Paper Options for Continuous-feed Inkjet

Continuous-feed inkjet offers advantages over both offset and electrophotography. As the technology evolves, it is gaining share from both. The presses are good. The substrates are good. The software is good. And, as Cathy Cartolano, vice president of sales and technical services at Mitsubishi Imaging (MPM), points out, image quality is "scary close" to offset.

So why doesn't continuous-feed inkjet dominate the market? Challenges include education, workflow, sales and finishing, as well as the limitations of the technology. The technology continues to evolve, though, with improvements to paper, ink, workflow software and to the presses themselves.

While much of the discussion focuses on image quality and technology, it is important to note that digital print is a very different sale than conventional print. The value proposition of digital involves a total system solution around better targeting, better logistics and less waste, which results in a better return on the customers' investment rather than a lower per unit cost. Also, the decision on inkjet versus toner depends on the image quality required, substrate, ink coverage and run length. The right solution depends on the specific application, and inkjet is gaining ground.

Image quality may not be the issue as much as economics.

"The highest form of printing in the world for museums and photography is inkjet," notes Dave Bell, Mitsubishi's director of digital sales. "The question is not when will inkjet quality be equal to offset, but when will production inkjet quality be equal to offset."

For transactional print and certain book applications, numerous success stories demonstrate that production inkjet quality may have met this goal.

Demand for Coated Papers

Some applications are suitable for uncoated papers, either with or without inkjet treatment, but for applications with more color and high-quality graphics, print customers often want coated papers. NewPage Corp., Appleton Coated LLC, Mitsubishi Imaging (MPM), FutureMark Paper and Resolute Forest Products have developed coated inkjet papers in conjunction with press manufacturers (OEMs) and continue to refine and improve their inkjet coated paper offerings.

NewPage TrueJet was developed for the Kodak Prosper Press. TrueJet is also approved for use on HP T-series presses without a bonding agent, and works well on Canon (Océ) engines.

"A patent-pending formulation allows the water to absorb into the paper while keeping ink on the surface, and provides offset-like quality," explains Dennis Essary, NewPage's director of digital papers.

Essary adds that TrueJet is an optical match for Sterling Ultra, and is available in 80# and 100# gloss text, plus 7 point and 9 point gloss cover, both of which meet postal requirements. Earlier this year, NewPage also introduced TrueJet Book 45#, which has successfully run on HP, Kodak, Ricoh and Océ presses, and has been "accepted well into the market place." Essary adds that NewPage is looking at developing additional finishes and basis weights (e.g., dull and matte) as market needs evolve.

In addition, TrueJet Hybrid has found a home with the Ricoh Infoprint 5000 with pigment inks and extended dryers.

"We continue to grow and expand the customer base and focus on customer needs as the market continues to develop," Essary notes. "TrueJet is readily available and is running on all the machines."

Focus on Books

At Appleton Coated, the initial focus has been on books. Ann Whalen, senior vice president, advises that Appleton Coated "has now developed a book inkjet product, Utopia Book PE, that works in piezo electric inkjet with modified driers and has expanded its gloss line down to 60# text and to 9-point cover." Utopia Inkjet, with gloss, dull and matte finishes, was developed with HP and optimized for the HP T-series. Whalen adds that Appleton Coated is the leading supplier of coated products for the HP T-series presses.

Utopia Inkjet Matte also works well with the Kodak Prosper, and Utopia Inkjet Gloss is under development for Prosper.

"For the HP presses, Utopia Inkjet Gloss is by far the closest to a gloss offset coated product at a reasonable price," Whalen says. Utopia Inkjet sells at premiums of around 30 percent to offset, and while the cost per impression is higher than for offset, the total cost is less.

Gianluigi Rankin, worldwide marketing product manager for HP Graphics Media advises that improved inkjet papers are helping customers push the envelope on ink coverage.

"We began seeing an increase in full color direct mail in 2012, after Appleton Coated first introduced Utopia Inkjet Gloss with ColorPRO Technology," Rankin explains. "As the selection of inkjet optimized papers grows, we expect to see higher volumes of these applications."

Savings in Ink Use

As the global leader in home inkjet papers and proofing papers, Mitsubishi offers a range of high-quality, coated media for production web inkjet, from 90 gsm to 249 gsm (9 pt.), in a variety of surface finishes, including gloss, satin and matte.

"Our parent, Mitsubishi Paper Mills, is a recognized leader in high-performance papers," notes Mitsubishi's Cartolano. She adds that Mitsubishi's SWORD iJET Gloss received a 5 Diamond rating (which equates to "offset quality") for Kodak Prosper presses, the highest rating within the Paper Rating Program.

SWORD iJET carries a premium price, by some reports as much as 130 percent above ordinary coated offset papers. This compares with premiums of around 20 percent to 30 percent on other coated inkjet papers. However, there are significant savings in ink use, energy and productivity. According to Cartolano, in tests with Screen USA, they were able to back off on the ink usage. Also, no drying was required. By some reports, ink savings can be as much as 40 percent.

In a presentation at the Inkjet Summit in April, Mitsubishi's Bell explained that the coating holds the ink on the surface, while allowing the water to disperse into the sheet. Although the water evaporates over 24 hours, the sheet immediately feels dry to the touch, and is ready for finishing without any offsetting or smearing. Bell cited a study by Canon Solutions America (formerly Océ) that showed that at 25 percent ink coverage, paper cost is equal to ink cost. Above 25 percent ink coverage, it may well make sense to use better paper that allows the use of less ink.

The Canon Océ JetStream and ColorStream presses produce excellent results with Mitsubishi SWORD iJET and Glatfelter coated inkjet papers, and have had some success with NewPage TrueJet. The strength has been with transactional print and transactional direct mail (TDM).

"2012 was a banner year, and Canon Océ was the 2012 leader in placements of continuous-feed color inkjet presses in Western Europe and U.S. with a 41 percent share," notes Kris Albee, marketing director of Canon's Production Print Solutions division. She adds that as paper and ink have matured, future growth will be in higher-end direct mail and commercial print.

IDC MarketScape has named Ricoh's InfoPrint 5000 production platform the high-speed inkjet market share leader in the United States. Ricoh has a global installed base of several hundred, focused mainly on transactional print, with the majority of the paper uncoated, though that is changing quickly. Mike Herold, Ricoh's worldwide product manager for inkjet technologies, notes that Ricoh "continues to innovate" and its presses "are now running applications that even a year ago might not have been possible." They have added drying capacity to handle more challenging papers, and now have three ink systems: dye, pigment and MICR.

"We are testing new papers every week, and can handle coated papers, depending on the level of gloss," Herold adds.

A Leading Producer

At Glatfelter, Dennis Betz, senior business development manager, says that Glatfelter has been a leading producer of production inkjet papers since the inception of the market. Glatfelter offers a range of papers for high-volume statement printers, as well as direct marketing and book publishing. Glatfelter treated papers (uncoated) include 20# and 24# Engineering Bond and 20#, 24# and 32# Bond HiBrite for dye- or pigment-based inks, plus Pixelle Book 50# and 60# text for pigment-based inks in both white and natural shades. Glatfelter also offers coated grades: Pixelle Restorecote and Pixelle Superior Duo Matte which are available in treatments for dye- or pigment-based inks, plus Pixelle Duo Gloss for pigment-based inks. Glatfelter also offers 7 pt. and 9 pt. inkjet stock, on both treated and coated.

In the world of uncoated, Finch Paper, Domtar Corp, and International Paper continue to develop their inkjet product lines.

Beth Povie, director of branding and communications at Finch, notes that her company's strategy to engineer proprietary substrates specific to either dye-based or pigment ink systems is working.

"Customers who understand their total cost of operation appreciate Finch's approach to optimize the technology and costs rather than commoditize it," she says, adding that Finch is selling into book publishing, transactional and direct mail segments. "It is a natural fit for direct mail where color and service are so important," she says. "Finch Inkjet Pi, for pigment inks, is stocked from 60 lb. text to 9 pt. reply card, and we've just added a 7 pt. reply to the Finch dyeJet line." Finch's digital sales grew more than 60 percent last year, in large part due to the inkjet roll business.

At Domtar, Ann Rieser, director of market development, notes that uncoated, treated inkjet continues to grow, albeit slowly. Demand is driven by the growth in installed base, and consultative selling. Rieser advises that Domtar's Enterprise Group (EG) remains the primary channel.

"EG's roots are with data centers and transactional print, but we would expect distribution to evolve as the market evolves." She adds that Domtar "continues to learn and evolve with the market and evolving needs of the customer."

Created expressly with HP T-series presses in mind are International Paper's new Accent Opaque and Williamsburg Offset with ColorPRO Technology, targeted at high-speed book publishing and direct mail applications. Also available are Accent Opaque and Williamsburg Offset with ImageLok Technology for a range of pigment-based inkjet pressses. For dye-based inkjet presses, waterfast Accent Opaque Dyemond, is specially formulated to allow inks to dry quickly and better maintain their color when subjected to water or UV light.

Recycled Grades

Development of new papers continues, and two new recycled inkjet grades made their appearance at PRINT 13: Future Jet from FutureMark was running on a Ricoh InfoPrint 5000 inkjet press while Enviro Jet from Cascades was running on a Canon ColorStream 3900. Both papers feature high recycled content, Future Jet with >90 percent post-consumer waste on 45# and 50# matte coated, and Enviro Jet with 100 percent post-consumer waste on 20#, 24#, 28# and 32# uncoated.

Groundwood publication papers are also available for continuous-feed inkjet. Resolute offers Ecopaque Jet with ColorPRO Technology for transactional, book and direct mail applications. Ecopaque Jet has higher opacity, and more bulk than woodfree grades, but less brightness. For book and transactional applications, this can be a plus, and for direct mail, more bulk means lower basis weight and less mailing cost.

Ralf Schlozer of InfoTrends agrees with the consensus that we are seeing continual, gradual improvement, and notes that "volume gains reduce costs. Direct mail volume is moving higher." Not only is the installed base growing, but the number of new installations is on the rise, and at an increasing rate.

Special or Ordinary Papers?

The debate about whether it is better to have special inkjet papers or whether it is better to use ordinary papers with special presses or on-press treatments continues. With the recent purchase of Impika, Xerox now has the capability to offer customers a choice of inkjet technologies capable of printing on either special inkjet papers or on ordinary paper depending on target applications. While the Impika iPrint products are designed to print on special inkjet papers, the Xerox CiPress production inkjet system is designed to use ordinary paper due to its unique use of waterless inkjet inks.

Jason Rider, Xerox worldwide manager, CiPress Business, notes that the CiPress does not require ­premium priced inkjet treated papers to achieve high-quality output. Rider says that there are now CiPress installations in five European countries plus the U.S. and Canada. Market-Intell estimates that the total installed base is in the range of 10 to 15.

High gloss remains the boundary for CiPress, as with others, but CiPress produces good results on matte and silk finishes, up to 220 gsm or 9 point.

"Xerox is working on the development of an inline coating solution to enable customers to get a range of gloss using post coating that is still less costly than premium grade inkjet gloss papers," notes Rider. "Significantly, because of waterless inks, CiPress can handle paper as light as 29 gsm with no show-through, even with full-color, high-coverage applications."

He also says that "there is a new technology for ink optimization" that gives customers the flexibility to vary ink usage based on customer quality requirements to maximize profitability.

Continuous-feed inkjet is replacing both electrophotography and offset. It has been suggested that for high-end graphic arts, with ink coverage above 30 percent, inkjet begins to hit limits. Image quality does not match Indigo or iGen, but it is close, and the limiting factor may well be economics more than quality. As ink coverage pushes above 30 percent, improved papers may be able to handle it, but the cost of ink can be a major factor.

Canon's Guy Broadhurst, vice president of technology and client solutions, notes that toner is more expensive than inkjet inks, and the cost per page for inkjet is 10 percent to 20 percent less than toner. He suggests that the larger issue with inkjet is that all of the water absorbed by the sheet in inkjet printing makes cutting and finishing difficult.

The choices are many: ordinary papers with on-press treatment or extending drying options; inkjet-treated papers at different price levels; electrophotography; or offset. While it is often said that the holy grail is ordinary untreated paper, Jillian Acord, Mitsubishi's vice president of marketing, operations and information systems, notes that at the Inkjet Summit, "printers were excited to see new papers, and by the opportunity to sell higher-end digital printing to new markets." She adds that a major takeaway from the Inkjet Summit was that "paper is a very important part of the puzzle."

So far, we have not discovered or created the holy grail, and must deal with trade-offs in cost, productivity and quality. The right solution, therefore, depends on the application. Key factors are end use, cost, quality, ink coverage, productivity, run length and the need for personalization. And herein is a caution for printers: until you see the file and know what the ink coverage will be, you won't know your cost, and can't safely quote a price. Nor can you know the best way to print it.