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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www.MyPRINTResource.com SEPTEMBER 2014 • INKJET'S AGE 9 "Too much water is bad," Gardner confirmed. In the fall of 2013, the com- mercial, web-offset print firm for which he works took delivery of the world's first (and so far only) HP T330 Color Inkjet Web Press featuring the drying capacity of the T350 model along with remois- turizing technology. Without adding moisture, paper can "bake crispy in non- coverage areas," he continued. What is a "330" model? Inkjet's Age editors are familiar with the HP 300 and 350, but we hadn't heard of the 330. "It's a reengineered 350 with the speed slowed down but still featuring the maximum drying capacity and remoisturizing unit," explained Gardner. With 200 employees and annual sales of $30 million, the 104-year-old Hud- son was in search of a digital press that Best Practices W hile no longer a fledgling technology, inkjet-web printing still is a bit wet under its wings. The liquid pun is totally intended: Water, after all, is the enemy of inkjet. Just ask Paul Gardner, director of innovation at Hudson Printing, Salt Lake City, UT. With several years of real-business history now under their belts, OEMs and printing firms share IJ technology best practices. By MARC VRUNO Help Inkjet to Soar Higher could handle heavy ink coverage for the catalog and magazine work it prints. "We need to be able to stabilize the media so we can deliver flat sheets and flat book blocks," Gardner added. What Hudson did not need, however—and could not afford—was the 600-fpm (feet per min- ute) speed of the HP T350. In the Midwest, 20-year print indus- try veteran Martin Aalsma agreed with Gardner's water assessment. "Ninety percent of the issues related to inkjet re- volve around water, drying, and density," said Aalsma, who now is VP and chief operating officer at Documation, Inc., Eau Claire, WI, after cutting his printing teeth at Quad/Graphics, RR Donnelley, and Western States Envelope & Label. A $15-million media and print solutions provider with 130 employees, Documa- tion added its second HP T230 Inkjet Web Press in 2013; the first was installed one year earlier in its 35,000-square-foot facility. "The [paper] bonding agent is more water, which doesn't help with dry- ing," Aalsma added. Users and OEMs agree that media is one of three main considerations when contemplating inkjet efficiency. The other two are workflow and finishing. Last fall, Hudson Printing took delivery of the world's frst (and still only) slowed-down HP T330 Inkjet Web Press, which can handle heavy ink coverage for the frm's catalog and magazine work.

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