Printing News - June 2018

June 2018

The Resource for Commercial, Sign & Digital Printing

TOP 100

QUICK & SMALL COMMERCIAL PRINTERS • INTERACTIVE PRINT COMES ALIVE WITH AUGMENTED REALITY

• FINISH LIKE A PRO • ASSOCIATION INSIGHTS BY APTECH

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PRESORT

Table of Contents

June 2018

TOP 100

QUICK & SMALL COMMERCIAL PRINTERS On the Cover A look at 2018’s Top 100 Quick & Small Commerical Printers in North America.

By Rebecca Flores

10

Inkjet’s Age Edition

Columns

16 Finish at the End The latest advancements in finishing equipment are progressing the ways that printers are helping their customers work more profitably and efficiently than ever before.

By Howard Riell

18 Augmented Reality Drives Interest in Interactive Print

06 Editor’s Note

Defining Your Vision

By Rebecca Flores

A Paradigm Shift

Machine companies and paper suppliers work together to make inkjet’s challenge with coated substrates a thing of the past.

By Thayer Long

By Carol Brzozowski

20 Association Insights 21 Digital Original

Consumers today want to go interact with brands beyond just a simple purchase; they are looking to be part the brand story. Here’s a look at a wine brand using AR to make that possible.

24 Playing with Ink and Media

A Look at Recent Trends in Prepress

By John Giles

26 Why White Ink is an Irreplaceable Tool for PSPs When white ink is working at full capacity it provides numerous benefits to Print Service Providers.

By Amanda Luz Henning Santiago

By Joann Whitcher

28 Top Tips on Successful Print & Mail Marketing

Departments

Marketing advice for print and mail service providers.

By Patrick Whelan

08 Printing Pulse 29 New Products 30 Classifieds/Supplier Directory

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SOCIAL MEDIA & ONLINE CONTENT PrintingNews com

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In the Know

PrintingNews.com Social Media

Featured Publication June 2018

Printing News

Events: Idealliance G7 Training Don Hutcheson, inventor of G7 and G7 Expert Trainer will lead instruction covering a multitude of print applications including offset, digital, and proofing color management.

June 12-14, Toronto, ON

The Resource for Commercial, Sign & Digital Printing

@PrintingNews

TOP 100

QUICK & SMALL COMMERCIAL PRINTERS

PrintingNews.com

• INTERACTIVE PRINT COMES ALIVE WITH AUGMENTED REALITY

Print & Packaging Legislative Summit This signature government affairs conference brings together industry stakeholders and Members of Congress for a powerful program of issue advocacy, political education, public affairs discussions, and networking events.

June 19-20, Washington, D.C. ISA Converge ISA Converge is the only industry networking conference exclusively for on-premise sign company suppliers, distributors and national sign companies.

June 19-21, Seattle, WA

• FINISH LIKE A PRO • ASSOCIATION INSIGHTS BY APTECH

Printing News

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S Published by SouthComm Business Media, Inc. PO Box 803 • 1233 Janesville Ave Fort Atkinson WI 53538 920-563-6388 • 800-547-7377

ince 1928, Printing News has focused on improving efficiency and increasing sales and profits in the print shop. Industry experts share their ideas and technical knowledge on ways to improve operations.

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Focusing on Production Inkjet's Next Frontier

Kelley Holmes Kelley@PrintingNews.com | 800-616-2252 x8511 • Top Tips on Successful Print & Mail Marketing

Managing Editor Rebecca Flores Rebecca@PrintingNews.com | 800-616-2252 x8506

Exclusive Section

• Why White Ink is an Irreplaceable Tool for PSPs

Associate Editor

PrintingNews.com

Amanda Santiago Amanda@PrintingNews.com | 800-616-2252 x2739

Contributing Writers Tom Crouser David Fellman John Giles Joe Rickard

Howard Riell Jeffrey Steele Heidi Tolliver-Walker Laurie Weller

Patrick Whalen Joann Whitcher

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Inkjet’s Age focuses on the issues surrounding inkjet printing technology. It covers the industry news, trends, products, services, and management issues that will help printers grow business using this technology.

SOUTHCOMM, INC Printing News (ISSN 0191-4588) (USPS 500-850) Volume 41, Number 9 is published ten times per year in January, April, April, May, June, August, September, October, November and December by SouthComm Business Media, LLC, at 1233 Janesville Avenue, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Printing News, PO Box 3257, Northbrook, IL 60065-3257. Canada Post PM40612608. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Printing News, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2. Subscriptions: Individual subscriptions are available without charge in the U.S. to qualified subscribers. Publisher reserves the right to reject non-qualified subscriptions. Subscription prices: U.S. $47 per year, $91 two year; Canada/Mexico $69 per year, $128 two year. All other countries $101 per year, $191 two year. All subscriptions payable in U.S. funds, drawn on U.S. bank. Canadian GST#842773848. Back issue $10 prepaid, if available. Printed in the USA. Copyright 2018 SouthComm Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recordings or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. SouthComm Business Media, LLC does not assume and herby disclaims any liability to any person or company for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions in the material herein, regardless of whether such errors result from negligence, accident or any other cause whatsoever. The views and opinions in the articles herein are not to be taken as official expressions of the publishers, unless so stated. The publishers do not warrant, either expressly or by implication, the factual accuracy of the articles herein, nor do they so warrant any views or opinions offered by the authors of said articles.

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Finishing 4.0

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Great news! A Vareo is now more affordable than ever before. Call your Muller Martini Regional Sales Manager and ask about the Vareo Standard.

For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/10006773

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Editor’s Note

Define Your Vision There’s a lot to be said about the industry and where it’s going. However, there’s an unspoken value in taking the questions facing the industry at large and asking them of our own business pursuits.

E

arlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the annual Xeikon Cafe in Chicago. As I got to learn about Xeikon’s latest developments in technology, as well as their increased focus on high value specialized segments, I listened to Andy Paparazzi, Chief Economist and SVP at Idealliance, discuss a macro-level upturn in the print industry over the last seven years. Since 2011, print has experienced a 5.9% increase in sales. The industry is steadily climbing as innovative commercial print owners take the opportunities technology has provided to them to serve clients more efficiently without compromising value.

Rebecca Flores Managing Editor Rebecca Flores is an editorial professional with more than 7 years experience in content management, corporate communications, and leadership. With a demonstrated history of success in writing and editing, in addition to a keen insight for current trends, she brings an energized approach to coverage of the print and graphics industry. Email Rebecca at rebecca@printingnews.com.

Increasingly, commercial print owners are discovering they must rethink not only their technology, but also their labor force, their value propositions, their suite of customized solutions, and their sales opportunities.

In this issue, you’ll have the opportunity to look at the numbers reported by our 2018 Top 100 Quick and Small Commercial Printers, as well as glean key findings from their proven success.

In addition to these key insights, you can turn to page 18 to learn about how Treasury Wine Estates is capitalizing on the advent of technology, augmented reality in particular, to drive interest in print. When is the last time you “interacted” with a wine label? Over and over again, the consumer experience is being expanded to go beyond the purchase point and bring one into the part of a story.

Marketers and brands continue to

explore the realm of interactive print. The challenge that print commercial owners are tasked with is defining their own story so that efforts to implement new technology aren’t an attempt to throw paint at a wall, but rather a strategic initiative that is part of a larger vision.

As you look this issue, I hope you ask yourself and in turn, those leading alongside you, “Who do we want to be? What is our story?” It’s in those answers that you’ll find an opportunity to bring your vision to life.

Technology and the many innovations discussed in these pages will simply be the carriers that help you arrive.

Ink & Media Without Limits From automotive parts to suitcases, there are very few items that cannot serve as a substrate for printing given the advances in ink and processes that have been the driving factor in expanding the possibilities. Turn to page 24 to learn more as Carol Brzozowski discusses these with industry experts.

Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12413261

6

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June 2018

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Printing Pulse Creative Edge Software Showcases Real-Time Ray Tracing for iC3D at Leading Shows in May

HP Inc. Survey Reveals Sustainability Tops List of Incentives for Office Workers New survey among U.S., Mexico and Brazil employees reveal a growing demand for resources and education to build sustainable workplaces.

In a new survey from HP Inc. focusing on more than 3,000 office employees in Mexico, U.S. and Brazil, sustainability rises to the top as the most important employer offering.

HP revealed the results as part of the company’s 2018 Americas Innovation Summit. From the survey, sustainability is tied with new technology as the #1 most important employer offering across all surveyed countries.

It is #1 most important in Brazil and a close second in the U.S. and Mexico, behind new technology.

It’s time for employers to step up.

Employees are committed, but they want to do more. Office workers report high levels of participation in sustainability efforts such as turning off lights to save energy, recycling, and taking alternative transportation to work. As important as sustainability is to office workers, they don’t demonstrate much knowledge about it; more education is needed around the environmental impact of printing to combat common misconceptions, and most underestimate how well their country is doing at meeting its Sustainable Development Goals. Few see printing as an environmentally-friendly technology.

PrintingNews.com/12412800

8

Printing News

June 2018

Game-changing render capabilities take center stage at Luxe Pack New York and Packaging Premiere, Milan.

Creative Edge Softwares showcased its latest technology breakthrough at parallel events in Milan and New York in May. The new iC3D Real-Time Ray Tracer delivers instantaneous rendering of highest quality images for immediate visualization of even the most complex designs on-the-fly.

The Real-Time Ray Tracer will shortly be available as a free, automatic upgrade (version 5.2), for users with an iC3D software maintenance agreement (SMA) and builds on key rendering advancements and distributed rendering capabilities enabled in the current iC3D version 5.1 release. The technology works on almost any off-the-shelf Mac or PC in conjunction with an appropriate NVidia or AMD Graphics card. Alternatively, Real-Time Ray Tracer performance can also be achieved on older computers using commonly available external graphics card (eGPU) to extend graphics capability.

Using the new iC3D Real-Time Ray Tracer technology, high-resolution design renders can now be delivered at unprecedented speeds. For example, a high-quality (1024 pxi) ray-traced image, 6000x3500 pixels in size, which would previously have taken 3-4 hours to render, can now be achieved to photorealistic quality in 1 minute, 49 seconds using an off-the-shelf PC with Nvidia 1080 Ti graphics card.

PrintingNews.com/12412282

Productivity Flourishing at Bourne Brothers with Colter & Peterson’s PRISM Paper Cutter Scott Ruple knew productivity would increase at Bourne Brothers once installation of a new 36-inch PRISM paper cutter with Microcut from Colter & Peterson was completed.

What he didn’t quite expect was the level of improvement would continue after having the machine for a year. Not that he’s complaining, especially with business doing well at the Hattiesburg, Mississippi large format conventional and digital print shop.

Ruple says the keys to success for Bourne Brothers is its flexibility. They print all types of work and sizes for a vast of range of customers. Equal amounts of the work is divided and printed on Xerox 2100 and Sharp digital presses, plus two Ryobi 3302 presses and 4-color PM 74.

The reason why is the automated Microcut electronics system, which includes a 15inch programmable touchscreen. Microcut quickens the process by memorizing cutting sequences for instant recall. Ruple’s crew assigns numbers to each job so Microcut can recall cut specifications when they repeat the job. A 6-inch clamp opening provides room for more material to be trimmed.

PrintingNews.com/12412090

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Printing Pulse Hazen Paper Nabs AIMCAL Product of the Year

Kodak Expands Global Literacy Program in 2018 Kodak announced it is creating a volunteer printer network that will produce thousands of children’s books and school supplies in 2018 to benefit some of the world’s most disadvantaged populations, using sustainable Kodak printing products, such as KODAK SONORA Process Free Plates. Last year, Print for Good placed more than 30,000 books and printed materials into the hands of thousands of children in communities throughout Europe, the United States, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

The Print for Good initiative also saw Kodak employees in the company’s facilities around the world volunteer to support their own community literacy initiatives, including participation in local school reading programs.

This year, Kodak will also establish a new partnership with Room to Read, a global non-profit focused on literacy and girls’ education in low-income countries. Kodak will support the establishment of Room to Read’s Literacy Program at a primary school in Rajasthan, India, bringing the community access to a safe and child-friendly learning environment.

PrintingNews.com/12412600

HTC Global Services Joins Quadient Partner Program Quadient announced that HTC Global Services has joined the Quadient Partner Advantage Program as a Delivery Partner. Quadient Delivery Partners have functional and technical product expertise along with vertical industry experience to provide implementation and support services that augment the global reach of Quadient’s Professional Services Organization (PSO). The Quadient Partner Advantage Program facilitates speedy integration of new and emerging CCM technology into production. It does this by leveraging the extensive assets and skills of its partners to enable organizations to develop better experiences for their customers.

HTC Global Services (HTC) is a leading global provider of IT and Business Process Services and Solutions. HTC’s IT services are backed by talented professionals with extensive domain and technical expertise, global presence, large delivery centers and compliance to SEI CMM Level 5, ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and PCI DSS standards.

PrintingNews.com/12410613

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Hazen Paper Company’s holographic Kat Von D “Metal Crush” limited-edition powder highlighter carton was named “Product of the Year” at the 2018 annual meeting of the Association of International Metallizers Coaters, and Laminators (AIMCAL), held in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hazen also received “Product Excellence” awards for a Marc Jacobs “Decadence” perfume box and a Burmester Porsche “Music to your Ears” brochure.

Hazen’s carton for Kat Von D features metallized film laminated to the coated side of 0.020 solid bleached sulfate (SBS), with sparkling holography that captures consumer attention in the department store environment and reflects the “Metal Crush” name. Hazen originated the Color Motion Stardust pattern in the Hazen holographic lab, producing the hologram with its “Single-Write” highspeed large-format laser system. “It really jumps out,” agreed another, and they concluded, “It’s a beautiful use of holography and traditional printing.”

PrintingNews.com/12412589

Quad/Graphics Wins U.S. Bank Credit Card Acquisition Program Quad/Graphics Inc. announced that it has signed a multiyear, multi-million-dollar contract with U.S. Bank to manage credit card acquisition programs for hundreds of its small and mid-size regional banks. The volume for the U.S. Bank programs is significant: more than 70 million data-driven mailpieces annually.

Quad, which began production on the programs earlier this year, is using its state-of-the-art direct mail platform for producing the mailpieces that are hyper-personalized with data elements highly relevant to each individual recipient to increase engagement and inspire action. In addition, Quad will engage its delivery optimization services to lower postage costs, reduce mail handling and cycle times, and offer more predictable, in-home arrival intelligence.

Quad’s direct mail platform includes multiple digital presses with inline finishing systems, including UV and aqueous coating, folding, die cutting, gluing, pop-ups, nested sets and more. Additionally, Quad’s platform allows marketers to incorporate multiple substrates into complex and eye-catching formats to ensure their mailpieces stand out in the mailbox and from their competition.

PrintingNews.com/12411341

June 2018

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9

2018 Annual Top 100 Quick & Small Commercial Printers Every year, Printing News invites commercial print owners to participate in the Top 100 Quick & Small Commercial Printers survey. This survey takes a look at the state of the industry as presented by commercial print owners across North America. As the figures for 2017 would confirm, it was indeed a healthy year for print in total sales reported of $ 652,624,639.

C

hief Economist and Senior Vice President at Idealliance, Andy Paparozzi, best describes the state of commercial printing’s performance in 2017 as an upturn that often hasn’t felt quite like an upturn. “Activity picks up but doesn’t stay up, creating a plodding advance with limited pricing power, persistent pressure on margins, and the heightened uncertainty that complicates hiring and investment decisions and makes effective planning even more challenging,” said Paparozzi.

Based on the economic performance within print for the first quarter of 2018, projections of growth between 2%-3% are expected—keeping this industry upturn at a slow but consistent pace. Commercial print owners also agree they’ve experienced better business conditions in recent years. “Many things can happen to bring this virtuous cycle to a premature end. However, a healthy and accelerating economy will take our industry with it,” noted Paparazzi. Industy experts maintain that the real winners will be those who seize

this healthy economic environment to secure a competitive advantage.

The following businesses made this year’s Top Ten: • Duggal Visual Solutions (#1) • Ironmark (#2) • Firespring Print, Inc. (#3) • Tapecon, Inc. (#4) • Alphaprint, Inc. (#5) • Strategic Factory (#6) • Label Impressions, Inc. (#7) • Alexander’s Print Advantage (#8) • Astek, Inc. (#9) • Allegra Marketing Print Mail (#10)

Finding Opportunities to Thrive Mike Duggal of Duggal Visual Solutions (#1 in our Top 100) credits an obsession with quality and having the latest technology to offer customers as two top keys to the success of his business. “Having diverse service offerings at a large scale allows us to offer a complete solution,” said Duggal.

Increasingly, commercial print owners are discovering they must rethink not only their technology, but also their labor force, their value propositions, their suite of customized solutions, and their sales opportunities.

Kevin Thomas, Chief Operating Officer at Firespring Print, Inc. (#3) agrees: “We credit the success of our business to the willingness to change gears and fully embrace the change.

How do you expect overall business conditions in 2018 to compare with overall conditions in 2017?

March 2018 November 2017 Better 67.40% 61.10% Worse 11.80% 3.60% About the Same 18.70% 28.30% Too Inconsistent to Forecast 2.10% 7.00% Source: Idealliance, State of the Industry Updates

10

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June 2018

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TOTAL INDUSTRY COMMERCIAL PRINTING SALES Number of Rank

Company Name

City and State

Management

Locations

Total Employees

Average Sales

Average Sales

Growth/

Year

2017 Sales

(FT+PT)

per Employee

per Shop

Loss

Founded

1

Duggal Visual Solutions

New York, NY

Michael Duggal, CEO

5

79,400,000

385

206,234

15,880,000

10%

1961

2

Ironmark

Annapolis Junction, MD

Jeff Ostenso, CEO

2

22,500,000

140

160,714

11,250,000

15%

1955

3

Firespring, Inc.

Lincoln, NE

Jay Wilkinson, Founder, CEO

2

21,792,720

152

143,373

10,896,360

8%

1992

4

Tapecon, Inc.

Buffalo, NY

Steven Davis, President

1

18,931,392

120

157,762

18,931,392

10%

1919

5

AlphaGraphics

Seattle, WA

Chuck Stempler, President, CEO

6

18,531,707

94

197,146

3,088,618

3%

1989

6

Strategic Factory

Owings Mills , MD

Keith Miller, President

1

18,375,663

132

139,210

18,375,663

18%

2000

7

Label Impressions, Inc.

Orange, CA

Jeff Salisbury, CEO

1

15,600,000

58

268,966

15,600,000

15%

1988

8

Alexander’s Print Advantage

Lindon, UT

Jeff Alexander, President, CEO

1

15,000,000

125

120,000

15,000,000

18%

1979

9

Astek Inc.

Van Nuys, CA

Aaron S. Kirsch, President

1

14,000,000

48

291,667

14,000,000

3%

1991

10

Allegra Marketing Print Mail

Plymouth, MI

Michael Marcantonio, CEO

3

12,535,640

81

154,761

4,178,547

1%

1978

12

Allen Printing Company

Nashville, TN

Shannon Heffington, CFO

3

12,000,000

115

104,348

4,000,000

9%

1931

13

Speedy CPS LLC

Idaho Falls, ID

Lynn Nelson, President

6

10,303,166

78

132,092

1,717,194

17%

2006

14

Thompson Print & Mailing Solutions

San Antonio, TX

David Thompson, President

3

10,126,300

65

155,789

3,375,433

-3%

1964

15

Sir Speedy Printing-Whittier CA

Whittier, CA

George Coriaty, President

1

9,900,000

29

341,379

9,900,000

-17%

1979

16

Allegra - Asheville, NC

Asheville, NC

Dave Campbell, President

5

9,709,072

41

236,807

1,941,814

67%

1998

17

ABC Printing Company

Chicago, IL

Michael Christensen, Steve and

1

9,100,000

17

535,294

9,100,000

12%

1963

RJ Strauss 18

Copy Central (Fairbanks Enterprise)

Emeryville, CA

Craig Fairbanks, CEO

13

8,360,000

58

144,138

643,077

1.50%

1986

19

Haig Graphic Communications

Hauppauge, NY

James Kalousdian, President

1

8,300,000

43

193,023

8,300,000

11%

1943

20

Dynamark Graphics Group, Inc.

Indianapolis, IN

Scott and Tom Fulner, Owners

3

8,005,500

65

123,162

2,668,500

4%

1972

21

Kopytek, Inc.

St. Louis, MO

John M. Peterson, President

2

7,500,000

41

182,927

3,750,000

6%

1986

22

Stylecraft Printing Company

Canton, MI

Richard Pesci, President

2

7,500,000

52

144,231

3,750,000

-5%

1966

23

Raintree Graphics

Jacksonville, FL

Mike Seethaler, President

1

7,160,000

43

166,512

7,160,000

-4%

1989

24

Your Printer V.2.0. Ltd

Cranbury, NJ

David Kovacs, President

1

7,100,000

38

186,842

7,100,000

3%

1996

25

Paradigm Digital Color Graphics

Southampton, PA

John Rosenthal, President

1

7,086,050

46

154,045

7,086,050

8%

1997

26

Insight Communication, LLC

Bountiful, UT

Grant Richey, President

1

6,950,000

30

231,667

6,950,000

2%

1994

27

AlphaGraphics #4

Tempe, AZ

Mike Sparaco and Darin Osborne,

1

6,338,384

38

166,800

6,338,384

16%

1988

CEO, CFO 28

Digital Marketing Services, Inc.

Pelham, AL

Ryan Cooper, President

1

6,310,000

41

153,902

6,310,000

4%

2006

29

PIP Printing of Alaska

Anchorage, AK

Shelley Bramstedt, Jan and John

1

6,223,345

42

148,175

6,223,345

-3%

1979

1

6,200,000

30

206,667

6,200,000

10%

2000

55

110,909

6,100,000

NA

1909

Tatham, Owner 30

AlphaGraphics in the Cultural District

Pittsburgh, PA

Bill Meehan, Clare Meehan, and Sarah Meehan Parker, Chairman, President, CEO

31

Foust, Inc. dba Whitney Russell

Amarillo, TX

Nell Foust, Owner

1

6,100,000

Printers 32

Braintree Printing

Braintree, MA

CORLISS, TAFUR

1

6,036,026

21

287,430

6,036,026

-6%

1989

33

Lake Printing Inc.

Osage Beach, MO

Gary L. Lorenz, Chairman

2

5,974,659

33

181,050

2,987,330

17%

1949

34

H&H Graphics Inc.

Lancaster, PA

Mary Kohler, Mike Williams, and

1

5,891,152

42

140,266

5,891,152

4%

1972

1

5,821,000

45

129,356

5,821,000

5%

1973 2005

Dee Spitler 35

K-B Offset Printing, Inc.

State College, PA

RJ Caravan, CEO

36

Influence Graphpics

New York, NY

Ronald Sizemore, Partner

1

5,600,000

36

155,556

5,600,000

2%

37

AAI

Gilbert, MN

Robert Cap, CEO

1

5,500,000

9

611,111

5,500,000

10%

1971

38

Curry Printing

Westborough, MA

Peter Gardner, President

2

5,479,596

31

176,761

2,739,798

-1%

1981

39

Integra Graphics

Crestwood, IL

Rick Richter, Gene Egan,

2

5,358,000

21

255,143

2,679,000

7%

1989

2

5,307,718

43

123,435

2,653,859

1%

1977

President, VP 40

Express Press, Inc

South Bend, IN

Brian Clauser, President

41

More Business Solutions

Peachtree Corners, GA

Denise K Roath, CEO

2

5,100,000

51

100,000

2,550,000

9%

1985

42

Unique Litho, Inc.

Englewood, CO

Jay Hartway, Owner

1

4,845,966

30

161,532

4,845,966

-8%

1985

43

Spectrum Printing & Graphics

Rockville, MD

Andrew Berman, President

1

4,816,375

40

120,409

4,816,375

0

1997

44

Alphagraphics of Carrollton

Carrollton, TX

Sally Hewell, Chairman

1

4,702,018

35

134,343

4,702,018

-1%

1994

12

Printing News

June 2018

PrintingNews com

The industry continues to evolve and consumer needs are changing at a record clip.”

Specializations Continue to Expand When it comes to securing a sales advantage, a commercial print business must fi rst decide what their vision is, and what opportunities are priorities based on that vision.

at the strategic level and better understanding our client’s business needs and goals allows us to recommend the appropriate marketing tactic,” explained Thomas.

Harvard Business Review reports that client loyalty is the single most important driver of long-term financial performance. According

to market research by Thomas O. Jones and W. Earl Sasser, Jr., increasing customer retention by even 5% increases profitability by 25%-95%.

This year’s Top 100 are driving customer loyalty by diversifying their offerings to new and existing clients.

“Practice what you preach. Make sure your own marketing is on point and you

Commercial Printing Sales History and Outlook SALES Year

Percent Change

Volume (Billions)

2017

1.5%-3.0%

$83.5-85.1

2016

0.8%-1.2%

$82.3-82.6

2015

1.80%

$81.70

2014

2.40%

$80.20 $78.30

2013

0.80%

2012

0.90%

$77.70

2011

-1.10%

$77.00

Top Job Types Reported by Rank Color Digital Printing/Copying

1

B/W Digital Printing/Copying

2

Prepress

3

Bindery/Finishing

4

Mailing Services (Not Including Postage)

5

Four-Color Process

6

Wide-Format Inkjet Printing

7

Signage

8

Multi-Color Offset

9

One-Color Offset

10

Interactive/Web-Based Services

11

Brokered/Other

12

Production Inkjet Printing

13

“More and more we are becoming a print advisory service to help direct our clients to products that will best meet their needs,” explained Duggal.

Customers often need professional support on how to get “big wins” that deliver a return on investment. These conversations provide opportunities to rethink sales strategies by bringing new ideas to the table.

“We continue to fi nd that layering marketing services with print services has big upside. Getting involved For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/10005400

PrintingNews com

June 2018

Printing News

13

TOTAL INDUSTRY COMMERCIAL PRINTING SALES Rank

Number of Locations

2017 Sales

Total Employees (FT+PT)

Average Sales per Employee

Average Sales per Shop

Growth/ Loss

Year Founded

1

4,642,104

19

244,321

4,642,104

31%

1989

4,624,112

23

201,048

4,624,112

-4%

1979

4,600,000

26

176,923

2,300,000

5%

1983

4,596,841

40

114,921

2,298,421

-5%

1969

Company Name

City and State

Management

45

Sir Speedy Printing Irvine

Irvine, CA

Kathy Morgan, President

46

Sir Speedy 5025

Sarasota, FL

Eileen C. Rosenzweig, President

1

47

The Print House

Malden, MA

Paul T. Doucette, President

2

48

Art Advertising, Inc.

Jonesboro, AR

Gary D. and Stacy Gestring,

2

VP and President 49

Jeb-Phi Inc.

Downey, CA

Bruce and Linda Pansky

1

4,498,156

22

204,462

4,498,156

23%

1969

50

Impressions Printing

Oklahoma City, OK

Jeff Summerford, CEO

1

4,309,334

41

105,106

4,309,334

-9%

1996

51

AJ Images, Inc

Roselle, NJ

Janet Greebel, President

1

4,293,505

23

186,674

4,293,505

4%

1967

52

Fuse Graphics

Marietta, GA

Kelly Carlin, CEO

1

4,142,377

32

129,449

4,142,377

1%

1988

53

Universal Printing

Durham, NC

Robert Moura, President

1

4,097,123

37

110,733

4,097,123

8%

1979

54

AlphaGraphics #011

Phoenix, AZ

Larry Furlong, Franchise Owner

1

4,073,083

26

156,657

4,073,083

5%

1981 1984

55

Trinity Press

Norcross, CA

Joe and Kay Dye

1

4,032,000

20

201,600

4,032,000

7%

56

Allegra

Sterling, VA

John Flynn, President

1

4,006,015

22

182,092

4,006,015

-2%

1988

57

AlphaGraphics San Francisco & Marin

San Francisco, CA

Manuel Torres, Managing Partner

2

$3,993,031

24

$166,376.29

$1,996,516

-6%

1990

58

AJ Images, Inc

Roselle, NJ

Janet Greebel, President

1

3,975,000

24

165,625

3,975,000

-5%

1967 1969

59

Econo Print Inc.

Billings, MT

Jim Berry, President

2

3,921,256

19

206,382

1,960,628

2%

60

AlphaGraphics Bozeman

Bozeman, MT

Michael & Jeff Burgard, Owners

2

3,852,000

25

154,080

1,926,000

2%

1967

61

Sir Speeedy 4043

Carrollton, TX

Jim Quinn, Owner

1

3,817,038

22

173,502

3,817,038

1%

1990

62

Allegra

Helena, MT

Jonette & Kyle Spencer

1

3,800,000

27

140,741

3,800,000

75%

1982 2007

63

Southeast Mail Service

Lexington, KY

Jeff Fraley

1

3,800,000

30

126,667

3,800,000

14%

64

Allegra - Lehigh Valley

Allentown, PA

Edward Kelchner, President

1

3,785,000

29

130,517

3,785,000

8%

2016

65

Salem Printing & Blueprint, Inc.

Salem, OR

Brenton C. Field, President

5

3,705,194

25

148,208

741,039

0%

1946

66

AlphaGraphics/Moran Graphics Inc.

Chicago, IL

Richard F Moran, President

4

3,677,260

27

136,195

919,315

8%

1993

67

Bethlehem Business Forms, LLC

Bethlehem, PA

Frederick Fenselau, President

1

3,445,929

32

107,685

3,445,929

7%

1986

68

P&S Cochran Printers

Peoria, IL

Scott Cochran/Shane Parker/

2

3,363,634

27

124,579

1,681,817

-0.50%

1978

Chris Cochran 69

The Voom Group, Inc.

Plano, TX

Erich Schlarb, President

1

3,280,000

24

136,667

3,280,000

8%

202

70

Allegra / Acadia Group, LLC

Saline, MI

Therese & Pat Mahoney,

1

3,270,767

30

109,026

3,270,767

3%

1973

Joe DiMauro, & Kelly Parkinson, Partners 71

Allegra

Richmond, VA

John D. Fergusson, President

1

3,230,000

25

129,200

3,230,000

7%

1991

73

Winn Communications / Alphagraph-

West Valley City, Utah

Brian Johnson, President, CEO

1

3,101,350

22

140,970

3,101,350

25%

2015

ics #34 74

AlphaGraphics #371, #600 and #629

Austin, TX

Jane Harvey, President

3

3,101,000

26

119,269

1,033,667

25%

1978

75

Scott’s Printing and Design Solutions

Montrose, CO

SCOTT BEYER

3

3,070,000

22

139,545

1,023,333

26.80%

1978

76

Allegra Marketing Print Mail

Tucson, AZ

Peter Marcus, President

1

3,012,462

15

200,831

3,012,462

-1%

77

AlphaGraphics Layton

Layton, UT

Jerron M Hale

1

2,984,232

19

157,065

2,984,232

-1%

2002

78

Allegra Marketing Print Web

Vancouver, BC

Michael Grant, President

1

2,982,527

20

149,126

2,982,527

7%

1994

79

PIP New England

East Longmeadow, MA

Robert Pelzek and Michael Tarby,

1

2,960,000

22

134,545

2,960,000

16%

1976

266,174

2,927,916

0%

2005

President and Vice President 80

Sir Speedy Printing

Washington, DC

Michael Klugerman, Owner

1

2,927,916

11

81

PIP Triad & Triad Signs

Burlington, NC

Jimmy Brumley, Owner

2

2,916,960

26

112,191

1,458,480

-1%

1983

82

Wet Ink, Inc dba AlphaGraphics

Arvada, CO

Edward Rothschild, President

3

2,916,139

23

126,789

972,046

1%

1996

83

Allegra Marketing Print Mail

Ottawa, ON

Walter McGinn, President

1

2,862,000

18

159,000

2,862,000

-7%

1987

84

Copycats

New York, NY

Ruth Starer, CEO

1

2,818,595

16

176,162

2,818,595

0.05%

1984

85

Allegra of Arkansas, Inc.

Little Rock, AR

Darwin Buehler, President

1

2,810,692

26

108,104

2,810,692

16%

1991

86

PIP Printing Riverside and Corona/

Riverside, CA

Justin Tracy and Sam Tracy, CEO

2

2,794,995

16

174,687

1,397,498

0%

1968

PrintMyStuff.com

and President

87

Graphic Creations Inc.

Knoxville, TN

Debbie Billings, President

1

2,762,078

20

138,104

2,762,078

14%

1987

88

Growth Inc. dba Sir Speedy of Newark

Newark, DE

John Riley, Secretary and

1

2,705,506

15

180,367

2,705,506

7%

1995

Treasurer

14

Printing News

June 2018

PrintingNews com

TOTAL INDUSTRY COMMERCIAL PRINTING SALES Rank

Company Name

City and State

Management

Number of Locations

2017 Sales

Total Employees (FT+PT)

Average Sales per Employee

Average Sales per Shop

Growth/ Loss

Year Founded

89

Bradsher & Bright, LLC

Franklin, TN

Jim Bright, President and CEO

1

2,704,437

26

104,017

2,704,437

12%

2012

90

AlphaGraphics US553

Houston, TX

Jim and Britt Houd, Owners

1

2,700,000

13

207,692

2,700,000

20%

2003 1980

91

TruColor Printing and Mailing

Greenville, SC

J Ray Truluck Jr

1

2,676,134

15

178,409

2,676,134

-4%

92

Allegra

Okemos, MI

Dave Muhleck, Owner

1

2,666,232

13

205,095

2,666,232

15%

1990

93

AlphaGraphics Sandy

Sandy, UT

Andy Selcho, President

1

2,656,529

19

139,817

2,656,529

2%

1996

94

Streeter Printing, Inc.

San Diego, CA

Adrienne Streeter, President

1

2,645,437

20

132,272

2,645,437

-8%

1980

95

AlphaGraphics of Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls, SD

Paul VanVeldhuizen, Owner

1

2,640,000

14

188,571

2,640,000

11%

1997

96

Park Place Printing, Inc.

Mesa, AZ

Steve Adams, Owner

3

2,626,421

18

145,912

875,474

7%

1990

BGB Enterprises dba AlphaGraphics

Chandler, AZ

Brandon Bagley, Owner

4

2,611,447

18

145,080

652,862

-3%

2007

Sacramento, CA

The McNaught Family

3

2,596,950

13

199,765

865,650

13%

1969

2006

97

Chandler|Gilbert|Scottsdale 98

ColorMarx Corporation dba PIP Marketing Signs Print

99

Allegra

Show Low, AZ

Clyde Moses, General Manager

1

2,591,108

14

185,079

2,591,108

2%

100

Allegra Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids, IA

Eric Van Kerckhove and Ben Van

1

2,581,284

20

129,064

2,581,284

9.40%

Total Number of Locations

Total Number of Sales

Total Number of Employees

Total Average Sales per Employee

Total Average Sales per Shop

173

652,624,639

3980

163,976

3,772,397

Kerckhove, President and Vice President

are reaching your target market effectively. Become your own case study,” said Thomas.

“You need to understand your customers’ application challenge and not just sell,” said Kelly Flicinski, Marketing Specialist at Tapecon, Inc. (#4).

Finding talent that can fulfill market demand and keep up with an increasingly innovative industry is the second half of increasing a competitive advantage. As 14% of the Top 100 commercial print providers prepare to open new locations in 2018, a healthy and sustainable talent pipeline is imperitive. “We need to be prepared to compete as vigorously for talent as we do for clients to succeed,” Paparozzi urged.

π ALWAYS IN STOCK

Prepare for Growth Color digital printing and copying remained #1 and #2 most common job orders among the Top 100. Prepress, bindery/finishing, and mailing services all follow close behind in the top 5 most common job types reported. Industry experts expect something other than printing (such as mailing, fulfillment, database management, marketing services, web service, etc.) to provide 31.6% of their revenue in 2018, up from just 13.3% in 2012.

Figures show that 80% of the Top 100 reported growth in revenue during 2017. In tandem with a healthy economy, this number is only expected to grow in 2018.

PEANUTS

TUBES

BUBBLE

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OVER 250 TUBES

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For more information, visit PrintingNews.com/10718883

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June 2018

Printing News

15

Finish at the End

Cell phone case embellished by the Roland DGA LD-80 Hot Foil Printing Machine & Laser Decorator.

By Howard Riell

T

he latest advancements in finishing equipment are progressing the ways that printers are helping their customers work more profitably and efficiently than ever before. The latest advancements in finishing equipment technology “mostly all have to do with the reduction in set-up times,” said Tim Simpson, President, DiggyPOD Inc. a self-publishing and book printing company in Tecumseh, MI, which uses a Muller Martini Vareo Perfect Binder. “In addition, another area of advancements is operator interfaces.” Printers, in Simpson’s view want to see shorter make-readies and less labor-intensive operation, “which is obviously driven by the increase in shorter-run print work. Intuitive interfaces and easier-to-use automated equipment help hold down the price of operators, which is another interesting advancement to printers.”

Laser Focus A fine illustration of developments in finishing equipment that help printers do their jobs better than ever before was recently launched by United Kingdom-based DGSHAPE Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Roland DG Corp. and a leading provider of

16

Printing News

digital fabrication tools, including 3D milling machines, 3D printers, and engraving machines. The company recently launched what it says is the world’s first laser foil decorator.

The LD-80 Laser Decorator enables adding text, logos, and graphics in a variety of metallic and holographic

June 2018

foils to provide a premium, personalized appearance to small, off-theshelf products including fountain pens, cell phone covers, stationery, or cosmetic accessories. The LD-80 uses proprietary technology to focus a laser beam to transfer hot-stamp type foils to plastic and paper items to create a true luxury appearance.

Text, logos, and other vector graphics can be transferred quickly onto plastics such as acrylic, ABS, and polycarbonate that usually perform poorly under traditional hot-stamp applications.”

“The special characteristics of the focused laser supports the transfer of very small text and fi ne lines in stunning quality,” said Marketing Manager Daisuke Satori. “In addition to gold or silver foil, metallic or holographic foils can be used to create a broad range of vivid designs,” he continued.

PrintingNews com

The bundled software package made it easy to create custom designs for personalization. A wide selection of fonts are available, and settings like font size and spacing can be adjusted at the click of a mouse. Vector data can also be imported including custom designs like illustrations and logos. Compliant with the safest Class 1 international standard for products equipped with laser devices, the LD-80 incorporates a full-cover design to ensure it can be used

Finishing equipment will continue to grow in size and become more automated and integrated with the digital presses. safely without laser light being visible outside the unit. It also includes a failsafe design that stops the unit automatically if the cover is opened while it is operating. The exclusive design of the laser system eliminates dust or gas from being generated, ensuring maintenance-free operation.

It also works on ordinary household power, requiring no electrical work for installation.

‘Much More Automation’ For Ricoh, the ability to bring third-party finishing in-line with production presses “has been one of our leading advancements,” said Chris LePore, Senior Product Manager, Commercial & Industrial Printing Business Group, Ricoh USA, Inc. “Across the industry, we’re seeing much more automation. The main push in the industry is overall efficiency, which includes the ability to get more things done with less steps, taking touch points out of finishing to help increase accuracy, reducing waste and work hours,” said LePore.

According to LePore, printers are telling her company’s executives that they are looking for more finishing features

PrintingNews com

preformed in-line, which eases operation, reduces touch points, will reduce work hours and help free up operators to do other tasks in the shop.

“With automation, operators can perform other tasks while jobs are running, with the confidence that they will run smoothly. Printers are constantly after quick turnaround times, increasing the breadth of offerings to their customers, and the ability to do more in-house.” Ricoh’s customers have been “very clear in telling us they are willing to invest more capital as long as there is an effective return on investment,” LePore reported. “The ability to streamline production with reduced inline makeready that enables a white paper in, finished product out solution in many cases can do just that.”

Ricoh’s latest advancement is the Ricoh Peripheral Interface Port (RPIP).

In development for between three and five years, it hit the market in 2015.

Of this technology, Lepore said: “It removes the limits of what finishing devices we can offer. It allows us to interface with any third-party finisher, opening up options that were historically standalone units. If a customer has a desire for a certain option in-line, there’s a good chance we can accommodate the customer.”

Greater Return The advancements are ongoing. One of the latest progressions in equipment has to do with gluing systems and technologies, Simpson said. The application and monitoring of glue “has become much more sophisticated and clean, which leads to quicker set-ups and a better-quality product.”

According to Simpson, the new things that he and his management team see coming in the next few years is continued automation that can reduce the dependency on manpower.

Also on the way, he added, are further development of quality-control systems within the manufacturing process, and the continued reduction of both setup times and change-over rates. Companies are “definitely” willing to pay more for improved technology, Simpson feels.

Finish with Success

B

old embellishments are among 2018’s biggest finishing trends, here are five tips that package printers and converters can follow to make their bold finishes pop, according to X-Rite/Pantone: 1. Implementing process control software can speed job setup, provide near-real-time assessment of color performance, and generate reporting to help production managers address issues.

2. Special finishes and embellishments require different measurement techniques. Choose the right spectrophotometer for the job, which is a critical element of a color-managed workflow.

3. Age, fading, and improper care can cause physical references to change over time—implement digital references to offer a more sophisticated level of connectivity.

4. Explore cloud-based tools, such as PantoneLIVE Design and Adobe plugin, to better understand how colors will change when applied to the most common print and packaging materials.

5. Reference emerging standards, such as Print Requirements Exchange and Print Quality Exchange, for effective bi-directional communication.

“A small investment in technology can give them a much greater return in cost savings.”

In the next few years, LePore believes that finishing equipment will continue to grow in size and become more automated and integrated with the digital presses. It will also be able to perform more functions that were traditionally done by hand.

The advancements in finishing have limits that are being broken each day.

Opportunity for commercial print owners to invest in finishing are for the taking. You just have to seize them.

June 2018

Printing News

17

Thinkstock/iStock

Augmented Reality Drives Interest in Interactive Print

Consumers today want to go interact with brands beyond just a simple purchase; they are looking to be part of the brand story, part of something bigger.

By Joann Whitcher

L

ast year, Treasury Wine Estates created a sensation with its augmented reality label for its 19 Crimes brand. Consumers that downloaded the 19 Crimes app from the app store and scanned the wine label were treated to true tales of British criminals accused of 19 specific crimes punishable by relocation to Australia.

Launched July 2017, the 19 Crimes AR label was conceived to help drive consumer engagement, taking into account that smartphones are an integral part of consumers’ lives.

TWE collaborated with Tactic, a creative technology company, and J. Walter Thompson SF to create the award-winning label. To bring the 19 criminals to life, Tactic combined its expertise in character animation, visual effects, and mobile AR. “We were looking at ways to add an interesting experiential element to bring our brands to life to the consumer—both at the shelf and after purchase, when

18

Printing News

consumers are enjoying our wine,” explained Michelle Terry, Chief Marketing Officer, Treasury Wine Estates.

“We saw AR as an opportunity to tell a brand story in a highly engaging and novel way,” she added. “We had a vision to disrupt the category, going beyond traditional approaches of neck-tags or paper-based point of sale, to engage consumers at the point of purchase.”

The first of its kind in the wine category, reported Terry, the platform has driven strong growth for 19 Crimes—across the US and globally as well. Based on this initial success, five brands are now live with the Living

June 2018

Treasury Wine Estate’s interactive printed labels on signature wine bottles

Wine Labels app; along with19 Crimes, the brands include Walking Dead, Beringer Brothers, Lindeman’s Gentleman’s Collection, and Chateau St. Jean).

Technology Trends in AR Augmented reality is coming into its own. While it’s been around for a number of years, it wasn’t until Pokemon Go and SnapChat integrated AR into their applications that the technology captured the hearts and minds of consumers, brands, and marketers.

PrintingNews com

AR falls into the category of interactive or connected print – the ability to interact with printed material (such as catalogs, direct mail, inserts, displays, and packaging) using a mobile phone (or some other digital-enable device).

The various technologies that enable interactive print may be text-based (e.g., short codes, long codes, phone numbers); code-based (UPC, QR); proximity-based (NFC, beacons) and image-based (e.g., image recognition, watermarks).

BlueSoho, the marketing and content services agency that is a division of Quad Graphics, has delivered over 5,000 connected print activations (print to digital) since 2010. It has been part of a number of first wide scale uses of various interactive print technologies: the NFC program for Wired/Lexus; AR and watermarks for the 2018 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue (which also used virtual reality); AR and image recognition for Esquire and Redbook; Microsoft Tag for Lucky Magazine; NFC

and bluetooth pop-up kiosks for US Bank; and beacons with RetailerNOW. BlueSoho also worked with the Editor of Cosmo to put a QR code on the cover that was basically a ‘reveal’ meets ‘deal of the day’—it performed quite well in terms of scans (clickthroughs), email capture, and overall engagement, said John Puterbaugh, Ph.D., Managing Director for BlueSoho.

“Publishers were the main early adopters of interactive print tech,” he added. “More recently, we’ve worked with a wide range of catalogers and direct mailers and retailers.”

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Doing it Right Interactive print and social connected activations are important amplifiers in multi-channel marketing programs, Puterbaugh said. The activations, used in grand openings and campaigns tailored to drive in-store foot traffic, help amplify a wide range of brand touchpoints, from direct mail to in-store pop-up displays.

Employing AR or other types of interactive print is not without its risk.

Besides the production challenges, brands have to navigate a fine line between being ‘hokey’ and having the AR experience resonate with the consumer.

Treasury Wine Estates has certainly accomplished the latter.

What made it work? “We delivered a range of consumer experiences through the AR platform– these include bringing characters from the brand to life on the label (19 Crimes), providing extension of TV entertainment and characters (Walking Dead), promoting the history of a winery (Beringer Bros) and more recently, educating wine lovers through the voice of the winemaker (Chateau St Jean), and providing tips on etiquette for the modern gentleman via Lindeman’s Gentleman’s Collection,” said Terry.

Consumers today want to go interact with brands beyond just a simple purchase; they are looking to be part the brand story, part of something bigger. “The Living Wine Label app allows our consumers to be part of a community,” said Terry.

“It becomes a portal for TWE to build relationships with our consumers.”

“AR has contributed to 19 Crimes experiencing double digit growth and becoming a $1.5 million case brand,” said Mitchell. “It won the Impact Hot Brands award in the US, which recognized the role of AR in driving growth of the brand, and has also just won a Super REGGIE – an extremely prestigious marketing award in the US recognizing the best marketing campaigns from brands and agencies.”

Facts about 19 Crimes APP • More than 1.3 million downloads globally • Ranked #41 for non-paid apps in food & beverage category (top 50) • 4+ star rating in iOS/android store • Supporting viral efforts - Facebook video on the app, which has received over 19 million views and 225K shares

Building on the Possibilities “We think retailers are looking for new ways to engage consumers and this technology cuts through the noise of the busy shelf,” said Terry.

Marketers and brands continue to explore the realm of interactive print.

Extended Reality (XR), which includes immersive media, 360 video, mixed reality, VR, as well as AR, has proven to have very high engagement numbers that surpass video in a number of areas, said Puterbaugh. “The challenge is that extended reality (XR) and immersive media are arguably a new form of media and storytelling that is akin to when we went from radio to TV,” he added. “Transitioning to new media formats can be very disruptive and often are based on prior media formats and structures.”

Also proving challenging is reach and distribution, noted Puterbaugh.

However, this is just the beginning.

Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore are bringing built-in AR capabilities to the smartphone.

“Going forward, our focus is how to help retailers and brand marketers deliver integrated, multi-channel programs designed to help them achieve their business goals,” said Puterbaugh. “As part of this process, various amplification vehicles such as interactive print are integrated into the overall campaign based on the locations, target audience, and overall campaign goals.

June 2018

Printing News

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Association Insights:

A Paradigm Shift

A preview of this ambitious new vision is “woven into the fabric” of this year’s PRINT18.

E

arlier this year, our Association, formerly known as NPES, announced a name change to the Association for Print Technologies (APTech). This defining moment in the Association’s 85-year history marked its transition from inward to outward-focused organization with a new global mission—the alignment and growth of the entire printing and imaging industry. A preview of this ambitious new vision is “woven into the fabric” of this year’s PRINT18.

By Thayer Long President of Association for Print Technologies (APTech) Thayer Long is President of the Association for Print Technologies, formerly known as NPES, and serves as president of the Graphic Arts Education and Research Foundation (GAERF). Mr. Long joined the Association in April 2016, bringing eight years of effective leadership experience, strategic plan development, foundation work, and trade show management.

Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12412303

20

Produced since 1968, PRINT is recognized as the foremost, best-attended, and most innovative printing industry event in North America. Building upon this legacy of success, we have begun to transition the annual onsite experience into a thriving year-round industry community where connections are made before, during, and continue long after the show. This Spring, we premiered the printevent.com website and distributed the first edition of the PRINT Quarterly e-newsletter as show visitors await the year’s most dazzling array of the latest technologies, unique new applications, and best practice solutions to be found under one roof this Fall in Chicago.

The One and Only PRINT With our new strategy for the industry’s signature annual event well underway, what can you expect at PRINT 18 this year?

• First, you will see, at every turn, our attention focused on your “Learning Experience.” From an all-new seminar and expert presentation program, you can choose from dozens of sessions on topics ranging from business management, sales, and new markets, to operational improvement, technical “how it’s done” sessions, plus the big picture topics: the economy, current industry trends, and future outlook. While developed for company owners and managers, production professionals, designers, customer service and sales professionals, these growth-oriented sessions will be valuable for anyone who wants to learn more about significant issues impacting printing businesses today.

• Second, our focus is on collaboration, where industry organizations connect with the shared purpose of helping their members succeed.

APTech’s growing roster of strategic partnerships that will expand our community at PRINT 18 include: CONLATINGRAF (Latin American Alliance of Graphic Arts and Printing Associations), the foremost organization for the graphic communi-

Printing News

June 2018

cations industry in Latin America. This partnership, which will connect to CONLATINGRAF’s network of printing associations from 14 countries to PRINT, represents more than 643,000 direct employees from 60,000 print shops. Another partnership with INKISH.TV, an independent online TV channel for—and about—the printing industry, will further boost attendance and extend the global presence of APTech’s signature event. Another industry partnership, with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council, welcomes to the show a global membership of more than 12,000 senior marketers who control more than $500 billion of annual, aggregated marketing spend globally.

• Third, you will see our commitment to delivering “top shelf” events and activities at the show with names-you-know thought leaders. To kick-off PRINT 18, our Opening Keynote Speaker on Sunday, September 30 will be world-renowned entrepreneur and best-selling author Seth Godin, and include a book signing featuring his best-selling book, What to Do When It’s Your Turn (and It’s Always Your Turn).

• Fourth, it is important to recognize that PRINT18 is non-profit, vendor-owned, and exclusively produced by the Association for Print Technologies. What does this mean to you? Unlike other shows, not only are 100% of the net PRINT proceeds reinvested into industry research & market data, education, advocacy and standards development—but with the future clearly driven by technology, we are uniquely positioned to help innovative print professionals integrate and implement the latest technology to meet changing customer demands.

• In 2018, APTech has created an exciting new vision not just for an association, or for a tradeshow, but for our industry. Join us at PRINT 18, Sunday, September 30 – Tuesday, October 2, 2018, at Chicago’s McCormick Place South as we engage the printing “universe” to redefine limits and value of print.

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Digital Original:

A Look at Recent Trends in Prepress Will the printing industry see a return to the page layout wars?

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or the past decade, Adobe has captured market share for graphic designers and printing companies with its Creative Suite over its biggest rival QuarkXPress. Quark is making a push to get back customers with QuarkXPress 2017 and a new IDML Import feature that can convert InDesign files directly into editable QuarkXPress objects that retain attributes is drawing some interest.

But the biggest buzz isn’t about QuarkXPress features, but page layout pricing models.

By John Giles Senior Consultant for CPrint International John Giles is a senior consultant for CPrint International (cprint.com). He helps printers prosper and understand how to sell technology services.

Giles is the author of “12 Secrets for Digital Success” and “The DTP PriceList.”

He can be reached at 954-224-1942 or john@cprint.com.

Small printing companies continue to complain about the Adobe subscription model for its software products. To save money smaller companies would forgo buying or upgrading the latest version of the Adobe software until they had to. Now printers have a monthly bill from Adobe hitting their credit card.

Many soft ware companies are going to a subscription service for soft ware and there are pros and cons. Subscribers have access to the latest updates and fi xes, but often they are provided features they don’t need or are forced to update hardware because of compatibility issues. Adobe started the subscription service in 2013 and there are still printers using Adobe’s Creative Suite 6. Adobe stopped selling the box version of CS6 in January 2017.

Quark’s pricing for their box version of QuarkXPress is attractive to small printers. The price for the program is $849 and $149 for a year of support and upgrades. The price drops to $399 if you are doing a competitive upgrade and moving from InDesign, Microsoft Publisher, Photoshop, CorelDraw, or one of the other layout programs.

This compares to Adobe’s monthly subscription of $19.99 a month for InDesign or $49.95 a month for the complete suite of soft ware (Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.).

Which Deal is Best?

Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12412316

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Which deal is the best for the individual printer will depend on several factors. Which software can the printer afford? What software is needed to support customers? Are the other software programs in the Creative Cloud needed? Which program is the staff familiar with and are trained people available to use the software selected?

Bottom line, select the soft ware that gives you the biggest bang for the bucks, not just because it is the cheapest.

Making Prepress Work For You Before you make any change to any software, make sure you are making money with what you use now. First, review your selling prices for prepress and design tasks. Some printers are still charging the same prices they did a decade ago and are afraid to raise prices because “customers might complain.”

Second, make sure invoices get processed.

Some printers boast of high design prices, yet the customer never gets charged for the work. Make sure your chart of accounts separates the selling prices for the prepress department.

Establish someone in charge of getting changes and additional prepress charges onto the customer’s invoice. If a customer makes a lot of changes in the original order, you can charge for the time you spent making the changes. If the customer didn’t provide a print-ready file, then you can charge a price for making sure the file prints.

Measure your prepress productivity monthly. Have a sales goal for the department. Are monthly sales more than the monthly expenses?

Are the sales people and CSRs charging the right amounts and covering all the costs?

The prepress department can either be a big money maker or a big money loser. It is up to management to focus on the department’s costs. Don’t let the prepress department be a loss leader to get more digital and press work.

Prepress and design play an important role in the production process and customers should be expected to pay for it.

June 2018

Printing News

21

Focusing on Production Inkjet's Next Frontier

• Top Tips on Successful Print & Mail Marketing

Exclusive Section

• Why White Ink is an Irreplaceable Tool for PSPs

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Inkjet’s Age

Wedding invitation printed with metallic ink.

Samples printed with metallic ink on the Xerox Iridesse Production Press.

Playing with

Ink & Media

By Carol Brzozowski

F

rom automotive parts to suitcases, there is hardly anything that cannot serve as a substrate for printing given the advances in ink and processes that have been the driving factor in expanding the possibilities.

Josh McNaughton, Product Specialist for Xante Corporation, notes the growth is in manufacturing.

“With the advancements of UV printing technologies, many manufacturers are bringing these digital devices inhouse to print on their own products as opposed to screen printing or pad printing,” he pointed out. “These manufacturers want to produce more lean and just-in-time. Digital printing offers the flexibility they need to print a wide variety of products with very little make-ready compared to analog printing equipment. We have seen digital printing used in everything from automotive parts, puzzles, leather, compact discs, and sporting goods.”

On the other hand, commercial print shops also are getting into the digital market as they seek new revenue opportunities away from their traditional markets, McNaughton added.

“Newer UV printers allow the flexibility for a shop to offer everything from promotional products to signage, which makes it very easy for a print shop owner to target many new

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Printing News

June 2018

niches with only a single machine investment,” he said.

Dan Johansen, Senior Manager for wide format, commercial and industrial printing business group, Ricoh USA, noted that many printers, inspired by strides in wide format inkjet’s versatility are embracing “incredible new substrates”.

Thanks to advanced specialized inks and enhanced printhead technology, the industry’s options for unique substrates have grown considerably to the point that printing service providers (PSPs) can now utilize virtually every surface to market their customers’ products and deliver messaging in interesting, engaging ways, Johansen notes.

“With these advancements, printers and print buyers are allowing their imaginations and their applications to expand, unencumbered by the limitations of traditional substrates,” he elaborated.

With the added capacity, speed and uptime provided by inkjet, PSPs are expanding their portfolio of new applications that they can print, noted Sheri Jammallo, Senior Advisor, Marketing, Production Print Solutions, Canon Solutions America.

“New development in inks such as with Chromera inks – a fast-drying ink – open options for printers to use their inkjet devices to print on inexpensive uncoated and untreated digital offset papers and lightly inkjet-treated paper,” Jammallo pointed out.

Chromera inks also are ideal for lightweight paper

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Inkjet’s Age

applications as the pigments stay closer to the paper surface, thus reducing show-through on thin papers, she added.

“As the combination of advancements in inks, print heads, and drying solutions within inkjet technology matures and evolves, the ability to use standard offset coated stocks with inkjet will drive more transition from offset to digital as well along with the traditional advantages such as personalization and short-run lengths,” Jammallo said.

“The latest ink and drying technology of the Océ ProStream opens up a world of commercial applications with high ink coverage for production inkjet,” she added. “With the speed, quality, and substrate flexibility, many book printers also are transitioning their book printing from offset to inkjet. Printers who use inkjet can consider high-end finishing options like UV coating, foil, and metallic.”

All of these advances mean that printers are now engaging in different printing projects that they could not offer customers before.

Current UV printers and soft ware RIPs on the market are offering a multitude of options and features to allow specialty printing on a “huge gamut” of materials, notes McNaughton.

These features include print head technologies that allow UV printers to print at a much higher resolution, eject smaller droplet sizes, and run at higher speeds, he said, adding that substrate thickness/head height capabilities of more than 11 inches enable PSPs to print on “very thick” items that are pre-assembled or create custom jigs for specialty products or irregular shapes.

UV inks available on the market can be rigid, offering greater adhesion, chemical resistance and durability in contrast to a flexible ink which can be folded and stretched without failure, noted McNaughton.

“There also are hybrid inks on the market offering the best of both worlds with performance in-between a true rigid or flexible ink,” he said. “There

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are many specialty primers available to increase adhesion on items such as glass, metals, stone, and plastics.

White inks and white ink supply systems have improved greatly over the years, allowing more opacity and less clogging, making white much more user-friendly to the operator.”

Many RIPs have features allowing the operator to print textures with UV ink, providing the operator with the capability to print items such as Braille

on that consistency, no matter how exciting the substrate,” he adds. “Without consistency, campaigns can look sloppy and unprofessional, limiting their effectiveness and potentially costing business.”

To expand their offerings, PSPs should identify their core vertical market to focus on and become experts in those markets, says Jammallo. “They should complement their workflow to achieve operational efficiencies and finishing capabilities that will support their application growth and customer needs.”

PSPs also should consider their potential volume, Jammallo points out.

“Investing into production inkjet usually requires high monthly volumes to justify the Peacock printed on unique media substrate on the new Xerox investment,” she says.

Iridesse Production Press.

“However, with the entry of sheetfed inkjet are even simulated textures such as devices like the Océ VarioPrint i-sewood grain or tiled patterns giving a ries, the cost of entry is much lower 3D appearance that can be seen and and can be justified with monthly touched, said McNaughton. volumes of 1,000,000 images with There are several factors PSPs should the option to add more volume as the note when considering expansion of business grows.” their service offerings to embrace this While the expansion of substrates type of work, industry experts say. is an exciting advancement for many “As printers look to capitalize on PSPs, the primary consideration to substrate flexibility, it’s important to obtain successful results when going remember that as your capabilities into a new niche market is using the scale, your workflows need to scale as right ink or printing technology for the well,” Johansen explained. job, McNaughton pointed out.

“That means delivering the same level “Depending on the product’s use, a of workflow optimization and color rigid ink may be much more suitable consistency that is foundational to a than a flexible ink for the applicaprinter’s reputation, but now across more tion,” he said. substrates,” he added. “This can require PSPs should also take into account a lot of trial and error or in many cases if the material is going to require any enlisting outside experienced help.” additional prep or adhesion promotors, Johansen points out that “we as an McNaughton added. industry have this tremendous oppor“Oftentimes, if the printed items will tunity to leverage more and more dibe sold through retail or distribution, verse substrates in wide format inkjet the customer will put the printed item but at the end of the day, print buyers through rigorous testing to see how still expect consistency from job to job the ink will hold up to the wear of the and substrate to substrate. intended application or environment,” “A successful printer needs to deliver he concluded.

June 2018

Printing News

25

Inkjet’s Age

Why WHITE INK is an Irreplaceable Tool for PSPs

By Amanda Luz Henning Santiago

I

f you’re new to the print industry, you may not understand the significance of white ink. In fact, you might assume that printing with white ink makes little difference than printing without it—this is not the case.

When white ink is working at its full capacity, it provides numerous benefits to Print Service Providers (PSPs), such as vibrant images and endless printing applications unattainable with a CMYK gamut alone. Printing News spoke to leading industry experts about what makes white ink a pertinent tool for any PSP or customer.

Retail applications for White Ink, image courtesy of HP.

A poster utlizing White Ink printed with Acuity Output, image courtesy of Fujifilm.

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Printing News

June 2018

White Ink Normalizes the Surface of Dark Substrates Without a foundational layer of white ink on a dark colored substrate of any kind, color would simply fail to be seen with any degree of brilliancy, according to each industry expert Printing News spoke with.

“It’s pretty simple, white ink allows you to print on paper, or substrates and material that are not white,” said HP’s Chief Inkologist, Thom Brown.

Applying an opaque base layer of white ink prior to applying colored ink mimics the look of printing on a white substrate, according to Matt McCausland, Product Manager of Professional Imaging at Epson America.

“If PSPs were to print directly

on to a dark substrate without a white ink base layer the color output would be dull, muted, and unrecognizable,” said McCausland.

If they opted out of using white ink, PSPs would have to resort to using white or light colored substrates to get their desired colors.

Brian Dollard, Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development for Ricoh USA, provided an apt example of how white ink can be utilized on a dark surface: “Generally speaking, whether it’s white ink or white toner—and we do both here at Ricoh—it’s all about normalizing the surface that you’re printing on. If you go to a concert or a motorcycle shop, most often the t-shirts there are black, right?

And we want to be able to print vibrant colors on that [black] t-shirt because it’s a background

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Inkjet’s Age

SurePress Label Sample from Vivant Brewery Wondersplosion, image courtesy of Epson.

Turbo Coffee Poster utilizing White Ink, image courtesy of Ricoh.

that’s enjoyable to that audience. We can’t print with the inks and the toners that we use normally—especially the inks—because they don’t have the capacity to cancel out that surface and the background that you’re printing on.”

Substrate Applications are Limitless The applications for white ink are seemingly limitless. There are multiple materials that can now be printed with white ink, that include clear glass, plastic, and even wood according to Brown.

“We’re now printing on substrates that years ago we never even dreamed we could print on,” said Dollard. “I mean, who thought we’d be printing on glass, on stone, on wood, and on three-dimensional objects? At SGIA last year, we were printing on cinder blocks.”

White Ink is Essential for Textile, Special Effects, and Signage Printing Textile printing is one of white inks’ most popular applications. Without white ink, textile printers must

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resort to printing solely on white or light-colored garments.

“For textile printing, most customers use a white textile material (some type of soft fabric), so in most cases, the white ink is not needed as much for this type of application,” explained Kaz Kudo, Associate Product Manager of FUJIFILM North America’s Graphic Systems Division.

“The more important thing is for the material to have the best white possible.”

Another important use of White Ink is to create the base for printing special effects, like metallics. White Ink acts as a barrier so that metallic effects don’t come through the CMYK image in unwanted areas, according to Kudo.

White ink has become especially important in the label and packaging industry, as its use is essential when printing on clear and metallic substrates. A larger gamut is needed to print on metallic substrates and the average printing system is usually limited to four to seven inks, according to Mike Pruitt, Product Manager of SurePress at Epson America.

“White ink is required for clear and metallic substrates,” explained Pruitt. “In the case of the labels and packaging industry, white ink is a very strong and growing percent-

age of the market, especially in the premium market. In addition, having white ink that is opaque is very important in the selection of the press.

Other factors such as adhesion of ink to substrates, and the capability of the ink system to reliably handle the more viscous and sedimentary nature of the white ink.”

The ability to print white ink on clear substrates has also proved to be of great importance in the signage industry, as window clings and clear backed stickers frequently utilize the ink, according to McCausland. (He additionally noted that white ink can add new dimension to backlit prints.)

The Future of White Ink White ink’s presence in the printing industry is growing as white ink technology evolves and becomes even more important in the production of bright, vibrant printed materials. But white Ink can be finicky and difficult to use. It can pose troublesome issues including drying with a yellowish tint, going bad from being used inconsistently, and lacking the opacity needed to make other colors pop. HP’s new white latex ink is looking to eradicate these issues.

Upon announcing HP’s new rigid latex printing technology in March, it was also announced that HP would be delivering an innovative, glossy, high-quality “true white” that avoids yellowing over time like traditional UV-based white ink.

“White ink has been a consistent problem for the industry. Traditionally, it uses bigger and heavier pigment particles that frequently clog printheads, or the opaque mixture becomes separated and settles to the bottom of the ink reservoir. Until now, physically shaking the reservoirs often has been the necessary solution,” said Brown. “Through HP’s investment in innovation around chemistry and engineering, the white ink solution with the HP Latex R Series is an industry breakthrough.”

June 2018

Printing News

27

Inkjet’s Age

for Successful Print & Mail Marketing Below is a collection of thoughts regarding marketing for print and mail service providers.

Keep this and refer back to it. Hang it up in your office and even the most marketing savvy printers will find inspiration.

By Patrick Whelan 1. The cost of implementing an effective marketing program is trivial compared to the cost of not implementing one. Someone is always marketing to your customers. Plan and execute.

Beware of overthinking. I’m reminded of what a client once told me. “My many years in the printing industry have taught me that the pursuit of trying to craft the perfect marketing piece often ends up being the reason for doing nothing”. And beware of taking a committee approach. A group of people agreeing to disagree combined with diluted accountability rarely, if ever, produces a positive result.

2. The average person is only capable of retaining 3-5 brands per category in their memory. If you want to introduce your company to an audience, you need to push another company out of consideration. Repetition is fundamental to success. For most print and mail providers, top-of-mind is far more critical than SEO. 3. Just because you can’t measure it (which doesn’t mean it can’t be measured), do not discount the importance of social media. In today’s marketplace, not only does the prospect need to know and trust you, they also want to like you. Social media is very effective at facilitating this. The abandon rate for social media is VERY high. Beware of creating marketing graveyards.

4. Don’t discount “little things” like birthday cards and notes of appreciation. Most sales relationships are more influenced by emotions than pricing. Emotional responses drive sales. There’s no way around it.

5. Well perceived brands command a price premium of nearly 9% over brands perceived as just average. Focus on positioning yourself as the expert. Continue learning. Reading, writing, and sharing content (using multiple channels ) should become a weekly exercise.

7. Focus on the customer experience. Brand differentiation starts with an understanding of the customer journey from the customer’s point of view, not the printer’s. Do customers really want to see more advertisements and promotions in their inboxes? How does a customer feel when they have to search to find a phone number because your employees don’t include it as part of their email signatures?

8. Pay attention to your website. 67% of prospects go there first when seeking info about your company. Do customers want to visit your website just see the same boilerplate website content that they see on a competitor’s? How does a customer feel about your company when they visit your site and see that the latest blog / news article update was several years back? Timely, relevant, engaging content promotes thought leadership. And please make sure your site utilizes responsive design. More than half the traffic will come from a mobile device.

9. Every employee is a harbinger of your brand. I see it all the time, and it has even happened in my own business. Employees (and owners) mishandle situations that end up creating opportunities for their competition. It’s not just the sales and customer service people who have to provide a customer-centric experience. Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s, in making his case for consistency, always claimed that the first bite and the last bite were what the customer remembered most. So pay attention to how your phones are being answered and how your products are being delivered.

10. Printers should forget about trying the latest and greatest marketing methods for finding new customers until they have become proficient at retaining the customers they have. There is a wealth of information to support the premise that client retention efforts produce a far greater ROI than new client acquisition efforts.

6. The most popular way to lose a customer is to lose touch with him or her. Industry-specific data indicates that 60% of customer loss is due to lack of communication. Irrelevant communications contribute to customer defection and alienation.

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June 2018

PrintingNews com

New

Products UniNet iColor 550

Xerox Iridesse Production Press The company that invented the copier, laser printing and print-ondemand has announced another first in the world of print – a high speed, six station color press that combines four-color printing with up to two specialty dry inks in one printing pass. The Xerox Iridesse Production Press is the only digital press that can print metallic gold or silver dry ink, CMYK and clear dry ink in a single pass, giving print providers an immediate competitive edge in the growing digital print enhancement market.

Iridesse eliminates multiple presses and processes usually required for print embellishments, increasing capacity and profits for customers. According to Keypoint Intelligence-InfoTrends, digital print enhancement can result in a rapid return on investment as print service providers’ profit margins on such embellishments can be as high as 50 to 400 percent.

UniNet, worldwide Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of on-demand digital print technology, is set to launch their newest transfer printer at the Imprinted Sportswear Show, taking place January 19-21, in Long Beach, CA. The iColor 550 is a multi-purpose printing solution for transfer production of garments, labels, stationery, banners, hard surfaces, marketing customization and more. The versatility of this new printer allows users to create heat transfer prints with white overprint, right side reading with white underprint, and regular CMYK prints without white. The iColor 550’s capabilities can be further enhanced using UniNet’s specialty toner upgrade kits which includes fluorescent, clear, security, and dye sublimation toners.

PrintingNews.com/12386586

PrintingNews.com/12411864

Monadnock Paper Mills’ The Santulan Portfolio Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc. announced The Santulan Portfolio, an inspirational lookbook/brand standards guide with renewable fiber-based options made with purpose for retail and hospitality brands. This tool shows marketers how to source print and packaging materials within the context of their or their clients’ corporate sustainability objectives. The benefits in sourcing these products are quantifiable: increased use of renewable electricity; CO2 equivalent emission reductions; replacing plastics with renewable, recycled and/or recyclable materials in the supply chain.

PrintingNews.com/12413450

TRESU iCut 30000 Digital Plate/Sleeve Cutter If you face demands for fast delivery of digitally printed folding carton packaging, the TRESU iCut 30000 Digital plate cutter could well be a solution that optimizes lead times, for you and your customers.

With the integrated digital folding carton printing and coating line, featuring the TRESU iCoat 30000 coater, converters can offer packaging in smaller volumes, and much shorter lead-times, economically. This service flexibility, uniquely possible with digital printing, is increasingly demanded by brand owners. They recognize the immense value it unlocks, by reducing stockholding costs, ensuring availability of goods in store at short notice and enabling high-margin solu-

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tions, like personalized packages or special editions.

With the right workflow, you can supply spot-coated digital packaging solutions with the same flexibility, without waiting for plate supplies for your TRESU iCoat 30000 coater. The TRESU iCut 30000 Digital plate cutter is a simple, on-demand prepress solution for these situations: a B2-size sleeve can be imaged directly from file, and mounted in the coater, in a production cycle of just 10 minutes. A compact unit with a small footprint, TRESU iCut 30000 offers precise register without the need for shrinkage compensation. The only other costs are the coating plate and the tape.

PrintingNews.com/12411608

June 2018

Printing News

29

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Printing News Classifieds are sold per word for line ad listings or by the inch for display ads. Deadline is the 2nd of the month, two months preceding cover date of publication. Send order to Printing News Magazine Classified, 1233 Janesville Ave., P.O. Box 803, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 or e-mail pzimmerman@printingnews.com. Please type or print clearly. For further information, call 800-616-2252, ext 8515. Line Classifieds are $2.75 per word per ad per month ($30 minimum). Phone numbers are considered to be one word. No commission on classified rates. Display Classified rates per inch: 1 time $150, 3 times $140, 6 times $115, 12 times $105. Publisherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s choice of color: $105 additional.

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Products RICOH Pro C9200 and C9210 Graphic Arts Editions The RICOH Pro C9200 and C9210 Graphic Arts Editions provide an affordable, predictable way for businesses to maximize revenue due to its uptime and reliability. Ricohâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest strategic investment empowers customers to expand into new markets with the ability to produce book jackets, six-page brochures and other unique applications that require media of up to 470 gsm. The presses support up to 470 gsm and have the capacity to run the longest paper lengths in the market today: 49 inches simplex and 40 inches auto-duplex. This enables the production of more advanced applications and the ability to drive down the cost per piece. Additionally, the series supports a laser resolution of 2400 x 4800 dpi with a large color gamut without sacriďŹ cing speed or versatility.

The RICOH Pro C9200 series also produces consistent, professional output due to its in-line sensors that automatically aid improved front-toback registration and color calibration, without requiring advanced operator skills. Moreover, the larger 17 inch Smart Operation Panel brings new job- and workďŹ&#x201A;ow-management options directly to the device, on a single screen, including the ability to monitor and manage print jobs remotely through either an EFI Color Controller or the RICOH TotalFlow Server. Both the RICOH Pro C9200 and C9210 are ENERGY STAR certiďŹ ed and carry an EPEAT Silver rating.

Bosch Xelum R&D Bosch Packaging Technology introduced its latest R&D device for the continuous production of oral solid dosage (OSD) forms. The platform ensures a short time to market and optimum dosing of APIs. As opposed to the common complex mass ďŹ&#x201A;ow rate, excipients and active ingredients are dosed as a discrete mass in the Xelum R&D. This makes it possible to dose even smallest amounts of APIs of less than one percent. The system doses, mixes and granulates individual packages, so-called X-keys, which continuously run through the process chain and are removed successively from the machine as packages into bins.

Since the Xelum R&D uses the same components for dosing, mixing and granulating as the Xelum production platform from Bosch, process parameters are identical and can be directly transferred 1:1. Current continuous production systems for wet granulation mostly use twin screw granulators. The Xelum system relies on ďŹ&#x201A;uid bed processors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; based on a proven technology developed by the Bosch subsidiary HĂźttlin. In the ďŹ&#x201A;uid bed, granulation and drying take place in the same process chamber. Both the production and the product transfer, as well as the cleaning process are recipe-controlled and ensure reproducible results.

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