The Expanding World of Inkjet Papers

Continuous-feed production inkjet is an exciting, evolving market. Average annual growth since 2010 has been at 93 percent, according to IT Strategies; in 2013 alone, 146 billion pages were printed globally with continuous-feed inkjet. Market-Intell estimates that this represents 350,000 tons of paper in North America in 2013.

Interviews with various paper mills suggest that growth is strong, with several mills reporting growth rates of around 100 percent per year, and one mill reporting growth in excess of 200 percent.

Still, the market for uncoated inkjet treated papers and coated inkjet papers remains less than 5 percent of the total market, and some reports put it below 1 percent. Moreover, while 350,000 tons is a big number, it represents less than 2 percent of the 20 million ton North American paper market. If we take out publication papers and converting grades, inkjet is still only about 5 percent of all pages printed.

Why isn't the market share of inkjet papers larger?

There are technical challenges for paper. This challenge is greater with more color because more color means more ink and more water, and because more color often means coated papers. Coated papers are especially challenging for inkjet because the water must pass through the coating while the colorant remains fixed on the surface.

There are also marketing challenges. Historically, paper and print have largely been sold on price. While quality and service have always been important, it has long been difficult for printers or paper companies to get a premium price based on quality or service. The cost per page is higher for inkjet than for traditional, long-run offset printing, but the value proposition is lower total cost and a better return (ROI) for the print buyer through better targeting, shorter runs and less waste.

The Value Proposition

This value proposition can be a difficult sell in a commodity-oriented environment, but at Canon Solutions America, Marketing Director Kris Albee reports that clients do indeed get a premium price per page.

"Many of our customers have figured out the value proposition; in 2012, 75 percent of all customers bought a second press within 12 months," Albee says.

Domtar's Ann Rieser, director of market development, echoes the importance of the value proposition and explains that "inkjet is a different sell; it requires consultative selling."

Clearly, the high growth rates indicate that continuous-feed inkjet printing is meeting the challenges. Inkjet is finding opportunities in new types of jobs, in replacing offset with shorter runs containing variable data, and in replacing toner-based printing with longer runs at lower cost as data mining improves. IT Strategies estimates that 51 percent of inkjet pages are replacement of toner-based pages, while only 31 percent are replacement of offset. The balance—18 percent—represents new pages. This suggests that the early success has largely derived from converting those who already understand the value proposition for digital printing. However, Marco Boer, IT Strategies vice president, advises that the future growth will likely be in new pages, and that new pages will surpass offset replacement or toner replacement within five years.

Don Burns, Kodak business development director, inkjet technology partnerships, notes that each market segment is at a different level of maturity. In transactional printing, probably the earliest adopter of production inkjet, high-volume customers have moved to lowest cost solutions, typically hybrid printing. He adds that customers are moving to pigment inks, which are inherently waterfast and can often be used on less expensive papers. Customers are also using hybrid printing with inkjet heads on offset presses, often on ordinary offset papers, says Burns.

Offset Papers Popular

Based on interviews with mills and OEMs, Market-Intell believes that as much as 80 percent of all continuous-feed inkjet is printed on ordinary uncoated offset papers. Matte coated inkjet papers have met with success in book publishing, and growth has supported longer runs, which have helped the mills keep costs down. Other markets, such as high-graphic-content direct mail have been slower to adopt continuous-feed inkjet. With higher ink coverage, ink costs rise, and premium inkjet papers are needed.

Mary Schilling, of Schilling Inkjet Consulting, notes that the break point to move to a better sheet is around 15 percent to 20 percent ink coverage, depending on the artwork and image quality required. Beyond that, it is preferred to upgrade to premium treated or coated inkjet papers. She adds that with high ink coverage, a heavier inkjet paper stock may be needed to handle ink saturation to reduce paper cockle and curl. Schilling believes that if continuous-feed inkjet wants a large share of the conventional market, "utilizing an ink with high water percentage as its base carrier just isn't the right way to go. There will have to be a change in ink chemistry."

Albee reports that Canon Solutions America is now seeing more applications with higher ink coverage: more brochures and advertising with as much as 55 percent of the sheet printed with full-color. Media includes glossy and matte coated from Mitsubishi Imaging and Glatfelter, and uncoated from International Paper, Ziegler, Cascades, Domtar, Mondi, Georgia-Pacific and Resolute Forest Products, among others.

According to Albee, Canon Solutions America continues to work with all mills, and "is testing as many papers as possible to build toward the future." She adds that CSA has launched a new Solutions and Media Lab and also created a dye media catalog, which was presented at the 2014 Inkjet Summit. The catalog features samples of various images on a range of papers including 50 stocks from 10 mills. A pigment media catalog will follow.

Early on, Ricoh's focus was on transactional print, mostly with uncoated paper, much of which was untreated. Mike Herold, Ricoh's director of marketing for inkjet technologies, notes that Ricoh has added drying capacity to handle more challenging applications. Ricoh is working with customers to move beyond transactional print into data-rich applications with variable data printing, and can handle coated papers, depending on the level of gloss. Ricoh offers three ink systems: dye, pigment and MICR.

Paper Testing

Kodak has further optimized its technology to print on many standard offset papers, especially for trade books. Burns adds that Kodak has been working with mills for more than 20 years and has tested 4,500 papers. The Kodak Prosper Paper Rating program now has over 250 papers rated, and about 25 percent are standard offset grades and are suitable for monochrome applications. With full-color printing, paper technology matters greatly and Burns says that "for inkjet, no two papers will print exactly the same. Paper science is just that, and some

mills are achieving our Four and Five Diamond Levels for print quality."

Xerox continues to invest in the expansion of its inkjet business with the addition of the Impika aqueous technology in 2013 and continued development of the CiPress production inkjet systems. Jason Rider, worldwide manager, CiPress Business, says that "by offering a choice of technologies, Xerox can propose the best solution for customers. The CiPress solid ink platform was designed to deliver excellent image quality on plain paper, but the CiPress Tested Media List also includes coated, light- and heavy-weight paper, and specialty media."

Impika's Compact, eVolution and Reference printers are compatible with Impika's High Density (HD) or dye-based ink. Rider adds that "the HD ink set delivers excellent optical density on traditional offset or digital media, as well as enhanced gamut on inkjet papers, and some coated stocks."

Xerox also has long-standing relationships with paper companies, according to Rider. "An expanded media testing program, available for both waterless and aqueous ink, allows for efficient screening and robust testing of media."

At HP, Yale Goldis, product marketing manager, inkjet high-speed production solutions, says one big factor that will support future growth is the availability of lower-cost media solutions, especially gloss coated. HP inkjet web presses can now use Appleton Coated or NewPage coated dull and gloss papers with up to 80 percent coverage.

At last month's Inkjet Summit, Fujifilm North America, Graphic Systems Div., was voted "The Company to Watch" by the printer attendees. The Fujifilm J Press 720 is the world's first B2 format (19.69x27.83˝) sheetfed inkjet press and is said to be an excellent companion to the Fujifilm J Press 540W continuous-feed inkjet press. The J Press 720 prints on standard papers from 70-lb. text to 14-pt. cover, and the J Press 540W supports both inkjet and non-coated papers between 64 gsm (43.3-lb. text or 17-lb. bond) and 157 gsm.

Fujifilm does extensive paper testing at its Tech Center in Illinois, and uses proprietary technology to develop profiles for various papers. This enables Fujifilm to help customers optimize performance.

Media Options Expand

Appleton Coated recently ex­panded its range of coated papers by adding high yield 7-pt. and 9-pt. Matte Cover to the Utopia Inkjet line. Ann Whalen, senior vice president, notes that they perform very well on HP T-series and Kodak presses. Appleton Coated's line includes Utopia Inkjet Gloss, Dull and Matte ranging from 60-lb. text up to the new cover weights. The line also includes Utopia Uncoated Inkjet with ColorPRO Technology, plus Utopia Uncoated Inkjet for dye-based systems and Utopia Inkjet PE for piezoelectric inkjet presses. Appleton Coated's Book Inkjet line includes Utopia Book Inkjet in Smooth (uncoated) and Matte finishes, and Utopia Book Inkjet PE for piezoelectric inkjet presses.

Whalen points out that coated inkjet prices have come down, as greater volumes and longer runs have helped bring down costs. However, premiums over standard coated offset grades have not come down because prices for the offset grades declined in the third quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014.

Cathy Cartolano, vice president of sales and technical services at Mitsubishi Imaging (MPM), advises that SWORD iJet Gloss has garnered a Five Diamond Rating for Kodak Prosper presses, the highest rating within the program. She adds that Sword "works well on all presses" and is available in satin, matte and gloss finishes.

SWORD iJet carries a premium price, and MPM has launched a new grade, Premier IJ Book, which is priced to be "competitive with other matte coated inkjet papers and is targeted to the higher volume book market." Premier IJ Book is available in 43-lb., which offers a yield advantage versus 45-lb. with a higher ppi. It is also available in 90 gsm, 105 gsm and 130 gsm. MPM is also launching another new grade, ValueJet, with a lighter coat weight and lower cost for transactional and transpromo printing.

Glatfelter offers two coated grades: Pixelle Restorecote and Pixelle Duo Matte, which work with both dye- and pigment-based inks. Glatfelter also offers 7-pt. and 9-pt. inkjet stock, on both treated and coated. Inkjet treated papers (uncoated) include 20-lb. and 24-lb. Engineering Bond and 20-lb., 24-lb. and 32-lb. Pixelle Bond HiBrite for dye- or pigment-based inks, plus Pixelle Book 50-lb. and 60-lb. text for pigment-based inks. Glatfelter recently introduced a new treated paper—Pixelle Bond Xtra—that has nearly the color gamut of coated inkjet papers.

Evolving Strategy

At Domtar, the strategy continues to evolve. Domtar is launching a new grade: VantageJet, which is similar to VividJet, but optimized for dye-based inkjet. According to Rieser, Domtar's approach is "to drive the Domtar products that best match the customers' needs in terms of their end-use application, print quality expectations and budget." She adds that Domtar is working closely with OEMs and ink companies "to find the right solutions for this ever-changing market." Because of the need for consultative selling at the printer and end user level, Domtar continues to market its inkjet paper through the Enterprise Group.

At International Paper, Rick Williams, product development coordinator, notes that because of the growth in digital printing IP made a decision to be the leader in inkjet.

"We believe that we have a wide range of uncoated papers that were developed to run on digital equipment," he says. Williams notes that the major growth in inkjet is with transpromo applications.

The IP offering includes Accent Opaque and Williamsburg Offset with ColorPRO Technology, created for the HP T-series presses, plus Accent Opaque and Williamsburg Offset with ImageLok Technology for a range of pigment-based inkjet presses. 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.

Finch Paper is marketing a new grade, Finch Digital Web XP, a cross-platform (XP) grade designed to work on high-speed inkjet web presses, both pigment- and dye-based, as well as laser and offset printing applications.

100 Percent Recycled

Normand Champagne, Cascades Fine Papers Group general sales and marketing director, says that Cascades Enviro Jet is the only inkjet paper with 100 percent post-consumer recycled content made in North America. It is designed to produce high-quality results with both dye- and pigment-based inks.

Cascades Enviro Jet performs well on Kodak Versamark and Prosper presses, Ricoh InfoPrint, HP T-series presses, Canon Océ Stream presses and the Fujifilm J Press, Champagne says. Cascades Enviro Jet is available in 20-lb., 24-lb., 28-lb. and 32-lb. with smooth finish (110 Sheffield) and 92 brightness, and is suitable for direct mail, transactional print and books.

In September 2013, FutureMark Paper Group launched Future Jet, said to be the industry's first coated inkjet paper made with more than 90 percent recycled fiber. According to Steve Silver, FutureMark president and CEO, "Our testing on dye-based printers has revealed that Future Jet paper provides breakthrough print quality, with the added benefits of consuming less ink and no need for an extended media dryer."

The range of papers suitable for continuous-feed inkjet printing continues to expand. Challenges with ink and paper are being met every day as the industry develops a deeper understanding of the value proposition for continuous-feed inkjet. Consultative selling is essential, not only for paper mills, but also for printers, to sell the value proposition and also to better understand the market needs.