Graph Expo 99--Our Digital Future

Printers showed up in force to see the latest in graphic arts technology and learn how E-Commerce might affect their futures.

From all reports, Graph Expo 99 was a huge success. According to the Graphic Arts Show Co., which organized the event, 45,217 people took part—including numerous in-plant managers who stopped to chat with In-Plant Graphics' staff at our booth. All told, the show's 622 exhibitors occupied more than 430,000 net square feet of booth space.

IPG spent three days walking the show floor at Chicago's McCormick Place, examining the new equipment and talking to the numerous E-Commerce vendors. Here's what we discovered:

Platemaking

Debuting at the A.B.Dick booth was the DPM2340 platemaker. An extension of the Digital PlateMaster line of direct-to-plate equipment, the DPM2340 outputs plates at up to 3,600 dpi. It uses a Harlequin PostScript 3 RIP and can image plates up to 13.4x20˝. It uses A.B.Dick's MEGAPRO polyester plates.

Cymbolic Sciences showed its new PlateJet Emerald computer-to-plate system. Modeled after the PlateJet8, it offers 25 percent greater productivity, multiple resolutions and a new micropositioning system that reportedly never requires maintenance. Printers can image plates or film at resolutions ranging from 1,000 to 3,600 dpi.

ECRM brought two new platesetters to Chicago. The Tigercat model is optimized for shops that produce brochures, forms or annual reports. It creates plates at up to 3,556 dpi, and can output 50 four-up, 24x291⁄2˝ plates per hour at 1,270 dpi and 20 plates per hour at 3,556 dpi. The other CTP device, the Wildcat, targets publishing applications and offers throughput of more than 120 single-broadsheet plates per hour at 1,000 dpi.

Introduced at the Mitsubishi Imaging booth was the SDP-Eco1630 platesetting system. Nicknamed the "Green Machine" because of its ecologically friendly features, the SDP-Eco1630 outputs up to 78 plates per hour at 1,200 dpi. It also produces resolutions of 1,016 and 1,500 dpi. Using up to two-thirds less processing chemistry than other systems, the SDP-Eco1630 has a self-contained processor that uses two new chemistries to image Mitsubishi's Silver DigiPlate paper or polyester plate materials.

Purup-Eskofot took advantage of Graph Expo to announce its acquisition of Scanview, a Danish prepress manufacturer. This move boosts Purup-Eskofot's polyester platemaking capabilities. The company also showed off its new ImageMaker B2 CtP Thermal system. At 2,540 dpi, it can output 13 eight-up plates an hour. It can output film or plates, in four-up or eight-up formats.

Featured at the Xanté booth was its STP (Scan to Plate) software, offering users a way to scan camera-ready artwork or hard copy originals and produce polyester plates on Xanté's PlateMaker 3, Accel-a-Writer 3G or ScreenWriter 3 products. STP requires no specialized training and works with Windows-based PCs and scanners.

Printing & Copying

Digital imaging was a hot topic at Graph Expo. Adast displayed its latest computer-to-press system, the Adast Dominant 705C DI. Capable of producing color prints of 181⁄2x251⁄2˝, the press uses a dry offset technique and may be fitted with four or five printing towers, a laminating unit and/or perfector. No films or chemical agents are required.

Karat Digital Press offered another direct imaging option with its computer-driven 74 Karat waterless offset press. It interfaces with an offline digital prepress system, offering a complete digital workflow and color management system. Boasting an automated 15-minute makeready, it is optimized for short- to medium-run four-color print jobs. With a keyless inking system, the 74 Karat press can print up to 10,000 sheets per hour in formats up to 201⁄2x29˝. It images all four plates on press in just six minutes.

Screen USA entered the digital press market with its TruePress 544 digital imaging system. It comprises a digital imaging and offset printing unit, and a controller that handles a variety of tasks, such as job control and RIP processing of page files. Geared for short-run work, the TruePress 544 prints up to 4,000 impressions an hour for four-color work or 8,000 iph for two-color work, using conventional process inks.

Elsewhere, A.B.Dick displayed its new Print Pro 34—a two-color twin tower portrait press with large press features like a stream feeder and a convertible dampener system. It can run with polyester plates, and features running register, auto crawl and auto setup to ensure faster makeready.

The 12-color Akiyama JP-6P640 is the latest in a series of presses designed for printing the top and bottom of the sheet in one pass. The compact J Print series comes in 26˝, 32˝, 40˝ and 44˝ format sizes from one-over-one to six-over-six printing units. Each upper and lower unit has its own plate, blanket, impression and transfer cylinder.

The high-speed Lithrone 28 Perfector from Komori made its debut at Graph Expo. Shown in a six-color configuration, it featured automated perfector changeover, accomplished in three and a half minutes. Sheet handling has been improved with the integration of Komori's double diameter impression and transfer cylinder system. While protecting the sheets, this design also maintains front-to-back registration accuracy at high speeds.

Sakurai showed its new OLIVER-EDII line, designed to accept digital and CTP interface systems. This line offers Sakurai Automatic Plate Changing, Sakurai Auto Set, automatic blanket washup and automatic ink roller washup. Other standard features include Sakurai Color Console with CTP interface, suction-belt feeder and platform feeder/delivery.

Toshiba Machine showed off its new OA-800 web offset press. Modular in design, it can be configured from one to eight colors or more. It offers 50,000 impressions per hour, a fast makeready time and reduced makeready waste. The digitized prepress/remote ink system interface improves registration. The TPC-2 semi-automatic plate changer lets one operator handle plate changes.

Heidelberg USA made its first move into digital printing by introducing its Digimaster 9110 Network Imaging System. It outputs 110 images per minute and is equipped with in-line finishing. Capable of producing manuals, pamphlets and booklets directly from popular file formats, it can accept PostScript, PDF, PCL or TIFF files.

New from Indigo was SNAP (Swift Native Accelerated Personalization), a high-speed personalization tool. With SNAP, most personalization jobs can be processed in real time at full print speed. SNAP will be available on all Indigo TurboStream-based products and as an optional upgrade. It processes text and picture data "on-the-fly," assembling many personalized jobs with multiple variable text and images at full speed—directly on the press.

At the Ricoh booth the Aficio Color 6110 color copier was demonstrated. It offers speeds of 10 copies per minute in color mode and 40 in black-and-white mode. It can print full-bleed 11x17˝ graphics onto 13x19˝ paper. With a large paper capacity, it can also handle heavy index paper stock. Offering 600-dpi output, it has a first copy speed of 16 seconds for full color and eight seconds for black-and-white.

Epson showed its Stylus Pro 9000 wide-format printer, designed to handle paper up to 44˝ wide on media as thick as 1.5 mm cardboard. It features Micro Piezo dual density droplet print technology. It also includes ASIC-assisted 1,440x720-dpi resolution and a six-color, quick-drying ink system. Cartridges hold 220 milliliters of ink.

Bindery

Duplo introduced the DBM-80, a new bookletmaker that can be used inline or offline and is ideal for short runs. With a vertical, compact design, it can produce up to 2,000, 64-page booklets per hour. The DBM-80 works in-line with the Xerox DocuColor 40 and Hewlett-Packard's HP LaserJet 8000DN, 8100 DN, Mopier 240, Mopier 320 and Color LaserJet 8500DN series printers. When used in the offline mode, the DBM-80 offers push-button set-up and changeover.

Visitors to the General Binding Corp. booth got their first look at the PerfectBinder 2220, which produces up to 200 books per hour with thicknesses ranging from two sheets up to 50 mm. The PerfectBinder 2220 boasts a one-minute changeover time between runs. It features an electronically operated clamp and a built-in jogging system. The 2220 also offers a paper dust and fume extraction system.

More new finishing gear was found at the Graphic Whizard booth, namely the FinishMaster 200 air-feed perforating, scoring and slitting system. Paper is stacked vertically, allowing 1,000 sheets to be continuously fed. Operating at variable speeds, the Finishmaster 200 can process up to 20,000 sheets per hour. The 30˝ register board allows for easy setup and perfect register. This machine controls the depth of each perf/score/slit independently.

To help in-plants provide in-house wide-format laminating, Hunt Graphics expanded its new ProSeal line of wide-format laminating pouch supplies to include ProSeal Mounter Laminators for prints up to 25˝ or 44˝ wide. Images are placed into a ProSeal pouch and fed through the ProSeal Mounter Laminator. This system can produce encapsulated and flexible applications and rigid displays up to 1⁄4˝ thick.

Standard Finishing Systems introduced the SPF-20A/FC-20A automated saddle-stitching system, complementing the recently introduced Standard Horizon SpeedVAC 100 collating system. Fast changeovers are made using an icon-based touch-screen control console. Featuring a heavy-duty, shear-action face trimmer with air-blast trim removal, the system can produce more than 3,500 booklets per hour.

Other Big News

The newest addition to the Logic Management System—the improved Scheduling application for Windows—was introduced at Graph Expo. It integrates seamlessly with the other Logic information management tools. The point-and-click functionality makes scheduling possible without a keyboard. It is also now possible to view late jobs and open unscheduled jobs separately.

Also at the show, Logic and Noosh, an Internet-based communication service for the printing industry, announced plans to integrate. Noosh's print ordering and job tracking system will connect seamlessly to the Logic Management System.

The new Luxel FinalProof 5600 halftone proofing system was introduced by Fuji Photo Film USA. Integrating automatic imaging, pigment-based CMYK colors, multiple resolutions and halftone screening, FinalProof can be laminated to actual paper stock. FinalProof can be imaged at 2,400, 2,438 and 2,540. It will be available in the first quarter of 2000.

Van Son Holland Ink expanded its InkTube product line to include Quickson Signature Series process inks. InkTube packaging consists of biodegradable, vacuum-sealed cardboard tubes that contain ink nozzles. This prohibits "skinning" by preventing oxygen from contacting the ink. Van Son also announced Van Son Digital, a division that will focus on products for digital duplicators and ink-jet printers.

—by Chris Bauer and Bob Neubauer

Dot Com Debuts

Books aren't the only thing for sale online any more. Internet suppliers are hawking everything from cars to caviar. At Graph Expo a host of online suppliers was on hand, hoping to bring E-Commerce to the printing world and change the way printers buy consumables and locate customers. In-Plant Graphics visited a few of these Web-based companies—both at the show and on the Net—to see what they offered. Here's what we found.

• www.58k.com—This site gives print buyers access to 58,000 U.S. printers in a centralized auction market using electronic bid forms. 58k.com rates buyers on their follow-through. Buyers who often submit jobs without executing them will get a low rating.

• www.printbid.com—This site holds a database of over 62,000 U.S. printing companies. You can search for printers by locality, equipment, capabilities or name. Create a detailed Request For Quote and send it to printers you've selected.

• www.paperdeals.com—This offshoot of www.printbid.com is a paper auction site to match buyers with sellers.

• www.printnation.com—In addition to selling consumables, scanners, ink, imagesetters, film, plates, paper and chemistry, this site has a used equipment auction. It also offers printing news, bulletin boards and chat rooms.

• www.goprinter.com—For buyers, manufacturers and dealers of printing supplies and equipment. It offers about 3,500 products from over 25 leading suppliers: Metal plates, printing blankets, inks, film, pressroom chemistry and more.

• www.prepressmall.com—An online source for prepress equipment like scanners, workstations, networks, servers, imagesetters, software, color copiers, RIPs and more.

• www.printeralliance.com—This site seeks to create an alliance of printers to leverage their collective buying power. For a small membership fee, members receive rebates twice a year on all products purchased from selected suppliers.

• www.noosh.com—An Internet-based communications service that lets you buy, sell and manage print online. Jobs can be created, submitted by buyers, and quoted online by printers—locally or worldwide. Noosh also handles content file transfer, online and remote proofing, and job file archiving.

• www.impresse.com—Print buyers can request and compare multiple quotes, negotiate specs, costs and schedules, transfer files to print vendors, and manage proofs, press checks and delivery.