Opportunities Still Abundant in the Global Printing Industry

Transcription

1 Opportunities Still Abundant in the Global Printing Industry Events and discussions at GRAPH EXPO 2011, which featured several PSDA members as exhibitors and attendees, revealed the increasing importance of business partnerships to diversify, reach new markets and implement new technologies. BY IVARS SARKANS

2 The annual GRAPH EXPO show returned to Chicago with renewed vitality Sept , displaying the expansive future of opportunities in the printing industry. By the numbers alone, the show was a success. A post-show attendance report announced buyers were up 7 percent, and buyer companies were up 12 percent over last year s show. Printers, distributors and suppliers eagerly crowded around new equipment and systems displays at GRAPH EXPO Embrace Technology was this year s theme, and printers, distributors and suppliers eagerly crowded around new equipment and systems displays. But GRAPH EXPO 2011 was not just about printing technology. Exhibitors placed equal emphasis on strategic uses of technology, new product ideas, integration of print with related services and marketing considerations. There was ample evidence of a gradual industry transformation from a manufacturing to a service business orientation to meet the challenges posed by electronic alternatives to print. While traditional equipment exhibits focused on increased productivity, digital printing, printrelated services and system exhibits showed the paths to new business models, ways of gaining competitive advantages and growth opportunities in multimedia business communications services. Heidelberg Chairman Bernhard Schreier agreed with the views of many exhibitors that GRAPH EXPO is not the time to showcase tons of iron and steel, but a time to showcase business solutions. In his presentation at the Heidelberg exhibit, he cautioned that the future of print will be shaped as much by digital media and online communications as by printing technology. His advice was to identify the kinds of products and services that can be provided most profitably, and then to look at what kind of technology

3 Attendance at this year s GRAPH EXPO was up 7 percent for buyers and 12 percent for buyer companies from last year. is needed to do that. Schreier emphasized that printing industry participants must recognize that automated workflows and equipment will be absolutely essential for future success in print production. It was also evident from this show that the greatest future opportunities for many printers and distributors will be in combining print with other business communications services. The message from GRAPH EXPO was that print providers should expand their strategic visions and search for business ideas and technology within and beyond the broadening scope of the printing industry. This idea was represented by the nine special interest sections within the show: marketing, news publishing, package printing, future concepts, environmental sustainability, mailing and fulfillment, workflow and systems, wide format printing, and education. higher level of excitement from both the exhibitor and attendee sides. Paul Edwards of FormStore Inc., also a PSDA member, noted that GRAPH EXPO is always an amazing experience for our FormStore team. The show is a fountain of new technology and ideas, and the ROI on attending is always through the roof. Several PSDA member companies were exhibitors. B&W Press showed its wide range of direct mail products and Mini Slim catalogs, while Univenture attracted distributor attention with customizable binders, DVD/CD packaging and clear envelopes. Formax PSDA Members Exhibiting at GRAPH EXPO 2011 and Paitec featured pressure seal mailer processing and other office equipment machines. Xeikon demonstrated a model 3500 digital color label press, with four-process color plus white ink capability on webs up to 20 wide. Rated maximum speed for this dry toner machine is 64 feet per minute, with impressive 1,200 x 3,600 dpi resolution to match flexographic press quality. Xeikon offers a range of web-fed models up to 20 wide, some equipped for four-over-four color commercial printing and the ability to produce banners up to 8 feet long. And for distributors and printers seeking web-based transaction capability at tgraph EXPO, PSDA member PrinterPresence by Firespring provided a possible answer. It offers several levels of transaction website functionality, including online ordering, file transfer, proofing and customer portals. PSDA member AccuLink was one of the visiting firms making major new technology purchases at this year s GRAPH EXPO. AccuLink selected an innovative new digital UV coater from first-time exhibitor Scodix Inc. The Scodix 1200 can feed pre-printed sheets up to 19.7 x 27.8 including heavy stocks and apply patterns of clear coating ranging from matte finish to high gloss and high thickness 3-D feel. The results can give ordinary printing a wow appearance, create security features or add striking variable image effects. PSDA Members at Graph Expo The sizable number of PSDA members that participated in GRAPH EXPO seemed to share the positive view expressed by Roger Buck from PSDA member The Flesh Company: Compared to previous years, this show had a much B&W Press Inc Formax Inc Paitec USA... PrinterPresence by Firespring... Univenture Inc.... Xeikon America Inc PRINT SOLUTIONS NOVEMBER 2011 PSDA.ORG

4 The number of software and systems exhibits at the show advocating webbased service business opportunities was huge. There was more for social media, broadcasting and other nonprint digital media distribution, attempting to get printers to move into online services for their print customers, Buck said. Since printing plants are at least partly bound by iron on the floor, distributors may be better positioned to take advantage of the cross-media sales opportunities created by the new technology shown at GRAPH EXPO. Digital Printing One of the highlights from GRAPH EXPO 2011 was the astounding progress in high-speed inkjet color web press print quality, web width options, production rates and proliferation of new models. These presses are capturing a growing share of transaction document, direct mail and publication printing traditionally produced on offset presses. They are creating new opportunities in specialized newspapers, high volume extensively personalized direct mail and on-demand book production. The chart included with this article (see right) lists 24 models from six suppliers, representing part of the available machine range promoted in GRAPH EXPO exhibits. Visitors could see only a small number of inkjet color web presses running on the show floor and had to visualize the others from posters, illustrations, brochures and an ample supply of printed samples. The aforementioned color web press chart excludes monochrome inkjet web presses, machines from suppliers not exhibiting at GRAPH EXPO and a UV inkjet color web press from Agfa for package printing. With one exception, all of the listed inkjet presses use water-based pigment or dye inks and require substantial dryer capacity. The one exception is the Xerox CiPress 500, introduced at the show, which uses inks in solid state and unique hot melt inkjet heads. The ink solidifies as it hits the paper and requires only a final heat and pressure fusing station rather than dryers to remove moisture. This should give the Xerox CiPress an operating cost advantage over waterbased ink machines. Selected High Speed Inkjet Process Color Web Presses Equipment Supplier Model Print Width Canon USA, Inc. Oce North America All of the listed web presses can print four-over-four colors, some with a twin engine configuration and some with face and back print stations in one compact cabinet. These inkjet models will gradually displace dry toner digital web presses in high volume applications, and as their reliability and print quality improve further, they will pose an increasing challenge to conventional offset technologies. The future potential of inkjet technologies was illustrated in the Adphos exhibit, where 4.16 wide four-color Kodak Prosper S-20 heads were printing at 600 x 300 dpi resolution and 2,000 feet per minute. The high speed web carrier was built by Graphic System Services, a former PSDA member and supplier of forms and direct mail presses. The Resolution DPI (1) JetStream x JetStream x JetStream x JetStream x JetStream x JetStream x JetStream x ColorStream 3500* x Eastman Kodak Prosper 5000 XL* x 600 (2) 650 Versamark VL x Versamark VL x Versamark VT x Versamark VX 5000 Plus x Versamark 300 NW x Versamark 500 NW x Hewlett-Packard T ,200 x T ,200 x T ,200 x T ,200 x Ricoh & InfoPrint Solutions 500 MP x * x Screen USA Truepress Jet520* x Truepress Jet 520EX x Xerox Corporation CiPress 500* x Ivars Sarkans Oct Speed Max. Ft/Min. (1) Some models have reduced resolution at maximum rated speed; some models use variable drop sizes or other methods to enhance visually perceived resolution. (2) Rated by manufacturer as equivalent up to 175 line offset. *Operational machine at Graph Expo 2011; literature and specifications available on all other models. Kodak Prosper S-20 inkjet units can be integrated in commercial printing heatset web presses, with up to four heads in a wide printing array. Future models of the Kodak Prosper inkjet heads may support even higher web speeds. Inkjet technology has some limitations, particularly with water-based inks. Web presses require power-consuming dryers, and moisture distortion of paper can be a problem. For the best attainable print quality, inkjet presses need expensive specially treated paper. The quality on common uncoated papers is adequate for many document and book production applications, especially with pigmented inks. Hewlett-Packard enhances print quality on uncoated papers by applying a bonding agent in a separate inkjet station to areas that will be imaged. The Xerox 60 PRINT SOLUTIONS NOVEMBER 2011 PSDA.ORG

5 CiPress with waterless inks should also have a print quality advantage on bond and uncoated offset papers. Inkjets with water-based inks perform best in sustained production environments rather than intermittent runs separated by prolonged idle time. For intermittent production, digital printing with toner is currently a better solution without inkjet nozzle clogging concerns. Most of today s inkjets and other digital printing devices have variable image capability, but for static image printing, offset retains a sizable machine reliability and production cost advantage if runs are sufficiently long or small orders can be effectively grouped. GRAPH EXPO displayed a proliferation of inkjet technology implementations in lower speed web and sheet-fed machines for specialized applications. Inkjets clearly dominate the wide format production segment and have displaced most conventional screen printing. UV inkjets are common for outdoor signs and banners, and some models can produce attention-getting effects with eight or more colors, metallic-appearance inks and special coatings. MGI demonstrated a new six-color UV inkjet press for personalized printing and encoding of plastic cards at 8,000 simplex or 4,000 duplex printed cards per hour. MGI also showed a UV varnish inkjet machine that can apply spot coating at various gloss levels to enhance preprinted paper and plastic sheets up to 20 x 29. W+D displayed a prototype fourcolor envelope imprinting inkjet press, rated at 30,000 envelopes per hour. For photo books and individual photo prints, Canon introduced the seven-color inkjet DreamLabo 5000 machine, designed to match the quality of traditional silver halide technology. It can produce fifty 20-page premium quality albums per hour. Several suppliers showed UV inkjet web presses for labels to meet the growing demand for efficient short run color capability. Two of the newest inkjet machines at GRAPH EXPO used Memjet printheads developed in Australia. These are relatively low cost ($300 to $400 range), Top: PSDA member Formax featured pressure seal mailer processing and other office equipment machines at this year s GRAPH EXPO. Bottom: Web-to-print capabilities, showcased here at GRAPH EXPO by PrinterPresence by Firespring, a PSDA member company, are becoming increasingly pivotal in the industry and will clearly play a growing role in the creation, sale, ordering and production of printed products even more in the future. five-color, 8.77 wide units with 70,400 nozzles densely packed in 10 rows for 1,600 dpi imaging. Drop size with waterbased dye inks is under two picoliters, so small that the ink dries instantly upon contact with paper. Memjet provides the inkjet heads for equipment suppliers who assemble them in arrays as needed for new printing devices. Xante demonstrated a Memjet head application in a prototype 42 wide poster printer running 30 feet per minute at 800 x 1,600 dpi resolution. With low machine and ink cost, the Excelagraphic 4200 may set a new price/performance benchmark in wide format inkjet printers. The second Memjet implementation at GRAPH EXPO was a 10 wide five-color label press marketed by Fast Technology Group. With five 8.77 wide printheads PSDA.ORG NOVEMBER 2011 PRINT SOLUTIONS 61

6 capability and extension of sheet size to 14 x 26 on Xerox igen4 and Kodak Nexpress SX models. The new sheet-fed size champion at GRAPH EXPO was the MGI Meteor DP 8700XL, which can automatically feed sheets of paper and plastic up to 13 x 40. This machine can also be equipped with an envelope feeder. MGI provides self-maintenance training and its digital presses are available without click charges. With new chemical toners, automatic color controls and other enhancements, dry and liquid toner digital printing from most machines without fuser oil at GRAPH EXPO matched typical offset press quality. Hewlett-Packard celebrated its 10th anniversary as owners of the Indigo brand of presses with an impressive display of print samples ranging from documents to photo books, labels and folding cartons. Top: Exhibits displaying QR codes could be found throughout the trade show floor at GRAPH EXPO The combination of print and alternative media and web presence services was abundant. Bottom: Xeikon, a PSDA member company, demonstrated a model 3500 digital color label press at the 2011 show. Xeikon offers a range of web-fed models up to 20 wide, some equipped for fourover-four color commercial printing, and the ability to produce banners up to 8 feet long. in line, this press was running at 160 feet per minute and 1,600 x 1,200 dpi resolution. Even at that speed, a dryer was unnecessary due to the miniscule drop size. Memjet technology holds promise for a whole new generation of very economical production and desktop digital color printers. Toner-based digital printing appeared to be close to its technological limits, with improvements mainly in color quality, machine reliability, heavier stock Conventional Printing The big news at GRAPH EXPO 2011 was the return of Heidelberg, Komori and KBA, all of which had sizable booth space after their absence from the show in The main themes in conventional production equipment exhibits were automation and productivity. Heidelberg had two large and highly automated fivecolor sheet-fed presses on the show floor, but the really significant news was in the level of connectivity among prepress, offset presses, a Ricoh digital color press, an EFI/Vutek wide-format printer, finishing machines and the MIS system that would normally control a printing plant. Heidelberg announced an alliance with Pageflex to extend this workflow automation system to web-to-print interfaces with customers. Heidelberg also has alliances with Ricoh to resell its C-901 sheet-fed digital color press and with EFI for distribution of Vutek wideformat printers. Manroland had graphic displays in its exhibit emphasizing the company s largeformat sheet-fed presses for packaging, display graphics and gang run printing. A new model, the eight-page 700 HiPrint HS, was running at manroland s Chicago demonstration center. It was a showcase of latest press productivity improvements, including two-minute 62 PRINT SOLUTIONS NOVEMBER 2011 PSDA.ORG

7 simultaneous changing of all six plates, and a rated speed of 18,000 sheets per hour. Following a general industry trend of more alliances among suppliers, manroland announced an agreement with Oce, a Canon Group company, that adds Oce digital presses to the product portfolio marketed by manroland. KBA joined the alliance parade at GRAPH EXPO by announcing a joint digital press development program with RR Donnelley, which has had several proprietary inkjet press projects for several years. KBA had graphic displays introducing its new nonstop plate change system for sheet-fed presses. On presses with this feature, some units can be stopped to change plates as the machine is running. For example, on a six-color press, four units can be used for the base layout. Units five and six can alternate between stops for plate changes as the rest of the press runs and running a versioned part of the layout. Switching to the new version can start at 10,000 sheets per hour without stopping the press. KBA displays also featured its large format sheet-fed presses up to the Rapida 205 model with 59 x 81 maximum sheet size. Systems and Services Printing businesses will continue to be managed by people, but GRAPH EXPO made it clear that control of production, workflow and routine interfaces with customers will gradually shift to computers and software. Information technology (IT) skills will be as important as production skills in gaining competitive advantages, maintaining adequate profitability and adapting to industry changes. GRAPH EXPO had many exhibits featuring various levels of print production and marketing software. The Heidelberg Prinect system with the latest Pageflex customer interface and integration with a business management information system (MIS) was one example of what will be required to keep larger printing plants competitive. The other major offset press manufacturers, together with their software partners, offer similar systems, and there are equally capable alternatives from suppliers such as EFI, Hiflex, Kodak, Oce, Hewlett-Packard and Xerox. One of the differences between these systems is the extent to which they automate and integrate workflows for plants with a mix of conventional and digital presses and related finishing equipment. Smaller plants and distributors that have more modest requirements had an ample choice at GRAPH EXPO of software for specific business segments or process components to facilitate gradual internal development of workflow automation, process controls and business MIS. The biggest challenges for printers with limited IT resources have been software implementation and understanding that internal operations must adapt to provisions of the selected software. Many implementations have failed because printers tried to change off-the-shelf software, incurring high costs, delays and system maintenance problems. Fortunately, the choices at GRAPH EXPO included more hosted software (SaaS, or software as a service) at various levels of sophistication and functionality. This makes implementation by distributors and smaller printers much easier, as long The most significant contribution from Komori to conventional printing productivity advances was a new sheetfed press UV curing system, combining a single lamp drying unit for each printed side of a sheet with special highsensitivity UV inks. The advantages over common current UV curing systems should be significant in terms of power consumption and installation complexity, and Komori indicates that printers using the new H-UV dryers and inks can easily switch to conventional offset inks and coatings as needed. The overall impression from GRAPH EXPO was that conventional printing productivity improvements will moderate the nearterm volume shift to digital presses, but the long-term outlook favors the digital challengers. The interim period will probably see the introduction of more hybrid technology machines, combining offset and flexographic presses with inkjet stations for variable images and personalization. PSDA member AccuLink purchased an innovative new digital UV coater from first-time exhibitor Scodix Inc. at GRAPH EXPO. The Scodix 1200 can feed pre-printed sheets and apply patterns of clear coating ranging from matte finish to high gloss and high thickness 3-D feel. PSDA.ORG NOVEMBER 2011 PRINT SOLUTIONS 63

8 of partnerships so we can increase profit margins. While many in our industry define partnerships as an outsourced relationship with the lowest cost supplier, I challenge this definition and want to broaden it to sharing information, reducing capital expenses and leveraging human talent and brand for maximum profits. These were the new types of partnerships among equipment and software suppliers evident at GRAPH EXPO. This is also a path to success and profits for printers and distributors. Among those walking the floor during GRAPH EXPO 2011 were the author of this article, Ivars Sarkans (left), and John Delavan, editor-of-chief of PSDA s Print Solutions magazine. as the user understands the need to adapt internal practices to software constraints. Most of the IT support skills reside at the software host; therefore, long-term stability of SaaS providers is of critical importance. Comments by software suppliers indicate that the ultimate in software sophistication, versatility and integration is not as critical as effective software installation to gain a competitive systems advantage. GRAPH EXPO showcased a wealth of ideas for pursuing strategies that combine print with alternative media and web presence services. QR codes were everywhere. Printers and distributors could find resources for developing and marketing multimedia and web services, from the broad XMPie offering to simple website creation for ordering printed products. It was clear at GRAPH EXPO that print and mailing services are becoming more integrated, driven partly by digital printing, which enables mill roll to mailbag production of personalized direct mail. Printers who do not add mailing capabilities in time may lose business to mailing houses that add printing equipment. The clearest signal of this comes from Pitney Bowes, which is now selling Hewlett-Packard digital color web presses. Print-related services still provide the opportunity for differentiating a business that print alone no longer does. Even some of the equipment suppliers were promoting document and print management services at GRAPH EXPO. Xerox has done this for a long time, and with its 2010 Affiliated Computer Services acquisition, the company s business vision may have shifted further from print to services. Kern, a supplier of mail processing equipment, is following this example and introduced its EDGE internal document and mail management program combining consulting and specialized SaaS. Konica Minolta joined the diversification into services by linking its printers with offers of document management assistance. These general indications of possible trends and new competitors can be an important signal to PSDA members of service and business alliance opportunities. Print Business Outlook The view through the GRAPH EXPO 2011 window on the future shows the increasing importance of business partnerships to diversify, reach new markets and implement new technologies. Sudhir Ravi, vice president of sales and marketing for Think Variable Print Inc., presented an excellent perspective on partnering in a Truth from the Trenches GRAPH EXPO conference session:... we, in the printing industry, experiment with different types Web-to-Print (W2P) will clearly play a growing role in the creation, sale, ordering and production of printed products. There is a significant service opportunity in developing both generic and customer-specific design template libraries that can be incorporated in W2P programs to allow easy personalization and ordering by customers and to ensure print-ready files that can be automatically processed, grouped, imposed and routed to printing devices. Success at the front end, combined with IT skills, will determine the future of many printing businesses. Strategies of specialization by market segment or product group will work as well as diversification into print-related services if the underlying structure of the business is able to take advantage of the workflow automation, equipment productivity and systems integration technologies presented at GRAPH EXPO Next year s GRAPH EXPO set for Oct. 7-10, 2012 will focus on the theme of Print Integrated. The printing industry is progressing quickly; if this year s show is any indication of the future, GRAPH EXPO 2012 should be quite exciting. PS Ivars Sarkans, a printing industry consultant based in Sequim, Wash., specializes in business strategies, marketing, systems and technology and is a longtime contributor to PSDA publications. He can be reached by telephone at or by at isarkans@sarkans.com. 64 PRINT SOLUTIONS NOVEMBER 2011 PSDA.ORG