How low can you go?

Apr 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Katherine O'Brien & Debora Toth

In-line fancy effects

For its 6-up 750 series, Ryobi will show an inline UV casting and foiling system. Both casting and foiling can be done inline with a single unit. When not in use, the lamp unit rises up out of the way. Conventional printing and varnish coating also are possible. In the UV casting process, the relief texture and pattern of the film are transferred to the UV varnish. The printed surface is cured by UV light to product the holographic effect.

In the foiling process, first the UV cure glue is applied with the printing or coating unit. The film-based foil then is covered on the printed surface. The UV lamp fixes the foil on the printed sheet.

Ryobi teamed with Toyo ink to develop an LED-UV system that will be shown on the 525GX. Rather than conventional UV lamps, the system incorporates lower-power consumption LEDs. Components include an LED-UV IR system form Matsushita Electric Works and a special Toyo ink.

See www.ryobi.xpedx.com.

Debora Toth is a freelance writer and editor who has been covering the printing industry for 26 years. She can be reached at deborat@aol.com.

Katherine O'Brien is the editor in chief of AMERICAN PRINTER. Contact her at KOB@americanprinter.com.

The quicker picker upper

Sappi Fine Paper (Boston) has launched Tempo. The coated paper reportedly lets users cut standard ink setting time in half, enabling quick backup.

"Customers told us they needed a product that allows them to produce a finished product faster," says Mark Gardner, president and CEO, Sappi Fine Paper North America. "We are guaranteeing the paper will set ink in under 30 minutes and dry ink for processing at the bindery in under two hours."

See www.sappi.com.

A long perfector alternative

"We are clearly seeing an accelerating trend on the web side for shorter run lengths," says Greg Norris of Goss Intl. (Bolingbrook, IL). "Web printers are routinely printing run lengths well below 5,000 copies and completing multiple makereadies per hour with extremely low waste levels."

At Drupa, Goss will debut a new dryerless web press intended as an alternative for some traditional sheetfed applications. Utilizing standard 16-page Goss M-600 printing units and new sheeter technology developed exclusively with VITS, the press is designed to print high-quality sheeted products on coated stocks without a dryer. Live demonstrations will emphasize fast makereadies, low waste and short-run efficiency. "The simplified, dryerless configuration makes the footprint approximately the same as that of a long perfector, but the speed will be more than double," explains Norris. "We feel the productivity advantage, combined with the print quality, lower paper costs and overall ROI will create a compelling new alternative for some printers considering perfectors."

Introduced in 1996, Goss' Autoplate fully automatic plate changing option is installed on 400 presses worldwide.

The vendor's Automatic Transfer (AT) system allows on-the-run print transfer. While the press is printing, operators can complete a makeready for a new job on idle units and then bring those units on impression while simultaneously taking the units printing the previous job off impression. Bypassing the AT feature also allows printing of up to eight colors. The Goss AT system addresses the increasing market demands for versioning and for producing a higher overall volume of jobs with shorter individual run lengths. (See "Page churners," AMERICAN PRINTER, April 2007).

Goss also notes that sheetfed printers are continuing to expand into web offset. North American sheetfed printers that recently purchased their first web presses — both Goss Sunday 2000 systems — include Boyd Brothers (Panama City, FL), and Trade Secret Printing Inc. (Toronto).

See www.gossinternational.com.

Inkjet that's 'offset class'

This past January at Messe Düsseldorf's International Media event, Kodak's (Rochester, NY) Graphic Communications Group (GCG) offered a preview of its Drupa plans. The vendor will demonstrate its Stream Concept Press, a continous inkjet machine with resolution in excess of 600 dpi, small droplet size and production speeds that reportedly exceed 500 fpm. It can print on a variety of coated and uncoated substrates. Pigment-based inks are said to provide good color satuation and permanance.

Kodak says that with the Stream Concept Press, inkjet technology is moving to offset class quality, reliability and cost of operation. The press targets commercial printers that produce montly page volumes of 10 million or more. Jobs that were once restriced to traditional offset now have the potential to incorporate variable data, short-run personalization or versioning. Applications include direct mail, catalogs and freestanding inserts.

Nexpress News

Applications for Kodak's Versamark VL2000.include billing, account statements and direct mail produced in volumes of 1 million per month or more. It uses drop-on-demand technology with 600 × 600 dpi image resolution and has a production capacity of 1,090 letter sized impressions per minute.

On the electrophotographic side, Kodak will debut S-Class NexPresses (S300, S2500 and S2100). The presses offer up to 5 color digital printing at speeds ranging from 2,100 to 3,000 sph or 70 to 100 A4/letter pages per minute. Input feeder options offer up to 11,000 sheet capacity, collation capability of up to five different media and both cut sheet and roll fed paper on the same press. A near line glossing unit can add a high gloss finish in spot or full page coating. New MICR printing options enable check and transpromo jobs to printed from blank sheets rather than preprinted shells.

Kodak's NexPress M700 has a new feeder module, a finisher that can stitch documents up to 100 sheets thick, a bookletmaker, booklet trimmer, punching unit, cover inserter and a high capacity delivery.

New versions of Kodak's Insite VDP system and Prinergy workflow are moving its Unified Workflow futher upstream in the print planning process.

CTP introductions include the Magnus 800Z as well as the XLF 80 Quantum. The Magnus 800Z can image up to 60 8-page plates per hour. The XLF supports large formats up to 80 pages and can produce up to 48 plates per hour at resolutions up to 2,400 dpi.

See www.graphics.kodak.com.

Wide-format inkjet, hybrid workflows and more

Participating in Messe Dusseldorf's January pre-Drupa event, Fujifilm Corp. (Itasca, IL) outlined its wide-format inkjet strategy, its partnership with Xerox, a chemistry-free violet plate and workflow products.

Fujifilm Sericol is the worldwide distributor of Inca Digital's flatbed printers: the high-end Onset and lower cost Acuity. Onset is capable of up to 5382 sq. ft. per hr. or 100+ full, 5 × 10-ft. sheets. The Acuity HD 2504 provides photographic-quality printing at speeds to 174 sq. ft. per hour on flexible or rigid media up to 1.9 inches thick.

The vendor plans to introduce additional inkjet products. A special area of its booth will show the business case for commercial printers to diversify with print on demand and wide-format inkjet.

Diagnostic tools

'X' marks the spot

The Fujifilm/Xerox alliance began with a joint venture in 1962 that established the Fuji-Xerox Co. in Tokyo. Fuji became a Xerox digital press reseller in 2003. At Drupa, the two vendors will demonstrate digital and offset print solutions and supporting integrated workflows, color management and print on demand.

Fujifilm will launch the Brillia HD PRO-V chemistry-free violet plate. Sensitivy and productivity are the same as the current conventional violet CTP plate, Brillia LP-NV. Run length is 150,000 to 200,000 impressions, depending on printing conditions.

Pressmax is a new range of environmentally friendly chemistry. It includes fountain solutions, blanket washes, anti set-off powders, coatings, glues, silicone emulsions and auxiliary products.

Based on Adobe's PDF Print Engine, Fujifilm's XMF workflow is a crossmedia workflow. Enhancements include collaborative online proofing and Web communication and more hybrid workflow options. XMF Remote provideas a 3D mock-up of the actual imposed job. Dynamic Color Management and Appearance Matching Model take soft proofing one step further. Users can simulate a job's appearance, including the type of paper and ink used.

XMF C-Fit automates the process of analyzing and improving RGB images that arrive from various sources (for example, photos for a school yearbook).

Taskero Universe is a suite of diagnostic tools that helps users monitor hardware from prepress throught the pressroom. The ColorPath Verified module let users set and track standards (such as SWOP or customer defined) for color consistency on monitors, inkjet and digital halftone proofers, platesetters and presses. A Server Performance Management component ensures each customer's server is performing properly. Finally, a Harware Performance Management module monitors hardware and the environment, such as a platesetter, processor, temperature and humidity and provides an early warning of potential problems.

See www.fujifilmdrupa2008.com.