June 2012

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CONTENTS Volume 51, Number 6

AGFA GRAPHICS

Feature

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A drupa Education Dr. Martin Habekost of Ryerson’s GCM program describes which technologies caught his attention in Düsseldorf plus…

Ten printing students share their perspectives for the most-interesting trend or technology at drupa 2012

Print

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NEWS Rob Ford loses the plastic bag in Toronto, Westkey Graphics of Burnaby purchases Menzies, and remembering Aulward’s Paul Prince

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CALENDAR July 2012 Peter Ebner runs a print-sales Webinar, the CMA hosts its annual awards gala, and Graph Expo prepares for post-drupa

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LETTERPRESS Crowdfunding Fine Press Vancouver’s Jarrett Morrison drives support of a three-volume Pride and Prejudice letterpress book through an online campaign

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PACKAGING Esko Building in New Orleans With a record turnout at the EskoWorld 2012 user conference, Mark Quinlan, President of Esko Americas, describes four years of growth

Columns

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TRISH WITKOWSKI Who’s Afraid of Patented Print Solutions?

From Book-Cube to The Flapper, printing’s folding fanatic shares new avenues to take advantage of creative finishing

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NICK HOWARD The Stuffed Monkey One of the world’s press experts discusses the impact of drupa prototypes and why he is disappointed after all of the digital hype

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VICTORIA GAITSKELL Running a Healthy In-plant Sitting down with the University Health Network’s veteran print leader, who discusses the challenges and opportunities of in-house production

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June 1977 The Apple II goes on sale, Elvis Presley performs for the last time, and first reports from the golden days of drupa

Resources 23 Services to the Trade Cover Illustration: Clive Chan

33 Marketplace JUNE 2012 • PRINTACTION • 3

PERSPECTIVE

SUPPORT

RESPONSIBLE FORESTRY. When you consider that only 10% of the world’s forests are certified, we have a long way to go. The good news is that there are a number of credible forest certification programs. And each one, including SFI, encourages responsible forestry. For more on forest certification and what you can do, visit www.sfiprogram.org.

Market Disruption hile the global printing community over the past couple of months has focused on technological disruption, because of the quadrennial drupa tradeshow in Germany, the Canadian printing community has seen significant market disruption over the same time period. Three major merger-and-acquisition moves have created enormous operations, as the community’s long awaited consolidation amongst mid- to large-sized plants might finally be underway.

The Canadian M&A activity began in late-April when The Lowe-Martin Group acquired Dollco and effectively joined two of the country’s most powerful privately owned printers. The combination of these two large-scale operations, both based in Ottawa, creates a $100-million business with a range of services, from large web-offset runs to toner-driven personalization. Dollco had been owned and operated by the Nicholds family since 1956.

A month later, Westkey Graphics Ltd. of Burnaby, British Columbia, purchased the well-known Menzies Graphics Group. Founded in 1946, Menzies, much like Dollco, was a generational family business that aggressively expanded across Western Canada over the past decade. The new structure of Westkey Graphics also results in one of Canada’s largest printing operations, now with operations in Calgary, Grande Prairie, Edmonton, Kamloops, Kelowna and Vancouver.

The third recent and significant Canadian-printing M&A came in mid-June when Mitchell Press of Burnaby purchased the assets of Teldon Print Media. While selling its Print Media division, Teldon continues to operate the other divisions of its business, including Teldon Marketing Products and Alive Publishing. Teldon was established in 1969 in Vancouver. Mitchell Press, now in its third generation of family ownership, was founded in 1928. The company claims its purchase of Teldon Print Media makes it the Pacific Northwest’s largest independently owned provider of heatset-web printing services.

All three of these purchases have certainly altered Canada’s printing landscape in a matter of a couple of months. In this timeframe, the industry has also seen smaller but still significant moves, such as Toronto-based RP Graphics’ merger with Green Dot Litho and Vancouver-based MET Fine Printer’s purchase of Larsen’s Bookbinding. The Toronto-area market has seen a handful of mid-sized plant closures in the past few weeks.

All of this business activity suggests the remainder of 2012 could finish with a high level of consolidation, which many Canadian printers, particularly in Toronto, have been anticipating for a couple of years. Of course, there are a number of variables driving the need to merge or acquire, but most significantly is the simple fact that several aging operations, family-run for decades, are faced with fewer and fewer succession options.

Meanwhile, the technologies displayed at drupa 2012 indicate that many mid-sized commercial printing operations will need to make significant investments in the near future to alter their workflow and production processes. This might not necessarily mean a production-strength inkjet overhaul in the next couple of years, but even the relatively smaller advances in sheetfed offset presses, ultimately equating to million-dollar investments, must be considered if an traditional printer hopes to remain competitive in price and productivity. drupa 2012 was a unique staging of potentially disruptive technology, as seen in the past few issues of PrintAction’s coverage on the German tradeshow. This issue will be our last featuring primary drupa coverage, which is rounded out by the technology perspectives of Canada’s printing future. Alongside the lead drupa article by Dr. Martin Habekost, a professor within Ryerson’s Graphic Communications Management program, 10 post-secondary students share what they found to be most interesting at drupa 2012.

Jon Robinson, Editor

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Canada’s Graphic Communications Magazine. Proudly published for two generations.

Editor Jon Robinson • 416.665.7333 ext. 30 • jon@printaction.com Associate Editor Clive Chan • 416.665.7333 ext. 25 • clive@printaction.com Contributing Writers Zac Bolan, Clint Bolte, Peter Ebner, Chris Fraser, Victoria Gaitskell, Dr. Martin Habekost, Nick Howard, Thad McIlroy, Gordon Pritchard, Josh Ramsbottom, Nicole Rycroft, Andrew Tribute, Trish Witkowski Publisher Sara Young • 416.665.7333 ext. 31 • sara@printaction.com Associate Publisher Stephen Longmire • 416.665.7333 ext. 26 • stephen@printaction.com Production Manager Anders Kohler • 416.665.7333 ext. 37 • anders@printaction.com Intern Tiffany Kay Garcia • 416.665.7333 ext. 34 • tiffany@printaction.com Advertising Sales Sara Young • 416.665.7333 ext. 31 • sara@printaction.com Stephen Longmire • 416.665.7333 ext. 26 • stephen@printaction.com Circulation ADPIC Subscription Services • 800.363.3261 • subscriptions@printaction.com PrintAction is published by Youngblood Publishing Limited and is Canada’s only national monthly publication serving the graphic arts industry. ISSN 1481-9287.

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PrintAction is printed by Sina Printing on Starbrite Plus 70lb Velvet Text and 80lb Gloss Text available from Unisource Canada, Inc. Youngblood Publishing Ltd. 610 Alden Rd., Suite 100, Markham, ON L3R 9Z1 Tel: 416.665.7333 • Fax: 905.752.1441 www.printaction.com Publications Mail Agreement Number 40010868 • ISSN 1481-9287 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to subscriptions@printaction.com 4 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2012

PRINT NEWS

ROB FORD, Mayor of Toronto, in June faced a surprise vote in city council to ban retailers from offering plastic bags to customers. Ford was originally pushing to scrap the city’s 5¢ bag fee by July 1, which indeed passed with a vote of 23 to 21, but the council then also passed a motion to eliminate the use of plastic bags on January 1, 2013 – with a 27 to 17 vote total. While many environmental groups supported the plastic-bag ban, Ford was in clear opposition. Speaking with AM640, a local Toronto station, on the morning after the ban, Ford said: “It’s the dumbest thing council has done and council has done some dumb things.”

ALFIE KARMAL, President and CEO of Westkey Graphics based in Burnaby, British Columbia, moved to purchase Menzies Graphics Group, which has operations in Calgary, Grande Prairie, Edmonton, Kamloops and Kelowna.

Menzies has been a family-run business since 1946 and today provides offset, toner, business-form, cheque, envelope, wide-format, and label printing services.

Providing similar services, in addition to a significant focus on distribution and fulfillment, Westkey has been in business for over 50 years and currently has operations in Vancouver, Kelowna, Edmonton and Calgary. The combination of Westkey and Menzies creates one of the largest printing operations in Western Canada.

Westkey alone employs over 100 staff members across its network.

MARK ROBINSON and Doug Robinson, owners of Tri-Tech Canada, updated their prepress with a Heidelberg Prinect workflow and an Epson 9990 proofing device. The installation allows Tri-Tech, a 40-inch commercial print shop out of Pickering, Ontario, to produce hybrid 350-line screens. Tri-Tech has been proMOYER PRINTING’s Stew Budge, Louise viding printing services for the Greater Moyer and Al Moyer celebrate the installa- Toronto Area since 1974 and specializes tion of a DigiXpress system into their in the production of catalogues, magaNorth Bay shop. Purchased through Press- zines, and brochures. The company runs down Services (PDS), DigiXpress feeds en- a full in-house bindery department. velopes, post cards, labels, banners and card stock up to 14 points, from 3 x 5 inches up to 12 x 18 inches. In a single pass, DigiXpress can produce around 50 full-colour, personalized envelopes per minute, or up to 36 full-colour 11 x 8.5-inch pages per minute (40 ppm in monochrome).

Founded in 1982, Moyer primarily focuses on providing services for both French and English customers in the North Bay region.

DEJONG PRINTING began operating under a new name, nexGen Grafix Inc., as Henk DeJong prepares to build upon his father’s 33-year success. Henk DeJong has long been involved with the family business, but his father, Stuart DeJong, is now taking a less active role with the company, which was founded in 1979. In January 2012, DeJong Printing installed a new 29inch, 6-colour Komori Lithrone SX629C, its third new Komori press in the last seven years. A couple of months earlier, DeJong Printing also installed a 5-colour Kodak NexPress SX2700 to boost its toner production. According the Henk DeJong, the FSC-certified operation still produces about 70 percent of its work with offset presses, while the remaining 30 percent is handled by its toner capabilities.

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PROPRINT SERVICES of Toronto, which focuses on large-format point-of-purchase production, installed Canada’s first Inca Onset S40. Exclusively distributed by Fujifilm on a global basis, the Onset S40, which has been in Proprint’s shop for nearly six months, reaches a maximum speed of 470 m2/hour, which equates to 94 full beds – handling a 5 x 10-foot sheet. Printing on substrates up to 50mm thick, the Onset S40 comes as a standard CMYK configuration but can installed, as with Proprint, in a 6-color configuration, including light cyan and light magenta. Proprint also invested in a new Esko Kongsberg XP Auto finishing table, with a 63 x 126-inch bed.

MEG WHITMAN, President and CEO of HP, announced plans to cut the technology giant’s workforce by eight percent, equating to approximately 27,000 jobs, by the end of 2014. The cuts will save the company between $3 and $3.5 billion, annually. At the same time, the company announced it has seen a three percent drop in its revenues in the last quarter when compared to a year ago, a figure equating to roughly a 30 percent fall in profits.

MARK NORLOCK becomes KBA’s Regional Sales Manager for Canada, covering the provinces of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories. (KBR Graphics is responsible for KBA sales and distribution in Quebec and eastern provinces.) Norlock was most recently part of Kodak’s inkjet printing solutions sales unit and prior to that served as Sales Manager for manroland Canada.

He also served in other notable graphic arts companies such as Xerox, Scitex, Indigo Canada and Linotype-Hell Canada.

PAUL PRINCE, who contributed 56 years of his life to the Canadian printing industry, including the founding of Aulward Graphics, passed away in his 75th year after a short battle with cancer. Fresh out of high school in 1953, Prince began his printing career at the Picton Times. He then worked for the Trentonian newspaper and Gananoque Reporter before moving to Toronto to become part of The Globe and Mail’s mammoth printing department. In 1967, well before adopting the name Aulward Graphics, Prince started a small printing operation in CUSTOM PRINTERS’ Peter Barron, Prepress Grimsby, Ontario, called Inteprint, which Operator, Mike Recoskie, Production Man- he eventually merged with Reiger Litho of ager, and Ken Charron, Technology Archi- Hamilton after acquiring it in 1984. The tect, oversaw the installation of a Heidelberg new operation was called Reiger Press, and Suprasetter H 74 with automatic plate was soon renamed as Aulward Graphics. loading. Founded in 1972, Custom Printers The company is now based in Hamilton of Renfrew, Ontario, recently expanded its and run by Paul’s son, Blaine Prince. operations through mergers with IDP Graphics of Oshawa, Ontario, and a firm called Brideau. These moves formed an entity called The IDP Group. In addition to traditional offset printing services, Custom Printers also provides wide-format graphics and toner production.

DARRELL FRIESEN, co-owner of Jet Label in Edmonton, celebrates becoming the first Canadian company to install HP’s Indigo WS6600 press. Self-described as Western Canada’s largest label manufacturer, Jet Label over the past decade expanded from its initial Edmonton facility to operations in Calgary, Saskatoon, Prince George, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

The Indigo WS6600 was first introduced to the market in September 2011.

SUN CHEMICAL CANADA, led by President Rod Staveley, boosted its commitment to the Quebec printing market with a $3.1 million investment to consolidate four facilities into a new 50,000-square-foot ink manufacturing plant. The new Laval plant is to replace nearby facilities in Ottawa, Quebec City, Boucherville and Anjou. The Laval facility, employing 32 full-time staff, has ink dispensers on-site for demonstrations and the manufacturing of spot-colour inks, as well as three roll mills, several vertical post mixers and smaller mixers, and an internal laboratory for quality control and colour-matching chemistry. The plant will produce solvent, water-based, UV and paste inks for the packaging, corrugated, sheetfed, heatset and coldset markets.

CANON plans to buy back up to 50 billion yen ($660 million Canadian) worth of its own shares over the next few weeks, up to July 27. Large corporations typically make these investments when executives feel the stock is undervalued on the open market.

The $660 million buy back, amounting to just 1.4 percent of its outstanding shares (17.4 million shares), also indicates the size Canon. With more than 25,000 global employees, Canon in its 2011 fiscal year generated net sales of 2,160,732 million yen, or $28.5 billion.

Giesbrecht, President and owner. Pur- of its newspapers ceasing their publishing chased from Spicers, the NexPress of a Sunday edition. The Calgary Herald, SX2700 runs a maximum sheet size of 14 Edmonton Journal, and the Ottawa Citizen inches by 26 inches, while reaching a will no longer publish on Sundays and the maximum print speed of 83 A4-size National Post will continue its trend of not pages per minutes, simplex. City Press publishing on Mondays over the summer CITY PRESS of Winnipeg becomes the first also added Kodak’s Intelligent Color op- months. The company also announced commercial printer in Manitoba to install tion on the press, as well as a fifth imag- plans to centralize more of its operations Kodak’s NexPress SX2700 toner press. ing unit on the NexPress. into Hamilton. Postmedia had an $11 Founded in 1932, City Press has remillion loss in its most-recent financial mained a family-run company for the PAUL GODFREY, CEO of Postmedia Network, quarter, while still suffering from a longpast eight decades and is now led by Ken approved a round of cuts resulting in three term debt of over $516 million. grammable cutter with up to 198 presets to minimize setup time between jobs. The machine can handle sheets 670 millimeters wide and cut stacks up to 80 millimeters tall. Ram Printing was founded in 1980.

GEORGE MAZZAFERRO, President of RP Graphics Group, moved to merge the nearby operations of Green Dot Litho into his Mississauga facility. Green Dot Litho branded itself an environmentally responsible printer through the use of chemistry-free plates and soy-based inks.

RP Graphics was founded in 1978. The company recently invested in a new 40inch Komori GL640 with a H-UV drying system, as well as a second Inca Spyder 320 machine for large-format inkjet production. RP Graphics runs three Xerox iGen presses, as well as in-house bindery and a mailing and fulfillment centre.

CANOPY, an environmentally focused NGO in Vancouver, assisted Sprint Nextel’s development of an aggressive new Paper & Print Procurement Policy to support sustainable forest management. Sprint set a goal to increase its use of recycled content to 25 percent by 2017, while also committing to help develop alternative paper-fibre sources and to reduce its use of paper with toxic chlorine bleaching. Sprint’s also announced a goal to have at least 50 percent of its print suppliers comply with its environmental and social criteria by the end 2012, and at least 90 percent to comply by 2017.

FRANÇOIS OLIVIER, President and CEO of Transcontinental Inc., announced the renewal of six key contracts – all with major Canadian retail clients – worth $1.5 billion in revenues. Some of these contracts are directly tied to Transcontinental’s March 1, 2012, purchase of Quad Graphics’ Canadian plants. These deals not only include printing and flyer distribution, but also Transcontinental’s digital marketing services such as e-flyers, email marketing and mobile marketing. The contracts range from three to six years.

IDENTIFICATION MULTI SOLUTIONS of Montreal, which services and distributes product identification and labeling technologies, adds the Memjet-driven Colordyne CDT 1600 C printer to its product line. IMS has been named as the machine’s distributor for Eastern Canada. Based around Memjet’s inkjet technology, the Colordyne CDT 1600 C makes labels that are two to 8½ inches wide, have a resolution 1,600 ppi and a maximum speed of 12 inches per second.

CHRIS MOSE, Bindery Supervisor at Ram Printing and Promotions, oversaw the installation of a new Polar 66 cutter into Lloydminster, Alberta. Purchased from Heidelberg Canada, the Polar 66 is a pro-

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www.gossinternational.com JUNE 2012 • PRINTACTION • 7

PRINT CALENDAR

JULY 2

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One month from today, printing-sales guru Peter Ebner hosts a lunch-hour Webinar called Drive your Overthe-Counter Print Sales Through the Roof, with topics like three questions you must ask every walk in and how to turn a business-card inquiry into a $1,000 order. $69.95

Beginning at 2:00 EST, SGIA holds a 1-hour Webinar called New Digital Textile Printing Techniques and Applications. Steve Weiss of Dazian Textiles is to focus on how to create never-before-seen effects and end products with large-format printing technologies.

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BCPIA hosts its annual golf tournament at the Morgan Creek Golf Club with a 12:30 pm shotgun start. The event includes dinner, green fees, and power cart with GPS yardage locator. $1,060 (foursome)* or $265* (individual)

Printing Industries of America hosts a new 2-day workshop called New Media Boot Camp for Printers, focusing on how to combine print with interactive media. Course topics include using dynamic content on the Web via QR codes, campaign tracking, smartphones and mobile-optimized Websites, and e-publications. $995*

Despite eliminating all of its print categories, entries are due today for the annual Canadian Marketing Association’s awards program. Beyond Digital, PR and Social Media categories, specialized printers can submit into the Customer Management category, focusing on 1:1 and loyalty programs. $550*

Three months from today, under the theme of “Print Integrated,” Graph Expo 2012 begins at McCormick Place in Chicago. The 2012 version of Graph Expo features Marketing and Newspaper Pavilions, as well as specialized events like Executive Outllook, Xplor Seminars and the ING Conference.

Three months from today, SGIA hosts its annual exposition at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which was 92 percent sold out, in terms of exhibitor space, by early June. The 3-day tradeshow features new sections in 2012 like the Photo Imaging Pavilion, Color Management Zone, and colocation with the Printed Electronics & Membrane Switch Symposium.

Canadian Marketing Association hosts a lunch-hour Webinar called 1:1 Marketing across Social Media Channels. Learn key trends in this communications sector, why it is a marketing priority, and hear case studies about it being applied to business goals. $30*

Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin, hosts the 5-day National Printing Ink Research Institute’s (NPIRI) Summer Course for people involved in the technical and sales side of the ink. Courses include topics like the formulation, testing and application of printing inks, as well as how and why raw materials are used.

AlphaGraphics and Allegra Network team up to host a Joint Technology Expo at the Marriott World Center in Orlando, Florida. Organizers expect the 2-day event to attract more than 150 exhibitors and 600 franchisees from both organizations.

Printing Industries of America hosts a 1-hour Webinar, beginning at 2:00 pm (EST) called Digitally Printed Security Products: New Opportunities for Printers and Suppliers. Discover new security-printing opportunities with documents, labels, and packages, as well as counterfeiting threats and sector challenges. $99*

Pricing listed at standard rates, with * denoting the availability of member of early bird discounts.

Appleton, Wisconsin, is a city heavily involved in the printing business since the mid 1800s.

Even today, the city’s third largest employer is a company which shares the same name of Appleton. It shares an area called the Fox Cities with other municipalities that have names also familiar to those in the paper trade: Neenah, Menasha, Little Chute, Kimberly, Combined Locks, and Kaukauna. Appleton is also home to the Paper Discovery Center, a museum focused on papermaking, housed in a former Kimberley-Clark paper mill.

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PRINT LETTERPRESS

Crowdfunding Fine Press n late May, a letterpress project to produce a handset, fine press version of Pride and Prejudice made an appeal on the Internet for support. An increasingly popular way to fund independent works, The Bowler Press, helmed by Jarrett Morrison, is one of the first to use this online funding model to gain exposure and support to produce fine print work.

Morrison decided to launch a three volume set of Pride and Prejudice, with each page completely handset and letterpress printed. According to Morrison, the project will take a minimum of three years to complete, with the first volume to be finished in 2013, just in time for the 200th-anniversary of the work. (The first edition, three volume set, sold for 18 shillings, equaling approximately $85 in today’s currency, accounting for inflation.)

Morrison, along with partner and binding expert Alanna Simenson of Mad Hatter Bookbinding, will produce a total of 138 three-volume copies of Austen’s work: 24 deluxe copies, priced at $3,500 a piece; and 114 numbered copies, priced at $1,500. Each book will be printed on natural white Zerkall mould made paper.

The main difference between the two versions is the binding, the deluxe version will feature full leather honey book-calf, tooled in gold leaf and boxed in halfleather clamshell.

Morrison and Simenson will hand set each page using type source from Bixler Letterfoundry in Skaneateles, New York. There is enough type for approximately 18 to 24 pages before they must be printed and type reset. The text will be accompanied with original illustrations by Morrison on wood blocks and printed in relief. The book will be printed on a century-old, treadle-driven Chandler and Price press, affectionately named Beryl.

While not all supporters of the project can afford the price for even a standard copy, people who donate will be offered perks such as letterpress-printed bookmarks, letters, bookplates and other ephemera, such as Mr. Darcy’s Letter (right).

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The letterpress craft While Morrison was previously employed in the graphic arts industry producing trade show graphics, he received a degree in English at the University of Waterloo. Hence his interest in literature and recreating it using traditional methods.

Soon after moving to the West Coast, Morrison looked into pursuing a career in letterpress printing. At the time, the training through the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild was limited in the West Coast, as many programs were very Ontario-centric. It did, however, lead Morrison into meeting Crispin and Jan Elsted of Barbarian Press. The Mission, British Columbia company took Morrison in during his education on letterpress

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and bookbinding. After spending more time learning the trade, Morrison founded The Bowler Press in 2007. He has since produced a limited 65-copy run of The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde.

In addition to the crowd funding, which will mainly go towards the initial materials, Morrison divides the people supporting work like his into three groups: People who are avid collectors with a interest in fine press books; second would be the academic world such as libraries, not just for the literature element, but also to highlight the work of small presses; and finally those who have a special interest in the particular work printed and wish to gift a special edition.

Morrison believes letterpress gained popularity in the rise of small business and e-commerce, because there is very little in terms of new letterpress equipment. This has led to a corresponding rise in the prices of old equipment, especially desktop printing machines. Despite the growing challenge of finding equipment, the community ultimately is welcoming of those interested in the craft.

“My first experience with bookbinding is that it tends to be a bit more closed: bookbinders are more likely to guard their secrets,” says Morrison. “It probably harkens back to the trade guild days. The letterpress printers I know are aware that their craft is ultimately in peril because the people pass away without passing on the knowledge. This is one of the reasons why everyone is open and encouraging when you have questions or equipment.”

When asked about the allure of fine press books, Morrison laughs: “I often joke to other printers that we really can’t afford these books that we produce. The only way we can have these books is to produce them and not to buy them from someone else. They do tend to have a high price tag associated with them.” Morrison is arranging to keep one deluxe copy and two regular copies of Pride and Prejudice, namely for his family.

“Books seem to be, particularly trade books, more of a disposable object: they’re consumable. A lot of the paperbacks, I find the construction not very durable.

If it’s read a few times, the spine is cracking, starts to separate and the pages start to fall out. It’s not an object that is designed to be treasured. With doing what I do, with these kind of books, people do approach them as a treasured object.”

– Clive Chan

From Top: Jarrett Morrison of North Vancouverbased The Bowler Press. Mr. Darcy’s Letter, a piece from the Pride and Prejudice project offered to supporters. A letter from Austen’s Persuasion, an earlier project of Morrison’s.

PRINT PACKAGING

Esko Building in New Orleans ince being appointed as President of an enormous boost on May 15 after Esko’s EskoArtwork’s North American opera- parent company, Danaher Corp., comtions in October 2008, Mark Quinlan pleted its US$625-million acquisition of has primarily focused on growing the Bel- Michigan-based X-Rite, which owns Pangium company’s sales and service presence tone and dominates colour control for in the Americas. His efforts bore fruit this print production. Esko was purchased by June when more than 500 customers, in- Danaher 15 months earlier in 2011 for cluding 42 Canadians, attended EskoWorld around US$470 million.

“We have a parent now in Danaher who 2012 in New Orleans – a 30 percent increase in attendance over last year’s record- is really interested in investing in us and making sure that we have a setting 350 attendees. healthy business and a growThe large increase in ating business,” says Quinlan. tendance was certainly Danaher is a diversified techspurred on by Esko’s user nology company with over conference taking place just four weeks after the quad47,000 associates in 125 rennial drupa tradeshow, countries. It has acquired where the company intromore than 400 companies duced key new technologies since 1984 and generated revlike Esko Suite 12, HD Flexo enues of $16.1 billion in Pixel+, i-cut Automate, 2011. While many technology Kongsberg XN with Multisuppliers in the printing inCUT HP and Inline UV2 for Mark Quinlan, President dustry have been cutting the CDI Spark 4835 Auto of Esko Americas. staffing and R&D, Quinlan imager. EskoWorld itself, however, mostly points out that Esko remains committed to concentrates on software development, as a growing technology budget. “We realize opposed to displaying hardware, which it is the lifeblood of this company.” makes the high 2012 attendance figures Quinlan, after taking on his new post and more significant. analyzing Esko’s North American presence, “We are the leader in software for the concluded he would need 150 salespeople to packaging market by a long shot,” says fully service the United States market, based Quinlan, which makes the company rele- on existing and potential new customers. At vant to all packaging companies, as well as the time, Esko had just 19 salespeople in the a natural starting point for commercial country, who were making only eight perprinters looking to expand into this sector. cent of their sales calls with new customers.

Even within its existing base of packaging Today, Esko has over 30 U.S.-based salespeoand converting clients, EskoWorld indi- ple and new-customer calls now measure cated how much progress the company has between 30 and 35 percent. made with developments like WebCenter Esko’s efforts to reach new customers in management software. the Americas includes a renewed concen“So many customers are interested in tration on the commercial printing space.

[WebCenter] because it automates a huge In Canada, this includes the hiring of inpiece of their business. It is like going from dustry veterans Marc Raad and Jean-Frandirt roads to paved roads in terms of the cois Lacombe. While Esko enjoys a strong movement of information,” says Quinlan, install base with large Canadian packaging when asked what technology at EskoWorld companies, Raad says he sees more comexcites him most. “There is also a huge need mercial printers in the country being introfor brand owners to use it, in terms of col- duced to Esko through the company’s laboration and getting approvals. It depends Kongsberg cutting-table line.

“It is a solid product with a great repuon which brand owner you talk to, but WebCenter can take a couple of weeks out tation,” says Raad. “We have done very well of the development process, which is huge.” with that product line as you see more Esko’s increasing attention of linking places with digital output out there.” Simibrand owners with print providers will lar to the toner-press explosion over the continue to flourish in the packaging past decade, commercial printers are now world, where high-level prepress skills are finding an enormous need to back up their still in great demand. This strategy received wide-format inkjet purchases with produc-

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The CDI Spark 4835 Auto, with new Inline UV2 technology, integrates what the company refers to as digital back exposure, automated loading, imaging, digital main exposure and off-loading to the processing unit.

Dozens of Esko users parade toward Bourbon St. for a night of karaoke at the House of Blues.

Emphasizing new 3D visualization tools, Esko Suite 12 launched at drupa with enhancements to WebCenter, Automation Engine, Color Engine, Studio and its flagship editors ArtiosCAD, PackEdge, ArtPro and DeskPack.

Launched at drupa, the format-flexible Kongsberg XN table can be equipped with a more powerful (3 kW) milling spindle, called MultiCUT HP (high power).

At drupa, Esko provided a technology preview of HD Flexo Pixel+ designed to produce both flat-top and round-top dots, which, according to the company, creates an ultimate combination of smooth highlights and gravure-like solid ink densities.

tion-strength finishing. “Coupled with Kongsberg, it really makes a perfect handshake,” adds Raad.

Quinlan continues to explain that Esko’s Kongsberg sales in North America have grown by around 40 percent over the last two years, as companies search out new revenue streams. “A lot of commercial printers have had some tough years because their markets have declined and they don’t have tons of cash to outlay,” says Quinlan. “We have all kinds of finance programs, even zero percent financing, to help them make that transition. If somebody wants to buy our products and they are credit worthy, we will find a way to make it work.”

While acknowledging Esko’s large, historical presence in the European market, Quinlan points out that the company now sells more products into the United States than any other country. He also describes a “pent-up” demand in Canada, following an October 2011 roadshow in Toronto that drew over 100 printing professionals. Similar roadshows in major U.S. cities typically draw anywhere from 30 to 50 people. “A few years ago we served Canada from the U.S., but my opinion is that you need feet on the street in the country,” says Quinlan.

“Canada is very important to us. We really need to keep adding more resources there and we will.”

– Jon Robinson JUNE 2012 • PRINTACTION • 11

TRISH WITKOWSKI

Who’s Afraid of Patented Print Solutions? e’ve all seen something great now and again – maybe it’s a really cool direct-mail piece that springs into a 3D cube format when you open it, or it’s something that flips or slides or moves or swings. You study it like a hawk, trying to figure out just how it was made. Then, your mind inevitably goes to that place, and asks that question: “Can I make one of these?”

The next obvious question is: “Will I get sued if I knock this off?” The answer is: “maybe.” It all depends upon whether the solution you are looking at is patented or not – but don’t let the big, bad “P-word” scare you away from what could be a great marketing tool for your business. You just need to know what is out there and how to work with, not against, the patent holder.

W

Proprietary and branded solutions

In the market, there are companies that have developed unique folded solutions and patented or named them.

The patented solutions are called “proprietary solutions” and the named solutions are considered “branded solutions.” If the solution is patented, in most cases, you must work with the patent holder to be able to use that fold for your project. To determine if the folding style you are considering is patented, simply look for a patent number on the folded piece to be sure.

Branded solutions are innovative, marketed solutions and, if they’re not patented, they’re in the public domain and you can try to reverse engineer the solution. But you cannot adopt the brand name. There are, however, many benefits to working through a patent holder or marketer of a branded solution. Often they have refined the efficiencies of producing the products and can be very competitive from a production and pricing standpoint. Many also offer templates and design services, a skilled team of marketing consultants, and sophisticated technologies to further enhance the product and ROI. A bit about patents

It is important to note that not all patents are the same.

There are utility patents that protect the process of creating the piece and design patents that protect the actual design and construction of the piece. Utility patents are very expensive to obtain, but they are tightly

The Book-Cube

defined, which makes them easier to defend in a courtroom setting. Design patents are cheaper to obtain, but also much easier for people to work around, so they are harder to defend.

Patents can also extend to the retail space. For example, many are familiar with the PopOut Map product, which is a well-known Turkish map-style format used to present compact maps of major cities. Their format is patented for retail.

The patent number on a printed piece will not identify whether that patent is for the design or the process, so you have to look it up. Patents also expire after a certain point: Design patents expire after 14 years and utility patents after 20 years, while patents issued before 1995 can have

different terms. No smart marketer will send out a press release announcing their patent has expired, so if you really want to know if a patent is still active, a little research is required. There are a few common places to search, including: uspto.gov, google.com/patents, freshpatents.com, and freepatentsonline.com [Canadian patents can be searched at patents.ic.gc.ca].

Most exotic – specialty – folds are not patented, and there is a reason for this. I get lots of emails from people telling me they have a great folded solution they want to protect, and I always tell them to think twice before opening their wallet. If you have something really unique and special and marketable, plus the funds to patent and promote your product, and (perhaps most importantly) you see a strong market opportunity, only then may it be worth patenting.

To protect your investment, however, you must be constantly on the offensive, and it is very hard to control and watchdog what is being done around the world. You need people to search for violations of your patent, and you have to be willing to spend the money to go after parties who violate it, and that can get costly.

If you’re not willing to go to that extent for your patented solution, then why patent it?

Where can I find patented and branded solutions?

There are lots of exciting proprietary and branded solutions on the market today, but you may not find them if you don’t know where to look. Here is just a sampling of some of the patented/branded solutions that are currently on the market:

The PopOut

12 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2012

THE BOOK-CUBE Status: Exclusive (patented) branded solution structuralgraphics.com The Book-Cube ships flat as a direct-mail piece and, when the envelope is opened, it immediately pops into a 3D cube shape! The Book-Cube is part of the Structural Graphics RocketShip line of products and is available in quick turnaround timeframes.

Continued on page 28

ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO BE PART OF A GANG?

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NICK HOWARD

The Stuffed Monkey he music man was back in the Altstadt (old town) of Düsseldorf. As I walked with my family down a busy backstreet, my memory picked up on his faint, distinct sounds. “Hear that?” I asked my daughter.

“Wait till he comes close. It’s a man with a music box and he’s got a real live monkey with him.” Closer and louder – the sound increased until we finally caught site of the old man pushing his music box along.

Where’s the monkey? – We all wondered.

There it is! To our surprise and disappointment it turned out to be a stuffed monkey.

The first sounds of drupa, as you approach the massive fairgrounds, are also always very exciting to hear – a signal of hope for new technologies. This year’s version of the world’s largest printing tradeshow was indeed smaller relative to past shows I remember. I still feel drupa 2012 delivered, but, given all of the hype and sizzle of digital transformation, I was expecting to see lots of working technology to move digital printing from short-run productivity to mid-range productivity – I didn’t.

My first purposeful stop – like most everyone – was to Landa Corporation’s Hall 9 booth to take in CEO Benny Landa’s vision of inkjet Nanography. We quickly discovered that you needed to register for Benny Landa’s theatre demonstration and, with the next presentation already full, we missed it. From what others told me, the Benny Landa show was a truly exciting affair with dancing girls and all the glitz of Vegas.

Now I’ve never directly spoken Benny Landa, but he is obviously a very smart guy.

Leading up to drupa, Landa inked development agreements with Heidelberg, Komori and manroland, which certainly gave his technology some timely drupa street cred.

Clearly, all three of these offset-press manufacturers must have been impressed when they had a close look at what Landa was

T

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doing. He is indeed making very compelling strategic and technological arguments about the potential of Nanography.

While I did not attend the presentation, there were more than enough materials and conversations around the company’s jammed booth to understand how confident Landa is in stating his technology – jetting nano particles to a heated belt, before transferring complete image to substrate – will become a benchmark of modern commercial printers. To this end, Landa breaks down the current problems with litho and why his nano ink is the solution of all solutions – and an environmentally friendly solution, at that.

There were plenty of Landa machines to look at on the booth, but none were actually printing anything. This was a huge disappointment. Even Benny Landa himself admitted there was still much work to be done and the machines were not ready for primetime. I looked as closely as possible and could see most of the working bits – the paper transport system – were Komori made. Is the monkey real or is it stuffed?

How long will it take for commercial realization and in what final configuration will this machinery be offered? While some printers were already signing contracts in a panic to be first, Landa left me confused as to which is more important for the company: Nano-ink sales or machine development?

Either way, I would certainly choose to wait before making a mad rush to plop down a deposit before all of the bugs are worked out. It has taken Fujifilm, an enormous technology company with access to untold resources, at least four years to commercially launch its innovative JetPress 720 – and Fujifilm owns its own ink, print head and substrate development. However, I would never count out Landa, who, based on his historic development of Indigo, presumably has access to enough resources to make Nanography work. By his own admission, the early years of Indigo taught Landa huge lessons about the commercialization of disruptive printing technology.

Hewlett Packard, of course, must be afforded a great deal of credit for propelling Landa’s Indigo invention to such great heights in the marketplace. Just as clearly, as witnessed by its drupa booth stuffed with Indigos and all sorts of inkjet machines, HP is now enjoying its decade-long march into such a preeminent position in commercial printing. The company did a great job in showcasing new larger-sized Indigos, including the 10000 model with its unique 29-inch format feed – not a landscape substitute. We found the Indigo demonstrations well thought out, rightly trumpeting that this new Indigo platform will soon be ready for market.

Many printers in Canada already have the smaller-format HP Indigos in their stable, which in essence is one of the reasons why the 14 x 20-inch litho format has been decimated. However, even with their larger 29-inch format, the new Indigos will face some challenges of eating into the 29-inch

commercial printing market, because of speed issues. The truly interesting potential for the Indigo 10000 line will be their future release into the litho-controlled world of folding carton and flexography.

Companies like Xeikon, Screen, Océ, Xerox, Kodak, Canon, as well as a few lesser-known press makers to North America, brought out faster or enhanced versions of their existing digital press lines. At this point in digital press evolution, however, these types of developments are actually akin to what is happening in the offset world: Still very important to make minor improvements in productivity, but let’s not pretend they are bridges for that 10,000- to 50,000-run gap between toner and litho.

Several digital press makers indeed showed their plans for building such bridges, but it is important to remember most were conceptual machines – outside of Fujifilm’s JetPress development. Komori made its prototype status very clear with the Impremia IS29 (20 x 29 inch format).

Konica Minolta showcased the same Komori press on its stand, but with more lively colours and branding. Of all the conceptual digital equipment at drupa, Miyakoshi, in my opinion, displayed the most litho-like press with its liquid-tonerbased 30 NX-8000. Miyakoshi uses bits off Ryobi’s sheetfed presses.

While machines like Miyakoshi’s 30 NX8000, Komori’s Impremia IS29 and Landa’s Nanographic presses are prototypes, they do present the most potential to fill the 10,000 to 50,000 run range. However, most of the company’s showing prototypes in this space were intent on keeping machine and operational costs under wrap. I heard all sorts of speculative prices and most were in excess of $1.4 million.

For that kind of money, however, if you had any doubts before drupa about nearterm capital investments, it’s obvious to me why litho machinery remains a much better choice today. Certainly, some of these prototypes will eventually make it to market, but even then it will be many months before they are seen as proven technologies for general commercial printing. This is why I was somewhat disappointed: the new technology to bridge the toner-inkjet-litho gap is very compelling, but still too far from commercialization to truly judge how it might impact the market.

Soldiering on litho

So, after not being blown away with drupa’s digital presentations, we soldiered on with a mindset to see as many exhibits as possible in a 2-day window. I naturally steered toward litho booths and I would argue that new technologies shown at drupa 2012 provided much more business rationale for replacing older equipment than was the case at drupa 2008. Visiting the big-five litho press booths, Goss, Heidelberg, Komori and KBA drew sizable crowds looking for variants of new machinery, while manroland focused on its new ownership structure and stability.

Continued on page 30

VICTORIA GAITSKELL

Running a Healthy In-plant ealth is one of three major factors that ranked Canada sixth of 187 countries on the November 2011 United Nations Human Development Index. And although our country’s publicly funded health-care system leaves room for improvement compared to the systems of other wealthy nations, 69 percent of Canadians still told a 2010 Angus Reid poll they were prouder of it than the state of our democracy. A January 2010 report by Statistics Canada shows nearly 2-million people are employed by the country’s health-care and social-assistance systems, accounting for around 10 percent of national employment.

Often forgotten behind the scenes are crucial in-plant printing operations which produce and secure critical documents.

In late May, I visited the in-plant operation at University Health Network (UHN) in downtown Toronto to gain a better understanding of this unique printing environment. UHN is one of our country’s largest treating, research and teaching hospitals, affiliated with the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. It resulted from a cost-saving restructuring of hospitals and other provincial health services, legislated by the former Progressive Conservative government of Premier Mike Harris and carried out from 1996 to 2000 by an unelected Health Services Restructuring Commission. Joe Carrelas, UHN’s Print Shop Manager, who has worked for 23 years in the same in-plant, located inside Toronto General Hospital (TGH) at 200 Elizabeth Street, saw the whole process take shape from the inside.

H

Inside the University Health Network’s printing operation.

hospitals took on the new name The Toronto Hospital.

Next, in 1998, when Princess Margaret Hospital, a 130-bed, internationally recognized cancer treatment facility, joined the amalgamation, the hospital’s printing operations were consolidated in similar stages. In 1999, the new corporate entity comprised of all three hospitals was renamed University Health Network, which in 2011 came to include the Toronto Rehabilition Institute. Many of the practical logistics of this most recent merger are still being worked out.

systems to preflight, distribute, and track work among the toner presses. For deliveries, the print shop has its own hospital truck that travels between sites twice a day.

The single item they print in largest quantities is a two-sided, lined, barcoded form, designed for medical staff to record clinical notes whenever they see a patient, typically run in batches of 800,000. But Carrelas says in general his customers are tending toward smaller print quantities and, therefore, have an increasing requirement for toner-based printing. Variable

data printing is also in demand, especially for personalized fundraising mail for UHN’s four foundations, and the Human Resources Department when it issues annual benefit statements to more than 10,000 employees.

He says their biggest rush job consists of packages of critical information for the voluntary board of 21 elected members who govern UHN. The information they require often arrives at the last minute and must be printed the same day and couriered to board members before their next meeting. “The packages aren’t easy, because they involve things like covers, tabs, inserts, and a mixture of colour and black and white, but they’re what the board needs to make crucial decisions about the finances and running of the hospitals,” says Carrelas.

Another challenge Carrelas faces is operating in a limited physical space: “Space is a big issue for hospitals right now and it creates a problem for us. For example, I would love to get large-format equipment to print our own posters, but we don’t have the space. We also have to receive our paper in partial shipments, because we don’t have a large amount of storage.”

He says in the last 10 years UHN’s administration has supported supplementing their analogue system with toner-based Continued on page 32

Organizing the network

Based on his past experiences, Carrelas says it can take several years for staff to adjust to working together as a network rather than as separate hospitals. For him personally, some of the biggest challenges arose during the amalgamation’s two episodes of renaming and rebranding, each of which required significant revisions of things like name and logo to vast amounts of printing.

Perhaps Carrelas’s greatest challenge during and after amalgamation, however, was consolidating management of some 2,000 forms that are essential to a large hospital’s operation. His seven staff include one dedicated Forms Manager whose job is to provide centralized control, coordinaJoe Carrelas, Print Shop Manager at the tion, barcoding, and improved efficiency University Health Network. for all of UHN’s 2,000 separate forms. “BeAfter studying offset printing at George sides hospitals and other health-care instiBrown College, Carrelas began his career at tutions, forms management is also critical TGH as a press operator, then applied for a for the insurance companies and banks,” promotion when a supervisor’s job became explains Carrelas. “But it’s especially imvacant. Eventually he was promoted to portant for UHN, an organization of manager. As it turned out, TGH was one of 14,000 people, to reduce duplication and the first two hospitals and the largest to be the amount of forms and paper flow.”

Besides forms, other typical printing amalgamated into what eventually became UHN. In 1986, TGH, a 400-bed facility that jobs for UHN include brochures, flyers, began as a military hospital in a small shed training materials, and posters. Additionduring the War of 1812, merged with ally, for the last 17 years, the print shop has Toronto Western Hospital, a 236-bed com- done directional sign engraving, a task formunity hospital that began in a pair of merly assigned to the hospital’s Facilities Management Department. rented semi-detached houses.

The print shop runs a hybrid system “At first, when TGH merged with Toronto Western, I took over running the using Konica Minolta toner devices plus other hospital’s print shop along with two offset presses, an AB Dick 385 and a TGH’s, but eventually it was closed down Multilith 1250 for quantities of 20,000 and and all printing was moved to TGH,” re- up, as well as a full bindery. They run EFI’s calls Carrelas. Together the two merged MicroPress and Digital StoreFront software JUNE 2012 • PRINTACTION • 15

left Toronto in early May for my second drupa and this trip would prove to be even more rewarding, because I would share the drupa experience – the most amazing show for our industry – with a large group from Ryerson University’s Graphic Communications Management program, including five other faculty members and 12 lucky students. And we put our students (ranging from first year to third year) to task by asking them to describe what technology, service or innovation they found most interesting while in Düsseldorf.

I

Held every four years, drupa remains the printing industry’s primary technology showcase for market-ready products, soon-to-be-released innovations, and prototypes that may eventually transform the market. With so much new technology on display, from 1,850 exhibitors, that common question of all tradeshows, “What is the big thing or showstopper at the show,” takes on more significance during drupa.

When the showstopper question came up, most people I spoke with on the Messe fairgrounds immediately pointed to Landa Corporation and its new Nanographic Printing Press technology. There is little doubt that the return of Benny Landa, founder of Indigo, was the highlight of this two-week tradeshow. By my fourth day at drupa, however, the impressive Landa protyotypes began to give way to dozens of innovative pieces of hardware and software from around the world. drupa 2012 also illustrated why today’s printing company needs product and process diversity.

The crucial integration of digital and traditional offset production is now possible through noticeable advances in JDF-compliant hardware and software, Web-to-print tools and cloudbased computing architectures. Several vendors at drupa displayed fully automated, working integrations along the complete prepress to post-press production workflow, while others showed specific touch points of automation. Focusing on these modern-day printing needs, while naturally biased by my own penchant for colour control and printing innovation, the following companies caught my eye over four intense days at drupa.

Continued on page 17

2012 MARKED THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY that Ryerson University sent students to drupa. Following a merit-based selection process earlier in the year, 12 fortunate Graphic Communications Management (GCM) students – along with six Ryerson professors – spent several days in May at drupa. This outstanding experience coordinated by Professor Martin Habekost helped Canadian students better appreciate the immense size, scope and enthusiasm of the international printing community gathered in Düsseldorf.

While at drupa, students were treated to a range of outstanding tours, presentations and demonstrations from major vendors, including Heidelberg, Esko, Müller Martini, Kodak, Fujifilm, HP and Mohawk Paper. Vendors were universal in their optimism for the future of the printing industry, and students had the opportunity to learn about emerging areas of importance for our industry. Several students commented on how astounded they were by the size of the show, the number of attendees and exhibitors, and the level

16 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2012

of innovation and enthusiasm within the printing industry.

Ryerson students participated in this visit together with post-secondary students from other international institutions with graphic arts programs, notably the Stuttgart Media University in Germany with which Ryerson has an active student exchange program.

Ryerson’s goal in organizing this special drupa trip was for the attending students to share their experiences with current and future Ryerson students, and to become fully engaged in the future of our increasingly global industry. For Ryerson, engagement between students and industry is a priority. Ryerson attendees have already shared their experiences through blogs and articles, and will be passing on their enthusiasm and newfound knowledge to other GCM students when classes resume in the fall.

Ian Baitz, Chair, School of GCM, Ryerson University

Heidelberg

Sandra Gluszak

Heidelberg has developed Prinect Inspection Control for its new Speedmaster XL 106 press to diagnose every sheet of a folding-carton job, as it is printed. The inspection system is based on two cameras located in a coating unit, inspecting the sheet as it is coated. The cameras check the printed sheet against a PDF reference file of the job. If the camera-based system finds a defect on the printed sheet, it – using inkjet technology – marks the faulty box, which results in rejection before going into, for example, a folder-gluer.

Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106

A significant advantage of Heidelberg’s new inspection system is that only the faulty box located on the sheet will be thrown out – not the entire sheet itself. This, of course, aids in the printer’s potential profitability by reducing start-up costs (waste) for each run, particularly when amortized over a full year of production. Along the same vein of reducing make-ready costs, Heidelberg also moved its Anicolor technology, which creates an ink-zone-free press, onto the larger Speedmaster XL 75 format machine. Heidelberg explained how an Anicolor-equipped press can produce sellable print after just the twelfth start-up sheet.

On the digital press side, based in part on its partnership with Ricoh, Heidelberg introduced two new Linoprint machines using two different printing processes, including: The toner-based Linoprint C, aimed at short-run commercial work, and the inkjet-based Linoprint L, aimed at packaging work. During drupa, Heidelberg also introduced improvements to its Stahlfolder line, which now features a press-like feeder described by the company as increasing finishing productivity by 40 percent, when compared to a similar model without the new feeder. Heidelberg also unveiled version 2.0 of its Prinect workflow suite, labeling it as a print-shop operating system.

Fourth-year student drupa technology or trend The most interesting technology I found at drupa was within colour management and communication: PantoneLIVE and Color Engine 12 by Esko. Along with some of my fellow students, I had the opportunity to sit down with one of Esko’s sales representatives for a live demo of the software. PantoneLIVE was created to solve colour inconsistency, to allow for more colour-accurate results and to create better customer satisfaction.

This trend was shown to us, as applied to the packaging sector, through a technology combination of X-Rite, PantoneLIVE and EskoArtwork, who have developed a dynamic quality-control process. Since the PantoneLIVE colour library is located on the Internet, it ensures colour consistency from the design stage right up to the printing stage.

Colour accuracy continues to be a

huge challenge in today’s printing industry. If a colour cannot be achieved, PantoneLIVE allows for a variation of nine inks, which are displayed in a window for the user to find the best possible match. You would then save these values, which become available for designers, prepress operators and press operators to view, and therefore limiting the risk of colour inaccuracy within a project.

Most memorable part of trip The most-memorable part would have to be our time at Hochschule der Medien (HdM) University in Stuttgart.

This was the first stop of our trip. Over the past few years, Ryerson and HdM students have been participating in an exchange program to expand student knowledge and to build new connections. I really enjoyed the guided tour by the professors and the time we spent with HdM students, listening to their thoughts about new trends and technologies and the industry overall.

Mark Corrigan Third-year student

KBA KBA now holds the speed record for sheetfed offset presses with its Rapida 106 topping out at 20,000 impressions per hour. Interestingly, the Rapida 106 and 105 presses can now be equipped with inkjet heads for the inline marking of sheets, based on a new vacuum cylinder (AirTronic Drum) used to fix the sheets under the system. Up to eight inkjet print heads from Atlantic Zeiser can be accommodated, with each head covering a maximum width of 105 mm (4.1 inches).

Integrating inkjet with offset alters press speeds, of course, depending largely on the selected resolution. At 600 dpi, the press hits a maximum of 7,000 impressions per hour, which can be increased up to 14,000 if running with a 300-dpi inkjet resolution.

Beyond its traditional offset routes, KBA also used the drupa stage to showcase its new inkjet-based, web-fed RotaJET 76 press, which has been developed in conjunction with R.R. Donnelley over the past 14 months. With a maximum web with of 30.5 inches and a top speed of almost 500 feet per minute, this press holds enormous potential to disrupt the traditional web-offset production space – much in the way we have seen HP’s Inkjet Web Press seriously impact the publishing market. KBA was showing off some impressive cookbook and newspaper samples produced on the RotaJET, but, of course, tradeshow print samples can never be interpreted as real-world print KBA RotaJET 76 work.

drupa technology or trend The shift towards personalized cross-media marketing was evident at drupa 2012. I had the chance to learn about a variety of sophisticated technologies encompassing personalized content for print, email, desktop and mobile Websites, social media, and mobile messaging. One company that stood out from this technology sector was DirectSmile, whose booth in the drupa Innovation Park showcased the most-recent version of its campaign management software.

After a 15-minute tutorial of DirectSmile’s suite, it seemed to be a very intuitive system.

It has drag-anddrop functionality, numerous predefined templates to choose from, and it is almost completely Webbased. It also provides a high level of customization. A developer can save time by picking base templates and doing only the necessary refining using HTML, jQuery, and/or CSS. And, for those even more advanced, I learned how the new PDF/VT

standard for VDP can be integrated into DirectSmile campaigns.

The trend of integrating variable content with cross-media campaigns is further bridging the gap between traditional print marketing and new media. New technology is helping companies connect with customers at new levels, and at faster speeds.

Most memorable part of trip Aside from exploring drupa, the most memorable part the trip was a visit to Köln’s Altstadt, where I enjoyed some local brew at Papa Joe’s Jazzlokal.

There was a live jazz band for entertainment and I had the chance to meet a fellow trumpet player, who also happened to be a drupa exhibitor from Switzerland! I’ve made plans to jam with him in 2016.

JUNE 2012 • PRINTACTION • 17

Nikita Kuzmin Second-year student drupa technology or trend Benny Landa is changing the print industry once again. The founder of Indigo, who pushed digital printing into mainstream commercial printing, Landa presented a new printing process, called Nanography, at drupa 2012. Interestingly, the particle size of his ink is approximately 50 to 70 nanometers, whereas the average offset-ink particle measures around 500 nanometers. According to Benny Landa, this process provides a much thinner ink film, scratch resistance, expended gamut and amazing gloss.

Unlike other printing methods, Landa’s ink is dried prior to contacting the paper and is then

fused onto the top layer, which is said to reduce absorption while creating sharp edges. The inks come in concentrate form and are diluted to necessary concentration at the facility. The Landa Nanography press line is capable of perfecting and printing up to eight colours, including PMS and hexadecimal inks. The print-sample quality was not too impressive, but the technology is still under testing. The anticipated release date is at the end of 2013.

Most memorable part of trip Traveling around Germany for 18 days gave me many great memories, including visits to the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwanstein castles located in a region of Bavaria. Both castles are situated between the two small German towns of Füssen and Schwangau. After walking six kilometres from Füssen, I still had to walk up the mountain to reach them. I took this photograph of the Neuschwanstein Castle from a bridge that spans a waterfall, where the original owner would come to sit during the evening and watch as his servants lit up candles one room at a time.

Komori Komori showed two prototype presses based on inkjet technology.

The Impremia IW20 is designed for up to 20-inch web printing, while the company’s Impremia IS29 prototype is designed for sheetfed printing within the ever-important 29-inch format size.

Both machines currently offer a resolution of up to 1,200 dpi.

The IS29 machine uses Komori's recently introduced HUV curing technology – already applied on newer offset presses manufactured by the company.

This machine prints at a maximum speed of 3,380 impressions per hour, which reduces to Komori Impremia IS29 1,650 impressions per hour in duplex mode. Importantly, Komori states the IS29 will be able to work with regular coated and uncoated papers.

The IW20 web inkjet press runs at speeds of up to 150 metres per minute, at 600-dpi resolution. It will be available in various configurations, able to handle roll-to-roll, roll-to-sheet, and roll-to-saddle-stitch production. Unlike its IS29 counterpart, the IW20 is currently only able to print on one side, but Komori is promising to develop a duplex mode for it. Komori hopes to launch both the Impremia IW20 and IS29 into the market sometime next year.

HP

Faris Abu-Kwiek Second-year student drupa technology or trend Many new technologies were unveiled at drupa 2012, most prominantly in digital printing. HP demonstrated its leading position in digital printing, particularly with its new Indigo 7600 and Indigo 10000 presses.

While digital printing is becoming more common in commercial printing due to the range of capabilities and features it can offer a print consumer, we were also able to see how digital can be combined with offset printing and various finishing techniques to create one-of-a-kind printed products.

Personalizing the printed product is one of the key features that makes digital printing appealing and this was touched on in many presentations at drupa 2012. Most of the presentations focused on how digital printing can reduce make-ready times, which cuts down the total cost of the final printed job – helping companies in these tough economic times. Printing smaller quantities also makes digital printing much more appealing to both printing companies and their clients.

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Most memorable part of trip The most-memorable part of the trip was the magnificent architecture that Germany and many other European countries are known for. Germany has a rich and diverse history and this was evident with the beautiful buildings the country offers. We had the chance on one of our days off from the tradeshow to tour Köln, Germany, where we visited the iconic Cologne Cathedral and many other historical sites. We concluded this amazing trip in Düsseldorf Drupa City, where we enjoyed great German food and more of the great architecture the country is known for.

HP had a massive presence in drupa Hall 5.

While it had the HP Indigo 10000 second-largest drupa booth, after Heidelberg’s own Hall, HP seemed to dwarf the competition because its booth was absolutely stuffed with technology (and people), including the new Indigo 10000 platform – shown in a 7-colour configuration. This 29-inch sheetfed press, using liquid toner, has a maximum press speed of 3,450 sheets per hour, while handling substrate weights from 45-lb text to 150-lb cover. The printed samples I saw at the booth were more than capable of reaching the quality mark set by offset printing.

The Indigo 20000, the second of three machines introduced as part of HP’s fourth-generation Indigo line (all available with up to seven ink stations), is a 30-inch web press designed for flexible packaging applications. It has a maximum image repeat length of 44 inches, making it quite attractive in my opinion. The HP 30000 Indigo, meanwhile, is a 29-inch sheetfed press designed for folding-carton work. This machine can print on virtually any substrate up to 24 points, including all kinds of offthe-shelf stocks like metallized boards and plastics. I am only mentioning these three Indigos, because I found them quite impressive, but HP had numerous Indigo models at drupa, displaying them with all kinds of unique printed products using a store-shelf concept.

Somehow within its crammed booth, HP also exhibited its recently released T410 Inkjet Web Press. HP has rather quickly released a range of T Series models since the platform was first introduced at drupa 2008. The T410 press becomes the largest model, handling webs up to 42-inches wide, which can include 16-page letter signatures for book publishing. Working with substrate weights from 27-lb text up to 130-lb cover, it prints at up to 600 feet per minute in full colour and at up to 800 feet per minute in single-colour mode.

Fujifilm

Xerox Xerox had an impressive booth with daily performances by members from Cirque du Soleil – a definite crowd magnet. Xerox showcased its new iGen 150 press, which, as its name suggests, boosts iGen speed by around 25 percent to 150 pages per minute (3,000 sheets an hour). The iGen 150 also features a new imaging system with a

Xerox CiPress 325

2,400 x 2,400-dpi resolution, described by Xerox as the iGen family’s most-precise resolution to date. It also prints on stocks up to 130-lb cover, while offering a landscape sheet feed of up to 26 inches.

Sharing the vision of most printing-press manufacturers, Xerox, in September 2011, unveiled an inkjet press with the CiPress 500, based on the company’s industry-unique application of waterless inkjet ink. It reaches a top speed of 500 feet per minute, as paper feeds into the system via a roll. Xerox has enhanced its CiPress 500 with an ink optimization mode, allowing users to reduce the amount of ink coverage on pages with more text and fewer graphics, such as with transactional pieces. At drupa, Xerox introduced a second machine into the line with the CiPress 325, running at 325 feet per minute. Printers can upgrade their 325 into a CiPress 500, while the machine is out in the field.

Fujifilm also had a large drupa booth to showcase several pieces of technology, including the recently released Inca Onset S40i and Acuity LED 1600, as well as its Jet Press 720, which is a commercially viable B2 cutsheet inkjet press – amid many B2-size prototypes shown at drupa.

The company’s first Jet Press 720 model for commercial printing applications currently prints at 2,700 sheets per hour. Interestingly, as dozens of companies at drupa showed off their prototype visions, Fujifilm is expanding its Jet Press line with plans to launch a webfed version that enables duplex printing within a single tower design.

The company explains this design results in an extremely compact footprint, while retaining a maximum printing speed of 127 metres per minute. Fujifilm is also developing a UV print head version of the Jet Press for producting small-volume packaging products within the folding-carton space.

Also within the UV inkjet space, the new Inca Onset S40i is a highvolume flatbed system printing 94 full beds per hour using inks from Sericol. Shown for the first time at drupa 2012, the Onset S40i flatbed, developed by Inca and distributed exclusively by Fujifilm, uses 168 new-generation, user-replaceable print heads (28 per colour) on a full-width print array. In the display graphics space, Fujifilm’s Acuity LED 1600, as its names suggests, uses LED lights for curing the UV ink, while printing on a range of materials like PET, acrylic, and polycarbonate substrates. As Tony Karg from Fujifilm Canada stressed, the majority of equipment shown by Fujifilm at drupa is in production and can be purchased.

While Fujifilm has the advantage of owning Sericol and Dimatix, which manufacture ink and print heads for inkjet systems, the company a couple of years ago also began to redevelop its own workflow suite, called XMF. This software, designed for hybrid printing environments of both digital and offset production, was highlighted at drupa with several working applications.

Fujifilm Acuity LED 1600

SHOTS Around the World In the fall of 2011, Sinapseprint, the manufacturer of press simulators for sheetfed, heatset, newspaper, flexo and gravure presses, sent out the call for clients to enter a team into its second worldwide contest on the Sheetfed Offset Training Simulator (SHOTS). Everyone was allowed to have more than one team, but only their best team could advance to the quarterfinals. Eleven schools – seven from China – entered this year’s Sinapseprint competition, including: • University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (China), • Shanghai Publishing and Printing College (China), • Hangzhou Dianzi University (China), • Hunan University of Technology (China), • Zhejiang Industry and Trade Vocational College (China), • Qufu Normal University (China), • Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication (China), • School of Graphic Communications Management, Ryerson University (Canada), • Pukyong National University (Korea), • Colegio Salesianos Atocha (Spain), and • Lycee Paul CYFFLE (France).

The team from Ryerson University consisted of Mark Brejnik, Nikita Kuzmin, Ashley Lombardo, Faris Abu-Kwiek and Niki Fereidooni.

These students were in their second year of studies when they entered the competition. Each team needed a trainer/advisor. For Ryerson University this was Martin Habekost. The big draw for the students to enter the competition was the prospect of competing in the finals, being held in Germany at drupa – where finalists would travel at Sinapses’ expense.

For each round, Sinapseprint sent out exercises with increasing difficulty. Eight schools made it to the quarter-finals. Each team member had to logon to Sinapses’ server in France, so the results could be directly recorded. After the quarterfinals, each team had to select one person to advance to the semi-finals.

The Ryerson team selected Nikita Kuzmin, who was also part of the 12-person group from the university’s Graphic Communications Management program, based in Toronto, attending drupa.

Two months before drupa, Kuzmin had qualified for the finals and his opponent was Wei Ruo Chen from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology.

The finals were held on May 7, 2012, at Sinpase's booth in Hall 6. During the finals, both Kuzmin and Chen had to solve three exercises they had never seen before.

Wei Ruo Chen managed to solve all three exercises in a faster and more efficient way than Kuzmin. It was nail-biting to see who could solve the problem in a better way. While spectators were not allowed to shout out hints to the finalists, Kuzmin was supported

by Ryerson students and faculty, as well as his peers from Stuttgart Media University (HdM).

Ryerson’s Nikita Kuzmin (left to right), Peter Herman of Synapse, and Shanghai University’s Wei Ruo Chen.

JUNE 2012 • PRINTACTION • 19

Tak Po Chu

Xeikon

First-year student drupa technology or trend drupa is one of the most-inspiring and eye-opening experiences that the print industry has to offer. One of the trends I found to be very interesting was the capabilities of spot coating and varnishing technologies, which were integrated into several presses. At drupa, many companies were offering print samples featuring unique coating or varnishing applications. The sophistication of the technology makes me feel this will be a growing trend for printed products in the future.

Although coating applications have been used in printing for decades, it is interesting to see what can be done with today’s improved technologies.

Heidelberg, for example, showed how it is possible to create a print with reflective properties. When viewed at different angles, this Heidelberg coating application created a metallic reflection in the image of the car on a samplebrochure. I found another wonderful use of spot coating at the Fujifilm and Scodix display. The print samples they demonstrated showed how today’s spot-coating technology can apply leveled gloss – creating

depth on the printed piece. This makes it possible, for example, to create packaging products with more customer interaction.

Xeikon Trillium

Most memorable part of trip One of the most memorable parts of going to Germany was the environment. Since I have never traveled to any part of Europe before, I had the assumption that many areas would be urbanized, covered by vast buildings, and that empty spaces would be populated by enormous trees. During the train rides in Germany, I realized how different the region was from what I had imagined. There were not as many buildings as expected, but rather lots of areas not yet encroached by commercialization. The scenery is absolutely extraordinary and why I found Europe to be a unique place to visit.

Melissa Yung Second-year student drupa technology or trend Vision technology is one of the most-intriguing innovations that I discovered at drupa 2012. Cameras are being incorporated into many areas of the production line. In the case of Landa’s Nanographic printing presses, cameras are placed inside of the press to enable a live view of its inner working parts. Cameras are also being used in cooperation with QR codes, tying print to social-media and Web-based applications. A variety of standardized codes in the printing industry also now rely on cameras to read and manage information passing through the production line.

Bell Howell’s JETVision system, for example, takes this technology and uses it for identifying, verifying, personalizing and generating applications.

This technology will help the industry’s profits by allowing printers to reduce the time and cost needed in identifying and solving production problems, as well as managing jobs. Cameras provide insight into places that the naked eye cannot access (inside of the press), as well as with printing errors

20 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2012

the eye cannot pick up. The JETVision system takes a snapshot of each passing print piece and reads several statements (text and a variety of codes) in order to, amongst other things, verify the print’s accuracy or to assign specific processing instructions.

Most memorable part of trip Outside of drupa, my favourite part of the trip to Germany was our visit to the Köln Dom Cathedral. I was truly amazed by the extensive architectural design both in its detail and vertical dimension. Some of us attended a German mass, as well as climbed over 500 steps to reach the top of the cathedral, where amazing panoramic views of Köln surrounded us. It was incredible to visit such a historical and grand structure that represents hundreds of years of German religious, architectural and cultural history.

Xeikon showcased its new, 5-colour 8800 press for document printing and commercial print applications. The 20-inch machine prints up to 260 letter-size sheets per minute, which equates to 15,600 sheets per hour. This new press platform offers increased speeds relative to previous Xeikon models, as well as 50 percent less toner use due to the system’s toner optimization mode. The new Xeikon 3300 press, meanwhile, is geared towards the short-run label and packaging markets traditionally served by the flexographic sector. This machine can be combined with on-press die-cutting, slitter and rewinder. It offers excellent print quality.

Another drupa first for Xeikon was on display in the company’s prototype, liquid-toner-based Trillium press. It combines the cost advantages of toner printing with the high speed of inkjet printing.

The prototype press at drupa printed at a speed of 1.2 metres per second (236 feet per minute), but, according to a Xeikon representative, it will reach a speed of two metres per second (390 feet per minute) by the time it hits the market. While it is based on a liquid toner printing process, Trillium also employs LED-imaging technology – found in the 8800 series and will print at 1,200 dpi. Trillium prints with high-viscosity toner, which translates to smaller toner particle sizes and into high production speeds relative to traditional toner devices. All products printed on Xeikon machines are fully deinkable, according to the company and the INGEDE test method.

Agfa Agfa showcased several machines within its production inkjet portfolio, but there were some clear highlights on the company’s airline-themed booth. Most noticeable of all was the gigantic M-Press Leopard, Agfa’s latest entry to speed up the digital transformation of screen-printing. The M-Press, first shown by Agfa with its Tiger system, is the result of co-development with Thieme, which has a long history of developing screen-printing technologies.

This M-Press Leopard, with its ability to print up to 5-cm thick material, uses eight print head passes to print the complete sheet. Six passes are used for applying the inks and the remaining two passes are used for curing the inks with UV light. The semiautomatic version of this press can print paper sizes of up to 1.6 x 3.3 metres (63 x 130 inches) at 41 to 71 sheets per hour.

Agfa’s entry-level inkjet systems are called the Anapurna series, while the Jeti series fills out the company’s portfolio in the medium-production segment. The Jeti Titan 3020 prints a format of up to 3.2 x 2 metres (126 x 70 inches) and can apply a varnish to the printed material.

The Anapurna series prints on materials up to 5-cm thick, including applications on wood, Plexiglas, stone and leather. The Agfa representative I spoke with on the drupa booth emphasized why the company manufactures its own inks, claiming they are twice as stable as the competitor’s inks and lay down with variable dot sizes because of their print heads.

Agfa’s M-Press Leopard

drupa’s Largest Booths

Source: InfoTrends

Green denotes an increased booth size, red denotes a decrease from 2008.

Konica Minolta Konica Minolta is best known in the printing industry for its bizhub line of toner printing machines, including its new bizhub 1100, which will not be available for several months. However, the company is also a key print-head supplier to OEM partners involved with inkjet and, at drupa, showed off its own prototype B2-format cutsheet inkjet device, called KM-1. This press, still many months away from commercialization, uses UV LED inkjet inks and Komori-built papertransport mechanisms.

The company claimed that its KM-1 prototype has a top speed of 3,300 sheets per hour, at 1,200 dpi.

Konica Minolta also develops colour-measurement devices, including the FD-7 that can be used as either a handheld or in the ColorScout automatic Konica Minolta KM-1 measurement table. The unique quality of this device – being controlled at drupa by software from BasICColor – is that it uses what the company refers to as Virtual Fluorescence Standard (VFS) technology, which allows measurements for all the different M-conditions as they are specified in ISO 13655. There are four different M-measurement modes specified in this ISO standard, including: M0 – makes provisions for “light source A” instruments (standard in the graphic arts), with no requirement for the UV content; M1 – makes provisions for illuminant D50 (UV content as D50); M2 – makes provisions for UV-cut measurements; and M3 – extends M2 by provisions for measurements using polarization filters.

VFS technology allows an operator to later choose which type of M-measurement condition they would like to use. The FD-7 tools also have an inter-instrument agreeability of 0.3 DE. This is an excellent number and it results in two instruments providing nearly identical measurements.

Konica Minolta FD-7

Mohammad Ali Fattahi Second-year student drupa technology or trend While at drupa, I was looking for technological innovations in foilstamping methods. There were new companies targeting cold-foil and digital-foil stamping with new machines, as well as interesting innovations from leading vendors with existing technologies. In the hot-foil stamping sector, Bobst introduced its Master Foil technology with improvements in automation to help with adjusting foil and controlling the machine. Gietz added two unique options to its new FSA 1060 Foil Commander, which were Dwell time and VACOFOIL. The former option allows an increased contact time between die, foil and substrate without loss of speed. With this improvement, foil can be transferred completely to substrates with uneven or harsh surfaces. The latter option makes it possible to process large diameter foil reels at maximum speed.

Within cold-foil stamping, where the die and heat are eliminated, I took notice of manroland’s ROLAND 700 HiPrint series. In this process, adhesive is printed in the first unit and then foil is transferred to the adhesive in the second unit. A new process called Cast and Cure can be done by the same system. Cast and Cure is a coating process that integrates "casting” and "curing” techniques to form a holographic, high gloss or matte effect on a variety of substrates – using an external machine at relatively low cost.

This process is performed by printing with UV ink and laminating the casting film to the wet UV ink.

The substrate is passed through the UV light while it is in contact with the casting film. Ink is cured in this step and special effects are transferred from the film to the ink. Then film is delaminated from the substrate and rewound. The film is reusable up to 30 times, because no material is transferred from the film onto the substrate and no ink is transferred to the film.

At drupa, I found several new companies offering Cast and Cure units for offset presses, which indicates there is a growing demand for this technology.

Another new process called digital foil stamping or foil fusing uses toner as an adhesive. This process is performed by printing images with toner presses or simple laser printers. The printed substrate is passed through heated rollers. Toner is melted and foil is laminated to the toner by roller pressure. This process – suitable for low-quantity orders – can be done by a simple and cheap machine, making it a good choice for small- to midsized printers. It is important that each of these processes is designed to satisfy different segments of the printing industry.

Natalia Bertok First-year student drupa technology or trend drupa was an experience that will always play a key role in my future at GCM. With thousands of companies to choose from, finding one that stood out was quite an endeavour. One piece of technology that caught my eye, however, was Fujifilm’s 3D print system.

With its futuristic qualities, the system is for the direct printing of high-quality 3D images on lenticular sheets. To print these 3D images, a 3D digital camera must be used, along with other specified cameras. Being able to see this printer in person definitely added to the experience and opened my eyes up to the future of printing.

Most memorable part of trip The most memorable part of my trip was the architecture and lifestyle of Germany. Old buildings surround you wherever you look. Going to dinner late at night, when the historic architecture really stands out, is one experience I will never forget. During one of our many adventures in Cologne, we decided to climb 500 stairs at the Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) and, once we reached the top of the church, the view was unforgettable. The architecture of the building itself was gorgeous and being able to see all of its history was breathtaking. Germany will be a trip that will always stay with me.

JUNE 2012 • PRINTACTION • 21

Michelle Caughey Fourth-year student drupa technology or trend I was astonished by the overall efforts, time, money and creativity put forth by the exhibitors at drupa. However, Fujifilm’s booth made the biggest impression on me during a tour – particularly due to the company’s overall concept for drupa.

Fuji displayed several creative printed products in real-world examples, from cosmetic stands to a printed stone flooring. The company stressed the importance of selecting the appropriate substrate or medium to achieve impactful, high-quality results for a potential end user. To further support its concept, a media booth was set up to display the unique substrates used in its booth .

As the print industry has evolved, guided in large part by better technologies, I have been told on numerous occasions how high-quality printing is now the expectation rather than an added feature. For this reason, I think

the innovative approach taken by Fujifilm really proves the company as versatile and able to go beyond the average perception of quality, by tailoring to the specific end use of each unique product. In addition, Fujifilm also presented alternative, cost-efficient substrates for common applications, such as a printed cardboard box to act as a hanging canvas. It is solutions like these that, in my opinion, will win over clients in today’s tight economy.

Most memorable part of trip It is very hard to specifically pinpoint one event or highlight, and name it the most-memorable part of my trip, because I was truly amazed by everything; from the trains, architecture and shopping to the German culture in general. However, drupa itself was the one thing that left me absolutely astonished. It was truly an eye opener to witness just how large this industry really is; and enlightening to see how many possibilities and great opportunities are actually out there for students like myself studying in this field.

Olivia Parker Fourth-year student drupa technology or trend The biggest trend I saw at drupa was the movement into the Cloud. A lot of workflow companies including Esko, HP-Hiflex and GMG were all demonstrating the use of Cloud architecture as a way to share information between customers and printers. This was especially significant for Hiflex – purchased by HP in December 2011 – as its MIS is now being moved onto a complete Cloud system.

I believe Cloud computing – allowing job information to reside on the Internet instead of on a computer – will have a huge impact on printing companies in the future.

Primarily, because it is accessible to all companies, regardless of size, and fully scalable.

This allows for versatility, easy access, and information sharing on a local or global scale, and through mobile devices.

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One of the biggest applications for the Cloud is Web-to-print, where consumers use a portal to place an order. As demonstrated during the group tour of HP-Hiflex, the system’s interface is efficient; understanding the customer’s inputted data and using it to create an estimate – automatically eliminating human error on the printer’s end.

Most memorable part of trip The memorable part of my trip was visiting the Gutenberg Museum of Mainz booths at drupa. Not only did they bring in historic printing equipment, they also offered live demonstrations of the equipment in operation.

They displayed a working linotype machine, for example, along with a variety of small letterpress presses. It was exhilarating for me to watch the Gutenberg press being operated, because they were demonstrating how the pages of the Gutenberg Bible were printed.

Delphax I also had the opportunity to see the Delphax Elan press in action. It uses Memjet print heads, which were also a very hot technology topic at drupa – with several OEM partners trumpeting Memjet integrations. Protected by more than 4,000 patents, the base (A4-size) print head technology of San Diego’s Memjet consists of 70,400 inkjet nozzles on an 8.77-inch fixed width for the delivery of 1,600 x 800 dpi color at 60 pages per minute, or 12 inches per second. Although Memjet’s technology is very expensive in terms of needing to replace heads on a regular basis, the technology itself is hard to ignore as witnessed by a host of new drupa-announced partnerships (in addition to Delphax) with companies like Océ, Toshiba TEC, Fujifilm, Xante, Colordyne and Astro Machine.

Delphax Elan

Delphax itself is known as a Minnesota-based manufacturer of black-and-white printing machines, but, at drupa, the company showed progress with colour machines, specifically its new Elan technology. The Elan system prints up to 500 letter-size sheets per minute at 1,600 dpi. This speed is also possible in duplex mode. The Elan can print special colours and MICR ink using dye-based and pigmented inks. The Elan uses a PDF workflow. Any media that is not suitable for inkjet can be pre-coated inside the machine before printing. The Elan will be available on the market in the first half of 2013.

Delphax also houses a Canadian subsidiary, Delphax Technologies Canada Ltd., in Mississauga.

Landa The biggest hype at drupa was easily saved for Benny Landa and his Nanographic printing process, in which paper is transported through an inkjet-based press with offset-like paper handling. The presses ran during drupa demonstrations, but no samples were handed out. All of the Landa machines at drupa were prototypes, with commercial release scheduled for the end of 2013. In the meantime, Benny Landa signed agreements with Komori, Heidelberg and manroland to to codevelop this print technology. The new Nanographic printing process is aimed to serve the market between very short run print runs and longer (10,000 and up) offset runs.

The Landa process is based on nano-size pigments that are mixed with water, so they can be applied through inkjet print Landa S7 heads. The image is build up onto a heated transfer belt, which evaporates the water and a dry, soft image is applied to the paper, where it cools down and solidifies. According to Landa, this results in exceptional gloss and high rub resistance. Since the pigments do not penetrate the paper there is no light scattering, which allows for a very sharp dot and the widest colour gamut of any four-colour process printing. It is like laminating sheets with small dots.

The presses are to be offered in sheetfed and web-fed configurations of up to 40 inches in width. All presses feature an impressive 3-metre-wide touchscreen, which, according to Landa, means even a single operator can run up to four presses – when assisted by the provided tablet computer. Each press also features a wireless digital loupe for the operator or customer to inspect a printed sheet – an image from the camera is shown on the large touchscreen.

USED EQUIPMENT

EFI

EFI VUTEk’s HS100 Pro

EFI had quite a big presence at drupa, showcasing many of its VUTEk wide-format inkjet printers. In particular, EFI’s Jetrion 4900 UV inkjet label press was a very interesting showpiece. It has an inline corona treatment system for the label stock and prints with five colours – white, plus CMYK. The labels are cut out from the matrix with a dual-head laser die cutter, eliminating the need for a rotary diecutter. The machine features a semi-automatic turret and backscore and matrix removal with up to 14 slitter knifes. The maximum roll width is 8.3 inches and the press prints at 80 feet per minute at 360 x 360 dpi. I found the laser die-cutting part to be the most fascinating piece of this press.

Another drupa first from EFI is the HS100 Pro. It looks like any other VUTEk wide-format printer, because its enhancements are primarily under the hood. The print head assembly is now three times as large as in previous VUTEk machines. The HS100 Pro has a maximum print resolution of 1,000 dpi, while printing up to eight colours on rigid media or rolls. The imaging assembly of the HS100Pro contains 48 print heads.

EFI developed what it refers to as “pin curing” technology for this machine, which is said to obtain a higher print quality. Pin curing partially cures the printed drops with a short flash of UV light, which fixates the printed drops onto the substrate and later on the drops are fully cured with the UV LED lights. The maximum print width is 320 cm and maximum thickness of the printed materials is five cm. The increased data traffic between the RIP and machine is handled by the upgraded Fiery XF-RIP. At drupa, EFI, which supports the front-end for many digital presses, also ran interesting demonstrations of its new Fiery System 10.

Kodak Kodak had a very large booth at drupa and showcased its Prosper Series of inkjet presses. The Prosper S20 press can print at 900 metres per minute (around 2,000 feet per minute). The S10 runs at half that speed. The Prosper series of presses offers impressive printing speeds with offset-like print quality at 175 lpi. The Prosper 5000 XL is a production full colour perfecting inkjet press that prints up to a width of 24.5 inches at speeds up to 650 feet per minute. The press can print on 30 lb to 200 lb text weight stocks.

While the printing speed of this line of inkjet presses is quite impressive, it also suffers from not having a wide range of available substrates – a challenge faced by many of the inkjet production presses. Although Kodak is currently navigating through some troubled waters, all the activity at its booth suggests that people are very interested in what the company has to offer.

Kodak Prosper S20 JUNE 2012 • PRINTACTION • 23

TRADE PRINTING

BST International BST International is a German company that develops technologies for web guiding, video web inspection, print management, defect detection, register and colour control. At drupa, I was given a demonstration of the company’s video web inspection system and its QCenter quality-control software. I was impressed by the system’s ease of use and logical display of information. The video web inspection system can display the image of the web after one repeat length has been printed and QCenter will display the image. The touchscreen system uses similar gestures to the command features of smartphones.

All of the quality-control systems from BST can be operated using the QCenter software, which allows an operator to focus on certain elements of the printed job, such as the register mark, but other colour critical elements can be selected for scrutiny. To make such close-up inspections, a user zooms into an image area with finger gestures and double taps on the register mark, which is then displayed within a small section of the touchscreen. By double tapping on this, or the full sheet, the user can effortlessly switch between the two or three inspection areas they have defined.

The video inspection system also checks the printed web for defects and alerts the user. For colour control, the system will measure the colour bar, but it will disregard measurements from a smudged colour bar and will only allow good measurements to enter the log file of the print run. The system measures the colour spectrally, not by density, which allows mathematical conversion of the spectral data into various quality control numbers like density and Lab-values. As well, the printed web is inspected in full web width, which allows for a realtime image of what is being printed. The inline spectral colour measurement device was developed in cooperation with X-Rite and premiered at drupa. The measurements are ISO compliant and the system is also JDF compliant. BST has a subsidiary called BST ProMark in Elmhurst, Illinois, for North American distribution.

Prüfbau Prüfbau is a well-known company in Europe, but not so much in North America. It is a German company that manufactures lab-testing equipment for printing inks. At its Hall 5 booth, Prüfbau showcased a lab machine for printed electronics. The machine can use either the flexographic or the gravure printing process. The print cylinders are located inside a fully enclosed chamber, so that prints can be made either under normal atmosphere, inert gas (nitrogen) atmosphere or in a solvent atmosphere, depending on the material that will be tested. Like all lab equipment from Prüfbau it is solid German engineering that is built to last.

Epple-Druckfarben Epple is an innovative German ink manufacturer. It was interesting to see which ink companies had their own presence at drupa, such as Epple, Siegwerk, Gans ink, INX, Sicpa, Toyo, and Van Son, as some of the largest did not have their own booth, including: Sun Chemical, Flint and the Huber-Group – represented by Hostmann-Steinberg in Canada. Through our colleagues at Stuttgart Media University in Germany, our drupa group received a special presentation about Epple’s line of direct-food-contact inks, called BoFood Organic.

An important distinction from similar direct-contact inks is that Epple uses a foodstuff component, a triglyceride, as the oil component in its inks. This makes the ink edible. I was handed a sheet of edible paper with Epple’s logo printed on it. You do not taste the ink when you eat the printed material, which is the technology’s main purpose. Since the ink is not drying by oxidization, the printed sheet needs to be protected with a water-based coating. Epple also developed a Pantone mixing system for its line of direct food contact inks, as well as a gold ink. Before using these inks for printing directcontact packaging, you need to be aware of possible cross contamination within your print shop. Epple has a North American office in Atlanta, Georgia.

24 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2012

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Just Normlicht Just Normlicht is the world’s largest manufacturer of lighting booths – both permanent and portable – for various industries. The company’s transportable viewing stations can be folded together and carried on a handle. All you need is an electrical outlet. At drupa, it was clear that Just Normlicht has been focusing on improving its technologies for soft-proofing applications. A monitor is first calibrated to proper viewing conditions for soft-proofing and then the light booth is calibrated as well. If you want to compare your printed sheet to the softproof, the light booth can be dimmed so very similar lighting conditions are present for sheet and screen – making it possible for a direct comparison between the printed sheet and the soft proof. The light booth can be set to full 5000K standard viewing conditions for on-press sheet comparison.

If you do not have room in your print shop to set up a full viewing booth, Just Normlicht has come up with a wall-mounted system with overhead lamps and neutral grey, metal panels that can hold printed sheets. This system can illuminate press sheets at 5000K standard viewing conditions, and at the correct angle.

On Just Normlicht’s booth, I was also interested to see how monitors for soft-proofing are not calibrated with the measurement device held directly against the screen, but at a slight distance, so the ambient lighting is also taken into consideration. Just Normlicht used a device called Diskus, developed by BasICColour. The Discus has three measurement modes used for calibration, ambient light measurement and distance measurement.

Eizo During my visit to Just Normlicht, I was made aware of some new EIZO monitors, which I consider to be the Mercedes-class of monitors.

Some of the company’s newest monitors come with an EIZOswing system, in which a small arm contains a colour-measurement device that can swing out to calibrate the monitor. It is recommended that you calibrate your monitor first Eizo ColorEdge with a device like an EyeOne and then use the built-in measurement device to mimic the measurement characteristics of the EyeOne. Having a colour measurement device built into the monitor eliminates the hassle of looking for the calibration device. It makes automatic calibration easy. Using control software, it is also possible to set a time when the system should calibrate the monitor, so that your colour correct monitor is ready to use when you come to work in the morning.

BaslCColor As BasICColor’s name suggests, this company clearly views ICC profiling and colour control as an integral part of its business.

As discussed earlier with Just Normlicht technology, BasICColor developed an interesting product called Discus. It contains a laser to help with the correct positioning of the device for distance measurement, not only of monitors, but also for projection systems. It is built into an aluminium-unibody housing with a sensor that allows a user to compensate for temperature changes.

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BUSINESS FORMS

Witkowski Continued from page 12

SHOWSTOPPER Status: Proprietary (patented) solution 3dpapergraphics.com Collapsed, the ShowStopper fits neatly into a mail carrier. The recipient opens the piece, pulls out the ShowStopper, and a self-standing keepsake is revealed. Increase brand awareness, create a memorable event invitation, a collectible series, or simply surprise and entertain.

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VIDEO-IN-PRINT Status: Proprietary solution americhip.com The Video-In-Print solution by Americhip embeds a multisensory print and media experience directly into your print materials – via video monitors that range from 1.8 inches all the way up to 10 inches – ensuring a positive and memorable experience.

POPOUT Status: Exclusive branded solution modeled after patented retail product popoutproducts.com The beauty of this product is its amazing ability to finish very flat, and to expand into a surprising burst of graphics when opened.

These are wonderful for large graphics, marketing and promotion as well as for maps and information graphics.

INTELIMAILER (also called Transformailer) Status: Exclusive branded solution intelimailer.com The InteliMailer uses a unique single-sheet format to create both a full-colour envelope and insert in one pass. One of the cooler things about this solution is the shape of the envelope – it is folded on the diagonal, so the appearance is unique and hard to resist.

Status: Branded solution uviaus.com The via 3D mail solution from uviaus integrates 3D glasses and specialized imaging techniques to the printed mail piece.

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THE FLAPPER Status: Proprietary (patented) solution structuralgraphics.com The Flapper offers four selling panels that turn in an infinite succession to tell a marketing story in an interactive, engaging, and almost addictive way. The affordable, extremely versatile design can be used as a self-mailer, a magazine insert or a premium.

See for yourself

If you search the companies listed above, you will find most of them offer many other formats and solutions, so make sure you block off some time to explore.

I encourage you to contact the companies whose solutions interest you to find out more about how they work with their customers. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Trish Witkowski is Chief Folding Fanatic at the online community foldfactory.com.

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were interested in finding out about the future plans of the company, and its position as one of the world’s leaders in litho-heatAlthough Heidelberg did not bring a set technology was evident. large-format press to the show, deciding to Despite all of the challenges presented show a static delivery unit, the launch of to the printing industry over the past couits Anicolor platform in a 75-cm format ple of years, I truly believe the industry is press was a bold move for the company, well served by the technology now availwhich also highlighted its new SX 102 and able from key suppliers. The technologies SX 75 designed presses to replace the SM driving wasted time and materials out of series. Heidelberg also introduced its new the litho process has never been better. flagship press as the XL 106, showcased as a perfector and as a straight press. Heidel- Finishing highlights berg again clearly won the show in terms Two distinct technologies stood out as my of booth – or hall – appeal. From the hun- drupa highlights. This includes coming dreds of recycled plates surrounding the across a company called Highcon, an Ishall to the indelible bass beat filling it, Hei- raeli firm that amazed us with its Euclid delberg continues to create an outstanding die-cutting machine. Drawing on the podrupa environment. The company did not tential that box makers want a really fast necessarily showcase revolutionary tech- digital die cutter, the Euclid plants a polynology, but it made the most of the SX and mer on a disposable foil then hardens it to XL 106 coming-out party. make cutting and creasing rules. The KBA turned up with its newest size-6 process, other than mounting the foil itmachine in the 145. It was the largest press self, is fully automatic: Bang, out comes at the show. Besides the new 105 and 75 finished cartons – really quite impressive. design, KBA built a very credible display.

My other drupa highlight was also, surKBA continues to brand itself as having prisingly, in the finishing sector and bethe fastest make-ready press, while de- longed to Müller Martini. Besides clutchable plate cylinders (a manroland showcasing a web finishing system at invention) were front and centre. The 106 KBA’s booth (running with the RRD/KBA also can be supplied as a 20,000-iph press digital web), Müller Martini seems to have – the world’s fastest sheetfed. The com- almost re-invented themselves when it pany’s new digital web press, RotaJET 76, comes to listening to the market and decommanded a fair amount of attention, as signing machinery for shorter runs and it was coupled with Müller Martini’s fin- faster make-readies. ishing kit in a concept that sheeted, folded On Müller’s booth, we were shown its and stitched a final product. new automated Sigma book trimmer that Goss’ booth, likely based on the growing reads books or barcodes and can then cominfluence of owner Shanghai Electric, was pletely adjust itself for a maximum thickness a cluster of various machines. The new and size or a minimum size per book!

Akiyama sheetfed made in China did not Müller Martini and Highcon were inspiring. have a coater and seemed to be a bouillaWhile you would need to use eight baisse of Komori, Mitsubishi and Heidel- hours of all 14 drupa days to judge every berg design. Shanghai Electric also made exhibit, I was quite impressed with what sure to include equipment from its growing we were able to accomplish in just two interest in cutters, as well as a Purlux simi- days. We began our drupa journey full of larity of Muller’s 321 and Presto stitchers. anticipation and, just as we were disapThe Goss packaging press was enclosed in pointed seeing the stuffed monkey in the its own theatre-like location.

Altstadt, the pre-drupa digital hype was Komori had a very business-like presen- not fulfilling. tation covering its developments and key In his well-researched book, called sectors of interest. This included the world Copies in Seconds, David Owen writes: premier of Komori’s 41-inch GX 40 carton “Technology doesn’t evolve steadily and press, which was fitted with the company’s continuously. New ideas often arrive in innovative HUV drying system. It drew a clusters, having been generated by cumulot of attention from folding-carton print- lative cultural forces whose origin and ers and general commercial shops, as well. exact nature aren’t always obvious at the De-clutchable plate cylinders – new for time or even later.”

Komori – were demonstrated on the GL 40 Owens’s book, covering the history of press, closing the gap with KBA and man- Xerox, explains how the failures in the roland. The Lithrone A37 press, designated company’s early years were a necessary evil with a 37-inch format, also premiered as a in the development of the market’s first machine destined for the Indian market. successful photocopier. Despite all of the It’s a budget-priced press based on the digital prototype hype, drupa 2012 made popular Indian sheet size. Komori also it quite clear why traditional litho process showcased its Enthrone 29 as an entry- will eventually be displaced within the level 29-inch press now available with a sweet spot of commercial printing – under perfecting mechanism.

50,000-piece runs. manroland, now with different owners Business confidence, as well as available in sheetfed and web, featured on two con- financing for capital investments, is still necting booths, which were both very busy. dragging down the industry as a whole, While the company is still concentrating but another quadrennial trip to Düsselon its stability, following its emergence dorf provided a positive measure in seeing from bankruptcy protection in early 2012, so many committed suppliers trying to manroland did highlight a new press con- push the industry forward. sole still in development. The large crowds on manroland’s booth are evidence of a Nick Howard has been involved in the great deal of interest in the company and printing industry since 1976. He manages its products. Even though it was generally Howard Graphic Equipment Ltd., which has a non-machine booth, we were surprised been involved in the supply, sale, rebuilding by how much activity there was at man- and appraisal business since 1967. Nick roland Web’s booth. Certainly, printers can be reached at: nhoward@bellnet.ca.

Howard

Digital Printing

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Continued from page 14

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JUNE 2012 • PRINTACTION • 31

Gaitskell Continued from page 15

equipment since the move has lowered their costs greatly. For toner equipment purchases, Carrelas needs a flexible supplier: “We presently have 230 copiers scattered throughout our organization, but when hospital services are reduced, some of the copiers are not needed any longer. In 2001, we chose Konica Minolta out of 13 different vendors because no other company was willing to take back the equipment and release us from the contract without penalty on machines that were too old and run down or that we didn’t use any more. Konica Minolta also charged us nothing for the first six months to help us pay off penalties from a previous supplier.

“We worked with IT to update the print queues with new drivers and to network the machines to make full use of their multifunctions as copiers, printers, fax machines, and scanners, so both the number of devices and cost per copy [at less than two cents] are lower than with our former supplier.”

Carrelas says for any equipment with digital components, UHN’s IT department will not support any contract over three years. “In 2013/2014, we’ll go to the market again to see what’s out there.

Going to tender is a huge process for vendors, but it’s worthwhile for the companies that are bidding, because UHN has a lot of buying power right now. In our last deal our purchasing department bought equipment for 13 different hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area.”

PRINTING EQUIPMENT

32 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2012

Adopting new procedures

A huge move to efficiency occurred in April 2010 when UHN adopted Web-toprint technologies. “By then 90 percent of our work was submitted electronically via email attachments, or, if the files were too big, by disks or USB flash drives. These devices worked fine for staff at TGH but not so well for staff at other locations, who had to wait up to two days for their files to reach us by inter-office mail,” recounts Carrelas.

He says it took several years to build the site and enter all the products and forms one by one on top of all their regular duties. Then they chose their biggest clients to pilot-test the system for five months to help them tweak the system before they felt ready to launch it.

Carrelas says online ordering has enabled his shop to capture more of the work that was formerly going outside UHN: “In our downtown location, we are surrounded by competition from small storefront printers, chains, and franchises, so offering clients a better method of submitting orders to us really gave us an edge.

“Within 10 months of implementing the system, the print shop’s revenue went up $72,000 and our volume of impressions went up a million copies.”

Some of Carrelas’s customers still work from old-fashioned hard copies, so, for these clients, he has started a free service of scanning their documents as PDF files in hopes they will submit their orders online next time. He and his staff also strive constantly to educate their customers in best practices, aided by the e-learning

videos available on UHN’s Website to show staff how to place various types of orders online.

Like a commercial business, Carrelas’s operation bills and receives payment from its customers, although they are all internal staff within one of the departments of each hospital comprising UHN. “We’re only recovering costs, not making a profit,” explains Carrelas. “Our system cuts costs by making people responsible for their spending and showing them the value of what they print.

“Before online ordering, we logged every order manually on a spreadsheet, which made cost recovery slow. Done manually, the process sometimes took two days, but now it only takes a matter of minutes.”

Carrelas says sometimes, owing to cutbacks, when staff leave UHN they are not replaced. Often the results include reduced services and longer wait times for patients.

“But so far the print shop has been fortunate, because we haven’t suffered any losses of staff, and we keep gaining internal customers.

“I believe one reason is that our inplant stays relevant in serving the needs of the hospital. We run it like a business and keep stats on everything we do – especially volumes, which help justify the staff, equipment, service contracts, and resources that we have. When we divide shop costs by number of impressions, we can see if we’re upgrading efficiently.”

Carrelas explains that his operation tries to follow the “three Cs” of in-plant printers: Cost, convenience and confidentiality.

“We have to be careful of the quality of work we do here and upgrade our equipment regularly to maintain our value to the hospital. I keep reminding our employees of the importance of running the operation like a business, tracking costs, and keeping a customer-friendly focus. We either do the job right or someone else will do it for us. I’ve seen situations where facility management took over in-plants if the service was not good.

“We perform Quality Assurance every month by checking the dates on which orders came in and went out to assess our turnaround times. Our standard for meeting target deadlines is high at 98 percent, but in the last fiscal year we exceeded the standard with 99.5 percent. We know this level of excellence in our service is appreciated from the feedback and emails of thanks we receive from customers.”

Support from Carrelas’s print shop has assisted the advancement of medical technologies at UHN’s member hospitals, whose impressive series of world firsts include single- and double-lung transplants, deep brain simulation to treat depression, the discovery of stem cells, and the invention of the Cobalt machine, the technology that allowed modern radiation therapy to develop. In the last fiscal year, providing this support required the print shop to print 13-million impressions and the copy fleet to produce 4,674,000 copies for a grand total of 17,674,000 impressions. “It’s a busy place here,” he laughs.

Victoria Gaitskell is keen to exchange ideas with readers at victoria@printaction.com

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Email george.stern@ minutemanpress.com ____________________________________ FOR SALE Harris Multibinder 250, model MB-25013, serial #SL-336-G, 13 station. Load your 4 page unfold section into the Multibinder for collating, stitching, folding and trimming. Operator and parts manual, spare parts including cutting blade. Asking $7,000.

Call (450) 667-6247 or Email yvan@lithographiesb.com ____________________________________

FOR SALE • HP Scitex 98" FB910 UV printer 2008 • 1991 Mitsubishi 40" press 6/C, UV inks and Dahlgren UV Coater, 311MM imps • 1993 Heidelberg 102 FP 40" press 5/C perfector 3/2,178MM imps. Auto plate, CPC 102.

• Heidelberg Windmill platen 10x15" foil, red ball est 1961 year • 1997 Ryobi 3302M two colour press 13x18.2" 5 million imps • Stahl folder 16pp 30" main rollers need TLC. RF 78V.2 • Schneider Senator Model 132 guillotine 48" upgraded Gergek MC1V controls.

• “Seal” Laminator

Contact Paul Kett: 905.944.9444 x 323 paulk@mi5print.com

FOR SALE Time for early retirement, this Toronto offset printing company was established in 1983. All equipment & accessories stock & supply inventory and very loyal clientele are for sale. Annual sales 200k approx.

Fax Joe at (416) 766-8519 ____________________________________ PRODUCTION MANAGER WANTED Production Manager of small printing company required. We are a tag printing company in Ajax looking for an experienced Production Manager for scheduling, purchasing, and the day to day operation of our plant. Experience in the label/tag or offset printing industry an asset. Basic computer knowledge with graphics knowledge and good communication skills required.

MUST have printing experience. Salary 45,000 Per year plus Health benefits.

No phone calls. We will contact you for an interview. Email resume to atlastags@yahoo.com Attn: David Damario ____________________________________

PRINT BROKERS & SALESPEOPLE WANTED! FREE OFFICE SPACE! Excellent opportunity to grow your print clientele at a centrally located print shop. Great support team of design, print production and admin. Restrictions apply.

Email for more information: sales@canadianprintingresources.com

PRESENTS

drupa Technology Review Conference Putting the Action into Print!

A one day conference focusing on the most significant technology trends seen at drupa 2012. This is the event • Digital Presses to attend if you did not get the opportunity to travel • Finishing for Digital Printing to drupa 2012. Bring your team to the Mississauga International Centre. Centrally located, free parking and • Wide Format and Signage no need for them to pack a suitcase!

3 Technology Tracks

Thursday, November 1, 2012 International Conference Centre, 6900 Airport Rd., Mississauga, Ontario For more information, Email: sara@printaction.com • stephen@printaction.com

BINDERY TECHNICIAN WANTED Leading commercial sheet-fed printer seeks an ambitious individual fully experienced on Muller Minuteman stitcher and MBO folder who is able to manage, run, and service both machines. Competitive salary and benefits.

Email resume to stevek@colourinnovations.com ____________________________________ CSR WANTED CSR (Customer Service Representative) required. Requirements: Experience in estimating/production of sheetfed and web printing. Computer skills and excellent communication skills. Print management degree an asset.

Email resumes to hrdept@west-star.com or fax (416) 201-8885 ____________________________________

PROFESSIONAL Business development manager with accounts for a traditional offset digital print organization. Located in Richmond Hill area. Compensation package: base + commissions Email: info@mormarkonline.com ____________________________________ WEBCOM IS HIRING Bindery operators (perfect binder and saddlestitch), bindery helpers, guillotine/folder operator, Horizon saddlestitcher operator, LaserMax operator.

Multiple shifts available.

Email resumes to human.resources@webcomlink.com or fax (416) 644-5381 ____________________________________

ACQUISITIONS TIRED OF THE BATTLE? LOOKING FOR A REAL CHANGE? DO YOU WANT OUT?

The market has changed forever.

Why let your company value diminish?

Now is the time… Take that step towards retirement or a new start, and reply to this ad. We’re a successful graphic solutions provider looking to acquire GTA printing companies, mailing houses and marketing agencies. Interested?

All inquiries will be held in the absolute strictest of confidence.

Email: jeff@willowprint.com

WANTED URGENTLY FOR EXPORT USED OFFSET PRESSES KORD 64, SORDZ,SM 74-2,KOMORI L-426

We Buy

Heidelberg K-Line/S-Line/ Speed master/ GTO/ MO Komori 1,2,4 or 5 colors & any sizes Adast 714/715/724/725 Mitsubishi any models Ryobi 2800CD/3200CD Itek 960/975/985 Hamada 500/600/700/800 Polar 72/82/90/92/107/115 CM Horizon-BQ 220/240/260/440/460 Any model surplus printing machines, paper cutters & bindery equipment.

IMMEDIATE DECISION We buy one piece/entire plant $$$$ TOP PRICES PAID $$$$

Buy & Sell Used Printing Equipment

Call: (416) 824-0236 (647) 835-6224

33 Denison Ave., Brampton, Ontario L6X 0H2 E-Mail: gr_trade@hotmail.com Tel/Fax: (905) 450-2748 JUNE 2012 • PRINTACTION • 33

ARCHIVE

June 1977 The Apple II, seen by some as the first practical personal computer goes on sale, Elvis Presley performs for the last time, and space shuttle prototype Enterprise carries a crew for the first time, mounted to a Boeing 747.

Just Walking Around Drupa One of the facts that strikes a Canadian is the way alcohol is presented at virtually every booth, all day long. Many stalls have light refreshments in form of soup, salads and sandwiches which were offered as well – without charge. All this tends to make Drupa a gala affair. Food and drink are consumed in staggering quantities. A simple Canadian must occasionally run for cover and skip the odd meal.

Heidelberg Heidelberg was the largest exhibitor with literally dozens of pieces of equipment in operation, running the whole gamut of their press line from six-colour 40-inch machines down to small one-colour letterpress. In the centre of the Heidelberg building you may take your ease, in an overstuffed chair, then be overwhelmed by the panorama of multiple images, featuring Heidelberg products on a wide angle-screen.

A first-class promotion indeed.

Waterless Plate The Japanese Toray waterless plate is a new version of an old idea. The plate is designed to run without water. The plate utilizes a special compound of silicone rubber which, when processed, affords an ink repellent surface and microns below is a surface that has an ink affinity. There is no developing, no etching, no lacquering, no gumming. It is developed automatically, yielding good, if not great quality.

Screen printing ink A great amount of emphasis was given over to screen printing. ET Marler Ltd. of London, England, had much to say about new directions in screen printing. The new line of inks called Uvi Screen are claimed to give 300 percent better mileage with similar increases in print resolution, when properly handled. The capital cost of a UV dryer is less than $12,000. Occupying only 12 percent of the space of a jet dryer, it has the capability of drying up to 45 metres per minute.

For those screen printers who have mastered a line and solid printing or standard screen, this process opens up a vast market on half tone printing not open to screen printers.

34 • PRINTACTION • JUNE 2012

Bye Bye Ginny...Have a Nice Time!

A family affair at Graphic-Litho Plate Ltd., Toronto last month saw tears and laughter when Ginny Lyle, ‘Girl Friday’ and right-hand man to Norm Esch, Chairman, and Bill Prouse, President, retired after 18 years with the company. Staff, friends from the industry, and the press gathered to bid her farewell and present going-away gifts of appreciation, including an oil painting from Bill Prouse, and a $1,000 cheque from the company.

Her cheerful presence will be missed and her great capacity to recognize an old friend’s voice on the telephone even after months of absence. Good luck for the future, Ginny!

Turn red.

Discover Unisource Wide Format

Unisource Wide Format is the new name of one of Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest distributors of wide format printers, supplies and technical services.

As part of Unisource Worldwide, we pride ourselves in doing whatever it takes for our customers. We are a team of knowledgeable wide-format specialists that are focused on continuous improvements that can help you do business better, faster and for less. Our broad selection of products includes our new SelectSource line, delivering competitively priced media and national stocking availability.

Turn red. Call Unisource Wide Format today to unleash the power of Unisource.

1- 800 -387-3776

CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS IN A GLOBAL MARKET

www.unisourcexl.ca

Let’s keep things simple…

Printing We’ll make the Ink

You do the

Introducing the Mobile Ink Estimator App You wouldn’t dream of asking your clients to print their own job, and here at Hostmann-Steinberg we wouldn’t dream of asking you to mix and quality control your own special colours…You don’t have the time!

We believe that getting inks to press on time and in specification is a given.

Simply calculate accurately what your job requires using the new Hostmann-Steinberg Mobile Ink Estimator, request a quote on line (if required), order only what you need and let us take care of the rest.

Download the Estimator on your mobile device (iPhone/iPad/iPod/ BlackBerry/Android) by clicking on the QR code* and following the simple instructions.

Ink estimating has never been this simple.

Try our App, Try our service, Try our Ink……We think you’ll like it.

For made to measure ink, contact:

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12 Shaftsbury Lane, Brampton, Ontario, L6T 3X7 Telephone: (905) 793-9970 • Fax: (905) 793-5368 www.hostmann-steinberg.net

More than just ink ...

More than just ink ...