Printing Marketing Collateral with Production Inkjet

Most inkjet applications require paper. For many reasons, compatible inkjet paper is in short supply. If you are involved in the inkjet print supply chain, or a buyer of the finished product, it is in your best interest to help clear hurdles to identify and qualify compatible papers and to communicate availability as efficiently as possible.

David Zwang cites Mercury printing as one of the most interesting and exciting printing companies he has seen. And they have made it a practice to leverage new technologies throughout the life of the company to revolutionize their business. Read coverage on their investment and integration of technology from Landa, Xerox and Manroland Goss.

Editor’s Note: Last month we published an article by David Zwang on Landa’s first S10P duplex press beta site, Mercury Printing in Rochester, N.Y titled “Landa: And They’re Off!” With

Elizabeth Gooding spoke to John Hume, President of Hume Media, about their decision to be the first customer for the Xerox Baltoro HF Inkjet press and their expectation for ramping up production and transitioning volume from other devices.

Is inkjet eating toner’s lunch? In some areas, yes. But, as long as there are many types of print organizations, there will be a need for many types of printing devices. One size does not fit all. Your mileage may vary. Definitely see the dealer for details.

Many buyers in 2019 are looking to complement or replace their offset production capabilities. High speed inkjet is gaining acceptance in a market with high print quality and color expectations. We are talking about high end, high value printing such as marketing collateral, magazines and catalogs. Read on for a round up of factors in evaluating presses for this market and top OEMs making the cut.

Jacki Hudmon, of Komori America talks to Elizabeth Gooding about why Komori is the best kept secret in production inkjet. Komori has committed to the market with a portfolio of inkjet products with multiple types of inks, multiple types of heads and even multiple approaches to getting the ink on the substrate in order to serve different aspects of their commercial print-focused customer base. Watch now to learn about Komori’s growth roadmap.

Elizabeth Gooding talks to Rick Herlevic, Director of Plant Operations at Century Marketing Solutions about the introduction of an HP PageWide Web PressT230 inkjet solution into their direct mail/commercial printing operation. CMS is the in-plant arm of CenturyLink, and also has a sales force and an array of outside clients.

Inkjet Insight maps out I.T. Strategies North American print volume data to explore opportunities for production inkjet technologies. The map looks packaging, publishing, and document application categories. Production inkjet has been successful with applications that have light ink coverage printed on uncoated stocks … namely, transactional, direct mail, and some book applications. Many of these applications were converted from high-speed roll-fed toner devices and inkjet provided economic and process benefits and by adding color. Inkjet also provided the ability to add value to printed pages. It’s useful to look at the entire market to help put this area of success in perspective and to think about the requirements for expanding adoption.

Printing from the first tower allows ink twice as long to dry helping reduce roller build up and print defects in finishing.

Andy Gordon discusses the strategic role of production inkjet and the importance of developing a technology stack to drive business transformation. He discusses an NPR Freakonomics interview with Ford Motor Company’s CEO, Jim Hackett and the lessons to be learned that can apply to the printing industry.

If you are using inkjet coated or primed offset coated paper, different papers will have different porosity levels on each side of the sheet.

“To the inkjet world changing their name to Pixelle is quite fitting as it is Glatfelter’s performance inkjet brand compatible on high speed inkjet devices.” -Mary Schilling Find Pixelle Performance

Highlights from the latest Smithers Pira report: The Future of Inkjet Printing to 2023 project that the value of the global inkjet market will rise at 9.4% over the next five years. As the global print market transforms, shifts in buyer demands—short runs, versioned and personalized products—and higher quality are aligning with the capabilities of inkjet. This is making it a key focus for technology developers. This analysis shows that inkjet will grow by deepening its penetration into existing markets and exploiting new emergent market opportunities through 2023.

The growth markets for production inkjet lie in the segments where creatives hold sway. If you want to grow pages in these markets, you will need to get designers on your side.

Mary Schilling discusses the opportunity for sheet-fed inkjet including the traditional barriers of paper, pricing and image quality. The analysis discusses the requirements for inkjet to compete with commercial offset printing.

Christian Heneke of Service & Print Group Haberbeck gave a presentation today at the Ricoh Interact 2018 event on offset and inkjet working together. Like many companies, Haberbeck looked at the volumes of current work that could be transferred to inkjet, but he had a broader message.

As inkjet moves into applications with high ink coverage and quality demands, users can run into some hard to diagnose problems. If you only focus on the paper and the print heads when trying to diagnose print quality issues, you could struggle for a long time looking in the wrong places.

“Are Commercial Print and Inkjet gonna’ be a Thing?” That’s the question I asked Marco Boer of I.T. Strategies. Marco says a perfect storm of industry catalysts are likely to move commercial print organizations to consider the move to inkjet. But, it already is a thing.

While the conversion of marketing collateral from offset to digital may not be high, the value for digitally printed collateral is often much higher than other applications, typically driven by shorter run lengths, versioning and personalization. This has created excellent revenue opportunities for commercial printers who specialize in this area.