PRINT FOR 2006
AND BEYOND
Forms and Document Printers Take Note

by Ivars Sarkans

Editor’s Note
This is the second installment of a two-part article on the huge Print 05 show in Chicago. Both parts of the article highlight technologies and industry trends with significant implications for sellers and producers of business documents and related printed products. The first part of the article covered trends in systems, prepress and other pre-production processes. The second part covers conventional and digital printing, finishing and specialty niche equipment at Print 05 and the associated new product opportunities.

One of the major printing industry trends evident at Print 05 was the growing overlap between printing specialty segments. This is often referred to as “convergence”, and is driven partly by equipment suppliers seeking to extend the capabilities of their machinery and systems from static or declining printing specialties to industry segments where demand is growing. For many years, forms production equipment suppliers have modified their machines to serve the needs of commercial printers, direct mail producers and even the package printing market. Conventional sheetfed offset and digital printing are converging as complementary production technologies for short runs, on-demand production and small-lot customization of offset printed base stock. The increased capabilities of digital printers and presses demonstrated at Print 05 point to a diminishing distinction between digital transaction printing and production printing. A growing population of digital printing devices can do both and operators have the option to select the appropriate image quality. Convergence trends create new opportunities for traditional forms industry participants as equipment becomes more versatile and declining barriers between printing specialties give sales organizations easier access to new markets.

Sheetfed press suppliers at Print 05 sent a strong message that they no longer perceive commercial printing as a growth market. Practically all of these press suppliers indicated that for commercial printing applications, current equipment sales are mostly replacements. The dramatic productivity improvements in the latest sheetfed press models allow commercial printers to replace two or three older presses with one of the new highly automated machines, without loss of capacity but large improvements in productivity.  At Print 05, most of the sheetfed press suppliers promoted the expanded capabilities of their machines to run packaging products, including thick folding carton board. This suggests that a gradual convergence of the commercial printing and package printing specialties has started. Growing use of sheetfed presses for package printing is driven by shrinking run sizes in packaging due to the proliferation of niche products, private brands and products targeted at narrow market segments. The large number of forms industry participants who now produce or sell commercial printing should view this as another related product opportunity.

Commercial Printing Presses
Press exhibits at Print 05 were dominated by sheetfed machines, the result of shrinking run sizes in the printing industry and the high cost of exhibiting fully operational commercial web presses. With one exception, commercial web press suppliers exhibited only static components, such as print towers and delivery modules. Commercial web press exhibits included even units from a machine built by a large printing equipment supplier in China for the US market. Muller Martini was the sole exhibitor with a 5-color fully operational commercial printing demonstration press. The Muller Martini Alprinta, available in 20-1/2” and 29-1/8” web widths, has a 4 form roller inker for commercial printing, and can be configured with up to 12 print units. The forms industry heritage of this press shows in variable-size 3-cylinder print inserts, single blanket (rather than perfecting) print towers, UV dryers, optional flexo print unit and availability of a rewind and sheeter, which makes this press more versatile than many typical blanket-to-blanket fixed repeat commercial web presses. The Alprinta features a single servomotor drive for each print tower and a unique individually-changeable plate and blanket cylinder option to vary print repeat at moderate cost for packaging and label printing applications that require many different print repeats. The Alprinta is an example of the new multi-purpose web offset presses that can provide flexibility and special capability advantages to forms producers looking for the comfort of somewhat familiar web press configurations to support new product initiatives.

Most of the commercial sheetfed press suppliers are rushing to modify some of their 4, 6 and 8 page presses (Note 1) to extend the range of applications to folding cartons and other packaging products. It was evident at Print 05 that commercial sheetfed press suppliers see packaging as their main future growth opportunity, which is consistent with many projections for the future of the printing industry. Even Ryobi, traditionally a supplier of small-format (2 page) sheetfed presses, demonstrated a new 23.6” x 31.0” maximum sheet size model in a 5 color version capable of running up to 31 point board and an 8 color perfector version for one-pass 4 over 4 color commercial printing. Both presses featured a high level of automation, control of most press functions from a console, quick plate changing and rated maximum speed of 15,000 sheets per hour. These presses exemplify the move by traditional small offset machine suppliers towards more complex, larger, faster, more versatile, automated and productive models, partly in response to increased competition from digital color presses in the short run 2-page commercial printing segment. This repositioning by small press suppliers suggests that forms producers who are considering diversification into commercial printing with only small-format entry-level offset presses should proceed with caution.

More sheetfed commercial press suppliers are starting to add finishing capabilities to some of their models to expand the range of applications and products that can be completed in a single pass. In the past, several 2-page sheetfed presses had optional numbering stations. The trend now is to add punching, perforating and die cutting stations to 2 and 4 page presses, and some suppliers have demonstrated on-line ink jet units for imprints or variable images. These on-press finishing stations can make the machines more productive for folding cartons, CD sleeves and other package printing applications. Commercial printers with these types of sheetfed presses can also compete more effectively for conventional cut sheet forms.

In standard 8-page (40” wide) sheetfed presses, the new norm achieved by the major suppliers is a rated speed of 18,000 sheets per hour. Combined with automation that reduces setup time and the increasing popularity of 8, 10 and ever 12 color versions that can print both sides of a sheet in one pass, these new 8-page presses can give printers an overwhelming advantage over competitors with older equipment. Print 05 exhibits had parallel improvements in UV drying, including “cool” dryers for heat-sensitive materials, new hybrid UV/conventional inks, improved coating units and other press options that will challenge the economic viability of the older existing machines in many printing plants.

On the show floor, only Muller Martini operated a fully functional 4-color forms press, the Concepta model, but it was exhibited in the Kodak booth as a platform for on-line high-speed black and highlight color digital (ink jet) imprinting of variable data and images. Six other forms press suppliers had static displays: Didde Web Press Systems, Rotatek SA, Sanden USA, Stevens Technology LLC, Super Web Inc. and the merged RDP Marathon-Drent Goebel group. The focus of their exhibits appeared to be on parts and machines for commercial printing, direct mail and special applications.

Specialty Presses
Print 05 had a separate class of sheetfed presses with unique capabilities that should be of particular interest to forms industry participants looking for diversification opportunities. These machines, mostly 2 and 4 page models, provide access to market niches such as printing on plastic sheets, heavy papers and on-demand short run color production, where competition may not be as severe as in general commercial printing. Five suppliers (Heidelberg, Ryobi, Presstek, Kodak and Screen USA) showed direct imaging (DI) presses at Print 05 that in effect combine commercial prepress and printing in one “package”. These 2-page presses incorporate imaging of polyester plates, automatic plate changing, color control and many other features that contribute to high productivity. The DI presses can be very competitive for short run color printing from approximately 500 to 10,000 pages. For forms suppliers who want to enter the quick-service short run color market but do not have an established commercial color prepress department, these machines alone or in combination with digital color printers can provide a quick and effective start.

KBA introduced a very compact 14” x 20.5” waterless offset press available with 4 or 5 color stations and a UV dryer. Maximum rated speed of the Genius 52-UV is 8,000 sheets per hour. This model has a large central impression cylinder surrounded by unique print stations, each with a plate, blanket, ink transfer and anilox ink metering cylinder. Plates can be imaged conventionally or by a computer-to-plate system. The press has semi-automatic plate mounting and ejection provisions. The Genius printed consistent normal and heavy ink coverage in demonstration of commercial printing, folding carton board, plastic sheet and lenticular image applications. A new four color wet offset 14” x 20.5” press, with a similar central impression cylinder layout but conventional ink trains, was shown by Shinohara as the Model 52 Uno. This compact machine also has a UV dryer option and can run up to 31 point folding carton board.

In the larger 4-page 20” x 29” format, KBA showed the unique Karat 74 four color press that combines direct on-press imaging of metal plates, waterless printing, compact ink train with an anilox metering roller and automatic changing of plates from pre-loaded cassettes. Options include an integrated aqueous coating unit and infra-red hot air dryer. The Karat 74 can run papers from 40 lb. text to 12 point board and the larger sheet sizes makes this press a good choice for presentation folders. It is also suitable for printing synthetic materials and production of specialties such as CD sleeves, plastic cards, tags, labels and short run packaging. This press has already been installed by one forms supplier and is being considered by others in their diversification plans.

For very simple applications, Print 05 had low cost on-demand production devices such as the Riso RZ 997V and 990V single color stencil duplicators. These new models have been upgraded to 600 x 600 dpi image resolution rating and can print 180 pages per minute at very low cost per page. At Print 05 Riso introduced the new MZ 790 two color stencil duplicator with a rated speed of 150 pages per minute. Riso also demonstrated the HC-5000 process color digital ink jet printer, rated at 600 dpi resolution, 105 pages/minute run speed, and $.03 ink cost per color page with 20% coverage. These machines are popular for internal printing operations to produce forms, newsletters, flyers and other utilitarian short run work. Riso stencil duplicators are also used by some forms distributors with short run production facilities. The advantages of these machines include low cost, modest operator skills, preparation of the stencil masters on the machine directly from computer files and automatic changing of stencils. The HC-5000 surpasses the print quality of stencil duplicators and eliminates the need for stencils.

Digital Printing is No Fad
Both from the number of exhibits at Print 05 and the crowds that they attracted, Digital printing appeared to be one of the major growth segments in the printing industry and an area of opportunity for forms industry participants. Numerous demonstrations featured digital monochrome or color printing of forms, direct mail or imprinting of variable information on conventionally printed base stock. There can be little doubt that migration of forms production from conventional presses to digital machines will continue. Some black plus highlight color digital printers at the show were clearly designed specifically for forms production, and inline options included punching, perforating and die cutting. Whether these devices will present a threat or an opportunity to traditional forms suppliers will depend on the willingness to look at new business models, production methods and services required by customers.

Print 05 exhibits showed the growing contest between ink jet and toner-based digital printing technologies. At this time, ink jet dominates several high quality specialized applications, such as digital color proofing and large-format display printing with roll-fed or flatbed machines.  At modest production rates, ink jet systems can achieve excellent quality on a wide variety of materials.  New low VOC solvent inks and UV inks, combined with reduced drop sizes and improved color consistency controls, have led to more applications in outdoor signs, decorating of various industrial materials, printing of wallpaper, etc. Ink jet technology demonstrations at Print 05 included printing with thermochromic ink. An example of ink jet print quality capabilities is the Agfa Dotrix digital press, which can print a 24” wide web at 80 ft./minute with UV inks to produce high gloss images on label stock, films, foils, display materials or papers. Targeted applications for this machine include short run package printing. Print quality is good enough for many product labels, and the Dotrix print unit has been incorporated into an actual label press. Future versions of this machine may challenge some of the dry and wet toner digital color printers in commercial printing applications. 

Another segment where ink jet dominates due to attainable speed at lower but adequate print quality is addressing and imprinting. Several suppliers demonstrated 1” to 4” wide ink jet heads, rated at 200 to 300 dpi resolution and the ability to support speeds up to 500 ft/minute. Ink jets can achieve far higher run speeds at this time than competing toner-based devices, but the tradeoff is lower quality. The Kodak Versamark ink jet heads can match the speed of a 1,000 ft./minute forms press as demonstrated at Print 05, but imprint image resolution is limited to 240 or 300 dpi. A full process color Kodak Versamark digital web press can produce 300 x 1200 dpi resolution“business color” quality at 230 ft./minute web speed. This quality level should be adequate for many direct mail applications and forms production. Some of the installed Versamark digital web presses are actually producing statements and other direct mail work that previously may have been done on conventional forms presses. At Print 05, Screen USA introduced a competing 20.4” wide digital color web press rated at 200 feet per minute. This machine can print process colors at 300 x 600 dpi resolution using Seiko Epson piezo drop-on-demand ink jet heads. The Screen Jet 520 was a technology demonstration, and release of a commercially available version was not announced. The significance of these developments is that they signal the probable launching of more digital color web presses for forms and direct mail that could eventually displace some conventional offset machines and at the same time create opportunities for forms industry participants willing to invest in new digital printing technologies.

In toner-based digital color printers, the most significant, and at this time least obvious, trend was signaled by the introduction of moderately priced new models that produce very high quality color work. As the number of these models from various suppliers increases, they will displace a growing number of monochrome printers and shift more work from small-format offset presses to digital color devices. Two examples of the new crop of 30 to 60 page/minute high color quality digital printers are the Xerox DocuColor DC-240 and DC-250 models introduced at Print 05. The model numbers designate maximum speed rating of 40 and 50 pages per minute. Both machines incorporate technological advances from the new higher speed Xerox DocuColor 8000 (80 pages/minute) that improve image quality and consistency. The DC 240/250 printers achieve 2,400 x 2,400 dpi image resolution and can run sheets up to 12” x 19”, including heavy stock. In manual feeding mode, the machines can print long banners up to 12” wide.  The real significance of these Xerox models is a new print quality and price combination benchmark. The DC 240, including a RIP, is priced below $43,000, and the DC 250 costs less the $50,000. This means that a manufacturer can start with a modest investment and for $150,000 scale up to a 150 page/minute production system that matches the capabilities of some current machines at three or more times that price. A multiple-machine system also has the advantage of redundancy in case one of the machines breaks down. Xerox click charges will affect the economical range of the DC 240/250 models versus higher speed color printers, but competitors such as Canon, KonicaMinolta, HP and others can be expected to offer alternatives with more attractive click-charge plans. An example of the lower cost printers already available for good quality color is the 33 page/minute Xante Ilumina model (under $10,000), which can run papers up to heavy business card stock.

In high volume digital color presses, the introductions at Print 05 featured improvements in production rates and color consistency control, more integrated inline finishing options and various coatings to protect color images from abrasion during handling and mailing. A new version of the Kodak Nexpress can print 14” x 20” sheets at 2,500 sheets/hour, equivalent to 83 color pages per minute. All Nexpress versions can have a fifth print unit for spot color or a protective coating. Sheets have to be fed through a separate offline unit to get a high gloss protective coating. The Xerox Igen 3, also a 14” x 20” color machine, has been upgraded from 100 to 110 pages per minute and is now available with an inline UV coater for a gloss face finish on printed sheets.

The new W-3250 model from HP-Indigo is a two-engine web fed model rated at 136 four color pages per minute. Maximum web width is 13” and the finished product can be delivered in rolls or sheets. Printing only two colors, this machine can run at 272 pages/minute. One of the innovations demonstrated at Print 05 was an inline pre-coating unit to eliminate the need for special pre-coated paper. HP-Indigo representatives indicated that the cost of consumables for most color work is now under 5¢ per page. For sheetfed applications, HP exhibited the Indigo 5000, which has multiple feeding trays and is rated at 268 pages per minute for one color printing and 67 pages per minute for process color production. Image quality can be set to range from 44 to 230 lines/inch and the machine can be upgraded from 4 to 6 color stations. Xeikon America showed their new 5000 color web press with inline face and back UV coating, die cutting, batching and stacking. Demonstrations included actual direct mail postcard jobs downloaded from a Xeikon customer’s plant. The Xeikon 5000 can print 4 over 4 or 5 over 5 colors on webs up to 20” wide.  Maximum rated speed is 130 pages/minute.

The newest highlight color digital printer was the Oce Vario Stream 9230 web-fed machine, printing 3 over 1 to 3 over 3 color forms and other types of documents at the show. This is essentially a toner-based forms press, and it would be easy to add inline perforating, punching or die cutting stations as needed. The Oce 9230 can run webs up to 19” wide with or without aligner holes. Image resolution is 600 x 600 dpi, and rated speeds range from 196 ft/minute for 1/1 colors to 52 ft/minute for 3/3 colors. This machine will probably shift more work from conventional forms plants to service bureau and in-plant document production operations. It could also be very effective for forms suppliers who are establishing document factories for digital printing of statements and other business communications products.

Printing of books, manuals, directories, forms and other business documents dominated in the demonstrations of both web and sheetfed black toner digital printers. IBM introduced a new 4100 series web press with exceptionally good halftone print quality for on-demand book production. Xerox is moving to gradually replace the Docutech sheetfed digital printer line with Nuvera models capable of 600 x 4,800 dpi image resolution, equivalent to 156 lines/inch offset production, according to Xerox. At Print 05, Xerox introduced a 144 page/minute Nuvera model and an MICR-capable version of the same machine. The Nuvera product line includes new toners which improve halftone quality and allow printing on coated or uncoated papers. New versions of the venerable Docutech include modifications to run sheets up to 14.3”x19.2” and very light or heavy papers.

Special Application Machines
This category had several exhibits of equipment that could fit product line diversification strategies of forms manufacturers. Sheetfed folders, ubiquitous in commercial printing plants, are now available with additional capabilities to score, perforate, glue, affix items to sheets and imprint with ink jet attachments. In the hands of forms producers, these folders can be configured as effective mailer production machines. Ga-Vehren Engineering and Kepes demonstrated sheetfed machines that can be custom-configured for a variety of mailer forming capabilities combined with ink jet color imprinting, application of patches or removable notes, insert addition, gluing and automatic verification of mailer contents.

The show floor had a separate large pavilion for mailing equipment and software, indicating that printers view fulfillment and mailing services as a major opportunity. Key components of many document assembly and mailing equipment exhibits in this area were the control code imprinters, scanners and software to guarantee 100% document integrity and mailing accuracy with the option to print verification reports for customers. One of the more unique inspection devices at Print 05 was a new bar code scanner from Formscan that can read codes on documents enclosed in sealed envelopes to verify contents. Videk showed an automatic inspection and matching system that can read bar codes and characters in high speed web printing applications.

Spartanics introduced a new laser die cutting system for manufacturers who invest in digital label presses and need a complementary machine that can die cut, kiss-cut, mark and perforate. For adding value to printed products, Heidelberg exhibited a partly automated sheetfed die cutter and foil stamper that can also crease, perforate, kiss-but and emboss. MGI demonstrated a complete system for on-demand short run production of plastic cards with fixed and variable information. System components include several digital color printer choices with 1800 to 2400 dpi resolution that can run heavy papers or plastic sheets, a special laminator to create cards from 12 to 32 mil thick, and a card die cutting unit. Cards can have magnetic stripes and personalized data and images. The same machine configuration can also produce plastic tags, mouse pads, display cards and paper or plastic business cards.

EMT, one of the established tooling suppliers for forms plants, showed servo-driven variable size processing modules for punching, perforating, die cutting, numbering, imprinting and sheeting digitally printed webs.  The Tamarack booth had information on new equipment for adding integrated or affixed cards and labels to forms or other types of printed webs, and a label press attachment to insert RFID chips and antennas into labels or tags at high speed. On the show floor, Tamarack demonstrated a window film affixing module added to a conventional folding carton forming machine. FME, another forms plant tooling supplier, introduced a sheetfed machine from Belgium that can affix RFID chips and antennas to preprinted sheets of labels, tags or tickets.  Versions of the same machine can also create sheets with integrated and die cut cards or labels. The third forms industry supplier at Print 05 with equipment for making RFID tags and labels was Schober USA, Inc.

Opportunities for Printers Today
Three areas of opportunity stood out at Print 05:
- Digital printing and inline finishing
- Document processing, fulfillment and mailing services
- Printing and finishing of packaging products

The first two of these are readily accessible to forms industry participants. Digital printing is typically small-lot on-demand production, even if total order quantities are large. It is unlikely that this type of production will shift form the US to low labor cost regions. Digital printing and inline finishing represent the greatest potential for full process automation, from creation to delivery of a printed item. Providers of digital printing services will have to rely on automation in establishing and maintaining the types of facilities that can compete with the alternatives available to end users—convenient but higher cost desktop and departmental printing.

Many forms distributors have knowledge of business processes that can be used to provide print-related services based on analysis of customer needs. Selling document processing, fulfillment, mailing and print management services has many similarities with selling of forms management programs. Commercial printing and forms may be very mature markets, but demand is still measured in billions of dollars. Printing and document processing technologies will continue to evolve, but these changes will also create new market niches or product specialties. Suppliers who follow market trends, adopt some of the new technologies shown at Print 05 and focus on products and services that fit evolving customer needs should find ample growth and profitability rewards in the printing industry.

Note 1:  Commercial printing terminology – sheetfed presses:
2-page presses –
approximately 12” x 18” to 14” x 20” maximum paper size

4-page presses -
approximately 19” x 25” to 20” x 26” maximum paper size

6-page presses -
approximately 23” x 29” to 24” x 31” maximum paper size

8-page presses -
approximately 28” x 40” to 29” x 41” maximum paper size

“Page” is defined as one printed side of an 8.5” x 11” sheet

Based in Los Angeles, California, Ivars Sarkans is president of consulting firm Sarkans & Associates, and a long time contributor to DMIA publications. He can be reached by telephone at (323) 221-7791 or by e-mail at isarkans@sarkans.com.

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