Ancient House completes alcohol-free move
The Ipswich-based sheetfed and web house installed a ten-colour B1 Komori GL1040P perfector with Mabeg reel sheeter earlier this year, as part of an investment programme that the company hopes will increase turnover by up to £2m. The press has been configured with beta.c 220 temperature control and a beta.f dampening filtration unit from Technotrans. According to Paul Sadler, operations director at the ISO 14001 certified company, one of the critical elements to running alcohol free is ensuring that chemicals are clean and ink tack exactly right. “Good chemistry is critical to running without alcohol and it needs to be controlled well which it is with the beta.f. The filter life it good too.” “We like using technotrans because their products are good and their service and support is reliable. We are very pleased to have completed the circle in our move to having an alcohol-free pressroom.”....
read moreMGI previews digital foiling system
The French manufacturer showed a prototype inline hot foil option for the JETvarnish at this week’s Graphitec show in Paris. The foiling system works at the same speed as the JETvarnish and lays down an inkjet varnish layer as the ‘glue’ base for the foil, with heated rollers that move in or out of position to apply the foil. In standard spot coating mode the JETvarnish can produce up to 3,000sph in B2 format. MGI marketing director Kevin Abergel said the system did not require special consumables, and worked with standard “market available” foils. “It means we can produce variable data hot foil stamping, so it’s potentially massive,” he said. “We’re getting a good result already for our first try at this, but it will look better.” The current foiling system is in prototype form, but MGI hopes to have it ready for commercial launch by the Print exhibition in Chicago in September. Pricing is not available for the foiling unit at this stage. This week the French manufacturer also showed a new higher-speed version of the JETvarnish 3D, using a second inkjet engine. It produces raised, “digitally embossed” effects at twice the speed that was possible before, meaning a 30 micron 3D coating can now be applied to A3 sheets at 3,150sph rather than 1,575sph. “With the twin option we can either double the thickness of the coating, for applications such as Braille, or double the speed,” explained Abergel. Existing users can upgrade to the faster version for around €50,000 (£42,500). MGI also previewed a new flood UV coater for its Meteor digital presses, the Nova UV, at the event. It can work inline or as a standalone unit....
read moreXeikon launches ICE toner and eyes global growth
ICE is designed for heat-sensitive substrates such as polyethylene (PE) and thermal labels that are pliable and commonly used on flexible packaging. According to the manufacturer, the new toner, which will run on all new and installed Xeikon 3000 series digital presses, is highly lightfast with a “top opaque-white quality” and can be printed onto conventional substrates without the need for priming. ICE will be commercially available from Q4 of 2013. Lode Deprez, vice-president of consumables and process group at Xeikon said that ICE was a breakthrough in dry toner technology for the firm. “Until now, dry toner technology was not expected to be able to work with substrates for this type of job. Following requests from our user base, Xeikon specifically developed the ICE toner to be suited for heat-sensitive materials. We pushed back the boundaries in toner development and digital label printing,” he said. Xeikon’s marketing communications manager Frank Jacobs told PrintWeek that the toner, which has undergone “extensive testing”, had been developed as a result of research and feedback from the manufacturer’s label customers. “This opens up new opportunities for us and our customers and will be particularly suitable for those working in cosmetics and healthcare labeling where there is a need for flexible packaging such as bottles and tubes that need to be squeezed.” Unveiling the new toner this week at Xeikon’s UK Print Café, hosted by Midlands-based CS Labels, Jacobs also announced details of a new “low-threshold” initiative to give label converters the opportunity to test their own labels on Xeikon presses. From 15 June to 15 September this year, label converters will be able to upload their own label designs to a dedicated website (www.seetheproof.com) and have them printed onto paper labels, structured wine label material, metalised labels, transparent and white PE labels. All labels will be printed using the new ICE toner and can be picked up from Xeikon’s stand at this year’s Labelexpo Europe, in Brussels from 24-27 September. Labels that aren’t collected at the show will be sent to companies afterwards. Jacobs said that Xeikon had increased its footprint by 60% since the last Labelexpo Europe, to take a 465sqm stand. He added: “Labelexpo is very important to us. We are a clear number two after HP Indigo in this market and we want to be present everywhere. We already have a 30% share of the European market, which we want to grow, but globally we have 20% and we want to grow this to 30% as well. “Latin America and Asia Pacific will now become very important markets for us going...
read moreMGI previews digital foiling system
The French manufacturer showed a prototype inline hot foil option for the JETvarnish at this week’s Graphitec show in Paris. The foiling system works at the same speed as the JETvarnish and lays down an inkjet varnish layer as the ‘glue’ base for the foil, with heated rollers that move in or out of position to apply the foil. In standard spot coating mode the JETvarnish can produce up to 3,000sph in B2 format. MGI marketing director Kevin Abergel said the system did not require special consumables, and worked with standard “market available” foils. “It means we can produce variable data hot foil stamping, so it’s potentially massive,” he said. “We’re getting a good result already for our first try at this, but it will look better.” The current foiling system is in prototype form, but MGI hopes to have it ready for commercial launch by the Print exhibition in Chicago in September. Pricing is not available for the foiling unit at this stage. This week the French manufacturer also showed a new higher-speed version of the JETvarnish 3D, using a second inkjet engine. It produces raised, “digitally embossed” effects at twice the speed that was possible before, meaning a 30 micron 3D coating can now be applied to A3 sheets at 3,150sph rather than 1,575sph. “With the twin option we can either double the thickness of the coating, for applications such as Braille, or double the speed,” explained Abergel. Existing users can upgrade to the faster version for around €50,000 (£42,500). MGI also previewed a new flood UV coater for its Meteor digital presses, the Nova UV, at the event. It can work inline or as a standalone unit....
read moreXeikon launches ICE toner and eyes global growth
ICE is designed for heat-sensitive substrates such as polyethylene (PE) and thermal labels that are pliable and commonly used on flexible packaging. According to the manufacturer, the new toner, which will run on all new and installed Xeikon 3000 series digital presses, is highly lightfast with a “top opaque-white quality” and can be printed onto conventional substrates without the need for priming. ICE will be commercially available from Q4 of 2013. Lode Deprez, vice-president of consumables and process group at Xeikon said that ICE was a breakthrough in dry toner technology for the firm. “Until now, dry toner technology was not expected to be able to work with substrates for this type of job. Following requests from our user base, Xeikon specifically developed the ICE toner to be suited for heat-sensitive materials. We pushed back the boundaries in toner development and digital label printing,” he said. Xeikon’s marketing communications manager Frank Jacobs told PrintWeek that the toner, which has undergone “extensive testing”, had been developed as a result of research and feedback from the manufacturer’s label customers. “This opens up new opportunities for us and our customers and will be particularly suitable for those working in cosmetics and healthcare labeling where there is a need for flexible packaging such as bottles and tubes that need to be squeezed.” Unveiling the new toner this week at Xeikon’s UK Print Café, hosted by Midlands-based CS Labels, Jacobs also announced details of a new “low-threshold” initiative to give label converters the opportunity to test their own labels on Xeikon presses. From 15 June to 15 September this year, label converters will be able to upload their own label designs to a dedicated website (www.seetheproof.com) and have them printed onto paper labels, structured wine label material, metalised labels, transparent and white PE labels. All labels will be printed using the new ICE toner and can be picked up from Xeikon’s stand at this year’s Labelexpo Europe, in Brussels from 24-27 September. Labels that aren’t collected at the show will be sent to companies afterwards. Jacobs said that Xeikon had increased its footprint by 60% since the last Labelexpo Europe, to take a 465sqm stand. He added: “Labelexpo is very important to us. We are a clear number two after HP Indigo in this market and we want to be present everywhere. We already have a 30% share of the European market, which we want to grow, but globally we have 20% and we want to grow this to 30% as well. “Latin America and Asia Pacific will now become very important markets for us going...
read moreKBA confirms first RotaJet sale while internal restructure continues
Chief executive Claus Bolza-Schünemann tempered the bad news with the good at the manufacturer’s 88th AGM this week (13 June) announcing the first global sale of its RotaJet 76 digital press, signed for by a German direct mail printer earlier this week. He added that a further 10 sales of the digital press were in the pipeline with three or four expected to be closed in the “next few weeks or months”. Additionally he said that sales at recent exhibitions China Print and Printtek had been swift with more than 60 orders, mainly for Rapida 105 and 106s, as well as six Rapida 145s and 12 small-format Rapida 75s. But he said that slow demand for commercial and newspaper web presses meant that KBA’s web offset division would undergo further restructure. Over the past four years KBA has reduced its workforce by 2,000 to 6,156, with 100 being shed in the past year, and further losses, understood by PrintWeek to be up to a few hundred, are likely to take place in the web offset division over the coming year. Bolza-Schünemann said: “Management considers additional measures as necessary given the disappointing market situation for web presses and in some niche markets. In constructive talks with employee representatives, management strives to find responsible solutions.” Bolza-Schünemann warned that rather than the moderate increase in group sales predicted earlier this year, the group now expected figures to be similar to the €1.3bn (£1.1bn) achieved in 2012. After the first five months of 2013 group order intake was 25% down on the same period last year, which was boosted by Drupa sales, at €362m. Meanwhile an order backlog of €614.5m was 28% lower than last year’s figure and order and delivery postponements have left the firm €395m behind its sales target. Half-year results will be published on 9 August. Bolza-Schünemann said: “When looking at the industry situation, it must be noted that KBA is the only large press manufacturer to have remained in the black operationally and after interest for the fourth year in a row, despite considerable restructuring expenses and a substantial value adjustment to fixed assets in our sheetfed division. “We know that there is room for improvement and we are pushing forward in many areas to increase profitability.” Looking ahead, Bolza-Schünemann said the firm would be pursuing a “less volume-oriented business strategy” in its sheetfed division, referring to the 2.5% price hike that was implemented across its sheetfed presses in April in an effort to help the division return to consistent profit. He also said that KBA would look to make more targeted acquisitions in “promising print segments”, such as the recent takeover of Italian press manufacturer Flexotecnica, as part of a diversification strategy into digital printing and packaging that had “helped us significantly during past crisis years”. Following last year’s decision not to pay a dividend management proposed to pay shareholders a dividend of €0.40 per share....
read moreKBA confirms first RotaJet sale while internal restructure continues
Chief executive Claus Bolza-Schünemann tempered the bad news with the good at the manufacturer’s 88th AGM this week (13 June) announcing the first global sale of its RotaJet 76 digital press, signed for by a German direct mail printer earlier this week. He added that a further 10 sales of the digital press were in the pipeline with three or four expected to be closed in the “next few weeks or months”. Additionally he said that sales at recent exhibitions China Print and Printtek had been swift with more than 60 orders, mainly for Rapida 105 and 106s, as well as six Rapida 145s and 12 small-format Rapida 75s. But he said that slow demand for commercial and newspaper web presses meant that KBA’s web offset division would undergo further restructure. Over the past four years KBA has reduced its workforce by 2,000 to 6,156, with 100 being shed in the past year, and further losses, understood by PrintWeek to be up to a few hundred, are likely to take place in the web offset division over the coming year. Bolza-Schünemann said: “Management considers additional measures as necessary given the disappointing market situation for web presses and in some niche markets. In constructive talks with employee representatives, management strives to find responsible solutions.” Bolza-Schünemann warned that rather than the moderate increase in group sales predicted earlier this year, the group now expected figures to be similar to the €1.3bn (£1.1bn) achieved in 2012. After the first five months of 2013 group order intake was 25% down on the same period last year, which was boosted by Drupa sales, at €362m. Meanwhile an order backlog of €614.5m was 28% lower than last year’s figure and order and delivery postponements have left the firm €395m behind its sales target. Half-year results will be published on 9 August. Bolza-Schünemann said: “When looking at the industry situation, it must be noted that KBA is the only large press manufacturer to have remained in the black operationally and after interest for the fourth year in a row, despite considerable restructuring expenses and a substantial value adjustment to fixed assets in our sheetfed division. “We know that there is room for improvement and we are pushing forward in many areas to increase profitability.” Looking ahead, Bolza-Schünemann said the firm would be pursuing a “less volume-oriented business strategy” in its sheetfed division, referring to the 2.5% price hike that was implemented across its sheetfed presses in April in an effort to help the division return to consistent profit. He also said that KBA would look to make more targeted acquisitions in “promising print segments”, such as the recent takeover of Italian press manufacturer Flexotecnica, as part of a diversification strategy into digital printing and packaging that had “helped us significantly during past crisis years”. Following last year’s decision not to pay a dividend management proposed to pay shareholders a dividend of €0.40 per share....
read morePrinters Superstore settles differences and commits to Ipex
The U-turn follows the Leeds-based company and Hans Gronhi meeting with Ipex at China Print last month, where they discussed the changes to the show and what Printers Superstore joint managing director Graham Moorby described as the “mixed message” whitepaper. “At the end of the day we wanted to go, we just needed some sort of reassurance, we now feel sure it’s going to be a great show,” said Moorby. In its February open letter, the company said that Informa was alienating litho exhibitors and printers by focussing on digital and cross-media, which it felt implied litho visitors were “irrelevant”. However, this was strongly denied by Informa, which said in April, partly in response to Printers Superstore open letter, that its focus on digital was not a slight on commercial printers, who represent 80% of its audience, just a reflection of an industry that views litho and digital as complementary. Moorby said: “We were one of the first to commit to Ipex and that never waivered. It was just the refocusing of the show and the specifically the white paper, which we felt was a white paper of reasons why we shouldn’t be going. “Fundamentally though we’ve always supported Ipex, we’ve all grown up with show’s like Ipex and we sold our first Hans Gronhi at Ipex 2006 and at 2010 we sold everything off the stand and lots more besides.” However, he did confirm that the company had substantially reduced its footprint at the show from 609sqm to 200sqm. Moorby added that the company had retained an option to increase the stand size. The company is planning to take three or four presses to the show, a mixture of B1/SRA1, B2/A2 and B3 presses. While Moorby acknowledged that visitor numbers next year might be down on Ipex 2010, he said he was confident that the key decision makers would attend. He added that he was relishing the opportunity of exhibiting at Ipex and demonstrating the latest Hans Gronhi technology, especially in light of the manufacturer’s purchase of Japanese press manufacturer Shinohara last year. Printers Superstore’s commitment is a welcome boost to embattled Informa and comes just a few weeks after Konica Minolta also confirmed its commitment to Ipex. Moorby urged exhibitors that had withdrawn or decided to not participate to reconsider their decisions. “We’re really looking forward to Ipex and we’d love it if others did the same. There used to be a bit of bravado between the bigger companies about who had the biggest stand, the world’s changed, why don’t they just take a view and think about what their customers want. It will be a missed opportunity if they don’t go.”...
read morePrinters Superstore settles differences and commits to Ipex
The U-turn follows the Leeds-based company and Hans Gronhi meeting with Ipex at China Print last month, where they discussed the changes to the show and what Printers Superstore joint managing director Graham Moorby described as the “mixed message” whitepaper. “At the end of the day we wanted to go, we just needed some sort of reassurance, we now feel sure it’s going to be a great show,” said Moorby. In its February open letter, the company said that Informa was alienating litho exhibitors and printers by focussing on digital and cross-media, which it felt implied litho visitors were “irrelevant”. However, this was strongly denied by Informa, which said in April, partly in response to Printers Superstore open letter, that its focus on digital was not a slight on commercial printers, who represent 80% of its audience, just a reflection of an industry that views litho and digital as complementary. Moorby said: “We were one of the first to commit to Ipex and that never waivered. It was just the refocusing of the show and the specifically the white paper, which we felt was a white paper of reasons why we shouldn’t be going. “Fundamentally though we’ve always supported Ipex, we’ve all grown up with show’s like Ipex and we sold our first Hans Gronhi at Ipex 2006 and at 2010 we sold everything off the stand and lots more besides.” However, he did confirm that the company had substantially reduced its footprint at the show from 609sqm to 200sqm. Moorby added that the company had retained an option to increase the stand size. The company is planning to take three or four presses to the show, a mixture of B1/SRA1, B2/A2 and B3 presses. While Moorby acknowledged that visitor numbers next year might be down on Ipex 2010, he said he was confident that the key decision makers would attend. He added that he was relishing the opportunity of exhibiting at Ipex and demonstrating the latest Hans Gronhi technology, especially in light of the manufacturer’s purchase of Japanese press manufacturer Shinohara last year. Printers Superstore’s commitment is a welcome boost to embattled Informa and comes just a few weeks after Konica Minolta also confirmed its commitment to Ipex. Moorby urged exhibitors that had withdrawn or decided to not participate to reconsider their decisions. “We’re really looking forward to Ipex and we’d love it if others did the same. There used to be a bit of bravado between the bigger companies about who had the biggest stand, the world’s changed, why don’t they just take a view and think about what their customers want. It will be a missed opportunity if they don’t go.”...
read moreInkjet world first for Bell & Bain
The colour inkjet web was first shown at Drupa last year. It has a compact, single-tower design and a print width of 540mm. It can print duplex CMYK at 100m/min at 600x600dpi, or 127m/min at 600x480dpi. Glasgow-based Bell & Bain specialises in book and journal printing, including colour books. The company runs a range of conventional and digital equipment. Managing director Stephen Docherty said he had initially been put off inkjet due to high running costs and questionable quality. “We’d seen and heard so much about inkjet, and spoken to so many people about it, but it was mind-boggling what it cost for service and clicks,” he said. Bell & Bain travelled to Fujifilm’s technology centre in Brussels as part of the assessment process for the purchase. “I couldn’t believe how quick and simple the Jet Press was to operate, and it was actually an easy decision. There’s no click charge and the service costs are reasonable. It makes it straightforward for us to work out our pricing,” Docherty added. The new press has a list price of around £1.2m, depending on configuration. It will replace an existing Océ 9000 black-and-white continuous feed system when it is installed next month, and is being configured to run inline with Bell & Bain’s Muller Martini Sigma binding line. “We’ll be using it for black-and-white work initially, the black tones are absolutely phenomenal so I believe our short-run black-and-white work will instantly migrate to it,” Docherty said. “We can also offer selected customers colour book options, for example market testing with a short run at relatively low cost.” Docherty said the firm was in the process of deciding upon a selection of papers. “We may streamline the choice a little to avoid holding lots of reels.” Chris Broadhurst, UK national sales manager at Fujifilm Graphic Systems, said Fujifilm was extremely proud about the order: “The 540W arrived in Brussels around Christmas time and we started to take customers over to see it in January and February. As soon as Bell & Bain saw the quality they could see it would suit their work,” he said. “It’s great news for the UK print industry that well-established printers, such as Bell & Bain, are still investing to stand their business in good stead for tomorrow and beyond. To get the first sale for Fujifilm globally is quite a coup for us.” he added. The move caps a number of recent investments at Bell & Bain. This year it has added a B2 KBA Rapida 75 to its brace of Rapida 142 large-format litho presses, as well as a new Muller Martini Alegro perfect binder. The 182-year-old firm employs 82 staff and is on track for sales of £9.3m this year....
read more