Irish Printer Jan/Feb 2017

JAN/FEB 2017 || THE VOICE OF THE INDUSTRY || WWW.IRISHPRINTER.IE

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See Digital Print through new eyes Discover the Konica Minolta advantage with MJ Flood Ireland Industry Leading Productivity 350gsm Duplex Extremely accurate front-back registration Over 3000 SRA3 sheets per hour on all stocks Optional envelope fusing system for full colour envelope production Experienced Technicians Nationwide Service Extra Long High Capacity Unit for 1,000 Sheets of up to 750mm Extended Length Banner Support of up to 1200mm in Multi-Bypass Tray

www.mjflood.ie Visit our website and learn more about the new bizhub PRESS series.

OFFICIAL PAPER PARTNER www.premierpaper.ie

bizhub PRESS C1085/C1100

Phil Schueler Production Print Manager M: 086 171 4421

AccurioPress C2060/C2070

Athlone | Belfast | Cork | Galway | Limerick | Sligo | Waterford | Wexford

Clonlara Avenue, Baldonnell Business Park, Baldonnell, Dublin 22, D22 V4F5. Tel +353 1 466 3500 Email info@mjflood.ie 241748_MJ Flood_Irish Printer.indd 1

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JAN/FEB 2017 CONTENTS

04 News

A round up of some of the latest news from the Irish print industry.

10 Print Profile

Walsh Colour Print’s Tony Walsh talks to Maev Martin about the difference that their post-drupa investment in three new H-UV equipped Komori Lithrones has made to their business.

14

Packaging

Irish Printer reports on a new technology that allows industrial print and drinks producers to print direct to cans profitably, a flexo press world first, and a recent technological marriage to enhance label production.

16 Textile Printing

We take a look at Mimaki’s offering at the Heimtextil 2017 show in January and Epson’s SureColor F Series at The Print Show.

18 What’s New in Print

■ Print on the Edge ■ Consistent Correct Colour Reproduction ■ Tactile Shrink Sleeves ■ Textile Printing Made Easy ■ Flexible Packaging Ink ■ Label Records Supply Chain Temperatures

22 Commercial Profile

Ali Jason Bazooband, Director of Innovation/ Marketing at Unitedprint. com SE, one of Europe’s leading online print shops, shares his outlook on the future of web-to-print with Irish Printer readers and provides insights into Unitedprint’s success story.

Cover Story Digital print is driving growth and reshaping perceptions of print. In this issue, Canon Ireland talks about its #UNLEASHPRINT campaign which helps print companies to ensure that print buyers never underestimate the unique value that print delivers.

28 Open House

GPMI’s open days at their HQ in Dublin attracted over 80 customers who were keen to view their range of digital print and cut technologies and substrates.

30 Finishing Touches

We report on a print inspection technology that can be retro-fitted to almost all folder/gluers and on new systems for the production of short-run, on-demand boxes.

Colour Management

Shoshana Burgett, Director of Corporate Strategy for X-Rite Pantone, looks at how designers and printers can best achieve colour consistency across materials.

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32 The Social Network

Thirty print and signage companies turned out for GPMI/ Reprocentre’s two-day SignMakers of Ireland Golf & Fishing Invitational at Ballyliffin in Co Donegal.

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Boeing, Disney, Toyota and Nasa for its printers, which print 3D models and prototypes in colour from paper and ink.

Meanwhile, Massivit 3D Printing Technologies revealed that sales of its new Massivit 1800 3D printer are well into double figures worldwide. The Massivit 1800, which can print models up to 1.8 metres/six feet high, has been installed by customers around the world, including the UK, where printing house Stylo Graphics has used the 1800 to produce 3D models for the retail, interior design and hospitality sectors. Owner Simon Olley says that their clients are ‘blown-away’ by the ability of the 1800 to produce larger than life, personalised 3D models.

With all of these exciting developments, could it be time for Irish commercial print companies, particularly the larger operators, to consider making the move into 3D? Many print companies have already entered the large format market and successfully developed new revenue streams as a result. Maybe a move into 3D printing will shortly be viewed as a natural extension of that trend for some large format print businesses.

elcome to the January/ February edition of Irish Printer magazine.

November was 3D printing month. Well known brands such as Massivit, Canon and Roland announced further forays into this growing market. Roland DG presented a prototype of its new 3D printer which is aimed at small and medium sized companies. It can currently produce objects up to 300x250x150mm. The manufacturer claims that the technology produces fine details and the precision suitable not only for the decorative field, but also for manufacturing industry parts such as ceramic filter elements, valves or heat insulators.

Closer to home, Canon announced on November 23rd that it will roll out its 3D print proposition in Ireland by expanding its distribution agreement with global 3D printing technology provider, 3D Systems. Through the partnership, Canon will offer the 3D printers to existing customers in Ireland across the engineering, manufacturing and architectural market segments. “The market for 3D printing is growing exponentially as customers are realising the huge commercial opportunities it presents,” says Philip Brady, Head of Canon Ireland.

“There has never been a better time to invest in 3D.” Louth-based 3D printer maker Mcor certainly thinks so. They recently announced that they are raising €5m in order to scale up their operations with 100 new employees and target sales of up to 2,000 printers a month. Sales will be made through a network of 150 dealers in 50 countries.

Mcor has raised €16m to date and the new funding is likely to come from venture capital or strategic investors in the US and Europe. The Dunleer firm has orders from

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Maev Martin, Editor Email: maev.martin@ashvillemediagroup.com Tel: (01) 432 2271

THE TEAM Editor: Maev Martin Editorial Manager: Mary Connaughton Creative Director: Jane Matthews Design: Antoinette Sinclair Production Manager: Mary Connaughton Production: Claire Kiernan Printed by: Walsh Colour Print on Novatech Matt 150gsm supplied by Antalis Ireland.

Contact: Irish Printer, Ashville Media Group, Old Stone Building, Blackhall Green, Dublin 7 Tel: (01) 432 2200 Web: www.irishprinter.ie

All rights reserved. Every care has been taken to ensure that the information contained in this magazine is accurate. The publishers cannot, however, accept responsibility for errors or omissions. Reproduction by any means in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. © Ashville Media Group 2017. All discounts, promotions and competitions contained in this magazine are run independently of Irish Printer. The promoter/advertiser is responsible for honouring the prize.

ISSN 0790-2026

30/01/2017 16:56

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TEN TOP STORIES

Mass Customised Design from HP and Arjowiggins Arjowiggins Creative Papers employed HP Indigo digital printing to produce 10,000 bookmarks, each with an entirely unique design, for the FIAC International Contemporary Art Fair, which was held in Paris from October 20th to 23rd. Conceived by design agency Jager & Jager and produced on a HP Indigo 7800

by Serafi Industria Grafica Publicitaria, each FIAC bookmark is customised using HP SmartStream Mosaic technology to create a design like no other. For a varied tactile experience, Arjowiggins selected nine different digital papers, specially developed for use with HP Indigo presses, and three fold variations, to further individualise each bookmark. Aspiring to reflect the individuality and exclusivity of the artworks on display at FIAC, Arjowiggins Brand Manager, Jerome Noyelle specified HP SmartStream Mosaic “to inspire the designer, showcase the latest graphic arts trends, provide an original experience for the recipient, and of course, demonstrate the qualities of Arjowiggins creative digital papers.” Jäger & Jäger took the brief and created an A0-sized master artwork, comprising a collection of 40 ‘primary sheets’, all based broadly on the theme ‘book’, but individually focused on specific subjects such as half tone dots, epic poetry, anatomy of letters or languages. HP SmartStream Mosaic generates large-scale design variations by randomly transforming a master artwork file – rotating, transposing, interchanging colours and amplifying the design anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 percent. “Jobs such as this perfectly demonstrate the beauty of digital printing; what appears to be complex: three folds, nine substrates, 10,000 design variations, is just one job on the HP Indigo Press, not complicated at all,” says Jaume Gazquez from Serafi.

ABOVE LEFT: HP SmartStream Mosaic generates large-scale design variations by randomly transforming a master artwork file. RIGHT: Arjowiggins Creative Papers employed HP Indigo digital printing to produce 10,000 bookmarks, each with an entirely unique design.

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TEN TOP STORIES

Antalis Acquires Swan Paper giant Antalis has acquired the assets of Swan Paper, Ireland’s largest independent paper merchant. The deal will further strengthen Antalis’ presence in Ireland where it already has an annual turnover in excess of €40m and employs 32 people from its Dublin head office. Antalis will retain the Swan brand, creating a new Swan Paper division that will be headed up by Swan’s Brian McArdle.

He will report into Eoin Heagney, Managing Director of Antalis Ireland. The business will continue to operate from its base in Baldoyle, Dublin and all 13 current employees will transfer over to Antalis. Swan Paper celebrated its 40th year in 2016 under the leadership of CEO Tony Swan. “I am incredibly proud to have built the business into the company it is today, but feel it is now time to take a step back from day-to-day operations,” says Tony. “The next chapter in the Swan story is incredibly important to me and I believe that Antalis is the right business partner to take the company forward. Antalis’ approach to its people, product offering and customers are all very similar to our own. Our success has, in no small measure, been down to the ‘Swan Team’ approach and I am delighted that all of our talented and knowledgeable colleagues will transfer over to Antalis.” Eoin Heagney describes the acquisition as “an incredibly exciting development” for Antalis. “This will see us significantly increase the size of our business in Ireland,” he says. “The team at Swan has in-depth expertise, and a genuine entrepreneurial culture. Everyone involved is looking forward to bringing together our two businesses to offer an unrivalled product range and service to our customers.”

ABOVE (L-R): Brian McArdle, Chief Operating Officer of Swan, Eoin Heagney, Managing Director, Antalis Ireland, and Tony Swan, current Swan CEO, at the announcement that Antalis has acquired the assets of Swan Paper.

Antrim Printer Scales New Heights Carrickfergus-based signage and grant format print company Signscript Ltd recently added to its grand format array by investing in a new Mimaki UJV55-320 LED UV roll-fed printer to boost its production capacity for the retail and exhibition industries. Signscript made the investment through specialist Mimaki reseller GPMI Reprocentre who have installed a host of UJV55 printers throughout Ireland. “We invested in the new 3.2 metre UV Mimaki printer because we knew it would give us quality, performance and reliability,” explains Signscript’s Managing Director, Brendan Nugent. “After 15 years of using Mimaki printers they have proven to be the best performing printers in the market, with year-on-year advancement in production speeds.” Signscript’s motto is ‘Launching your ideas to new heights’ and they certainly kept that promise recently for one of their clients when they produced a marriage proposal to hang off the back of a plane, along with a range of signage, banners and other digital print along the way. The investment in the Mimaki UJV55-320 will serve to strengthen that promise. “Having the capacity to print up to 3.2m wide is essential for winning bigger contracts in the retail PoS and exhibition sectors,” says Brendan. “UV inks give vibrant colours and high blockout which is perfect for customers looking for backlit signage. The UJV55 is terrific value for money and we get low running costs thanks to LED UV curing lamps and economical UV inks.” The Mimaki UJV55-320 was released in April 2016. Its inline, post-print LED lightbox allows the print quality of backlit signage to be checked during the production run. The UJV55-320 also features twin roll printing capability.

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ABOVE: GPMI Reprocentre’s Bill Forde (left) with Signscript’s Brendan Nugent (right) with the newly installed Mimaki UJV55-320.

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TEN TOP STORIES

(L-R): Portman Graphic’s Sales Director Jason O’Brien and Paper Assist’s Sean Rockett with the new Perfecta guillotine.

Paper Assist Opts for Portman’s New Perfecta Independent paper merchant Paper Assist recently installed a new Perfecta 115 TS guillotine supplied by Portman Graphic to further improve turnaround times and tighten its control of the supply chain process. “The previous guillotine we had was on its last legs so we began to check out the market for new and used models,” says Paper Assist’s Sean Rockett. “Portman Graphic’s Managing Director Ian Murphy and Sales Director Jason O’Brien pulled out all the stops to source different options for us. We could have gone for a decent second hand machine but, for a slightly higher investment and a much higher technical spec, we got the new Perfecta 115.” As well as the higher-end specialities that they sell, Paper Assist has experienced strong growth with its Munken range of uncoated papers. These include Munken Book Papers as well as the Munken Design range, incorporating Munken Pure, Lynx, Polar, and the new Kristall high white shade. In addition, Fedrigoni has just launched some new

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products, including extensions to the Old Mill and Freelife paper ranges. “Fedrigoni are an exciting paper group to be associated with as they are constantly innovating and launching new products,” says Sean. “We have a strong presence in the wedding stationery market. We began producing bespoke envelopes in many different sizes that would match the papers that we sell and this has allowed us to offer a more complete solution to corporate and wedding clients alike. We plan to further expand our range of bespoke envelopes and wedding pocketfolds, so 2017 promises to be a busy and exciting year for us!”

While the print runs are smaller than they were prior to the downturn, Paper Assist are finding that print buyers and specifiers are now willing to consider using better papers for these smaller runs. “There seems to be a greater appreciation for bespoke, quality and personalised printed matter and our papers fit perfectly with those requirements,” says Sean. Portman Graphic’s Jason O’Brien has also experienced some positive changes in the market. “The last 12 months have been tremendous for us and for the industry as a whole,” he says. “Confidence is back. Not only can printers get finance, they are also prepared to look for it, which is great, because the industry has to continue to reinvest in order to survive and remain competitive. There has been a steady increase in investment in both new and used equipment in Ireland, north and south of the border. We experienced very steady growth in the sale of Horizon equipment in 2016, including folding machines, as well as booklet making, saddle stitching and collating equipment. D&K laminators also sold in the multiples. The investments appear to be driven by several factors - the necessity to become more efficient, to keep as much work as possible in-house, and to offer the clients more than their competitors. However, I think it is important for Portman Graphic to remind our industry colleagues and customers that, while we are well known as the exclusive distributor of Komori equipment in Ireland, we are also the largest supplier of new and used equipment to the print industry in Ireland.”

Portman Graphic houses over €250,000 worth of stock at its new premises in Ballymount in Dublin 12 and the company is planning to install a showroom this year where they can demonstrate new and used equipment to existing and prospective customers.

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TEN TOP STORIES

which has influenced our decision, in some instances, to move certain print jobs from our litho press to the digital machine, as the colours are so consistent. There are several key benefits that we are experiencing as a result of installing the new C1085.

We can now use heavier paper stock, unlike our previous digital printer, providing the customer with a better quality product. The registration is on a par with the litho press, and we do not have to worry about it being off.

The production time required to set up print jobs on the digital is minimal, compared to setting up a print job on the litho, and there is also less waste

Clare Printer Gets Real with Konica Minolta

in setting up a job, which reduces our material usage when producing the end product.” MJ Flood’s Print Production

Real Print in Ennis, Co Clare, has

Manager Phil Schueler says that Real

been reaping considerable business

Print has been a “valued customer”

rewards following its investment in a

since 2013 when they moved away from

Konica Minolta bizhub C1085 press,

Xerox for their digital requirements and

supplied by MJ Flood, last October.

bought a bizhub Press C6000 from MJ

“After working with our bizhub C6000

Flood. “We approached Kenneth again

press for five years, we needed to

earlier in 2016 and began discussing

upgrade our digital machine to remain

Real Print’s expanding digital offering,”

competitive and meet our customers’

he says. “They had moved into a new

demands,” says Real Print’s Kenneth

location and were expanding their

Butler. “The demand for digital print

product offering. They were very

has certainly increased. This is due to

impressed with our bizhub Press C1085

customer demand for short runs and

high-volume production colour system

fast turnaround times. We installed

and its outstanding image quality,

the C1085 last October and to date

productivity, paper handling, and tight

it has proven to be very efficient at

front-to-back registration, among other

meeting our production requirements.

things. I also know that our excellent

We use the C1085 daily to print a

service and support out of our Limerick

variety of items, including business

branch was a huge factor in sealing the

cards, brochures, letterheads, labels,

deal. We are excited about continuing

cards, gift vouchers, posters, and flyers.

our excellent relationship with Real

The quality of the print is excellent,

Print, both now and into the future.”

Antalis Puts on a Show of Power New technologies, new markets and new commercial opportunities was the message being sent by Antalis to printers at The Print Show at Birmingham’s NEC in October. In a passionate ‘Power to the Printers’ campaign, the company showcased a number of innovative products across its digital portfolio in large and small formats, including Drytac printable films, the Xerox Premium NeverTear matt white polyester film, the Arjowiggins digital range of colourful papers, and the Coala paper-backed wallcoverings range. For commercial printers looking to enter the sign and display market, Drytac printable films remove the requirement for costly fitters and are growing in popularity.

The Xerox Premium NeverTear polyester film can be printed using colour and mono laser printers. Applications include wristbands, hotel door hangers, placemats, personalised luggage tags, and garden plant tags and stakes.

NeverTear is specially designed for frequently handled documents and outdoor applications, and is both water and tear resistant. The new Arjowiggins digital range of colourful papers has been specially adapted for digital printing, be it the special ready-to-use digital sheet formats for both liquid and dry toner presses, or Mohawk’s i-Tone treatment in the entire liquid toner range. There’s no shelf life, meaning that products will not yellow, and these papers are also available in small packs adapted to short-run digital printing. The Coala wallcoverings range is available in a variety of embossings and textures, is solvent, latex and UV inkjet compatible, and can be cleaned with soap and water alone.

POWER

TO THE PRINTERS BELOW (L-R): Dave Gerrihy, Production Manager Real Print, Gordon Benson, Limerick Branch Manager, and Ken Butler, Real Print Owner.

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TEN TOP STORIES Ricoh Print Deal Saves Solas €60k Ricoh Ireland announced on December 15th that it had enabled Solas to make annual savings of approximately €60K following a managed print deal. Ricoh won the deal following a competitive tender process and installed multi-functional devices across four floors at the new Solas headquarters in Dublin’s docklands.

Ricoh was commissioned by Solas to install Aficio MP C3003 printers to replace approximately 200 desktop printers, significantly reducing the costly and inefficient consumables needed for the desktop printers. To further reduce unnecessary costs, the printers require each user to use their own personal swipe card. Using Ricoh’s Equitrac print and copy control solution, the multi-functional devices can track usage and increase user mobility. The printers reduce waste by deleting print jobs that aren’t printed within 24 hours. They also order their own toner when the current cartridge is running low and register service requests using Ricoh’s ‘@remote’ software. By reducing the number of printers used on a daily basis, Solas has also reported a significant reduction in energy consumption and costs. All printers operate on the same network and can be monitored remotely.

ABOVE: Pictured at the announcement at the Solas headquarters in Dublin’s docklands are Gary Hopwood, General Manager, Ricoh Ireland, and Adrian Browne, Facilities Services Manager, Solas.

Smurfit Kappa Makes World’s Largest Box Smurfit Kappa has entered the Guinness World Record books by making the world’s largest cardboard box. Measuring a staggering 40 metres by 20 metres, it was designed and manufactured by a team of creative thinkers in the Smurfit Kappa van Dam plant in the Netherlands. The challenge was to make a box big enough to eclipse the previous world record set in 2014 in the US. The enormous cardboard construction, which was a feat of design and engineering, was unveiled at a special event for staff and customers at the plant in Helmond. The record-breaking box has already gone on to be recycled and was turned into new packaging for one of Smurfit Kappa’s customers in just 14 days. The Smurfit Kappa van Dam plant designs, manufactures and supplies corrugated cardboard packaging and specialises in extra large, heavy duty packaging for a range of sectors, including food, automotive and logistics.

Meanwhile, Smurfit Kappa Display (Ireland) won the Short Run, FMCG – Temporary Display category in the Popai Awards 2016 for its Ribenary WOW Dumpbin. The colourful stand was rolled out in convenience stores across Ireland to ensure maximum visibility for the drink as part of the ‘Ribnerary’ marketing campaign. Another engaging display made by Smurfit Kappa Inspirepac for Walkers Crisps UK, won silver. “It is fantastic that Smurfit Kappa in Ireland and the UK have come away with both gold and silver at these awards,” says Jonathan Arthur, General Manager, Smurfit Kappa Display. “To hear that both products are already driving sales for our customers shows that our in-store displays are a fundamental part of retail marketing.” The winners of the Popai Awards 2016 were announced at the Lancaster London Hotel on October 4th. The awards celebrate creativity, innovation and best practice in retail marketing.

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31/01/2017 09:35

TEN TOP STORIES

A Year Long Celebration of Print The transformational role that paper, packaging and signage have had in shaping the world we live in today has been the inspiration behind an innovative limited-edition calendar by Antalis.

Designed around the theme ‘Where would we be without it?,’ each month creatively depicts iconic pieces through history, from the Magna Carta in 1215 and the introduction of Braille in 1824, through to ground-breaking signage on the Voyager spacecraft, and Christmas packaging.

The calendar, which is exclusive to Antalis customers, is also a showcase of the range of papers manufactured by Arjowiggins, with each page printed on a different creative paper from

Agfa Integrates Print into Manufacturing The list of applications for industrial inkjet is growing across a wide variety of industries. These applications can either be made with wide format printers or require specific printing equipment that needs to be custom-designed.

Agfa Graphics partners with multiple OEM inkjet system integrators who develop customised print systems that comprise either Agfa Graphics’ singlepass or multi-pass inkjet inks, tuned to match specific application needs.

At InPrint 2016 in Milan in November, Agfa Graphics positioned itself as a partner for integrating print into manufacturing processes. The company displayed a wide selection of industrial products that are digitally printed, and highlighted its inks, whether UV-curable or water-based, which deliver the functional requirements for e.g., flooring and furniture on melamine base.

Also on display were printed tubes and cans, customised shoes and chairs, and personalised PET bottles and containers. Agfa develops a wide variety of fluids that are in use for applications as diverse as product printing, packaging, and interior decoration. One example is Agfa’s low migration inks for migration sensitive applications such as food, beverage and pharma packaging. In addition, Agfa Graphics offers software that supports industrial production workflows in need of variable data processing, pre-flighting, image processing and colour management, as well as solutions for anti-counterfeiting. “More and more industrial customers are enjoying the advantages of digital printing and the availability of a process or solution that integrates print into their manufacturing set-up,” says Tom Cloots, Marketing Manager Industrial Inkjet.

000_IP Jan_Feb 2017_News.indd 9

collections such as Curious Collection, Rives, Pop’Set, Keaykolour, Conqueror and Cyclus. A range of innovative print techniques are also demonstrated, including holographic foiling on a twenty-pound note, and blind embossing of a braille message. The calendar is 100% carbonbalanced through the World Land Trust, reflecting Antalis’ commitment to sustainability.

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PRINT PROFILE

WITH H-UV CURING

Tony Walsh went to drupa 2016 to buy one press but the Walsh Colour Print MD left having ordered three new H-UV equipped Komori Lithrones. He talks to Maev Martin about the difference that this latest technology has made to their business.

Tony Walsh, Managing Director, Walsh Colour Print.

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t the start of 2016, Walsh’s Komori firepower constituted two 26 inch four colour Lithrones, a 10-colour Lithrone 28P perfector, an eight colour Lithrone 40P perfector, a five colour Lithrone 29 with coater, and a highly automated four-unit, 16-page Komori System 38S web press. At drupa, the intention was to purchase a H-UV Lithrone G540 and coater but the company ended up investing in the four-over-four GLX-840RP fixed perfector, which was on the Komori stand, and the newly-launched Lithrone GL529 with coater as well. “The GLX-840RP is already in production, with the GL-540 installed last November, and the GL529 will follow early in 2017,” says Managing Director Tony Walsh.

Manufacturing print for over one hundred other printers almost every day requires rare skills indeed!

What’s more, when you’re located several hours away from almost all of them, the expertise needed is even greater and the turnround times even more critical. That’s certainly the case with Castleisland, Co Kerry-based Walsh Colour Print.

However, since Tony and Pat Walsh established their trade printing business there in 1991, initially focusing on small batch multi-colour stationery products such as business cards and letterheads, their ability to deliver premium print anywhere in Ireland, more often than not to next day deadlines, has enabled them to become one of Ireland’s leading offset printing houses. And Komori presses have been the cornerstone of their business for the past 17 years.

Their premises now occupy

Micheál Walsh, Production Manager at Walsh Colour Print

over 100,000 square feet, 25,000 of this storing over 3,000 pallets of paper in readiness to satisfy the orders received every day. A 15,000 square foot annex warehouses thousands of books, which Walsh prints for its fast-growing educational publishing arm, educate. ie, the call-off period varying from days to years. “We operate to daily 7pm dispatch deadlines in order to deliver next day to anywhere in Ireland,” says Tony.

Turnround Time Delivering consistently excellent turnaround times is a fundamental factor in the success of the Walsh Colour Print operation. “That is why the unique H-UV curing system is and will continue to be so beneficial for us,” says Pat. “It is well established, well proven and brings with it several additional benefits, especially the flexibility to dry the ink instantly on all substrates, and the ability to produce, with inline coating, a gloss which is not too far away from a laminated finish. Everyone at Walsh will welcome the elimination of spray powder around the factory and our customers will be impressed with the improved look and feel of the finished jobs.

The green characteristics of H-UV – no ozone, clean air and lower power consumption - are important to us, too.” Walsh’s GLX-840RP also has PDC-SX spectral print density control and Komori’s PQA-S inline Print Quality

30/01/2017 17:01

PRINT PROFILE

Assessment, which features a 4K camera to ensure constant quality is maintained through the print run.

“At drupa we saw all of Komori’s latest automation and control systems in operation on the GLX 840RP,” says Pat. “There was the fully automated ink key, register setting and plate changeover systems which, on the RP, for example, are simultaneous and reduce job-to-job downtime to around two minutes. The quality control systems are equally important to us, especially as we print for the trade, and the KHS-AI automatic intelligence system will cut our waste down to around 50 or fewer sheets per job, when it used to be in the hundreds. As trade printers, we accept whatever run lengths are specified and we always have to price highly competitively. We’ll be passing jobs requiring as few as 250 sheets to the eight unit RP, and possibly even lower run lengths to the new GL540 or GL529, in the knowledge that whichever machine we use, every job will return a margin to us.”

According to Ian Murphy, Managing Director of Portman Graphic, Komori UK’s distributor in Ireland, statistics indicate that print manufacturing capacity in Ireland will continue to shrink over the next few years. Yet, the overall demand for printed material is not set to reduce proportionally, so Walsh has geared up for the obvious business opportunities that this presents. “The three new Lithrones give the company exceptionally flexible capacity,” he says. “The 40 inch and 29 inch five colour machines with H-UV and coaters for added value options will attract print designers, and the four-over-four Reverse Printer will print at 18,000 an hour, even on heavyweight materials.”

With the efficiencies of its System 38S 16-page web, Tony Walsh calculates a break-even between this and the sheet fed machines at around the 3,000 run length. The company currently outputs the equivalent of 800,000 sheets a day.

“With the new machines, we can step this up to one million a day,” he says. “We’re also adding a new Kodak CTP, which outputs 62 plates an hour, and a new single-delivery folder to capitalise on the increased output of the new Lithrones, and enable us to accept more same day turnaround jobs.”

TOP: Walsh’s Komori GLX-840RP. ABOVE: Reverse printing units on Walsh’s Lithrone GX840RP

A Publishing Success Story There is a €50m market for educational books in Ireland. Seven years ago, having recognised weaknesses in the supply chain, in particular what Tony and Pat Walsh identified as detrimentally and unnecessarily high pricing, they created a new publishing division, educate.ie, which now turns over €5m. Much of the educational work is currently printed and folded inline on the Komori System 38S web press. “We are giving teachers the interesting, well designed books they need to help them meet the challenges they face in today’s classrooms,” says Tony. “And we are dedicated to producing books at prices that parents can afford. Our role is to create books that provide a platform for classroom interaction and they are commissioned and written by highly experienced educationalists. Through educate. ie we are playing our part in keeping educational bookshops alive, and now, with a revival in the recognition of the power of print by teachers and parents alike, there is potential for us to expand our products further. Production technology such as the new Lithrone machines, which enable us to develop and print affordably priced books, even for niche markets, are vital to the development of our publishing division and to the continued growth of the Walsh Colour Print operation as a whole.”

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COVER STORY

W with Canon The world of print has changed. It’s no longer about compromise, but about saying ‘yes’ to our customers. At Canon Ireland we found that our customers’ passion for print ensured that they survived where others didn’t.

And now it’s time to go further – to #UNLEASHPRINT.

hether in reference to dwindling use or falling print volumes, there has been too much talk in recent years about a decline in print. In fact, when you consider the dynamism that characterises the world of digital print, the word ‘decline’ has no place alongside ‘print’ at all. From wide format printing for interior décor and the emergence of books-of-one, through to high quality photo books and the transformation of multi-channel communications, digital print is driving growth and reshaping perceptions of print.

Canon is one of the largest providers of digital printing equipment in the industry, with a broad portfolio from image capture to output addressing the broadest range of market segments. To equally address the requirements of print providers and print buyers, Canon Ireland takes an application-driven approach.

By making the application the focal point we are able to grow a profitable business for print for pay customers. We help them to expand their digital offering to deliver innovative new applications and services that will enable them to enter new markets. We can help print for use customers to secure and grow their business by enhancing business performance.

This is achieved by improving the efficiency of their operations in terms of cost and delivery, and through the delivery of new services.

The concept of #UNLEASHPRINT falls under three key messages: Inspire - As the market leader in digital production printing, Canon support customers and partners alike in making print more creative; Innovate - We’re here to help you make the most of opportunities in print by combining industry-leading technology, future-proof products and specialist expertise. More than a provider of hardware and software, we are your partner in end-to-end innovation; Transform - Think beyond simply adapting to the trends of today and transform business challenges into lucrative opportunities of the future. There’s never been a more exciting time to #UNLEASHPRINT.

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COVER STORY Challenges and Opportunities There has been consolidation in the industry since the global economic downturn and print is increasingly commoditised in some areas. Print’s relevance has even been questioned as it has faced off challenges from electronic alternatives such as online media, email marketing and e-books. Despite all of this, however, the industry continues to grow.

In 2015, global printing output was projected to reach €870bn and an annual growth of 2% per year is predicted through until 2020. One of the primary reasons for this is an increase in demand for the higher value printed products that result from making print intelligent or using it differently.

Approach Print Differently Wide format is a sector of the print industry that is frequently mentioned when new avenues of opportunity in print are discussed.

Industrial print and printing for interiors are both generating considerable excitement and new revenue streams for printers. What is particularly interesting is that these have largely been created through a combination of developments in technology and the ingenuity of the print service providers (PSPs) who use it. These success stories are usually about businesses looking for a different way to do things. By thinking more broadly about the applications that they already offered and how those could apply to a different market, they uncovered opportunities to move away from commoditised markets and instead offer high value print. If they were already printing wall graphics, for example, recognising that personalised photographic wallpaper is a related, but higher value application is a logical next step.

In fact, when you consider the dynamism that characterises the world of digital print, the word ‘decline’ has no place alongside ‘print’ at all.

Make Print Intelligent Another area of high value print that requires PSPs to think differently is business communications. Increasingly, print is one of many channels in the multi-channel communications mix, with its tactile qualities and perceived importance helping PSPs’ customers to attract their audiences’ attention. Many successful PSPs in this area recognise that print should complement rather than compete with other channels and they develop services that help their customers to achieve this. Where a personalised piece of direct mail forms part of a holistic cross-media marketing campaign, for example, it can be used to drive prospects online. An online retailer, on the other hand, may use a printed customised catalogue to communicate with customers who have not purchased from them for six months. In both cases, print’s effectiveness can be measured through the very responses it drives.

See The E-business Opportunity Print opportunities that stem from the digital world are not confined to customer communications alone. Far from endangering the printed book, the advent of the e-book and the rise of the on-demand economy have ultimately led to substantial growth in digital book printing, as run lengths have fallen and the volume of available titles has grown.

Moreover, the responsiveness that digital print allows has actually enabled the switch to a whole new business model for some publishers – sell first, then print. Indeed, with digital book printers now able to cost effectively print and finish just one book at a time, opportunities are opening up to print previously out-of-print titles on demand, to introduce self-publishing services, or to offer customised books.

Stay in Touch Regardless of whether you specialise in one particular application or work across multiple industry segments, opportunities lie in thinking creatively about different ways to use print. This means staying abreast of technological developments and market trends to find ways that they could apply to your particular business offering or enable you to offer something new to an existing customer. It also entails being aware of your customer’s needs, even those that your offering doesn’t currently address.

Explore and Experiment In a recent UK study, 78% of respondents said that when given a choice of medium, they prefer to read in print. 84% said they understand information better when they read it in print. Yet, there is so much more to print than information on a page - it can be creative, functional, decorative and even connected. The future of print lies in exploring bold ideas, experimenting with new techniques, and finding ways to help customers see the possibilities of how it could be used.

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How Can PSPs #UNLEASHPRINT? A large proportion of PSPs print on five or fewer types of media. For those PSPs, that means competing with 95% of the market for the same business. PSPs need to have clear profiles that differentiate them. Anyone can buy a digital printer - what PSPs need to decide is what their business is going to do with it, and how they are going to position that to make their proposition stand out.

An important factor here is digital print. Once you start moving into variable content, then the cost-per-print goes up, but so does the relevance of each print. If you make content dynamic and move into individualisation, or even personalisation, that is when digital print can really add value. Companies should start by looking at where their business is today and considering what the trends are, what applications they are already doing and where their customers are. Sometimes, your customers’ needs may not be met by the services you offer.

However, if you can offer existing customers a broader range of applications, then that could be more cost-effective than looking at how to grow the range of applications you produce to serve a new customer base.

A key concern for many PSPs is the move to online and digital transformation.

However, e-business isn’t a loss for print - it can actually be an opportunity.

Many businesses that started out online are now including print as one of the pillars of their communications. By placing print at the heart of a campaign where all of the channels work together to complement each other, then you can not only prove the results, but also use them to devise more insightful and innovative approaches. There is also a real opportunity to show how print should play a role in all those places where we communicate concepts on a humanto-human basis. Whether it’s in an architectural pitch, designing a creative campaign, or even just enjoying a 10-metre-wide photograph in a gallery, you’re much more connected to print than you are to a monitor. Print is incredibly powerful. At Canon Ireland, we strive to continually adapt our customers’ business in an ever-changing market and to seize new opportunities as they arise. #UNLEASHPRINT presents our partners, customers and PSPs with yet another opportunity to promote the performance of print more effectively, and to ensure that buyers never underestimate the unique value that print delivers.

Contact unleashprint@canon.ie or visit canon.ie/unleashprint for more information.

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PACKAGING

Tonejet’s direct-to-converted-can

We report on a new technology that claims to allow industrial print and drinks producers to print direct to cans profitably, a flexo press world first, and a recent technological marriage to enhance label production.

t the InPrint exhibition in Milan (November 15th to 17th) Tonejet, a manufacturer of advanced electro-static drop-ondemand digital print engines, demonstrated how industrial print and drinks producers can print directly to cans which have been fully converted to a necked can, for short to medium print runs.

They maintain that they can do this profitably by using the Tonejet 2-Piece Can and Tube Digital Decorator. Aiming to remove the barriers in small batch canning, Tonejet showcased how their product can print necked cans, making it ideal for special event beverages and products where market agility is key. “InPrint provided us with a great opportunity to present our digital, direct-to-shape offering and its benefits to a wide variety of markets

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PACKAGING

IMAGE LEFT and on Page 14: Tonejet showcased direct-to-converted-can digital printing at InPrint 2016, BELOW: Pino De Gradi with La Gerunda press operator Antonio Lucatelli at the delivery

and industrial businesses,” says Marvin Foreman, Sales Manager, Tonejet. “The beverage market for independent beers and small batch product continues to rise, with larger drinks producers now regularly producing unique shortto-medium run beverages too. This, coupled with the many advantages of canning a beverage, means that digital can printing is recognised as the key to unlocking huge new business potential for brewers, beverage manufacturers and investors alike.”

The Tonejet Digital 2-Piece Can Decorator utilises electrostatic dropon-demand deposition technology for high speed print on virtually any substrate. Offering high resolution colour imaging, the Tonejet system is built for industrial applications.

“With a total cost of ownership typically associated with conventional printing, Tonejet is a fraction of the running cost of competing digital technologies,” says Marvin. “Digital can printing technology is opening up new opportunities for can printers and craft brewers alike by removing the barrier of minimum order constraints. Tonejet’s unique print heads are able to achieve exceptional reliability and produce a super thin sub-micron print layer thickness, resulting in high productivity and industry low running costs.”

Tonejet product applications include: metal packaging cans, closures and containers; cylindrical containers tubes, cartons and aerosols; flexible packaging foil, labels, shrink sleeves, flow wrap and pouches; paperboard packaging folding cartons, carton board, and corrugated.

Green Light for Blue Light Technology The world’s first LED UV-enabled ultrafast low migration VLF flexographic press passed its print tests with flying colours.

During the tests, which took place on October 11th at Uteco’s advanced manufacturing facility near Verona, the team from flexible packaging print specialist La Gerunda Merletti S.R.L.of Cremona, Italy, was joined by specialists from partner manufacturer Air Motion Systems to

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see the Uteco ONYX 810 CI perform at running speeds up to 400m/min. Colour vibrancy and tight registration were maintained at all speeds, even during changes in speed, and the printed substrate was ASTM tape-test dry on the roll in the delivery. As there is no heat emission during LED UV curing, the printed roll was ready for immediate downstream processing. AMS lamps use blue light LED, switching on and off instantly (10 milliseconds) so they don’t require a ‘standby’ mode and use much less electricity (typical savings of 60% over conventional UV). The prices of the inks, too, are becoming more competitive as the LED UV process takes off within the flexible packaging sector.

For La Gerunda’s Managing Director Pino De Gradi, these operational benefits offer him a clear manufacturing advantage over his four

existing UV and EB presses, but the technical and environmental characteristics of the new Uteco system are of equal importance, as his €8.5m turnover company targets new market sectors. “The bulk of our existing business is in the horticulture, agriculture and pet food sectors, but we have identified flexible packaging for the healthcare and food industries as our target growth markets,” he says. “For this we need secure substrate integrity and ecologically sustainable operation. The new LED UV low migration inks and the AMS system’s low-energy, ozone-free, non-mercury lamp units offer us that. We already have contracts in place to supply diaper packaging, as well as high volume food products, and we are aiming to push turnover to €12m per annum within three years.”

The La Gerunda ONYX 810 has been specified with eight printing stations, 1,250mm maximum web width and 1,100mm maximum print repeat cycle. Seven AMS LED UV curing lamps are fitted at the printing stations around the central impression drum with the eighth situated at the exit of the web on the top deck. The print tests confirmed that the systems performed at speeds way beyond the expected 300m/min, even reaching 400m/min. The press has been provided with the housing for a ninth AMS unit, adjacent to the eighth, if La Gerunda should decide at some time in the future to upgrade the press to the 500m/min option with the next AMS LED UV lamp development, the XP Ultra.

“The eyes of the industry have been on this project, even from the aisles of Drupa, and the absolute success of these print tests confirm that this solution will be a major player in our sector in the years ahead,” says Uteco’s Chief Marketing Officer Davide Cucinella. “We already have several other orders in the pipeline.”

La Gerunda’s order for the world’s largest LED UV-enabled flexo press system was announced in April this year.

Enhanced Label Capacity Durst is integrating its Tau 330 press with near-line pre- and post-press finishing solutions in cooperation with flexographic printing press manufacturer OMET. The Tau Durst’s Tau 330E press 330 platform is a UV inkjet label press with more than 100 installations worldwide.

It features a 330mm (13 inch) print width, up to seven colours (CMYKOVW), and offers printing speeds of up to 48 linear meters/min (169 ft./min) with up to 1,260 dpi print resolutions. In cooperation with OMET, the 330 series’ new nearline primer station provides increased material flexibility and cost-saving potential, and its flexible post-press finishing options complete the near-line label production needs. Together with the Tau 330 platforms, Durst will also introduce its new Durst Workflow-Label, a modular, expandable pre-press software for order entry, prepress, RIP, colour management, ink costing and production data management.

It offers automated knock-out of non-print areas, a high access browser-based interface for immediate job costing, and high speed variable data functionality.

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TEXTILE PRINTING

Textile printing technology is responding to the demand for custom products, particularly in the home textiles and fast fashion sectors. We report on Mimaki’s offering at the Heimtextil 2017 show in January and Epson’s SureColor F Series at The Print Show.

t Heimtextil 2017 (January 10th to 13th) in Frankfurt, Germany, Mike Horsten, General Manager, Marketing, of Mimaki EMEA, spoke about how digital printing is going mainstream, bringing significant change to the textile market.“This is being driven by a number of factors, including the advancements in digital textile printers and inks, as well as the demand for shorter runs, faster cycle times, and more customised textile-based products for home and fast fashion,” he said. “Digital textile printing addresses

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these market requirements and offers a new, greener way to produce outstanding textiles.”

Following the company’s acquisition of La Meccanica, Mimaki showcased the new Tiger-1800B direct-to-textile industrial printer using reactive inks for the first time at a global exhibition. The Tiger-1800B is a high production, industrial digital textile printer designed for companies seeking a volume printing solution. With a maximum print speed of 385 square metres per hour, 600dpi print resolution, and a maximum print width of 1.85metres, the new Mimaki is ideal for high volume digital production that could only be cost-effectively achieved in the past using traditional textile printing technologies.

Optional units can be added to expand the printer’s capabilities, including feeding units for jumbo rolls or folded fabrics, heating units, and a folding arm unit for storing fabric in the box after printing. It is ideal for the

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TEXTILE PRINTING

ABOVE LEFT : The Mimaki Tx300P-1800 printer. RIGHT: The new Tiger-1800B direct-to-textile industrial printer.

production of furnishings, flags, sports apparel, interior fabrics, and fast fashion.

Mimaki also showed its Tx500P-3200 3.2 metre directto-textile sublimation printer, which has a maximum print speed of 130 square metres per hour, and is suitable for the creation of soft signage or home furnishing products with a print resolution of up to 720x1080 dpi.

In addition to its direct-to-textile machines, Mimaki also demonstrated the TS300P-1800 - a next-generation 1.8 metre sublimation transfer printer that prints on affordable, thin transfer paper. Printing at up to 115 square metres per hour, this solution features a cocklingreduction media transfer mechanism and uses Mimaki Sb410 high performance, low cost sublimation transfer inks. During the show, it produced applications using fluorescent inks, ideal for sportswear and other products.

The significant upturn in online shopping brings with it a growing demand for the creation of custom products, with customers moving their attention away from the standard designs widely available in retail outlets. Accordingly, enterprising garment makers are looking for cost-effective solutions that will help them meet the demand for sample production, short runs and bespoke prints. The new Mimaki 1.8 metre wide Tx300P1800B belt-type printer has been specifically developed to meet these needs. The printer is designed to address the need for cost-effective, short run printing of textiles for products or samples. The manufacturer claims that its design makes it ideally suited to printing on a wide variety of fabrics, including bulky textured materials, as well as on sheer fabric and stretchy materials such as knits. Mimaki also says that printing with its TP400 textile pigment inks eliminates the need for steaming or washing, thereby reducing the space required for on-demand textile printing. The new Mimaki Tx300P-1800B is capable of printing at up to 50 square metres per hour, and can also achieve print resolutions of up to 1,440dpi. The adjustable high head gap prevents head strikes and enables high quality printing on thick, woven or fabrics with ‘raised’ fibres. The potential for crumpling and bending of fabrics during the print process is further reduced by the belt conveyance system which incorporates a ‘crumple-free roller’ and ‘paste roller’. The waveform control function allows each ink to be jetted according to its own specific gravity and viscosity, for precise placement of ink droplets onto the fabric.

Mimaki is offering five different ink types with the Tx300P-1800B. These include: Sb420 sublimation dye ink, which is designed to work with polyester-based textiles, either direct to fabric or to a sublimation paper for transfer by heat press; Dd400 dispersion dye ink delivering high light-fastness on polyester and micro-

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polyester for sportswear, curtains, outdoor textiles, home textiles and the auto industry; and TP400 textile pigment ink, which has the ability to print to a wide variety of textile types such as polyester, cotton, silk, viscose, rayon and wool. Also available will be Mimaki’s Rc400 reactive dye ink, which is suitable for printing on natural fibres, such as cotton, silk and wool. It also meets high automotive lightfastness standards but does require pre-/ post-treatment of the fabrics to prevent fading and bleeding of colour. The final ink option is Mimaki’s Ac400 acid dye ink which is similar to reactive dye ink in that pre-/ post-treatment of the fabric is needed.

Epson’s SureColor F Series dye sublimation and textile print machines were front and centre on the Colourbyte stand at The Print Show in the NEC Birmingham (October 11th to 13th). Colourbyte, a supplier of largeformat printer and RIP solutions to the UK

market, was recently appointed as a value added reseller for the range. Included in this portfolio of solutions are the Epson SureColor F6200 44-inch model, the Epson SureColor F7200 64-inch machine, and the Epson SureColor F9200 64-inch option. To demonstrate how visitors could expand their businesses by using technology from Colourbyte, the supplier created various dye sublimated products such as aluminium photo panels using a large heat press.

“Textile printing is one of the fastest growing sectors of the wider print market and machines in the SureColor F Series offer the more traditional print companies the opportunity to expand their business and add new revenue streams,” says Tim Stockley, Director of Colourbyte. “The printers are also capable of taking on work for hard surfaces, such as custom coffee table tops, hi-gloss aluminium photo panels and MDF panels.”

BELOW: The Epson SureColor F6200 printer.

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WHAT’S NEW IN PRINT

Tactile Shrink Sleeves

Tactile shrink sleeves provide an opportunity for brands to communicate more to the consumer through the packaging such as soft touch or relief areas to give a unique premium feel to the products. Clondalkin Flexible Packaging offers FleXtreme printed multi-pack shrink films, as well as shrink sleeves printed with special tactile qualities. The company claims that its FleXtreme product provides print quality that is comparable to gravure, with very high ink and colour density at a more competitive cost level, and with the added flexibility of shorter production runs and lead times than those associated with flexo. “When used as the print technique for multi-pack drink solutions, it is the best solution on the market for bundle wrapping beverages,” says Jack van der Heiden, Sales and Marketing Director at Clondalkin Flexible Packaging Harlingen.

Print on the Edge

HP Inc announced the introduction of its new edge printing technology in November. It allows users to print an image on the front or side edge of a book for the first time. The new feature, part of HP’s SmartStream Designer variable data printing tool, automatically divides a selected image into slices, according to the number of pages in the book, before printing the slices consecutively on the edge of each page. The new application also has the capability to print a continuous image across the spines of a book collection, for an impressive visual impact when collections are on display. HP Edge Printing is one of the new features in HP SmartStream Designer 11, which also comprises an upgrade of the HP SmartStream Mosaic plug-in, which enables the automatic creation of millions of unique designs based on core patterns, famously utilised by brands such as Diet Coke, Bud Light and BrandOpus.

Consistent Correct Colour Reproduction

A new ColorForecast tool is a key feature of Xeikon’s latest X-800 5.0 production software. The tool allows custom or brand colours to be reproduced correctly time after time no matter what the final substrate is. “ColorForecast predicts if the file will print to the desired results,” says Xeikon’s Director Product Management, Jeroen Van Bauwel. “It can test and verify if the colour will match output.

This reduces set up times and waste. Customers don’t have to print, check, send samples, wait for a response, modify settings and then print again. It can all be done offline. Without printing anything, our customers can be sure it will match. It predicts the output without having to waste time. Customers want to be able to print on different substrates with confidence in the colour reproduction. They know what they will get.” Xeikon X-800 5.0 will be released at the beginning of this year and will be made available for all MyPress-based engines.

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THE BIG PICTURE

UV & 3D INNOVATION Agfa Graphics has been busy expanding its large format range of printers, launching the Jeti Mira with UV curing and 3D lens printing in December and introducing the new Jeti Ceres RTR3200 LED high-speed roll-to-roll printer for mid-to high-end applications in January.

T

he Jeti Ceres RTR 3200 LED system was on display at C! Print Lyon (January 31st to February 2nd) and Sign & Print Scandinavia (February 7th to 9th). A dedicated 3.2 metre roll-to-roll printer, Jeti Ceres is capable of printing on diverse single and dual roll media at speeds of up to 186 square metres per hour. Its UV LED curing lamps save costs, increase eco-friendliness, broaden the printable media range and eliminate lamp-based downtime. “Our goal with this new engine is to maximize productivity while staying true to Agfa Graphics’ industryleading image quality and low ink consumption, which is why we bring a roll-to-roll alternative in the Jeti product family,” says Reinhilde Alaert, Marketing Product Manager, Sign & Display High-End. “This engine is the workhorse

for roll-to-roll applications. It offers the speed, precision and efficiency required by intensive print firms, and the UV LED curing process only adds to its business-boosting capacity.”

The UV LED curing and Agfa Graphics’ UV LED-cured inks mean that the Jeti Ceres can print on heatsensitive media such as self-adhesive sheets and PVC without warping or wrinkling them. It is also equipped with white ink circulation that extends along the entire ink line, which opens up possibilities when it comes to the use of white inks to enhance or vivify and give that ‘wow factor’ to images, especially in backlit and dual-sided applications.

Maximum Impact

The Jeti Mira LED.

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Agfa Graphics’ Jeti Ceres also adds a primer option for extra durability when printing on unusual or difficult roll-based media. The engine pre-prints a fine layer of primer automatically before depositing ink, preparing the top layer for ideal surface tension to better receive ink. “As it avoids downtime and reprints, it dramatically enhances the productivity of the system and guarantees the image quality with minimal impact on cost per square metre,” says Reinhilde Alaert. Asanti, Agfa Graphics’ wideformat printing workflow software, comes with the Jeti Ceres system and directs the printing process from A to Z, managing the processes in prepress, production and finishing.

The Jeti Ceres with Asanti are also compatible with Agfa Graphics’ cloudbased PrintSphere, which standardizes the flow of information between customers, colleagues, freelancers,

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THE BIG PICTURE

The Jeti Ceres RTR 3200 LED system.

departments and other Agfa printing solutions, streamlining file sharing and ensuring data security in the automated workflow.

Jeti Mira Upgrade Agfa Graphics recently launched a powerful upgrade of the Jeti Mira. The new Jeti Mira LED now offers UV LED curing technology to mid- to high-end sign and display printers. The engine now also integrates with PrintSphere, through Asanti. Finally, an enhanced varnish option results in 3D prints with some serious stopping power.

The Jeti Mira is a moving-gantry flatbed printer that can produce up to 2.69 metrewide prints. It offers print and prepare functionality, a dockable roll-to-roll option,

Digitally Printed Wallpaper

two table versions, speed (up to 231 metres square per hour), six colours, white colour standard, highly-pigmented UV inks, and two rows of fast-firing Ricoh inkjet print heads. The latest printer upgrade also includes UV LED curing technology.

“Equipped with UV LED lamps for the curing process, the Jeti Mira comes with a number of economical, ecological and business-generating benefits,” explains Reinhilde Alaert. “LEDs have minimal heat output, for example, which allows for a broader scope of print applications.

They also ensure very stable bi-directional calibration, high productivity, significant power savings and consistent output over the life-time of the system. This all leads to a greater ROI.”

Industrial Inkjet Ltd (IIJ), a provider of bespoke systems for industrial inkjet printing, unveiled how companies can digitally print wallpaper at full production speeds at the Heimtextile show in Frankfurt, Germany (January 10th to 13th). Experts from IIJ and Konica Minolta Industrial Inkjet invited wallpaper producers to see their new demo system. This prints a wide range of typical wallpaper media at linear speeds of up to 70m/min. For the past 18 months, the two companies have been working on a solution that can compete with conventional printing methods on both productivity and costper-roll. Printing of wallpaper using inkjet is quite common, but speeds today are very low and the technology is restricted to short-run ‘special’ applications such as mural walls. “The big demand from the wallpaper industry is for digital printing of wallpaper at full production speeds,” says John Corrall, IIJ Managing Director. “Our view is that wallpaper printing is about to see a massive shift to digital technology, thanks to the improvements in inkjet capability. Ink performance and cost, print width, and speed are all now within reach. When we started, the main difficulty was in developing an ink that meets all of the requirements from the wallpaper industry. It’s not just the appearance, the ink has to work on a very wide range of common wallpaper media and it has to meet standards for emissions and wash and scrub tests. It has taken 18 months, but we are finally there!”

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Advanced 3D Lens The Jeti Mira can add a dramatic touch to many different applications, including POP displays, packaging, decorative prints and trade show graphics, thanks to 3D lens printing technology. Using a combination of printed lenses composed of UVcurable varnish and image manipulations, the technology adds depth to print results by tuning the size of varnish lenses and the array in which they are printed.

Spot On Agfa Graphics UV LED inks can print on heat-sensitive substrates such as thin slides, self-adhesive sheets, and stretchable PVC materials. They are both customised and versatile, developed with a view to the many different media they are intended for. Agfa-made UV inks also boast a wide colour gamut and high colour vibrancy in both indoor and outdoor applications, while their high pigment load and Asanti’s colour management optimisation ensures low ink consumption. “At SGIA this year, Jeti Mira was the recipient of a Product of the Year Award, thanks to its high printing quality and low ink consumption, which makes it stand out from the competition,” says Reinhilde Alaert. “All of our UV inks, white and colour, offer outstanding, stable jetting performance and deliver the same high-quality results, batch after batch.”

Cloud Integration The Jeti Mira is driven by Agfa Graphics’ wide-format workflow software Asanti, which controls the entire printing process, from prepress to production and finishing. New to Asanti is the optional integration with PrintSphere,

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COMMERCIAL PROFILE

Q Unitedprint.com SE is a top European corporation and has been one of Europe’s leading marketdefining online print shops for over 10 years, with its Print24, Easyprint, Unitedprint, Firstprint, Getprint, Printwhat, DDK PRINT BIG, Infowerk and Unitedprint Shop Services (USS) brands. Ali Jason Bazooband, Director of Innovation/Marketing, shares his outlook on the future of web-to-print with Irish Printer readers and provides insights into Unitedprint’s success story.

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You have been on the executive board of Unitedprint.com SE, one of the major European players in online print, for over a year now. What is your role and mission at Unitedprint?

It is a case of permanently developing our range through attractive new products, services, features and our, now somewhat obsessive, quest to offer the lowest prices, top product quality and fastest delivery times. This coincides with both my personal role and the overarching mission of Unitedprint and its various portals. And that is why we launch so many innovations, new products, services and features every week. We always deliver speed and efficiency to our customers’ advantage because, as we all know: “The successful ones are those who benefit customers!“

A

Q A

What is the aim - expansion or further internationalisation?

We are always focused on profitable growth, namely profitability and growth in double-digit percentages. This is, incidentally, not just our goal, but particularly also our job, which we have been acing since time immemorial. Internationalisation is, of course, the nature of the internet; it‘s not a new trend. It is one of Unitedprint‘s core competencies, and has been embraced at a professional level for years. Many companies have yet to go to such lengths. Combined with attractive products, services and features, for which price, quality and delivery speed all need to be spot on, the internationalisation process is certainly extremely challenging, but is also very worthwhile, especially in the long term.

That which is received positively by customers and works well nationally will be even more in demand internationally. That is why every company must first do its homework at a national level before expanding internationally. Profitable growth must therefore not only be generated through internationalisation, but particularly also by rapidly providing more products, more services and more features at attractive prices, so we can better serve our customers every day, in all disciplines.

31/01/2017 16:16

COMMERCIAL PROFILE

®

Q

When you provide your customers with so many new products, does that ultimately mean establishing and expanding more production plants domestically and abroad in the long term?

Not necessarily. In 2015, we introduced over 100 new products and services, including hard-cover and paperback books, label rolls, packing tape, plastic cards with RFID technology, etc. We can’t, nor do we have to, manufacture every product ourselves. In some cases, it would take years for us to acquire the expertise for each new product, in order to then be able to produce them profitably at some point. We instead select experts for these products, involve these specialists in our workflows, and thus, very quickly, connect the product with the market.

A

Q A

Is co-operating and working with other producers important?

A considerable number of our customers and partners are print shops, both online and offline, and that is something we are very proud of. Discounting the idea of co-operating is completely unrealistic, and is not part of our daily business. Even our competitors place orders with us. We are open to co-operating if it benefits our customers, but not if there is no advantage to us or our customers.

Q A

You mention your customers a lot. Who are Unitedprint‘s key customer groups?

The more customers who order through us, the better it is for us. And the most important customers are those who regularly place orders with us! This has a lot to do with mutual loyalty and trust. We have business customers, e.g. the purchase and sales departments of medium-sized and large companies, who buy directly from us, as well as printing companies that have consistently geared themselves and their production processes around their core range, and who buy the rest from us, or agencies who render their specialised service for other companies, as well as customers from the pure consumer

With USS, we provide free WtP software for individual partnershop requirements.

Ali Jason Bazooband

and families sector. There are special brands, portals and approaches for each customer group. Wherever possible, we try not to mix the brands and customer groups, which is a constant challenge. Print24 (www.print24.com) services a wide client base of resellers, professional print buyers, print shops and agencies. DDK PRINT BIG (www.ddkprintbig.com) is aimed at professional business customers requiring advertising materials, while Easyprint (www.easyprint.com) caters to small businesses, families and individuals who can use our online editor to create their own products and achieve professional results.

Q A

How do you persuade new customers to choose you as their printing partner?

By guaranteeing maximum customer benefit! We will continue to offer our customers high-quality products at the best price, with the fastest delivery times. This year, we will be pushing on with the product offensive we started in early 2015, and will be adding new products to our print products, textile products, photo products, catering supplies, packaging and advertising equipment ranges every week. We are also expanding our range to include completely new office supplies and promo products, offering our customers the widest selection in the industry. None of this could ever have been imagined on such a scale, even 10 years ago. That is why WtP is still only the start of our success story, even in 2016!

Q A OPPOSITE (MAIN): ’Print 4.0’ - part of Unitedprint.com’s impressive print hall.

BELOW: A peek at Unitedprint‘s data and communications centre.

In addition to product offensives, you also mention more services and features. What exactly does that mean?

In addition to the constant flow of new and additional products, we also offer our customers great, permanent services and features that are only made possible by the internet. In e-commerce, whether you sell individual print products or shoes, your benefits are endless - your shop is open 24/7 and items can often be delivered to any European city in the space of a few hours. Through optimum efficiency and productivity with highly automated workflows, you can achieve discount prices and still meet the highest quality standards - and do so very profitably. Furthermore, you get free, professional service-call/chat advice, which is rather rare in the vast world of retail. An attractive product range, top quality, rapid delivery conveniently to your door, and all at amazing prices, plus friendly, professional customer service - that‘s our understanding of e-commerce.

Q A

Do you also work with a call centre?

Of course, our excellently trained, service-oriented specialists are familiar with most questions, and provide fast, friendly and professional responses that fully satisfy our customers. This is done in over 20 languages by highly motivated experts who also help design or select the product. In e-commerce, however, you also need to offer services that take customers by the hand and provide help before, during and after the order. For instance, our ‘Laterpay’ feature facilitates a longer payment term, enabling our customers to choose whether they wish to pay in 30, 60 or 90 days. This service is particularly popular among customers who have to pay their own clients well in advance. One of our recent highlights has been allowing our products to be ordered as single items. Imagine you are an agency and are able to show a customer their office supplies as originals. That‘s an impressive POS argument for our customers!

000_IP Jan_Feb 2017_Commercial Profile.indd 23

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COMMERCIAL PROFILE

Q A

Do you have any other exciting services in the pipeline?

Sticking again with the agency which visits and advises its customer. The fact that we also provide our web-to-print shops, with all their functions, on a mobile website means the agency not only has control over current orders and offers anywhere, anytime, it can even immediately calculate costings via smartphone and/or tablet, give its customers optimum advice on site, discuss design and quantity variations, and order there and then.

Q A

As an online print shop, the notion of shipping is a particular challenge. After all, you transport huge volumes of orders across Europe.

We are more a mail-order company than printers.

This means that we care a lot about shipment and need to ensure that we also comply with our customers‘ requirements. All customers want their goods to be delivered at low cost and we offer several options. Our lowcost Economy option is designed for deliveries where time is not as important (it has been known to happen). We also offer three other shipping options: Standard, Express and - available for every single product - Priority, the latter being where we deliver customised products right across Europe literally overnight. Our joint shipment options, combining several orders, allow customers to save money and packaging, and thus also protect the environment.

Many of our customers themselves have their own Europewide businesses, which has prompted us to also offer international shipment. For instance, our customers can send their print products across Europe at the press of a button, maintaining control and transparency over shipping costs at all times.

Q

During our tour, we saw an impressive printing factory 4.0 in the truest sense of the word. What are Unitedprint‘s visions in terms of future production processes?

To continue automating to permanently increase productivity and efficiency, with the ongoing aim of saving costs and speeding up processes in order to pass these improvements onto our customers through lower prices and faster delivery. As Paul Krugman rightly said, “Productivity is not everything, but in the long run it ‘s more important than virtually anything else“. An online print shop actually needs to be seen as a trade and logistics machine powered by IT. Equipment and workflow must enable even long-term margins to be achieved. Anyone visiting our portal, for example, will see prices from €5.

In other words, we are not mechanical engineers who land one contract for €2m - we do thousands of smaller jobs for small amounts of money. And in order to grow profitably, because that is what we are all about, you need to consistently work in a highly productive, efficient manner.

I know I am repeating myself, but it is not a given, because some of our direct competitors include companies which have been taken over by listed corporations, and which squander away millions year after year, without earning a single cent.

A

Q A

What are your personal goals as the Director of Innovation/Marketing at Unitedprint?

I never set myself very long-term goals because no one can look too far ahead, particularly in the world of e-commerce, but I would like to increase Unitedprint‘s company value to more than €250m over the next three years. This is a very concrete and realistic aim.

As an owner-run corporation with around 700 staff, we are completely debt-free without a single cent in loan obligations, so we are 100 % equity-financed. We have

000_IP Jan_Feb 2017_Commercial Profile.indd 24

ABOVE LEFT: The further processing facilities and procedures are, of course, highly industrial.

RIGHT: Unitedprint.com SE is one of Europe‘s largest online print shops.

immense power to achieve our goals, and the backing of our founder and supervisory board chairperson, who is always quick to remind us executives of our as yet untapped potential, and where the journey is taking us.

Q A

Do you not see any limits to growth?

No, none. On the contrary; new markets and possibilities are constantly opening up! Our development has in fact only just begun and we have so far only serviced a small fraction of the market, which is getting increasingly larger because we are constantly unlocking new markets by rapidly expanding our range of products and services. Ten years ago, no one in WtP seriously thought about offering photo products, textile printing, advertising equipment and promo products, in addition to print products, which were initially only limited to flyers, posters, letterheads and business cards, under one roof. And who knows what tomorrow and beyond will bring? As an innovative high-tech company you always need extraordinary new ideas and disruptive business models which extend beyond daily business operations. We came up with something several years ago, and finally completed it in February after extensive development work!

Q A

What did you complete in February?

Our Unitedprint Shop Services (USS), our free WtP partner shops, for which we already have over 20,000 registrations across Europe.

USS provides internationally established - and free - WtP software with customised applications for individual partner shop requirements, enabling us to power a configurable e-commerce shop. It facilitates on-demand orders and services, including editing, for hundreds of projects with millions of design options. The partners choose which products they want to produce or whether they want to use Unitedprint‘s production. If a partner offers its own products that are not yet part of our online service, it gives us and them the opportunity to provide these products and services globally to the entire USS network and its customers. Our regional partners become global players overnight and we can expand our range to include new/additional products and services.

Irish Printer readers will learn more about these and other developments at Unitedprint.com SE in part two of our interview with Ali Jason Bazooband, which will be featured in the March/April 2017 edition.

31/01/2017 16:16

COLOUR MANAGEMENT

IMPROVING ACROSS MATERIALS A recent X-Rite Pantone study of 625 designers found that colour was their number one go-to-market challenge, particularly the achievement of colour consistency across materials. Shoshana Burgett, Director of Corporate Strategy for X-Rite Pantone, reports.

When you measure a colour with a spectrophotometer, the spectral data that you get is like the DNA of that colour.

000_IP Jan_Feb 2017_Colour Management.indd 25

t does not matter if it is a new product or a refresh, taking a product to market involves various parallel development activities, review and revision cycles and many meetings to discuss, review and align on design, colour and materials. Concurring on colour, defining a standard, and leveraging technology to ensure consistent, achievable colour can help remove the pain and frustration created by the constant back and forth between marketing, design, technical design and suppliers. Luckily there are new and innovative solutions on the market that help designers understand how colour will look on various materials. These solutions can provide a designer with the tools to develop and gain agreement on palettes earlier in the design cycle.

A Team Effort When verifying colour quality, it is common for designers and suppliers to view items outside in natural daylight. But natural daylight varies wildly depending on geography, season, time of day and overall weather conditions. The best way and the most commonly overlooked activity is to evaluate colour with controlled lighting provided by a light booth. Depending on the product or industry, D50 or D65 daylight is the standard viewing condition for approvals. Designers should also view samples under the lighting conditions where the product will appear, for example, store or home lighting. Increasingly, that also includes LED lighting, a lighting condition that many light booths still do not support, and one with no defined industry standard.

Clients or other team members may not be aware of how important this step is and may not have access to a light booth. That’s why X-Rite developed its Pantone Lighting Indicator stickers that can quickly allow individuals to determine if the viewer is in appropriate lighting conditions. I’m always amazed at people who say they approved the colour from their hotel room or office without understanding the negative impact that this decision can have, and the unneeded costs and cycles that result from approving colour without using controlled lighting.

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COLOUR MANAGEMENT

ABOVE: The X-Rite Pantora Material Hub is a controlling hub for X-Rite Total Appearance Capture (TAC) Ecosystem components, connecting digital material input sources with output destinations. The Hub includes a Material Browser (left) to find, acquire and import digital materials directly from instruments or from local or cloud databases, and a Material Viewer (right) enabling materials to be applied to arbitrary geometry and rendered in a virtual scene.

Colour and Material Challenges For many designers, inspiration occurs in the real world and is often captured as an image. This image, usually an RGB image, is moved into Photoshop where colours are identified. At this stage, CMYK values, L*a*b or HEX values, or a Pantone colour value can be used. There are many tools like Pantone Studio that allow a designer to quickly and easily capture an image and automatically send it to Adobe software, or promote their palette on social media or via email. The challenge is that many of the most common colour spaces used by designers only work within a physical realm. Designs move between the digital and physical worlds during the development process. Designs are digital, physical samples are produced from those designs, digital designs are modified to better achieve design intent based on physical sample results, and so on. The nature of a company’s products and materials, the complexity of a supply chain, and internal innovation will determine whether a brand works with a visual standard, a combination of visual and digital standards, or has moved to a completely digital colour standard.

CMYK, L*a*b, and Pantone values can all help communicate colour and guide a design team through the creation stage of the physical product. But with the back and forth between the physical and digital worlds, it is important to keep in mind that monitors and screens may not always reflect the colour and appearance of your product in the same way that a physical sample does; they are simply a different vehicle for viewing colour. Materials all behave differently, light will reflect and diverge, and formulations will vary by region and materials on hand.

When designing, it’s important to choose colours that are actually achievable on the target material and colours and material that can be manufactured, not just colours that look good on the screen.

This can be achieved by working with colour standards early in the process. This includes colour standards like Pantone TCX for fashion and home produced on cotton, or for a limited colour set, even nylon. There are also many Pantone standards for plastics, paint, metallics, and paper.

Using these standards as a guide is a first step in ensuring that colours can be manufactured. Leading brands also

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engage the Pantone Colour Institute to help develop unique brand colours or palettes on a wide variety of materials beyond the productized standards that the company provides off the shelf.

Working with tools that simulate colours on specific materials is another great place to start. Tools like PantoneLIVE Color Book and Viewer allow packaging designers to create, simulate their colour on the packaging material, and finally specify those colours to suppliers. This way a designer can quickly see how a colour will appear on Kraft board versus a white backing material or other materials that may be part of the total package or display. This gives designers the ability to accurately visualize their design in Illustrator and make colour decisions much earlier in the process. Providing designers with tools that visually represent colour on material minimizes rejects and rework, and the frustration that can be caused by getting too far down the path with colours that are not achievable on the target material.

There are even more innovative technologies underway that allow brands and manufacturers to capture not only colour, but all of the appearance characteristics of a particular material, and incorporate that data into design decisions. X-Rite’s Total Appearance Capture (TAC) ecosystem is an appearance measurement solution that brings a new level of accuracy and efficiency to the capture, communication and digital presentation of physical materials in the virtual world. TAC enables designers, 3D artists, material specifiers and marketers to bring their product designs to life with digital materials that have the exact same visual characteristics as their physical counterparts. Thought leaders in industries like automotive and leisurewear are moving rapidly to adopt this innovative approach to a seamless and realistic virtualization from design through product development.

Data is Your Friend Once everyone agrees on a colour, the final standard is measured using a spectrophotometer. There are different types of spectrophotometers, and the right type of spectrophotometer must be selected based on the products manufactured and the defined tolerances. Designers might start by working in RGB or HEX. They may make their way to a CMYK colour or a spot colour like Pantone. At some point, the colour is measured, and L*a*b is the most frequent colour space used at this point. However, everyone is better served by using spectral data that is the result of the colour being measured by an appropriate spectrophotometer.

Spectral data is device independent and all other colour formulas like RGB, CMYK, extended colour gamut or custom formulas can accurately be derived from spectral data. “When you measure a colour with a spectrophotometer, the spectral data that you get is like the DNA of that colour,” says Brian Ashe, solutions architect for X-Rite Pantone. “That data can be of real value for anyone because it gives excellent guidance hitting that colour when it is run on different substrates using different processes, or predicting how the

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COLOUR MANAGEMENT

colour will look under different lighting conditions.” Few designers, brands and even some manufacturers may know what spectral data is, but within a complex supply chain that requires accurate and achievable colour, it is your friend.

In most supply chains, a variety of different brands and models of instruments are used, and results can vary.

Laboratory managers or material specialists will use higher end equipment that holds to a fixed threshold. Doing so ensures that the most accurate colour specification is communicated at the beginning of the process. On the other hand, a simple quality check tool may be used to check production, where the tolerance is not as tight. In either case, the instrument choice is key: once you make that decision, you set the standard for the balance of the process. A colour-critical product like a best-selling mens shirt that needs to coordinate with other apparel items may have a need for a tighter tolerance than, say, faux jewellery that has lower development costs or may be a short seasonal item with simpler expectations.

The determination about acceptable colour variance is generally made between procurement, QA, and the product design teams.

Making Data your Friend Data accumulated in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions can be confusing because many people are feeding information into the system simultaneously, and data entry may not always be consistent. Having a set of defined processes for colour data entry, data management and supplier auditing can help streamline operations and avoid problems later on - for designers, brand owners, suppliers, retailers and ecommerce operations.

The other consideration is the fact that we operate in a global environment. This requires sharing data and verifying colour quality across oceans and time zones.

When something goes wrong, it can be time consuming to identify and correct the problem. Ensuring there is a standard process in place for entering PLM data (HEX, RGB, CMYK, spectral data or any standard like Pantone) across the entire supply chain is critical. We work in a digital and physical world where brand colours need to be consistent across a multitude of digital and physical products. A PLM serves several customers. The e-commerce team leverages the data in the bill of materials (BOM) to create the online experience, while suppliers need to understand the tolerances and production process steps to put the product together. Adhering to a defined process removes confusion that can occur when multiple standards are being used.

Instrument auditing tools like NetProfiler and those built into colour measurement instruments and software can ensure that the measurements at the supplier level are meeting standards and specifications. It’s great that a supplier can meet your quantity and costs, but products that do not meet colour tolerances can impact sales.

Having the ability to assess if a supplier is working to your specifications is of value, and these types of tools offer the ability to trace back and identify the source of the problem. Software that monitors and checks the devices is like an engine light on a car, informing the driver when to take the car in for an oil change. Leveraging such tools enables brands and complex supply chains to operate with standard work processes, driving consistency and reducing costly colour mistakes before they occur.

Marriage of Colour and Material Designs begin in 2D using apps like Adobe Creative Cloud, and many of today’s designs eventually enter the 3D realm. X-Rite has been innovating here by focusing on the automotive industry with its new appearance and visualization solutions. With the TAC scanner, physical materials can be scanned, capturing both colour and material appearance, and easily migrated to the digital world. This approach streamlines the development process

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Shoshana Burgett Shoshana Burgett has served in a variety of roles related to print, packaging and colour management since 1986. She previously held senior management roles at Xerox and has a master’s degree in variable data technology and international business from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts.

and significantly reduces the time that designers spend manually adjusting digital files. Designers can now move to photo-realistic digital assets that more accurately represent the appearance of the final colour and material in a 3D design.

The TAC Scanner is one part of the TAC ecosystem. The ecosystem includes a controlling hub, called Pantora, which allows users to store, manage, view and edit digitally captured materials and to exchange these materials, via the Appearance Exchange Format (AxF), with today’s leading PLM and CAD systems. The TAC Virtual Light Booth can be used to evaluate digitized materials rendered on virtual objects under multiple lighting conditions and in direct comparison to physical samples. By engaging the TAC ecosystem, the design to manufacturing process can be sped up even further. In the automotive space, it is projected that material appearance technology solutions will help reduce the cycle time for approving colour on material and accelerate speed-to-market. Having a photo-realistic digital material library based on standard formats also provides colour and material consistency in virtual designs from one platform to another. This offers brands a new way to communicate both colour and appearance, internally and externally.

With the TAC scanner, physical materials can be scanned...and easily migrated to the digital world.

Innovation in Manufacturing Today’s manufacturing workflows are digital, but we work within a physical world. We need to help designers, both 2D and 3D, work seamlessly across both worlds by providing them with relevant insights that help them make reasonable and rational decisions up front. There is no magic wand that automatically ensures colour consistency across materials and manufacturing processes, but today’s tools and solutions make it easier than ever to understand the limitations of materials, how best to formulate colour for those materials, and why it is important to use spectral data to evaluate whether colour conforms to the established standards. When you triangulate those three, a new world of colour opens up that provides designers and brand managers with the colour and material palettes that enable them to confidently and consistently produce products across a wide range of materials. That’s the end game, and that’s where this next-generation of colour innovation is taking us.

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OPEN HOUSE

The best way to highlight the quality of product possible using the latest digital substrates and equipment is to show printers the finished product. That’s precisely what GPMI did during its open house in October when its own offices became the ultimate showcase for their technological portfolio.

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he two open days at its HQ in Fonthill Business Park in Ronanstown, Dublin 22, attracted over 80 customers who were keen to view their range of digital print and cut technologies and substrates. ”This was a hugely successful first event for GPMI,” says Suneel Seetal, General Manager -Sign & Display. “Following the smooth integration with our colleagues from the Reprocentre, it was a positive step forward in showcasing our equipment, products and staff during the event. We were delighted to welcome customers to our HQ

from the north and south of the island while exhibiting our recognised market leading brands of Mimaki, Agfa, Esko and Neschen. It was great to see the trust that our customers have in us as they committed to investments that will improve the production capabilities of their businesses. As one customer mentioned on his way out, it was ‘time to dust off the chequebook!’ With a service team unrivalled in the industry, meeting the technological and service requirements of our customer base is a key focus for us to ensure that our customers’

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OPEN HOUSE

print businesses grow and that they have the capability to expand their own profit centres.”

GPMI also highlighted some of their key product ranges during the open days, including Altuglas cast acrylic, Brett Martin’s Foamalux, and Skybond and Corriboard from Northern Irish Plastics. “Printing two Irish made products and other sheets on the Agfa Anapurna H2500i LED hybrid press and the Mimaki JFX200 2513 LED flatbed press sets us apart from the competition,” says Suneel. “So if you are considering making a serious investment, make sure you do so with trade partners who can service the machine locally!”

The GPMI event also focused on materials for signage and showcased print media from Avery, Mactac and Agfa. “Avery Supreme wrapping film is best in class for vehicle wrapping but rather than simply display the product we also ran a two-day course in conjunction with the event,” says Suneel. “All of our in-house graphics that the visitors to our open house could see were done on these leading global brands so we would like to extend another invitation to the Irish print and signage community to our 2017 show.

You don’t want to miss our next open house event and, hopefully, we can help you ‘create without constraints!’”

TOP: A colourful wall image at GPMI’s offices designed by GPMI and produced on a Mimaki JV150 solvent printer, using GM media backlit glossy 200 film. The light box is fitted with GPMI’s Bright Green technology LEDs, ABOVE LEFT: A wall image in the GPMI showroom and premises designed by GPMI and printed on a Mimaki JV5-320DS dye sublimation printer on backlit polyester material. The light box is fitted with GPMI’s Bright Green technology LEDs. ABOVE RIGHT: Esko’s Kongsberg Multi-Cut device, which was used to produce the striking imagery on the walls at GPMI’s HQ.

BELOW: GPMI’s Equipment Sales Director, Eoin Honan with Suneel Seetal, General Manager – Sign & Display, at the recent launch of GPMI’s 2017 Product Guide.

GPMI launched its new Product Guide for 2017 earlier this year. Since January 2nd, they have been busy visiting customers nationwide. “While we have one of the widest ranges of products available to our customer base, it is essential to share this information on new products and sizes and to highlight how we can work with our clients,” says Suneel. “The 60 page catalogue is easy to read and presented with our new logo, which was designed by our Director of Technology, Alan O’Brien. With hundreds of products and the largest stock holding in the country, combining the signage, print, plastics, packaging and commercial print trades, we take great pride in sourcing the highest quality products and brands to ensure that the job will be done correctly! Cheap products are cheap for a reason.

Buy once and buy right! Please contact our sales office for your copy of a 2017 Product Guide.”

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END GAME

We report on a print inspection technology that can be retro-fitted to almost all folder/ gluers and new systems for the production of shortrun, on-demand boxes. Meanwhile, Bobst rolls out the latest innovation for flexible materials converters, Wohlenberg introduces new binders, and Ricoh expands its finishing solutions.

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Inspection Technology for Folding Cartons Maintaining quality in the production process is essential, and the latest product to assist in this regard is the ProofRunner Carton Retrofit. The product, which is jointly developed by Kohmann and EyeC (Quality Control Systems), is distributed in Ireland and the UK by Friedheim International.

As the name suggests, this print inspection technology for folded cartons can be retro-fitted to almost all currently available folder-gluers. As required for most packaging materials for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, toiletry and branded products, the system inspects 100% of the production and compares it against the signed-off proof (typically a pdf file). It uses the folder-gluer’s existing ejection device to reject any defective item, and provides a full inspection report.

Available in two inspection widths 400mm and 660mm - the ProofRunner Carton Retrofit is a self-contained unit that is integrated between the folder-gluer’s feeder and the prefolding section, and adds only 800mm to the overall length of the machine.

It inspects the entire carton surface, including all flaps. It is capable of detecting the smallest of defects, even if operated at a speed of up to 500 m/min. The EyeC ProofRunner Carton

Retrofit has an intuitive interface guiding the operator through the whole process. The inclusion of a vacuum belt guarantees safe handling of all cartons, as well as their proper alignment.

The ‘Perfect’ Box Solution Perfect Bindery Solutions’ new range of systems for the production of short-run, on-demand boxes can also be used for casemaking for hard cover books. The range, manufactured by Italian niche application specialist IML Machinery, includes a system for the application of glued facing sheets to the formed boxes for consistently accurate and professional wrapping of finished boxes up to 430 x 350 x 120mm in size, at speeds of up to 10 per minute. The smallest size at 60 x 60 x 10mm is ideal for the jewellery sector. The new range is marketed under the ‘Perfect Box Solutions’ brand banner. For PBS’s Steve Giddins, a noted authority on bindery processes and finishing applications, the initiative represents a decisive opportunity for established trade specialists and commercial printers to add value and differentiate their offering. “Over recent years we have seen a constant drive by printers to find products and services that will win them work in the more valuable market sectors, so we’ve seen a rise in perfect binding, casebinding, embossing, laminating, foiling and so on,” he says. “The high quality presentation box is the latest, and perhaps the most impressive, value-add in that sequence and our ‘Perfect Box Solutions’ range brings what used to be a labourintensive craft process within the sphere of enterprising commercial printers to fill their workflow upstream and boost their bottom line.” The Perfect Box Solutions range includes equipment for finishing both the board and the cover sheet. Processes include grooving, corner cutting, edge and corner taping for the board, and cutting/

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END GAME

trimming, sheet gluing and box wrapping for the cover material. High quality short-run boxes have long been used in special editions of confectionary, perfumes and spirits, but now they are being specified for photobooks, exclusive property development prospectuses, artbooks and similar high-value and luxury products.

High Productivity Vacuum Metallizer Bobst introduced its new K5 Expert vacuum metallizer to flexible materials converters worldwide in November at The K Show, the major international event for the plastics industry.

While the Bobst stand at K welcomed a continuous flow of visitors, including delegates from over 60 countries worldwide, Bobst Competence Centres across Europe put on machine demonstrations. In the UK, Bobst Manchester premièred the K5 Expert, a high productivity vacuum metallizer for packaging applications. Equipped with features such as Automatic Sequential Control (ASC), the K5 Expert also incorporates other well-known Bobst waste-reducing technical solutions to deliver a total cost of ownership (TCO) that Bobst claim is 25% less than that of other vacuum metallizers on the market.

Alongside showing more conventional types of printed and converted work at The K Show, including the quality that can be achieved with Extended Color Gamut printing or triplex lamination, Bobst also displayed applications such as clear-on-clear labelstock, a technically demanding coating process for the production of “no-label-look” labels, as well as showcasing how the safety of UV ink printing onto food flexible packaging can be guaranteed when delivered by Bobst narrow- and mid-web inline flexo presses. Further samples on display at the show reflected Bobst’s collaboration with leading suppliers to the film industry. A new, fully integrated, process for the conversion of high barrier AlOx coated films is an example of this. Developed by Bobst, the new fully integrated process for the conversion of high barrier AlOx coated films produced on Bobst vacuum metallizers also provides additional barrier functionalities. It does this while keeping other barrier properties unaltered, even during the more complex conversion processes required by some flexible packaging applications.

Wohlenberg Adds to Quickbinder Range Wohlenberg Buchbindesysteme has added three models to its Quickbinder perfect binding range to provide more options and greater flexibility for print finishing and bindery departments. The three new additions are designated ‘Basic’, ‘Universal’ and ‘Digital’, and features included as standard on all three

ABOVE: The Wohlenberg Quickbinder.

versions are: mechanical speed of 1,000 to 2,000 items per hour; hand feeding station; two spine preparation stations; rotary cover feeder; four-fold cover scoring; cover aligning and pressing station; and cross stacking device. The ‘Digital’ version also incorporates a Delta 10 function and CBM as standard. Depending on the individual version, among the options available to further enhance the capabilities of each model are: PUR ‘Quickjet’ (Nozzle); PUR ‘Kompact’ (Roller); Hotmelt spine gluing unit; Hotmelt side gluing unit; Gauzing station; ‘Swiss’ brochures (Otabind); cold glue equipment; interface conveyors; and book block feeder. Wohlenberg Buchbindesysteme’s equipment is distributed in the UK and Ireland by Friedheim International.

Ricoh Expands Finishing Solutions

OPPOSITE (TOP): Invercote G from Iggesund Paperboard is certified for a variety of digital print technologies and is selected by digital printers for packaging, including folded carton, applications. BELOW: Kohmann EyeC ProofRunner Carton Retrofit product for folder-gluers.

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Ricoh has expanded its range of recommended finishing solutions to help print service providers streamline the cost efficient delivery of print. The Duplo DBM 350 and Duplo DBM 600 booklet makers have been added to provide European production printing operations with a broader choice of approved systems. The Duplo DBM 350 and DBM 600 can be connected inline to Ricoh digital cut sheet devices: the Pro C9100, Pro C7100 and Pro 8200 series presses. Highly automated, they are quick to set up and easy to use, enabling the efficient handling of fast turnaround booklet production. The DBM 600 also supports A4 landscape booklet production with the long sheet printing capability on the Ricoh Pro C9100 and Pro C7100 colour presses. Benoit Chatelard, Vice President, Production Printing, Ricoh Europe, explains: “Print service providers rightly want the most effective and efficient results from their Ricoh investment. Once they have installed a press they expect consistent productivity that extends into their finishing processes. We have been working closely with finishing partners to identify the systems that best support the daily workloads of our clients. After extensive trials these two booklet makers stood out as systems that would support our clients in delivering high quality finished products. With these finishing systems they can create a complete end-to-end solution that increases production capacity and efficiency.”

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THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Jason Gaston, Dave Hillard, Alan Cowan and Steve Campbell of Blacksheep printers are presented with their

The ladies of Sign Services, Omagh, kick off the 10th Signmakers of Ireland

award by Suneel Seetal, second from left, and Enda Brophy, far right.

invitational.

The 6Ball with Paul Ferguson, Jack O’Laughlin, Enda

The third placed team of Alan McElhinney, Andrew O’Neil, and

Brophy, Dave Brennan, and Oisin and Suneel Seetal.

Sonny Vance who teamed up with Nick Hughes of Brett Martin.

Players from Advertising Services and The Delta Group.

The third placed team of Alan McElhinney, Andrew O’Neil, and Sonny Vance who teamed up with Nick Hughes of Brett Martin.

Donal Brennan of SignWorx presents the fourth place prize to Barry of Academy Signs, Gerry and Stephen of Gemini Graphics, and Stephen of Signright.

GPMI Hosts Invitational in Donegal

The Kieran Finnan Memorial Trophy was won by Susan of Sign Services, Omagh for the long drive. Shane Martin of GPMI won the closest to the pin.

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Thirty print and signage companies attended GPMI/Reprocentre’s two-day SignMakers of Ireland Golf & Fishing Invitational on two championship links at Ballyliffin in Co Donegal. The annual autumn event is always well attended and this year over 80 rounds of golf were played over the two days.

Both trophies this year had a Northern Irish winner – Blacksheep printers in Belfast won on the top rated Glashedy Links, while Sign Services of Belfast won the Society competition. The first hole in one was from Sean Farrell of GPMI, and Finbar Heaney of Northern Ireland Plastics, who contributed €4,000 to help fund the event, won the GPMI/Reprocentre supplier of the year award. The event simply doesn’t happen without the support of GPMI/Reprocentre’s suppliers - Northern Ireland Plastics, Brett Martin Foamlaux, Avery, Altuglas, Norwich Corrugated, HP, Agfa, Hybrid Services / Mimaki, Bright Green Technology, Duracoat, Soyang, MacTac, Neschen, Skybond, DRS/Integart, Politape, GM Media and Molson Canadian. GPMI/Reprocentre are looking forward to welcoming printers and sign makers to Killarney Golf & Fishing Club on September 8th and 9th, 2017.

30/01/2017 17:14

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