InkJet Age

SEP 2014

Inkjet's Age, a print supplement to Quick Printing, is a business and technology brand dedicated to corporate and senior management and focusing on issues surrounding inkjet printing technology in all its forms. Inkjet's Age covers the industry news,

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10 SEPTEMBER 2014 • INKJET'S AGE www.MyPRINTResource.com PRODUCTION INKJET PRESSES In the production inkjet market, the hardware cer- tainly takes center stage. Additional color production inkjet presses can be found in our online Buyers' Guide on MyPRINTResource.com. To fnd out more about a specifc product listed, visit the link at the bottom of the product item. Flying Higher Since first leaving the proverbial nest at drupa 08, inkjet-web presses have taken flight. Nearly four years later, the print- ing technology is soaring like an eagle, at about 10,000 feet, and climbing like a Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet airplane. "Inkjet's is an evolving story in terms of its applications and scope," said David Murphy, worldwide marketing/business development director for Hewlett-Packard's Inkjet High-speed Production Solutions. The six-year-young technology "is a na- scent part of our business," Murphy added, "yet there also is ambiguity and misunder- standing regarding where inkjet belongs. Image quality, [ink] coverage ratios, and media types used to be stark points of separation, but the gap is narrowing." Conventional offset printing holds its own for many applications. "Most direct mail pieces are less than 20 percent vari- able," reported Will Mansfield, world- wide marketing director for Eastman Kodak Co.'s Inkjet Printing Solutions. "Offset still is very cost-effective" for such applications, Mansfield admitted. Murphy concurred: "Twenty-thousand run static jobs go offset," he said, "but any kind of customization, print on de- mand, or versioning goes digital—and inkjet for longer runs." However, inkjet continues to "eat more into the offset space," Mansfield noted. In June, Kodak rolled out the latest in its Prosper platform: the 6000 models, which became commercially available this summer. The Prosper 6000C Press runs at speeds up to 1,000 fpm, translating to more than 180,000 8.5x11-inch sheets per hour, "with complete VDP," he said. Even on high-end postcards with heavier ink coverage, 60,000 per hour are achievable. "The 6000 is the fast- est [inkjet web press] on glossy paper as well," Mansfield noted, at 656 fpm. With a media range from 42 gsm to 270 gsm (including 12-pt. card stock), the new digital press aims to "expand the reach and applications of commercial inkjet" into more journals, manuals, catalogs, inserts and, of course, direct mail. Hybrid, imprinting configurations, such as Kodak's Prosper S-Series, are ideally suited for many applications, he added, including personalized coupons. "In these cases, 50 percent or less of the content may be personalized," Mansfield said, "and 50 percent is still static." In Grand Rapids, MI, Gilson Graph- ics' owner Dave Gilson reported that 37 percent of annual sales come from offset print: 10 years ago, that share was ap- proximately 90 percent. "Offset is not growing," he said matter-of-factly. Still, the 66-year-old firm maintains three 40-inch sheetfed offset presses plus a full bindery. Its digital "weapon" of choice is the Fujifilm J Press 720 sheetfed inkjet device, on which his firm has been print- ing for three years. With a 29.5 x 20.8-inch sheets output- ting at 2,700 sph, the J Press 720 is "ex- tremely productive" and fetches substan- tially higher margins, Gilson said, largely because of its quality. Now running 2.5 shifts, the J Press produces bleed-free, high-quality images at resolutions up to 1,200 x 1,200 dpi with four levels of grayscale. A wider gamut than traditional offset allows the J Press to produce 70 percent of Pantone spot colors. This high level of image fidelity bodes well for the marketing materials that Gilson prints for customers such as the Wolverine footwear brand. Shane Smith, creative director at Wonderland Graph- ics, particularly likes the stochastic dot pattern of the J Press, adding that dura- bility is a close second to quality. "The ink adheres well to the substrate," Smith noted, "so [mailing] pieces are able to FUJIFILM Digital Inkjet J Press 720 The J Press 720 from Fuji- film establishes an entirely new product category: the high-quality, sheetfed inkjet press. It brings together Fu- jifilm's knowledge, expertise, and R&D; efforts to give printers the quality, versatility, productivity, and efficiency they demand. The J Press 720 offers a half-size solution for print runs of just one or thousands, where traditional offset and digi- tal printing are failing to perform, and provides a superior solution for the fastest-growing segment of the market where the majority of print jobs reside and where the opportuni- ties will be in the future. With a 29.5x 20.8-inch sheet and an output of 2,700 sheets per hour, the J Press 720 is the ideal solution for printers in need of a product that has the quality and robustness of an offset press as well as the versatility to handle even the shortest of press runs. MyPRINTResource.com/10013800 HP's T330 Inkjet Web Press is "a reengineered 350 [model] with the speed slowed down but still featuring the maximum drying capacity and remoisturizing unit," explained Hudson Printing innova- tion director Paul Gardner.

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