Fujifilm Energy Summer 2014

A MAGAZINE OF NEW IDEAS, DEVELOPMENTS AND SOLUTIONS

IN THIS ISSUE

SOLUTION DESIGN TIMING, COORDINATING AND COMMUNICATING YOUR LAUNCH TO THE MASSES

VOL. 4, ISSUE 3

SNAPSHOTS ON INNOVATION MEET ECOMAXX-T

VOL. 4, ISSUE 3 • SUMMER 2014

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Printing higher quality work faster Inside the Acuity Advance Select

10 Solution Design

Timing, coordinating and communicating your launch to the masses

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Awareness

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Exceeding expectations

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The Graphium impact

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Crystal clear

Third generation printer stays on-track with industry innovations

Inkjet press set to tackle specialty printing market

Brady Corporation increases productivity with Clarity water-wash plates

WWW.FUJIFILMENERGY.COM

A printer’s best friend How Ecomaxx-T meets demands, minimizes environmental impact Peter Vanderlaan Editor > pvanderlaan@fujifilm.com

A letter from Todd Zimmerman

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William Rongey Assistant Editor > wrongey@fujifilm.com

ENERGY is published quarterly by FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division Copyright 2014 All rights reserved www.fujifilmgraphics.com

Press: Komori lS 840 Plates: Fujifilm LH-PJ thermal plates Screening: Fujifilm Co-Res Screening Coating: 5314MA-Texture Matte UV Coating, 5296D-Imprintable Gloss UV Coating, 9016 Contrast Varnish Inks: Outside covers: Toyo UV Paper ink series with stampable UV gloss coating, strike-through dull varnish, and UV dull textured coating Inside covers & body: Toyo Hyplus 100 NEX conventional ink series

A LETTER FROM TODD ZIMMERMAN

Awareness

A

s brand representatives of the Graphic Systems Division, we are fortunate that Fujifilm has a strong heritage of providing exceptionally high quality products. This year, along with our ongoing efforts to develop and improve our products for a wider range of customers and new markets, we are celebrating 80 years of innovation.

Our outstanding research and development team has enabled us to consistently create new solution designs. Throughout the organization, we are all very much aware that the cornerstone of this development is our ongoing focus on you – the customer.

Everyone at Fujifilm embraces our “customer first” concept, which allows us to support a higher level of awareness and overall greater understanding. By being focused on specific client needs, we gain a better perspective on the entire marketplace.

While our long-term success may appear like a tribute to the exceptional products and solutions we develop, our foundation is our simultaneous commitment to quality and a tireless dedication to your requirements. This concept continuously catapults the Fujifilm brand forward. Our connection to your needs has become critical during the development of product strategies. In fact, you’ll soon see more of these aspects within many of Fujifilm’s marketing strategies.

The level of conviction we have in our solutions enables us to serve you from a position of advocacy. Across the organization, we are driving key business initiatives by incorporating a product strategy rooted in the original foundation we used to develop photographic film. Our unwavering commitment to a customer-centric philosophy over the last 80 years has been paramount to our business success.

The level of conviction we have in our solutions enables us to serve you from a position of advocacy.

In our latest issue of Energy, we tap into some illustrations of these market-based examples.

Because print service providers are known for what they print, our cover story, “Against the Grain,” shows you why it’s so important to focus on the creative design elements of your business collateral. Presentation is everything.

In our second feature, “Solution Design,” we share how an organization like Fujifilm designs its product offerings for the market. By designing with our client in mind, we can develop a better recipe for how product concepts come to light. We also delve into specific design elements, the process of commercialization and launching products within a market.

Energy is a result of our customers needs and the market demands we all face within the industry. Please enjoy this issue, and in the meantime, we will continue to work on bringing you content that corresponds to your aspirations.

Respectfully yours,

Todd Zimmerman Senior Vice President and General Manager FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

PRINTING HIGHER QUALITY WORK FASTER

Inside the Acuity Advance Select

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ake a look at the new Acuity Advance Select and one of the key developments you will find is the inclusion of eight independent ink channels. In addition to the standard CMYK ink set, the Acuity Advance Select includes additional white and clear ink channels. These channels can be configured in a number of ways: Clear + White

The addition of white and clear ink channels allows print service providers to print on a range of non-white substrates and add a spot or flood coat “varnish” effect in a single operation all on one printer.

This extends the application versatility of the Acuity Advance Select machine and improves the efficiency with which these types of addedvalue effects can be achieved.

White + White

Alternatively, the Acuity Advance Select can be used with two white ink channels to improve the density of white in a single pass, which can be particularly useful for demanding backlit applications.

The other two extra channels can be used for laying down additional cyan and magenta ink. This improves the quality that can be achieved in the higher speed, production-printing mode allowing more demanding jobs to be printed up to 25 percent faster. In addition, the eight-channel Select includes new print modes to further improve print speed. In either case, the Acuity Advance Select allows print service providers to print higher quality work faster.

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Fujifilm’s uniquely formulated Uvijet inks optimize the Acuity Advance Select’s print performance.

As with other Acuity Advance models, the Select has an optional roll media kit for printing onto any number of flexible materials. This simpleto-use option is incredibly versatile, allowing an operator to prepare rigid material on the flatbed while the roll media option is printing.

The Acuity Advance Select allows print service providers to print higher quality work faster.

Finally, the Acuity Advance Select features additional vacuum zones, further reducing manual masking, together with new job handling capabilities for more complex jobs or those requiring multiple sets of prints, advancements which help to improve overall production efficiencies.

Fujifilm’s uniquely formulated Uvijet inks optimize the Acuity Advance Select’s print performance. These incorporate the company’s proprietary “Micro-V” dispersion technology that consistently delivers wide adhesion, superb color vibrancy and excellent durability in every print.

KEY FEATURES • In-line double strike white • In-line value added clear ink • Two new high quality production print modes • Controlled print-bed vacuum strength through zoning capability • New job handling capability and throughput • Improved image quality through print-bed mapping

The new Acuity Advance Select builds on all the advantages of the highly successful and popular Acuity Advance platform, with the same ultra-high print quality, but adds a number of new features that improve production efficiencies and extend the versatility of this platform, allowing it to be used for a much wider range of applications.

Acuity Advance Select X2 (double bed)

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t’s all about that “ah ha” moment. In a printing landscape defined by constant change and increasing competition, the key to staying ahead of the fray really comes down to whether

or not you’re delivering on those “state of the art,” “change the world as we know it” pieces you promised on your business card.

Sounds simple, right? And it is. Think about it. The best and most effective way to show your customers what you can do is by showing them what you have done. Back in the old days (which really weren’t that long ago), you could tell your customers what you could do. But today, it’s all about the visuals – those collateral materials that you want your customers clamoring over.

“At the end of the day, it’s about being who you say you are,” says Jeffrey Hernandez, VP at Classic, a leader in pre-media, digital artistry and innovative printing in Broadview, Ill. “If you say you are a ‘state of the art printer,’ you have to mean it. Your work has to be something different; it has to be groundbreaking. Collateral pieces are the only way to do that. It has to be a leave-behind piece that stimulates the senses.”

There are three responses to a piece of design – yes, no and WOW. Wow is the one to aim for.

– Noted graphic designer Milton Glaser

Hernandez remembers a particular piece Classic worked on with BMW. Classic was called upon to help convert a 2013 BMW M6 Coupe into a printing press. Created by agency Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal + Partners, the “M Press” project involved a BMW creating unique prints as it was driven along a track at high speeds.

Ink dispensers above the M6’s tires sprayed out a squid-like plume onto the tires, which created artful impressions on a paper track as the car accelerated. The resulting “M Prints,” each a visual statement about the car’s 0-60 in 4.1 seconds prowess, were sent to BMW M owners and prospects in a direct mail campaign.

Talk about visually packaging. “Grabbing your customer’s attention is about sensory frames – hearing, vision and touch,” Hernandez says. “Print helps play to the senses. You want people to be able to engage with the piece. Your collateral should make people act like they are unwrapping a present. You want that look on their faces.””

See The Making of a BMW M Print

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AGAINST THE GRAIN

Our eyes rapidly filter the barrage of visual messages we’re exposed to, and in seconds, they weigh in and decide who the winners are – which messages warrant further perusal – and who loses. Many wonderful ideas go unnoticed and unread because they’re bundled and delivered via visually unattractive packaging. That’s why good graphic design is essential.

Marketers, and advertisers especially, understand the importance of good design. “It is important that people make an emotional connection to the advertising materials that we put together,” says Vanecia Carr, director of marketing of Printing Papers at Domtar. “Your brand represents your company, and you want to ensure that people are interested in what you are showing and want to engage with it. When I receive something, if the design does not stand out or is not visually appealing, I am less prone to do anything with it.”

Life and Death

Nancy Ciolek says that graphic design plays a key role outside of marketing and branding. The funny thing, she admits, is that we don’t often recognize or even realize it.

At the end of the day, it’s about being who you say you are. If you say you are a ‘state of the art printer,’ you have to mean it. Your work has to be something different; it has to be groundbreaking.

– Jeffrey Hernandez, VP, Classic

“From traffic signs to mapping to instructions on mixing chemicals, to medication labels, to food packaging, to symbols on signs in airports, design impacts us daily,” says Ciolek, chair of the Graphic Design Department at Rochester Institute of Technology. “And often the consumer does not even realize it. Graphic design plays a major role and can have an immense impact.

It can persuade, convince, impress, direct, halt, even save someone’s life.”

Take the example of the life-saving redesign of prescription bottles and labels.

“Generally, the bottles are hard to read and elderly patients and others can misread and possibly die from taking wrong doses or the wrong medications due to the poor design,” Ciolek says. “A graphic designer re-designed the Target pharmacy bottles/labels creating an effective information design that can save lives.”

Other pharmacies now are following suit and creating more user-friendly, information-ready prescription bottles and labels.

Left and Right

The redesign project required the graphic designer to first analyze the existing problems traditional prescription bottles posed – inconsistent labeling, tiny type, confusing numbers and poor color combinations. The prototype included color-coding, intelligent expiration and an easy-to-read intake schedule.

Although most people assume design is primarily a right-brain function, the innovative redesign required a lot of left-brain, critical thinking.

At Rochester Institute of Design, there is an emphasis on training student artists to combine critical thinking and creativity. They are taught to explore ways to clarify complex visual communication problems within the constraints of time, space, budget and technology.

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“Good design takes into account the research, analyzing, and logic of business and marketing, and intertwines it with the creative, intuitive aspects of creativity,” says Ciolek, a veteran designer and associate professor of graphic design. “The left brain aspects have to intertwine.

Some companies do this successfully, while others miss the boat.

Some designers can lean one way or the other, while some can balance between it equally.”

Matt Blair has a front row seat to all things design. Along with his brother, Brandon, he created the logistics company Cirrus Visual to focus on integrating print, graphic design and web to marketing and training applications. What he sees today are design campaigns that continue to evolve in the new age of communications.

The best designs are always going to come from great planning and communication with your client.

– Matt Blair, VP of Marketing & Sales, Cirrus Visual “In order to complete a new project, design plan needs to address many media channels,” Blair says. In the past, a designer may have started with one piece and built out other pieces – i.e., start with brochure, and then create a direct mail piece or other supporting doc. Today, the web is being used in many ways on many devices, and the message needs to be clear, regardless if the viewer is on an iPhone, tablet or desktop computer in addition to print materials. It’s important that the look and feel is consistent on all media types.”

Today, the best designs always are going to come from great planning and communication with your client. As a designer, before starting a project, Blair says you must discuss the goals of the project as well as the key messages that need to be conveyed. “Taking a client’s vision and goals, and creating something that truly helps them reach that goal will be the best design. You have to pay attention to what’s around them and take note of the communication pieces (print, video, web, etc.) that most effectively impact them. By being the consumer making note of what works, and then implementing those best practices, their designs will make a greater impact.”

Not only will our eyes linger, but our minds engage and our hands reach out – winning design ultimately makes our hearts reach out as well.

“A strong, effective visual identity creates a timeless, memorable and familiarity to which the consumer can relate,” Ciolek says. “Continuity of design creates a sense of reliability, intelligence and thoughtfulness.”

design trends

on the rise

So, what trends are driving the graphic design market today? Nancy Ciolek, chair of the Graphic Design department at Rochester Institute of Technology, shares with us seven trends we should watch:

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Don’t make things more complex than they need to be (think: do less and do it well)

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Self-designed typefaces, hand-written type and calligraphy continue to trend

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Simplicity in package design solutions The resurgence of letterpress typography The “color of the year” by Pantone has become a meme

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Infographics – everyone has gotten on the bandwagon to do more effective information design

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Return of “flatness” instead of “3D” in screen designs and apps

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CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

Exceeding expectations Craftsmanship. Accountability. Quality printing. Personal attention to customer relationships. A commercial printer since 1965, Simpsons Printing has served as one of the perfect examples of what a family-owned business must do to stay on the cutting edge in today’s ever-competitive marketplace.

For example, the Rapid City, S.D., printer recently worked with FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division to install the Acuity Advance Select.

“With the Acuity Advance Select, we have exceeded our customer’s expectations,” says Jon Simpson, VP Simpsons Printing. “It creates a whole new way of thinking about graphics; it’s no longer just CMYK on white paper; we are now so much broader in our capabilities. I don’t know of a more flexible press on the market in this category.”

The Acuity Advance Select is the ultimate UV inkjet flatbed platform for printing on rigid, flexible and roll media, delivering nearphotographic quality images across a diverse range of creative print applications. Featuring the latest in technology, the Acuity Advance Select delivers superb performance with an attractive price-point, allowing an affordable investment with many upgrade options.

Simpson visited the Fujifilm Technology Center in Kansas City, and valued the hands-on experience. With their previous equipment, Simpson said the ink sets and substrates didn’t work well for them, and the machines didn’t operate properly. Taking their business to the next level was a key priority.

“The Acuity Advance Select six channel press and UV technology was the best fit for us, as we print a lot of rigid substrates, but also wanted other options too,” Simpson says. “The Acuity Advance Select offered us the broadest range of materials to print on, and at the price point we wanted.”

Simpsons Printing invites customers inside their facility to see how large format works, and customers are very impressed with the capabilities on their new UV inkjet flatbed. This in-turn brings in new jobs, including a very noticeable increase in sales growth every month, as this is the only flatbed of its kind in their immediate area, according to Simpson.

With the Acuity Advance Select, we have exceeded our customer’s expectations. It creates a whole new way of thinking about graphics.

– Jon Simpson, VP, Simpsons Printing

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The Kongsberg Cutting Table has been a ‘tremendous’ asset to this third generation printer. “We also looked at cutting options, and I said to myself, how are we going to finish all these new jobs without a cutting table, it was a no-brainer to get the Kongsberg,” Simpson says. “Because so much we print is contour-cut, not just a rectangle or square; lots of die cutting. The table has opened all sorts of new doors for us.”

Simpson likes having the Kongsberg and the Acuity Advance Select together because they go hand in hand and are so intertwined.

“You can’t have one and not the other to be able to do the jobs we manage,” he says. “I can’t imagine not having my cutting table; I use both machines on literally every job.”

We received a tremendous amount of experience in a short amount of time, including workflow and thinking outside the box. We’ve gained all sorts of new customers and new opportunities.

– Jon Simpson, VP, Simpsons Printing

Prior to their install of the Acuity Advance Select and Kongsberg Cutting Table, Simpsons Printing had no involvement in packaging, labels, adhesives or digital die cutting.

“We received a tremendous amount of experience in a short amount of time, including workflow and thinking outside the box,” Simpson says. “We’ve gained all sorts of new customers and new opportunities. Each day there are always new jobs coming in and customers asking new questions about potential new projects, including jobs that customers previously outsourced out of state, and now we can do it at our shop which is taking us in a whole new direction.”

Business has changed at Simpsons Printing, as they are now managing jobs that were not possible until they installed the Acuity Advance Select. “All day every day we are now printing on clear substrates with white ink, and plastics and self-adhesives and others that we never dreamed of printing on,” Simpson says.

Simpson says the shop runs a lot of white ink, and the jobs where they utilize clear ink are “impactful and dramatic,” adding that the Uvijet KI ink color consistency and appearance is “incredible.”

Simpsons Printing boasts many long-term employees, has a history of community involvement, and the recipient of many awards, including “South Dakota Family Owned Business of the Year.”

“We have a great relationship with Fujifilm as our print supplier,” Simpson says. “They are well respected in inks, consumables, and have a great service team and network to keep us up and running and expanding.”

Kathy Simpson, left, proudly looks on as husband Dan, center, President & CEO, and son Jon, Vice President, stand in their Rapid City, S.D. facility.

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he research couldn’t have been any clearer. During the first quarter of 2013, there were more than 97 billion spam, phish and malware-laden emails clogging the internet on any given day. And buried beneath the onslaught of cyberspace activity was a financial blow to the gut that was even harder to track. Those unwanted emails were hitting internet users and companies with billions of dollars in losses.

The activity did not escape the watchful eye of Gary Warner, who ran the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB) Computer Forensics Research Laboratory. One of Warner’s research projects was designed to help companies attain “rich actionable intelligence” on spam, phishing and malware attacks. Because of the project’s success, Warner along with his partners, Greg Coticchia and Mike Perez, in partnership with UAB and the Innovation Depot, privatized the research that created the company, Malcovery Security.

The benefit of working with Malcovery Security is that it shares details of malware attacks significantly earlier than any major anti-virus vendor. To do that, it discovered how to mine incriminating data about the purveyors of spam, phish and malware from their own email campaigns, and provide authorities with actionable intelligence to eliminate these attacks before their handiwork can do any harm.

You must make sure all the stakeholders, internally and externally, are communicated with at the right time, in the right order, with the right messaging. This takes a lot of planning and thought to do right.

– Greg Coticchia, President & CEO, Malcovery Security ENERGY

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THE OFFERING

Coticchia, a serial entrepreneur, and now president and CEO of Malcovery, has had a front row seat to a number of offerings that have moved through the conception, design and launch phase. The process continues to fascinate him. Over the years, there have been a number of approaches proposed for analyzing and responding to the marketing challenges of new product development. One of the “tried and true” methods is Robert Cooper’s ‘Stage Gate’ process, which is used by companies worldwide. It remains one of the most popular ways of creating a repeatable process around the development and commercialization of new products and services.

A newcomer, but growing rapidly process, particularly in small companies and start ups, is “Lean” methodologies such as Agile, popularized in Eric Ries’ “The Lean Startup.”

This method teaches a company how to “steer,” when to “turn,” and when to p er s ever e and grow a business with maximum acceleration. Like Stage Gate, it is a principled approach to new product development.

“The company has to put the process in place and commit to it,” Coticchia says. “If not, it won’t happen on its own. And most likely, what does happen is companies end up in ‘silos,’ where engineering completes its job, sends it to product management/marketing, they do their thing, and they hand it off to marketing, which launches it and gets it to sales, which attempts to sell it. Unfortunately this process, a default process, is like the ‘whisper’ game you may have played as a child. The word or phrase you start with may be very different at the end.”

In the eyes of the beholder

Jim Crawford has been in the game long enough to know that there is no such thing as a perfect product. As the director, Consumable Sales, FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division, Jim has been a part of his share of product innovations.

From a Fujifilm perspective, product placement is done on a global perspective. With four manufacturing plants around the world, whatever product the company produces must have universal acceptability. The key, as Crawford says, is to look for commonality.

“There is no such thing as a universally perfect product,” he says.

“As soon as I figured that out, and came to the realization that you cannot appeal to everyone, it makes all of your decisions easier.

You look for the segments from within the marketplace that will accept it. One is red and the other is blue.

Where do they intersect? Where is the purple?”

What do we want to do and what can we do? Those are the questions we asked as we continue to build our portfolio.

Not everything will appeal to everybody, so you have to find that general appeal.

Of the many questions that a product development team races back and forth, there are several questions that must be addressed, including what are the driving factors beyond the product, can it be produced consistently and what demographic space does it play into.

The hardest part for any R&D team is getting past the perception that you can lock into something that everybody wants.

“You can’t do that,” Crawford says. “One message doesn’t appeal to everybody.”

Take Fujifilm’s Ecomaxx system, which has become a valuable part of its global portfolio.

And as an industry proven truly processless offset plate, Ecomaxx-T has the smallest environmental footprint, which enables an industry moving toward more environmentally Jim Crawford, director, Consumable Sales, conscious strategies to use high quality FUJIFILM North America Corporation, thermal plates without processing chemicals.

Graphic Systems Division By eliminating the act of processing chemicals and all of the associated costs, printers In the end, launches are all about timing, coordination and can save a significant amount of time and money without communications. “You must make sure all the stakeholders, compromising quality. internally and externally, are communicated with at the right time, in the right order, with the right messaging,” Coticchia Long before the printing services industry started its transition into says. “This takes a lot of planning and thought to do right. more of a green mindset, Fujifilm had been working on the concept Most products and services ‘leak out’ of organizations versus of the sustainability friendly Ecomaxx. As Fujifilm R&D teams ‘roll out’ because the process isn’t well defined or thought continued to redefine Ecomaxx, the sudden drop in the economy out, or the organization doesn’t value this part of the process during the mid to late 2000s slowed the launch date of the noand considers it easy or an afterthought. As a result, the process plate system down. And then, as the economy slowly investment in the upfront activities of building the new offering rebounded and sustainability moved to the forefront, Economaxx are often wasted.” was launched.

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“It was always on our radar screen,” Crawford says. “When it started it was all about the green in sustainability. But as times changed (and the industry started to consolidate and change), it became about another kind of green, as in dollars. Companies were fighting to survive, and what Ecomaxx offered was a way to eliminate steps, and save money and resources.”

For a company with its finger on the pulse of the industry from a global perspective, Fujifilm continues to stay in front of what is needed and when. “What do we want to do and what can we do? Those are the questions we asked as we continue to build our portfolio,” Crawford says. “Not everything will appeal to everybody, so you have to find that general appeal. So, when you build awareness internally, and you find enough of an appeal externally, you can create something that can be added to the portfolio.”

Snapshot on… product launches Great launches begin with the end in mind. They bring together the teams and individuals at the beginning of the process, not at the end. You don’t want to have a great launch, well executed, for a product or services that no one understands, or worse, no one wants. Don’t wait to bring in marketing communications until you have something. Oftentimes, they bring ideas and perspectives that may form what you are doing at the start. Greg Coticchia, president and CEO of Malcovery Security sheds some light on today’s new product development (NPD) process: 1

Idea generation

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Idea screening

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Concept development & testing

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Business analysis

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Beta testing & market testing

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Technical implementation

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Commercialization

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New product pricing

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Inkjet press set to tackle specialty printing market The simplest way to describe how the Graphium® inkjet press will help transform the specialty printing market lies in its name.

Graphium is named after a genus of mostly tropical South American butterflies commonly known as swordtails, kite swallowtails or ladies. The vibrantly colored Graphium butterflies are known for their ability to transform.

And therein lies Fujifilm’s strategy with the Graphium inkjet press – to transform how label printing, packaging and other specialty printing will be done in the industry. Manufactured by FFEI Ltd. in the UK, Graphium will offer printers an alternative to flexo and screen printing of short to medium-run, four-color plus white labels and decals up to 16-inches wide.

Building on FFEI’s longstanding expertise in digital inkjet technologies, Graphium combines a range of leading-edge technologies that allow users to convert complex jobs that are not economically viable with standalone conventional or inkjet presses. With Graphium, printers also can have a fully integrated inline solution that incorporates flexographic, inkjet and finishing options.

Designed specifically for the narrow web market, the modular UV inkjet combines a range of leading technologies, including an innovative workflow, prepress and color management software, as well as inkjet head calibration technology, to ensure consistent quality and repeatable production.

Fujifilm currently is demonstrating the Graphium in two sites – its newly expanded Hanover Park Technology Center (Illinois) and at the Fujifilm Tech Centre in the UK. Customers will get a firsthand look at how the inkjet press will help increase margins and revenue streams on their short to medium print runs.

When combined with the Fujifilm Uvijet Graphium ink developed specifically for label and packaging applications, the inkjet press breaks new ground in terms of the performance that can be achieved from a digital press of its caliber. One of the notable advances made by Fujifilm in the Graphium project is its white ink, which holds high opacity in a single hit, and adhesion levels that exceed current industry standards.

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The direction that packaging is taking in terms of customization and shorter runs requires a solution that incorporates printing and finishing inline.

Graphium addresses this need and will enable Fujifilm to transform how the printing for packaging and labels is done.

– Terry Amerine, business development manager, FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division

“For converters, that means consistent proof-to-press match and alignment to color standards, yielding high-quality, vibrant printing and excellent adhesion, light fastness and durability,” says Andrew McKerlie, Graphium channel manager for FFEI. McKerlie, who spent 10 years at HP selling the HP Indigo range of presses, is helping drive sales growth and commercial success for Graphium inkjet printers and software-related products.

McKerlie says the Graphium offers the kind of competitive advantages that today’s printers are looking for in the growing specialty printing market – areas such as consistent proof-to-press match and alignment to color standards, yielding high-quality, vibrant printing and excellent adhesion, light fastness and durability. And because that it is a modular system, printers and label converters can economically add components to the unit as they need to meet the demands of their customers.

Terry Amerine, business development manager, FUJIFILM North America Corporation Graphic Systems Division, says that Graphium expands what printers can do with inkjet. “It offers increased flexibility and productivity, enabling them to manage complex projects that require a wide gamut of colors and variability on virtually any substrate,” Amerine says. “The modular design allows for flexo print stations and inline finishing provides unparalleled print quality and versatility. This is especially true when they use our revolutionary Clarity water washable plate in the flexo stations. Graphium is truly a game changer for printers in the packaging and labeling industry.”

Fujifilm believes that today’s printers should only pay for the ink they are using, and that they have control of what they are using and paying for.

Graphium offers converters increased flexibility and productivity, enabling them to accept complex projects requiring a wide gamut of colors on virtually any substrate. Supporting up to six flexo stations along with a wide range of finishing options from die cutting to lamination, Graphium digital print engine offers the unique capability from a single vendor, of being able to integrate optional flexo and finishing stations inline for conversion in a single pass.

This capability significantly reduces production time and cost in comparison to traditional offline finishing.

As another key piece in Fujifilm’s innovative portfolio, the Graphium is helping set the stage in the specialty printing world. “The direction that packaging is taking in terms of customization and shorter runs requires a solution that incorporates printing and finishing inline. Graphium addresses this need and will enable Fujifilm to transform how the printing for packaging and labels is done,” says Amerine. “I want us to claim the high ground. We’ve done it in the wide format world, now we are doing it in packaging.”

Behind the Graphium Label...

The label sample included inside the poly bag of this issue demonstrates many of the key features of the Graphium, including the capability to: • Print onto metallic paper with no pre-treatment or coating • Achieve high opacity under white (single pass) • Produce brilliant metallic effects (achieved by knocking out the white underneath the butterfly and gold sticker) • Print a range of text sizes – black on white and white on black • Handle all elements of a complex label job: print, slit, die-cut in-line, and fully convert fit-for-purpose labels in a single pass The all-up cost of this label was under $0.016/label *. * - cost includes substrate, labor and ink.

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CRYSTAL CLEAR Brady Corporation increases productivity with Clarity water-wash plates

Clarity reduces platemaking processing time to less than 40 minutes, 300 percent faster than leading solvent systems, and 1.5 times faster than current thermal and water technologies.

The Clarity plates are the latest industry-changing technology expressly developed for flexo printers. They provide the highest flexo print quality at the fastest production times, while significantly lowering cost-in-use compared to thermal, solvent or other water-wash technology.

With Clarity, our print quality is improved and our productivity is up.

– Theresa Narveson, Manufacturing Engineer, Brady Corporation – Good Hope “We are always looking for ways to improve our productivity and efficiency in order to best serve our customers, and after representatives from Fujifilm visited us and installed the new Clarity plates, we received a lot of positive feedback from our press operators who were impressed with the quality, fast production time, durability and ease of clean-up,” says Theresa Narveson, manufacturing engineer, Brady Corporation.

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Clarity, which is compatible with Brady’s current CTP imaging equipment, reduces platemaking processing time to less than 40 minutes, 300 percent faster than leading solvent systems and 1.5 times faster than current thermal and water technologies. Faster plate making means more time on press and a dramatic increase in output per shift, while freeing printers to redeploy labor costs to more value-added activities.

Clarity’s innovative water wash chemistry does far more than simply eliminate the need for solvents and wicking cloths – it delivers longer runs while producing a consistent 200lpi at 4400dpi, and a 1 percent process dot structure for print quality never before seen with flexo plates.

“With Clarity, our print quality is improved and our productivity is up.” Narveson says. “Our print quality is improved and our productivity is up. It’s a winning combination that enables us to better serve our customers.”

SNAPSHOTS ON INNOVATION What’s new with Fujifilm

A printer’s best friend How Ecomaxx-T meets demands, minimizes environmental impact In a time when more commercial printers are embracing the green movement, Universal Printing proudly sits in that “always been there, still doing that” phase. Being environmentally conscious is not a buzzword at the Durham, N.C.-based printer, it has been a strategic part of its business culture for the past 30 years.

That’s what makes Fujifilm’s Ecomaxx system such a valuable part of its portfolio. And as an industry proven truly processless plate, Ecomaxx-T has the smallest environmental footprint. Ecomaxx-T enables environmentally conscious printers such as Universal to use high quality thermal plates without processing chemicals. No processing means the elimination of processing chemicals and all of the associated costs. This helps printers save a significant amount of time and money – all without compromising quality.

Compatible with most thermal platesetters, Ecomaxx-T is a non-ablative plate that carries a latent image with distinct contrast, allowing for simple inspection after imaging.

Printers can expect a consistent printing plate. And once they are accustomed to easily adapted practices to manage a true processless plate, they can enjoy virtually all of the benefits of a conventionally processed CTP plate.

“The advantage of running a chemical-free plate and not having to circulate chemistry, detergents and developers, plus washing, has been very strong for us,” says Don Bean, production manager at Universal, which is one of the only printers of its size in North Carolina to earn the prestigious G7 Master Printer qualification. “Keeping the emulsion on the plate all the way into the pressroom has been able to protect and preserve the plate. You don’t have anything fully exposed at that point. That’s helped because we are not dealing with any scratches or sensitivities.”

This process has helped change the pressroom dynamic at Universal. Bean says when using Ecomaxx-T, you just have to turn on the [platesetter], wait for it to calibrate for 10 minutes or so, and then you’re ready to start making plates.

“Our make-ready times are much more efficient today because of Ecomaxx-T,” Bean says. “That’s important today. The commercial printing business is shifting to where margins are much tighter today.

It has become more of a commodity business. Everybody is trying to cut each other’s business. Every penny truly matters. Ecomaxx helps us save on overhead because we are saving money on resources and manpower. It helps because everything is about the bottom line.”

From footprint and labor savings, to budget, ordering logistic and storage savings, and developing chemicals, Ecomaxx-T can help allocate space in a printer’s plant for other high utilization.

“Every printer can benefit from the true processless nature of Ecomaxx-T,” says Jim Crawford, director, Consumable Sales, FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division. “While true processless releases the printer from operating a processor, there are many other requirements that need to be considered; such as, run length, work/process flow of plates through their plant, etc. In some cases, this technology is an environmental need, but for many others it is a want or a strong want; both environmentally or operationally.”

ENERGY

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