’s roadmap. “It’s important to know where one is now, and where one wishes to be later. In that respect we had to consider whether if the machine or technology fits into our longterm business goals and if we have the right people in place. He relates tactics adopted by many equipment sales persons that failed to address the printers’ interest. “We should not adopt a herd mentality and blindly invest just because our competitors did as the mistake can be very costly,” Jit Khoon notes. “Technology is an accelerator, not the cause. We prefer to prepare my team before the adopting technology in our business. Our team will evaluate the technology that will help us achieve our long-term strategic goals and prepare accordingly before investing. ” he explains.

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Incidentally, such practice has resulted in smoother introduction of technology resulting in overall costsavings for the company either in prepress or Narrow Web department. Today, Winson Press’s business remains evenly distributed between commercial and packaging printing. In terms of technology, Jit Khoon is not inclined to steer towards any particular field. “There is a place for each and it would not be fair to rule any out,” he notes. “We should follow the framework as outline in Jim Collin’s book Good to Great.

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Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Wide Format / Proofing Technology

One solution base for premier wide format print solutions In the late 1980s Profoto´s founders Lock Hui Koon and Johnny Pranata started as a small commercial printing lab focusing on the demand of their local Singapore based customers. In doing so, they quickly conceived the magnitude of delivering uncompromised colour quality as digital wide format provider. With the implementation of an efficient colour management workflow provided by GMG, a new chapter was added to their success story. The company mission of Profoto Digital Services is both comprehensible and convincing when listening to Johnny Lam, executive director at Profoto: “We strive to exceed market demands and expectations through creativity and innovative solutions.” The quality argument When it comes to the fashion and cosmetics industry or exhibitions and events, keen competition among printing houses is apparent. However, the company achieved a good reputation within Singapore and today has nearly 100 employees offering a broad range of digital printing services, especially in large format. The company runs a Durst Lambda 131, a HP Designjet 5100, Designjet Z 6100 and Designjet L25500, a Scitex XP2700, a Fuji Sericol, a Zund Cutter, and a TexJet pro printer. These devices form the basis of the technology and

printing services division offering a variety of applications to their clients: photographic indoor display posters, lightboxes, print solutions for flexible materials like billboards, POP posters, building covering as well as rigid materials like signage and packaging, and textile print. “We are convinced that delivering highest quality and timely services is mandatory. We are proud to find high fashion & cosmetics brands among our clients,” emphasises Johnny Lam, and gives voice to the quality argument. In consequence, after years of business growth the company reached a size that enabled them to tap into new business fields. Nowadays, Profoto´s business portfolio

also comprises a design division complemented by an in-house project and installation team offering the full range of solutions from one source. Challenges in colour management As a result of Profoto´s increase in print services, the company had to pay more and more attention to a consistent workflow management. “When you solely aim at a maximum quantity of print services in order to satisfy growing demands, without taking into account a consistent approach, which allows for optimum printing results across different printers and substrates, better leave it be. In general, it won´t work,” explains Lam. Very soon Profoto realised the relevance of colour consistency from one printer to the next when working for brands that presume a high level of precision. Irrespective of the underlying technology of each printer, its individual RIP software and the substrate, the company had to provide consistent color results. “We already had experience with two colour management solutions, Caldera and Onyx, working on different printers and had achieved commonly acceptable and good print results, but could not

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Wide Format / Proofing Technology reach excellent quality overall”, says Ong Lee Kheow, deputy production manager. Amongst others, this was the case when producing marketing collaterals on different devices showing the same motives and spot colours. When put next to each other, slight differences in colour were perceivable. “Hence we needed a solution to overcome shortcomings in smooth gradients in individual colour and colour mixed values”, continues Ong. Furthermore, Profoto faced inefficiencies in their production workflow every time devices had to be adjusted individually due to isolated workflows. “The time had come when we opted for a colour management solution which could handle all RIPs jointly, resulting in improvements of color quality and workflow,” notes Choong Li Foong, production manager. Consistent colour across all substrates and printers Profoto turned to Bits & Bytes, an experienced leading local distributor for printing solutions, to solve their colour issues and workflow complexity. From the moment GMG software was put to the acid test, it was clear that it was a direct hit. GMG specialises in offering a portfolio of software solutions to colour manage the entire graphic workflow from prepress to print production in terms of completely standardised colours and printing processes. What made the difference between GMG colour management and the other solutions in use is that now Profoto could rely on automatic and

consistent printing processes across all printers, leading to excellent colour results. GMG ColorServer matches fully automatically incoming printing data, such as RGB, CMYK and mixed data, to a single colour standard for each device by colour conversions and (re-) separations. This is the only way to ensure that all data is printed identically in colour appearance. Thus, time-consuming processes are kept to a minimum. GMG SmartProfiler enables users to create individual colour profiles in order to calibrate and profile a wide variety of digital and wide format output devices. The software offers presets for certain applications and guides the user step-by-step through the process of creating individualised profiles. “We are convinced this is a perfect match for the highest demands in regard of colour accuracy and reliability in the

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Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Wide Format / Proofing Technology

Versatility and productivity are key features HP today announced that Singapore-based printing company Film Screen has become the first in Asia Pacific to install a nextgeneration market-defining HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press. The company owns an upgraded HP FB7500 that has been enhanced with software technologies from the next-generation marketdefining HP Scitex HP FB7600. The HP Scitex FB7600 is designed to improve productivity and workflow. “We are confident that the HP Scitex FB7600 will help Film Screen to capitalise on the rapidly expanding digital printing industry in Asia Pacific. In the highly competitive industry, we want to make sure that we are providing the best solutions for our customers, enabling them to differentiate themselves and stay ahead of the competition,” said Martin Carballo, director, HP Scitex, graphics solutions business – Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific and Japan. Film Screen started out as a twoman silkscreen printing company in 1983 and is now a 40-member strong total print solutions provider servicing clients such as Clear Channel Singapore, Clinique, Estee Lauder, MediaCorp OOH Media, SK-II, SMRT and YEO'S.

“The decision to obtain the HP Scitex FB7600 was fairly easy for us when you consider its focus on increased productivity,” said Lee Chee Yong, managing director, Film Screen Pte Ltd. “The printer will allow us to pursue new business opportunities in previously untapped segments such as the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and the 3D display markets. With the HP FB7600 in our stable, we believe we would be able to increase our revenue by 60% within the next three years.”

Delivering high productivity on a range of flexible and rigid media, the HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press, with new HP FB225 Scitex Inks, offers a variety of productivity enhancements, including in-line saturation control for backlit applications, hot folders and job queue, to help PSPs expedite their workflow. The device can print up to 95 full boards an hour and has a new point-of-purchase (POP) print mode that produces 55 full boards an hour with indoor quality(1). New HP FB225 Scitex Inks adhere better on plastics and improve flexibility on corrugated media(2), allowing customers to reduce the time required for finishing and expand their businesses with new applications. The inks also have reduced odor(3) and the ink system is GREENGUARD Children & Schools CertifiedSM(4), offering reassurance that the prints produced are suitable for use in indoor environments. Existing owners of the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press who want improved versatility and efficiency can easily upgrade their existing technologies with the HP Scitex FB7500 Industrial Press Upgrade Kit.

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Wide Format / Proofing Technology

Offering additional value Value is a big topic, Ikuichiro Mokudai, operations manager for digital printing business group from FUJIFILM Corporation, explains to Christel Lee. Customers’ never-satisfied demands often drive businesses to continue providing more advantages for their clients to look forward to. From solvent days where the buzzwords were “speed” and “good quality” and “economical”, things have evolved so rapidly that the industry is hurled into a different platform for large-format print. Uncannily, the same buzzwords apply, with more requirements attached. At FESPA Asia 2011 held between October 26 and 28, 2011 at Suntec City Convention Centre, Singapore, FUJIFILM took the opportunity to showcase its Acuity LED 1600. Ikuichiro Mokudai flew in for the event and is quick to share the rationale behind this latest rollto-roll UV inkjet printer. “Customers’ demands have been changing and they are no longer satisfied with the current method of print. High quality was a bonus in the past; it’s a given today. UV and LED (light emitting diodes) are the common ones today and FUJIFILM needs to differentiate itself amongst the competition. The FUJIFILM Acuity LED 1600 reflects our commitment to providing more value to customers,” he explains.

Indeed, the latest model from FUJIFILM is a notch above its predecessors. Offering output with enhanced speed and energy-saving advantages, it positions itself aptly to address speed and utility issues identified by businesses. However, with the wide range of inkjet offers on the market, how does one make a decision? Mokudai notes, “FUJIFILM was first known for its film business and become the leading company for its offset plate the pursuit of quality has been instilled since early days. Looking at the number

(Middle in top row): Ikuichiro Mokudai, operations manager for digital printing business group from FUJIFILM Corporation

CMY

of acquisitions of inkjet related companies like print head and ink executed since 2005, customers have to be convinced about our commitment to the inkjet business. Based on our strong commitment FUJIFILM will continuously add unique value to our customers through unprecedented technology. “Another important aspect of our commitment to the industry is our service level. FUJIFILM has a team of welltrained engineers both regional and worldwide. We are there for our customers.” Mokudai concludes, “FUJIFILM is shifting from conventional printing to inkjet, and focusing on the latter. We are successful in Japan, the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific. Our sales performance has been rapidly growing in Asia Pacific and we are coming on strongly in developing countries.” At FESPA Asia 2011, FUJIFILM sold several units of Acuity Advance HS. to Singapore-based customers. •

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Wide Format / Proofing Technology

Acuity for equity For Singapore-based Profoto Digital Services Pte Ltd, installing FUJIFILM's Acuity flatbed printer was what it took to be noticed. Johnny Lam, executive director, shares more with Christel Lee. With a photography background, Johnny Lam witnessed how the industry received digital printing while he was working in darkrooms. “It was a challenging phase for the industry to embrace this new technology. However, it’s also what a business needs to do to remain lucrative,” Lam comments.---Today with 25 years of experience behind him, Lam considers print a component, and not to be sold in isolation. He notes, “Pricing and turnaround remain the biggest concerns, although many have taken to asking for quality goods. The industry has also evolved and customers today ask for more; they have adopted a holistic approach to their marketing campaigns.” He explains, “Many customers have embraced the environment and know that UV printing is one of the ways they can

Johnny Lam, executive director of Profoto Digital Services Pte Ltd with Helen Chin, associate director and general manager of FUJIFILM (Singapore) Pte Ltd fulfill their social responsibilities. Price will still appear as a concern in negotiations. With that, we go back to selling more than print – a whole package of media, accompanied by the ‘caring for the environment’ part, price and other factors. That is where the customer realises the value.” When asked how Fujifilm Acuity has benefited the company, Lam remains enthusiastic about the potential it offers rather than the benefits the business enjoys! He highlights, “There was a job involving a fashion brand. The customer wanted a butterfly printed on acrylic and they went to many suppliers who tried a variety of technologies. Profoto was selected because Fujifilm’s Acuity provided the highest resolution & quality. The project required 500 pieces of this acrylic butterfly and it took us less than a week to complete the job. “Installing the Fujifilm Acuity has gotten luxury brands to notice us – especially when they are on the lookout for ideas of gifts to present to their VIPs. It’s capable of variable data print so even if it’s ten pieces, we are able to do it. The

beauty of it is that customers understand the value and are willing to pay a premium for such. Having said that, we still need to get back to basics – selling print as a whole package, not a component in a marketing campaign.” Lam shares, “Profoto Digital Services is the first company in Singapore to install the Fujifilm Acuity UV flatbed printer in 2008. UV Flatbed printing is very new at that time in Singapore and we bought it to learn & understand more about the technology. We indeed learnt how to do creative printing innovatively. “The Fujifilm Acuity has helped us open up more markets & business opportunities – we can do special applications, special effects, print on special substrates, such as wood, glass, tiles and even mirrors! Through such, Profoto actually helps customers enhance their branding, taking it into a whole new level.” At FESPA Asia 2011 held recently at Suntec City Convention Centre, Singapore, Profoto Digital Services signed for the new Fujifilm Acuity Advance HS.

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Wide Format / Proofing Technology

More than just print, literally! Indoor and outdoor advertising are among the most costeffective ways to reach out to the mass audience. Dato Maarof, managing director of Malaysia-based Libroff Sdn Bhd sheds some light on its evolution at FESPA Asia 2011. Christel Lee reports. Being in the business for some 22 years, Dato Maarof has seen for himself that not only consumers’ mentalities have evolved; these days it takes more than a static billboard to attract attention. “I started off doing big billboards for customers and now my job is more than just a billboard producer. Today, we see LED (light emitting diode) billboards, motion

picture billboards among the categories,” he comments. Indeed, LED billboards tend to attract more attention. When quizzed if he has noticed any major factor that can be omitted when a company embarks on billboard advertising as a marketing tool, Dato Maarof said, “It’s important to

Dato Maarof, managing director of Malaysia-based Libroff Sdn Bhd strike a balance between audience reach and location of the billboard. Although motion pictured billboards attract attention, there are places where these shouldn’t be used, like highways or roads where traffic is busy!” The company’s presence is strong in Kuala Lumpur – where unipoles, gantries and overhead panels are erected. Libroff Sdn Bhd is one of the leading companies in Malaysia specialising in LED frameless lightboxes, one of the most popular forms of outdoor adver-

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

Wide Format / Proofing Technology tising today. However, Dato Maarof is not about to leave it as that. “I am now venturing into indoor advertising, using the same product! Our presence is in malls and bus stations. We have also become a media owner that sublets spaces for advertisers,” he shares. Having decided on this path, Libroff has installed Agfa’s Jeti 3324 Solvent RTR and a Jeti UV Galaxy RTR. Dato Maarof said, “The business is more than it seems today. Gone are the days of static printing and joining pieces of PVC together to make a big billboard. Lightboxes have also gone beyond fluorescent bulbs! “I try to introduce new products to offer not only quality, but savings too! The LED lightbox systems we use boast 50,000 hours and comparing this against the typical fluorescent-bulb lightboxes, a distinct difference can be seen. Additionally, ease of installation and elimination of fluorescent bulb replacement render the LED lightbox an ideal alternative. In conclusion, advertising (outdoor and indoor) is now a marriage between printing and creativity. I would expect LED lightboxes to replace fluorescent lightboxes in the arena of indoor and outdoor advertising. Apart from doing extremely well in producing LED lightboxes for advertis-

ers, Libroff also has many high profile projects under its belt. Dato Maarof relates one out-of-the-blue proposal he received from the owner of Maju Tower in Malaysia. “I walked into his office and was told ‘if anyone can do this, it’s you!’ I wasn’t ready to say yes but I couldn’t say no to such a challenge either!” His “yes” to the owner led to the production of a building wrap for the tower which bears a welcoming message to Dato' Sri Najib Razak upon the start of his tenure as Prime Minister. Another project involved a gigantic Malaysian flag to commemorate the country's 48th year of independence. This was accorded an award in the Malaysian Book of Records. Libroff Sdn Bhd - under Dato’ Maarof ’s wing, is also currently the only outdoor communications expert with the concessionaire agreement with the Malay-

sian government to build Rebana Ubi archways at prime locations across the country - providing advertisers the best exposure of any out-of-home communications medium. The company will soon be erecting five more archways in the states of Pahang, Johor and Perak. Each and every one of these Rebana Ubi archways will act as powerful channels for meaningful campaigns, such as the 1Malaysia movement, which helps deliver the Prime Minister's vision of a united nation by elevating the spirit and values of togetherness and a sense of belonging among all Malaysians. With such an extensive portfolio, Dato Maarof is quick to deny allegations that Libroff Sdn Bhd is huge and is everywhere. However as fellow players in Malaysia know, their presence is nothing less than substantial.

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

NeWS 74 from Heidelberg. In 2010, she won Japan's national championship in the printing category. Silver medal winner Susanna Virtanen works at a print shop that forms part of the training institute in Turku, Finland, which is equipped with a Printmaster PM 52 four-colour press. Alongside her job as a printer, Susanna is a college student in the Finnish town of Jyväskylä.

WorldSkills 2011 in London – Girl Power Prevails in the After being hidden away under thick red Offset Printing Category Edale launch their FL-350 servo-driven flexo press

curtains in the run up to Label Expo, Brussels – the latest flexo press to join Edale’s expanding range, the FL-350 can finally be revealed! The FL-350 is a highly versatile flexographic label, film and ticket printing press offering the finest print quality with innovative features ensuring high speed changeovers, minimum downtime and minimum wastage.

The new press has been designed in conjunction with existing Edale customers and utilises the latest servo technology to provide pre-register, auto-register and print length control features ensuring the highest print quality and minimising set up wastage. It also employs Edale’s revolutionary Pit Stop Colour Change system enabling operators to complete a full colour change in less than 1 min 30 seconds per print station, drastically reducing job change times. Benefits include: • Pre-register system locates print cylinders in register before any substrate is used • Servo technology gives accurate control of printing and converting • Auto-register as standard • Job storage – allows production settings to be stored and recalled in the future • Inking and impression ‘strike’ features allows print stations to be set up with minimal material wastage • Pit Stop Colour Change – less than 1 min 30 seconds for full colour change per station

• Gold and silver go to female finalists from Japan and Finland - Makiko Ito (22) the clear winner, followed by Susanna Virtanen • Olivier Deloge from Belgium finishes third, while fourth place goes to German national champion Sascha Epp, an employee at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, who also receives the "Medallion for Excellence" • Top-quality printing - both Speedmaster SM 52 presses used for training and the competition itself sold during the event

Sascha Epp, who was crowned national champion ahead of seven other competitors in the German final, came fourth - just behind Olivier Deloge from Belgium. Epp, who works at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg), was awarded the “Medallion for Excellence” in recognition of his outstanding performance. “The WorldSkills competition was an amazing experience for me and I am proud to have been able to compete in the event. The tasks were well designed and the experts went to great lengths to ensure a fair and objective assessment of the contestants' performance,” he said.

The 41st WorldSkills competition, which took place from October 5 to 8 in London, concluded in style on October 9, 2011, with an impressive closing ceremony before a packed house of more than 22,000 at London's O2 arena. Over the four days of the event, world champions were crowned in 46 different disciplines. The 1,000 participants from 51 countries were watched by some 200,000 visitors, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, Her Royal Highness Princess Anne and other high-ranking politicians and business people, as they did battle for medals and the best possible ranking. For the first time in the offset printing category the gold and silver medals went to two young women. The pace was set by 22-year-old printer Makiko Ito, who finished some way ahead of Susanna Virtanen from Finland. Makiko has been working for the Asia Printing Corporation in Japan since 2008 and honed her skills on a Printmaster PM

Gold in the offset printing category went to 22-year-old Makiko Ito from Japan. One of the presses she works on is a Printmaster PM 74 from Heidelberg.

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

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Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

NeWS Bernhard Nahm, a member of the management team at the Print Media Center in Heidelberg, was one of the judges assessing the performance of the young printers in London. He was delighted at the success of the female contestants. "Heidelberg has had an impressively high proportion of female printing trainees for some years now. We are currently training ten young people to become printers and four of these are highly motivated young women. The next WorldSkills competition will return to Germany for the first time in 40 years - and perhaps one of our trainees will once again be a finalist in Leipzig in 2013," he said. Heidelberg provided two Speedmaster SM 52 five-color presses for the competition in London. Both machines were sold to two British customers even before the end of the event. The European finalists did their preparatory training on the same type of press at the Print Media Center in Heidelberg in September 2011. Heidelberg is a founding member of the WorldSkills Germany e.V. initiative, which was set up in 2006 to raise awareness of the exceptional value that highquality vocational training holds.

Heidelberg Australia/New Zealand (HAN) is proud to announce it recently achieved the status of finalist in the 10th Annual Australian Service Excellence Awards

HAN was nominated in the category of ‘Service Excellence in a Contact Centre’ in this national awards event. The awards, which are managed by the Customer Service Institute of Australia, recognise the efforts of customer service individuals and organisations across the country. The category of ‘Service Excellence in a Contact Centre’ was in fact won by American Express, but HAN was well-represented at the event with ten members of its customer support team attending the awards. HAN General Manager Customer Support Tony Van Broekhuizen says of the awards, “We were very pleased to learn that HAN has been nominated for these awards. It’s a great honour to

be recognised amongst the country’s best service organisations. I am proud of our achievement and thank the HAN customer support operations centre team for their contribution to this effort.” Past winners and this year’s nominees include most of Australia’s largest and most successful organisations, from private enterprise and the government sector. This year’s finalists and winners included Telstra, Queensland Rail, ANZ and American Express. Endorsed by the International Council of Customer Service Organisations these Awards are internationally recognised and Australian winners automatically become finalists in the global International Service Excellence Awards. The CSIA Australian Service Excellence Awards showcase the highest achievement in Customer Service. Reaching the finals and winning an award illustrates the high standards of management, training and commitment to excellence within those organisations.

manroland sheetfed offset press lands in paradise

Tahiti in the far south pacific: the land of Gauguin, Cook, Bligh, and Robert Louis Stevenson. The isles of mystery, romance,

warm waters, and endless sunsets. Here the market leading printer is Imprimerie STP Multipress, based in the commercial capital Papeete. As the capital’s printer, STP’s business is built on versatility and printing quality. Brochures, magazines, books, posters, stationery, and packaging are all produced at the company’s 3,000 square meters facility in the Papeete industrial zone. Outpacing the competition: ROLAND 700 HiPrint with InlineColorPilot STP provides the full range of production with sheetfed, web offset, and digital printing facilities as well as prepress and finishing. Their current sheetfed fleet consists of seven presses of various vintages, with the majority being manroland presses. To increase the lead over their competitors, STP has just taken delivery of a brand-new ROLAND 700 HiPrint with ROLAND InlineColorPilot. Chairman of Directors, Benoit Gerard, says, “We face offshore competition from France, China, and South East Asia. This investment in the latest technology from manroland will markedly increase our competitive edge. The ROLAND InlineColorPilot in particular will automate color control, reduce our waste,

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

NeWS and make it easier for our operators to produce work of the very highest quality.” Benoit continues, “We employ around 50 staff in two shifts and process more than 620 tonnes of paper annually. The new ROLAND 700 will improve efficiencies across our whole business.”

It intends to use the Océ JetStream 1000 for high-speed colour inkjet printing for the transaction printing market with Traspromo and cross media communication. Its customers include banks, insurance companies, mutual funds, and telcos.

Steve Dunwell, Managing Director of manroland Australasia, congratulated STP Multipress on their decision saying, “We are delighted to be installing a new ROLAND 700 HiPrint in Tahiti. STP Multipress is Tahiti’s foremost printer and the new manroland technology they have chosen will serve them well for many years to come. Congratulations to STP Multipress for choosing manroland, we appreciate your confidence in our products.”

Chanawat Sawaddichai, says, “The challenge of DocuXPert is how to convince our customers to our slogan ‘Less cost, sell more’. To make that slogan come into practice, DocuXPert has shown its customers how TransPromo communication can turn printing cost into income and profit.

Océ inkjet continuous feed system arrives in Thailand

Thailand’s DocuXPert has become the first outsourcing company in Asia to start TransPromo with an Océ Jetstream 1000 inkjet continuous feed printing system. Established in 2001, DocuXPert has its headquarters in Bangkok. Chanawat Sawaddichai, managing director, DocuXPert Corporation, says, “DocuXPert serves the finance and telco industries for printing invoices and statements and other collaterals. We provide full-service with digital printing equipment and internet based communication.”

“Océ has been our current supplier for monochrome printing systems for some years. We have had a good relationship from the very beginning. We compared between several suppliers. Even though some other brand offered better financial conditions we choose Océ because we trust Océ in terms of equipment, supplies and service support teams. Sebastian Landesberger, executive vice president, Océ Production Printing, says, “The Océ JetStream 1000 combines everything that is required in one powerful, digital machine with the smallest footprint in its class. With printing speeds of 75 meters per minute, or 1,010 A4 ipm, this is a sleek machine that can adapt readily to changing industry and customer requirements.”

Floods shrink Thailand's DocuXPert has expanded its business to printing and packaging orders print-on-demand, including colour and personalisation and has set its focus on customer communication management.

While the Thai printing and packaging industry remains on track to record export value of THB70bn this year, next

year's orders will reduce, as 300 factories face a cut in their purchase orders after the severe flooding forced a suspension of operations. According to the Bangkok Post, Kriengkrai Thiennukul, chairman of the printing and packaging club of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), 10% of the 3,000 printing and packaging factories that the floods affected have had to close down, with purchase orders cut in half. Greater Bangkok houses up to 80% of the industry's facilities. He says, “What we're watching closely right now is the Sinsakhon Industrial Estate, in Samut Sakhon province, which houses as many as 91 companies, 90 of which are printing and packaging factories, many of them large operations.” Now, only 46 firms are operational. However, since customers must preorder anywhere from six months to a year ahead of time, this year's direct exports will still meet the THB70bn target. He says, “Such exports are almost always higher than the initial forecasts, but we're concerned that we will not be able to produce enough for the fourth quarter, which may affect customers' confidence next year. “What we would usually do is ask our customers if we could extend the deadline due to the flooding, but it is up to them to decide whether to levy a penalty on us. In that case, the best-case scenario would be suffering some loss of profit. The worst case would be losing the customer.” Exports in the first three quarters of this year totalled THB50 billion. Kriengkrai adds that the flooding has caused many factories to implement preventive

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

NeWS measures and let their employees return home. He says, “Burmese and Lao staff have almost all gone, as their families have been watching the news and want them to return to their home countries. And they're all linked, as they tend to have relatives in other industrial estates and so are leaving together.” He continues that while sales of some packaging such as for instant noodles will remain good, magazine sales have been cut in half due to the damage in the logistics and distribution centres. He adds that indirect exports, accounting for about 3% of printing and packaging output, have also been hard hit.

Paperback Writers

HP has recently published the results of its Life Cycle Assessment of different paperback book printing options. The comparative study, “The Environmental Case for Digitally Printed Books”, focuses on the US market but its reasoning is relevant for book markets around the world. The basic conclusion, as you might expect from the title, is that digital printing is less damaging to the environment than the conventional sort. However the story isn’t quite that simple and book publishers should look closely at this report as part of their future publishing strategies. Publishers can use printing technology synergies to balance higher profitability with the need to reduce their environmental impact. In the US 25% of printed books are returned, either to be resold or thrown away. The numbers for waste are pretty similar in other developed markets according to a number of sources cited in this study. The cost of managing so much waste, as well as the negative

impact it has on the environment, is an important driver for waste reduction and an argument for hybrid print media production. For instance, “analysis showed that combining digital inkjet technology with offset resulted in the need to print 22% fewer books to sell the same amount” of best sellers. Indeed in all of the scenarios where digital printing supplemented or was substituted for offset book printing, the total carbon footprint was reduced. HP & Quantis HP worked with Quantis, a sustainability consulting group, to investigate various systems for printing and delivering paperback books. They compared conventional offset printing and digital printing, using different demand profiles and fulfilment models. The presses studied were a Timson T48a, HP T200 and T300 inkjet web presses, and an R85 inkjet printer used for instore on-demand book printing. Covers were printed on an Indigo 7000 and an unnamed HP “small laser press”. The report notes that “it is difficult to assume a priori that the four presses are fully substitutable and that at a given point in time, a given book can be printed on either one.” However everything possible appears to have been done in this work to make a fair comparison. The point isn’t so much the technology choice as it is the business model: “while return rates are variable and depend on contexts and publishers’ strategies, in general digital printing allows a reduction of return rate in comparison to offset printing”. The report studies two different types of book: a blockbuster that sells 500,000 copies over two years and a general title that sells 5,000 copies over five

years. For both scenarios the analogue press printing at a central location, with a return rate of 25% has the most negative environmental impact. For all four presses, “paper production is the largest source of potential environmental impacts, representing 40 to 80% of the total impacts”. This work makes eminently clear that reductions in the number of returned books reduce the industry’s overall environmental impact. Defining the System The report defines a system as having the function “to print, bind, distribute and sell paperback books to retail store customers in the USA and to dispose of them.” The study evaluated four fulfilment models: centralised, regional and local distribution, plus in-store printing. The goal was to establish the environmental profile of each system and to consider possible synergies between the technologies, using Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). There are two fundamental differences between analogue and digital printing, apart from the ability of the latter to provide variable data output. Book presses can either print to stock or print on demand. Printing to stock makes assumptions about how many copies of a book need to be printed in order to reach the sales target. For the purposes of this study HP/Quantis assumed 5,000

Print Pack Publish Asia • 10/2011

NeWS

to 20,000 is the typical run length for an offset book press, 2,000 - 5,000 as typical for the T300 and 500 - 3,000 for the T200. The run length for the R85 is typically one. Printing on demand assumes that only the books specifically requested by a customer are printed. There are strengths and weaknesses to both models and the HP study does an admirable job of presenting the various scenarios that book publishers might consider. The study chose paperback books because they represented: “59% of books sold in the USA in 2009” and because “paperbacks can be printed by all of the presses studied in the two categories, analogue and digital”. The study also strives to determine “the least environmentally impactful means of production and distributing a paperback book”. The report acknowledges one of the biggest problems for studies of this kind: “Lack of data (and a high variability of situations in reality) for data management, lack of strong references for the return rate for digital presses, low quality of ecoinvent LCI.” HP’s figures are therefore conservative but digital printing can contribute to reduced environmental impacts for both blockbuster and general interest titles. In each fulfilment model the number of returns varies with each printing system. For instance, the bestseller printed on the Timson press required a run of 625,000 in order to sell 500,000 copies distributed a distance of 2000 kilometres, because of the high return rate of 125,000 (25 percent). For sales of 59,000 with 61 runs of 1,000 copies on the HP T200 digital

press, and distributed a distance of 500 kilometres the returns are 2,000, which at 4.1% is considerably less. It isn’t easy to compare like with like in this study, but the arguments supporting digital printing close to the point of use are very compelling. HP & Publishing This study aligns HP’s interest with that of the wider industry. It demonstrates how different print and distribution scenarios support different market expectations, and how different technology blends support different business models. For instance, by looking at digital presses with varying levels of productivity in the context of alternative distribution models, a book publisher can get a better understanding of how the printing and distribution scenarios can be used to reduce environmental impacts.

This is an important concern: how do you know how many copies to print in order to sell one? For publishers who can answer this question, the Timson obviously offers economies of scale that can ensure profitability. But for those who cannot, which is most publishers, the HP study concludes that a combination of long and short run digital printing may be a better option. According to the study, reducing returns is a major contributor to improved footprint reduction. But it also points out that the combination of print run length, transportation distances and data management influence reductions. The extent of their influence depends on the different demand profiles, however it is clear that unsold books are the primary driver for higher potential impacts from offset printing.

It is clear from this report that publishers need to combine the ideal run length and distribution models to optimise supply so that it more closely matches demand for a given title. This argues for regional print and local distribution rather than centralised print and national distribution, the model conventional offset offers.

Perhaps the most important conclusion HP/Quantis reach in this work is that there is a synergy between the two technology classes and between the print to stock and print on demand business models. Combining digital and conventional offset leverages technology capabilities and to meet market needs with the lowest environmental impact.

On-demand printing, of course, has the least negative environmental impact, but this may not be the best business model because it doesn’t necessarily generate the best sales for a title. There are no unwanted books in this model, but there is also an inbuilt limit on the potential sales: only people who know they want a title will buy it. It excludes those who might be tempted from looking at the cover and skimming the pages of a printed copy.

A combination offers the economic scale of volume production of an offset press, with the nuanced model of short run and on-demand production close to the point of use. Falling run lengths are a reality in book printing as well as elsewhere in print. So at some stage, the economic and impact arguments will probably swing in favour of digital printing for all publication types.