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TPB_Aug09_pp66_67:Feature Two Column 19/08/2009 12:13 Page 66
STRAPLINE SPECIAL PROFILE
R
yuta Sakurai will often look to his teenaged daughter for advice. Whether or not she ever takes the helm of the family printing press manufacturing business, her attitudes and those of the rest of her generation will determine the future of the printing industry, of offset litho printing and of Sakurai Graphic Systems. The company president is on constant watch not just for what his customers around the world are thinking, but even more importantly what the customers of his customers are thinking. They will determine to what extent printing will remain a key communications medium. He says: “I believe I have to think about what it is the 25 year olds are thinking. This has been called the ‘Don’t bore me’ generation, because the details seem irrelevant to them. But they are concerned about the environment around them.” What he is certain of also is that the industry, even before the worldwide recession, cannot continue in the rather bloated way it has become used to. Press manufacturers have to make products which are simpler to use, which are less expensive to invest in and which produce real environmental gains. Back at the Gifu factory where the majority of Sakurai’s 300 staff are employed, the company practices what it preaches. It gained ISO 14001 in 2004 and has followed up with the installation of electricity generating solar panels in 2006 and then more than double the number the following year. Today the panels cover a good proportion of the factory’s roof and generate 320kW of electricity. While there is a duty on Japanese companies to generate a proportion of the power they consume, what Sakurai has done goes
well beyond this. And it comes back to his daughter and being able to answer her directly. “My daughter has given me a different perspective on the business systems we all operate in,” he says. “This is a reason why I am co-operating with Toray and other companies to deliver answers to the questions of what solutions customers want their printers to provide. Other press manufacturers will just propose the hardware and the technology they develop. This leads to producing technology for its own sake and to suppliers becoming obsessed with what their competitors are doing. On the other hand I want to know what the printers’ clients require and want to come up with different solutions to meet those requirements.” Quality is a given from Sakurai as it is from each of the major press suppliers. The other key factor in a mature market as printing is, is cost. Ryuta Sakurai believes that presses have become too expensive and that printers should be able to afford to depreciate a new machine over five years rather than ten, so that they can continue to invest. The company’s route to delivering what it calls ‘Affordable Excellence’ has been to look hard at the market and produce an SRA1 press rather than a B1 or B1+ format. All straight A4 page work will fit on the smaller format and this accounts for the vast majority of a commercial printer’s workload. There’s a saving in the metal and a huge saving in engineering costs as 30% of components are exactly the same as those used on Sakurai’s 75 series machines, so no additional tooling or design work is required. Other benefits are going to be in running costs, because page for page the
NEXT GENERATION thinking
Ryuta Sakurai, president of the family owned Japanese press manufacturer, retains a keen awareness that it is the attitude of younger generations that will shape the success of the printing industry, with its environmental performance very much to the fore
THE GREENEST CHOICE FOR VARIO Last year Vario Press in Langley, Berks, installed a pair of Sakurai presses, configured to run without IPA and to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Managing director David Clarke says: “Vario cares passionately about the environment and we are one of a growing number of UK printing companies to have achieved Forest Stewardship Council – FSC – Certification for the paper we print on. We use no alcohol on our presses, use no chemicals in plate production, use only soya based inks and recycle all waste paper and aluminium plates used. “We continue to update our machinery and equipment to make sure we keep abreast of modern technology and environmental issues. In summary, we endeavour to provide the best possible service for our customers whilst taking environmental issues into account. “In updating our presses last year, we chose Sakurai because they provided the surest way of achieving alcohol free printing.”
smaller press will draw less power than the larger machines. Increasingly the environmental stance a business takes is going to be a differentiating factor between printers. Sakurai’s presses have no difficulty in running without isopropyl alcohol in the fount and all new presses are being run in
this way. Users report a big difference in the atmosphere in the pressroom with none of the headache-inducing aroma that is typical of heavy IPA usage. However, while a move away from the problematic additive is enough of a step for most sheetfed printers, Sakurai is a step ahead. The tie up with Toray is
resulting in a waterless set up, where no additional chemicals are used to print with, there is no use of water and no liquid waste to dispose of. Waterless litho has been regarded as a fringe activity, suited to ultra-niche applications and the dedicated few printers. This is no longer the case. Press design, inks and plates are better and with the steady increase in DI press installations, more and more printers are becoming familiar with running without a dampening system. “When I visit printers I will ask them ‘why is it that you use water to print with?” says Sakurai. “The answer is invariably ‘I have always used water’.” The company’s work with Toray has led to a stable press and plate set up that proved it did not need carefully controlled conditions by printing throughout Drupa without problems. “It was a very hot exhibition hall,” he recalls. “The sort of conditions that a digital press could not cope with. That’s a reason why we were so interested in showing the Toray plate.” The absence of water from the press removes one of the biggest hurdles in the way of short run printing. With no need to achieve a good ink-water balance, printing can begin sooner and with much less paper waste. “We know the plate price is more expensive and that the ink costs are more, but waterless printing gives you a 20% saving on paper waste, which more than compensates. Today as printers are handling more and more short run jobs, think of the impact from saving that amount of paper on every job across the year. Moreover paper is becoming more expensive, so reducing the amount of paper wasted is good business practice. Waste is a big contributor to environmental costs, this is why we have been working with Toray,” he explains. “What’s important is that the printer can answers questions about the environment and can save money at the same time.” What makes the Sakurai approach more interesting is that the standard press
can be configured to run waterless without preventing it being switched back to run with the dampening system in operation. As printers find the runs they are being asked to produce becoming shorter, minimising start up waste will be an increasing factor in being able to respond without resorting to a digital press, which not every printer wants to do and which is not always suitable for the job in question. The waterless route is not the only step the press manufacturer has taken. It is working with ink suppliers on adopting laser diode uv curing, where the new diode technology consumes less energy than mercury vapour lamps. “We think that low temperature uv is good for the future of printing,” he says. “We have to keep looking for new things to offer the customers of our customers.” Sakurai’s screen printing technology falls into this space as the process allows a wide range of different finishes ad effects to be applied to a standard offset sheet. These can be patterned varnishes, scratch off latex or scratch and sniff coatings, metallics and print on plastics and other non-paper substrates. “We call this approach ‘Think and Shift’, because the end customer doesn’t really care how the job is produced. And it’s something that the printer’s sales people can really use to start conversations.” Among those important conversations are those that a printer should have internally. The profile of Sakurai’s customers is typically family-owned businesses, like his own business. And like him, the owners have sons and daughters, who could be running the next generation of printing companies. In the end he says it is simple: “The printers have to change their business, they must look objectively at themselves and they should ask the son or the daughter, what it is that should be changed.”
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