Glue dots application without smears now possible
The stork brings more than babies these days, going by the Netherlands-based Stork Print Group’s announcement it has delivered a solution to the persistent problem of applying high dots of paste on a substrate without smearing.
Stork, the inventor of rotary screen printing technology, said that the coating and printing industry could be free of the problem, thanks to the company’s application specialist, Wim Claassen.
More from www.storkprints.com.
All that glitters may well be silver
Anyone involved with RFIDs will already know the use of silver inks is a given. What is not generally realised is that as applications for printable electronics begin to reach full-scale production, flexo and gravure printing will become increasingly popular and require special inks tailored to the needs of these kinds of printing machine.
According to the folks at NanoMarkets, the market for silver conductive inks will almost treble over the next eight years to reach $2.4 billion by 2015.
Tracking cracking
The perennial problem of toner cracking on digital stock at high speeds has been subjected to a full frontal attack by UK creasing technology specialist, Tech-ni-Fold. The innovative outfit claims its recently launched Turbo-Creaser to be the world’s fastest digital creasing and folding machine.
Print finishers all over the world struggle with cracked substrates when scoring and in bindery operations. Conventional wisdom suggests this is because current scoring systems, while producing a linear impression to aid folding, are not able to stop print media cracking given that conventional equipment uses steel scoring blades. These tend to be too harsh for the material, when the fibres are usually either crushed, split, or damaged, particularly if the substrate has a UV varnish or gloss finish. The somewhat dry and brittle toner-based digital stocks stand no chance and are usually cut in half during scoring. At the same time, scoring devices produce a V-shaped impression and all the pressure from the steel scoring disc is exerted at the point of the V, instead of its being spread evenly across the impression-like creasing methods.
FINAT comes to aid of young managers
FINAT, the global self-adhesive association, has launched a Young Managers’ Club to help prepare the next generation of executives to take control of their companies. The move has been welcomed by the industry, which all too often sees younger execs thrown in at the deep end, particularly when an owner or managing director becomes unable to continue.
The FINAT initiative aims to enable young managers to meet and discuss mutual problems, listen to acknowledged experts in relevant subjects and even undertake exchange visits between firms to gain extra experience of other manufacturing methods to broaden their knowledge and equip them for assuming top management roles.
The European concept is one which might well be adapted locally by LATMA.
Seems more than old ladies still drink cherry brandy
In a definitive exercise to demonstrate the selling powers of modern label design, a quaintly described artisan liqueur producer in the UK (only the old Dart can come up with such an olde-worlde moniker), Bramley and Gage, recently reported a 600 per cent sales boost for a couple of its products.
Messrs B & G redesigned the labels of their (would you believe) sloe and damson gins and cherry brandy at the start of the year. During recent test marketing in controlled retail outlets, where products with the old labels were displayed next to those with the new designs, bottles with the new labels outsold the old six to one.
Next, they’ll probably redesign their packs of Dandelion Wine…
And you thought you have problems with daylight saving…
Spare a thought for PMT, Iceland’s leading label printer, who had to wait until last month before it could install its shining new X-Flex press from Omet.
The six-colour, UV-flexo system has been in mothballs for a few months because it couldn’t be shipped until there were sufficient daylight hours for the installation in remote Reykjavik!
Management hint of the month
As you ramble on through life, brother, whatever be your goal: keep your eyes upon the doughnut, and not upon the hole!
Henry Mendelson has decades of experience as a copywriter in the advertising industry, and has been a keen observer of the print industry during that time. He has contributed to ProPrint for over ten years.
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