The group has lodged a planning submission with Sheffield City Council to extend its existing Sheffield gravure facility by more than 20,000sqm. The new unit formed part of the existing planning application in 2004, which included the potential to extend the site in phases. The phase two expansion involves a new building adjoined to the existing factory. Polestar’s representatives have lodged a planning amendment that states: “The original applications conceived of a scenario where Polestar would expand their operation on this site. The expansion is now required. This will meet requirements for expanded production space as well as providing covered loading space.” The initial installation involves two Goss International 96pp Sunday 5000 presses, which will be the first in the UK. Last month Polestar chief executive Barry Hibbert told PrintWeek that he anticipated the group’s plans would be confirmed by the end of October. This week he said that the plans were “on track”. “Consultations with staff and unions continue. We have no need to announce location until necessary… in case we have to amend location due to planning permission and contracts, etc.” Hibbert stated. Polestar is known to be pitching for a bigger share of a tranche of IPC Media weekly and monthly magazines currently up for review. The print contract, believed to be worth more than £10m, includes titles from the publisher’s Southbank, Inspire and Connect portfolios. The work is currently split between Polestar and Wyndeham, with both companies battling to retain, or gain, from the fresh tender. Other potential suppliers such as Prinovis are also expected to pitch. The current contracts expire next year and a decision is expected by early 2014. It will be the first major UK contract to be negotiated under Guy Gleysteen, senior vice president for production, at IPC’s US parent Time Inc/Time Warner. Gleysteen took over former manufacturing director Jasper Scott’s responsibilities in April....

The group has lodged a planning submission with Sheffield City Council to extend its existing Sheffield gravure facility by more than 20,000sqm. The new unit formed part of the existing planning application in 2004, which included the potential to extend the site in phases. The phase two expansion involves a new building adjoined to the existing factory. Polestar’s representatives have lodged a planning amendment that states: “The original applications conceived of a scenario where Polestar would expand their operation on this site. The expansion is now required. This will meet requirements for expanded production space as well as providing covered loading space.” The initial installation involves two Goss International 96pp Sunday 5000 presses, which will be the first in the UK. Last month Polestar chief executive Barry Hibbert told PrintWeek that he anticipated the group’s plans would be confirmed by the end of October. This week he said that the plans were “on track”. “Consultations with staff and unions continue. We have no need to announce location until necessary… in case we have to amend location due to planning permission and contracts, etc.” Hibbert stated. Polestar is known to be pitching for a bigger share of a tranche of IPC Media weekly and monthly magazines currently up for review. The print contract, believed to be worth more than £10m, includes titles from the publisher’s Southbank, Inspire and Connect portfolios. The work is currently split between Polestar and Wyndeham, with both companies battling to retain, or gain, from the fresh tender. Other potential suppliers such as Prinovis are also expected to pitch. The current contracts expire next year and a decision is expected by early 2014. It will be the first major UK contract to be negotiated under Guy Gleysteen, senior vice president for production, at IPC’s US parent Time Inc/Time Warner. Gleysteen took over former manufacturing director Jasper Scott’s responsibilities in April....

“This is great news and comes at a good time for us,” said business development manager Jonny Macneal. “We had been grant funded up to this point, but this funding now puts us in the position to be able to commercialise the technology and continue growing our customer base and continue with the trials we have in the pipeline.” The technology works by using intelligent pigments, developed by Insignia, which are turned into a plastic pellet ‘master batch’ that is then co-extruded in a triple-layer plastic film. The film is then incorporated into a label and applied to conventional modified-atmosphere packaging. The label is ‘charged’ when the CO2 is added and the pack is sealed. When the pack is opened and the CO2 escapes, a gas diffusion reaction begins and the colour starts to change over a pre-determined period, indicating to the consumer when the product is still safe to eat or needs to be discarded. In principle, it would also work if the product had a faulty or broken seal, prior to purchase. The company is currently working with an unnamed Scottish label manufacturer to develop the technology applications for initial trial products, with a view to develop products on a manufacturing scale in the near future. According to Insignia, an estimated 18m tonnes of edible food is sent to landfill every year. It believes its indicator label technology could help to reduce this. This latest round of funding was led by Equity Gap, in partnership with Scottish Investment Bank, Highland Venture Capital, the University of Strathclyde and a number of private investors. The company was formed last summer following the merger of Dundee-based intelligent ink developer Insignia Pack and Novas Technologies, which was a ‘spin-out’ company from a plastics proof-of-concept project at the University of Strathclyde’s Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, led by Dr Graham Skinner. The company has already secured trials with one (possibly two) UK supermarket groups and three in the US. The first trials are due to be on supermarket shelves in Q1 2014. The trials will be focused on supermarket own-label products. “We would like to think that if trials went well, we’re in the position to scale up to full production very quickly and work with the retailers, and their supply chains, to get a commercial product on the shelves as soon as possible,” said Macneal. Insignia has seven staff, three of whom hold PhDs in chemistry, working on the existing products and developing new applications and products. The company is initially targeting food production and processing applications, but is already planning to expand into the healthcare, cosmetics and pharmaceutical sectors. It’s first commercial product, utilising a similar CO2 label technology,...

The competition shortlisted the 30 most impressive of those inventions awarded a gold, silver or bronze medal during the show, presenting those meeting certain standards with a double gold, platinum or diamond award. Other categories included ‘British Invention of the Year’, ‘International Innovation of the Year’, ‘Environment’ and ‘Design’. Five other companies were awarded a platinum trophy, reported managing director of Tech-ni-fold Graham Harris, with five taking home diamond awards. “Though it’s not part of the official criteria those diamond awards are typically reserved for doctors and scientists, people behind lifesaving and enhancing technologies. And in fact the platinum awards are usually bestowed upon companies who create solutions on a wider consumer scale,” said Harris, citing a fellow platinum award-winner Alexander Bushel and his water collection and purification technology. Harris added: “To be spoken about in the same sentence as these people is a real honour.” The reason given by the judges for the CreaseStream Mini series’ win, was not only the innovativeness of the technology but its commercial success. Harris said: “It’s not just about the fact we invented something, it’s what we have done with it and how far we have gotten with it. We have proven we can take it through all of the design stages to bring it to market – only a handful of companies could demonstrate that. There were some fantastic products, but you could see they were going to struggle to get financial backing.” He added: “I think the judges were impressed with how we had evolved our technology to develop a range of machines based on a simple rubber o-ring concept that had already served us so well to crease materials and combat the threat of cracking in the offset market. It helped that we could demonstrate the three Mini machines, two of which required no electrical input, and could feed digitally printed sheets without using vacuum pumps, avoiding the problem of marking the sheets during transportation.” Alongside delivering technical demos of the CreaseStream Mini and hosting a Christmas card challenge where visitors competed to crease as many cards in 60 seconds as possible, Tech-ni-fold also demonstrated new packaging and instant-play video card tutorials at the show. The cards are being rolled out to replace in-person installation where the customer is happy with this cost-saving alternative....

The competition shortlisted the 30 most impressive of those inventions awarded a gold, silver or bronze medal during the show, presenting those meeting certain standards with a double gold, platinum or diamond award. Other categories included ‘British Invention of the Year’, ‘International Innovation of the Year’, ‘Environment’ and ‘Design’. Five other companies were awarded a platinum trophy, reported managing director of Tech-ni-fold Graham Harris, with five taking home diamond awards. “Though it’s not part of the official criteria those diamond awards are typically reserved for doctors and scientists, people behind lifesaving and enhancing technologies. And in fact the platinum awards are usually bestowed upon companies who create solutions on a wider consumer scale,” said Harris, citing a fellow platinum award-winner Alexander Bushel and his water collection and purification technology. Harris added: “To be spoken about in the same sentence as these people is a real honour.” The reason given by the judges for the CreaseStream Mini series’ win, was not only the innovativeness of the technology but its commercial success. Harris said: “It’s not just about the fact we invented something, it’s what we have done with it and how far we have gotten with it. We have proven we can take it through all of the design stages to bring it to market – only a handful of companies could demonstrate that. There were some fantastic products, but you could see they were going to struggle to get financial backing.” He added: “I think the judges were impressed with how we had evolved our technology to develop a range of machines based on a simple rubber o-ring concept that had already served us so well to crease materials and combat the threat of cracking in the offset market. It helped that we could demonstrate the three Mini machines, two of which required no electrical input, and could feed digitally printed sheets without using vacuum pumps, avoiding the problem of marking the sheets during transportation.” Alongside delivering technical demos of the CreaseStream Mini and hosting a Christmas card challenge where visitors competed to crease as many cards in 60 seconds as possible, Tech-ni-fold also demonstrated new packaging and instant-play video card tutorials at the show. The cards are being rolled out to replace in-person installation where the customer is happy with this cost-saving alternative....