Printing World articles from October 2003

Printing World archives from October 2003

Lastra sets up UK plates arm.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Mitsubishi is selling off its remaining prepress assets in the UK to Lastra, the Italian platemaker. Mitsubishi had already sold off its printing plate assets, including Western Lithotech, to Lastra last year. It has decided its separate...

Thames' six-colour Diamond.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Plastic card print specialist Thames Card Technology is installing a six-colour Mitsubishi Diamond press with uv, IR and coater to bolster its litho capability. TCT, a privately owned British company, is one of the largest manufacturers of...

Latest BPIF Directions survey is optimistic.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... The latest BPIF Directions survey mirrors the optimism of other economic surveys with printers forecasting an increase in orders and employment for the final quarter of 2003. The number of printers working under capacity has plummeted from...

MBO folder agency.(Correction Notice)
October 2, 2003... In the September 4 issue of Printing World we reported Encore Machinery, Dunstable, is the UK agent for MBO folders. This should have read MB folders. Friedheim International in Hemel Hempstead, we are happy to correct, has the MBO agency. ...

Vivendi to Elga.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Vivendi Water Systems has relaunched its purified water treatment activities under the brand name Elga Process Water. This follows the recent renaming of Vivendi Environnement to Veolia Environnement and reflects its move into a new era after...

Agfa Sherpa at LCP.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Agfa has installed a Sherpa 43 digital proofing system at the London College of Printing. This complements an earlier Horizon scanner, Selectset Avantra imagesetter and film processor installation in the prepress area. The college aims to...

Three in one does go.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Following the success of 2003 Sign UK and Digital Expo shows, rebookings for the 2004 events are exceeding expectations. Lyson, Sericol, B&P Lightbrigade Group, Agfa, Grafityp, Durst, Coates and Perfect Colours/Hewlett Packard are already...

Lynx adds Komori.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Lynx DPM has placed an order for a five-colour Lithrone 428 even as Komori engineers are putting the finishing touches to the UK's first ten-colour perfecting Lithrone 28 at its Chalgrove, Oxfordshire plant. The ten-colour, the first of...

Frank Peters had `no choice'.
October 2, 2003... John Ward, chairman of Bretton Communications Group, says that there was no choice but to close Kendal subsidiary Frank Peters Colour Printers. Margins "have dropped substantially and the average order value at the plant has declined by...

Bretton departures.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Ever since Bretton Communications Group was formed there has been high turnover of directors at its companies, Mr Wray and Mr Milner aside. Arkima, which was at that time called Catalyst, lost its managing director Socrates Papaionnou and...

Eight million catalogues follow Abbey habit.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Last week's rebranding of the Abbey National as Abbey `to turn banking on its head' has also caused a stir amongst the bank's print roster. In the next few weeks the bank will send 8 million customers a catalogue of products, which will be...

Come on Xyleme.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Time Out, international publisher of city life guides, has implemented a Xyleme zone server to create a central warehouse of channel independent content. Prior to this Time Out had been tied into print centric architecture with content locked...

Bundle reduction.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Extensis has announced a limited edition Photo Imaging Suite containing Portfolio 6, Mask Pro 3, SmartScale, Intellihance Pro 4.1 and PhotoFrame 2.5. The bundle offers a saving of more than #450.00 from the retail price of buying all the...

Baldwin on the up.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Baldwin Technology Company has announced Q4 net sales up to $35,055,000 compared to $30,532,000 for Q4 the previous year - a 14.8% increase. Restructuring and refinancing efforts paid off with the net loss for Baldwin's fiscal Q4 ended June 30,...

Emap suppliers.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Emap has parted company with some of its smaller paper suppliers and looks likely to confirm Stora Enso and UPM-Kymenne as its two main paper suppliers. "We already have a long term relationship with both of them and that's unlikely to...

Print Factory in 16pp web spend.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... The Print Factory, the print and print management group running from the old Spectrum Flair plant in Northampton, has replaced the 16pp Heidelberg press it had acquired from Spectrum Flair last year. The 16pp, 960mm wide press is being...

G&H returns to label market.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Graham and Heslip, the Belfast printer, is going back into wet glue label printing and has just picked up the contract to print all of Coca Cola's paper labels for the Irish market. "Label work gives us the peace of mind of regular repeat...

Direct and Menzies link.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... NewspaperDirect, the printer of same day newspapers around the world, is increasing its presence in the UK thanks to a new deal with Menzies Distribution. Special A3 editions of 180 newspapers around the world, including the Los Angeles...

Mysterious Unopress sighting.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Nobody was saying much about Shinohara's Unopress, probably because nobody at Igas knew much about it and few had been warned that it would be there. UK distributor GAE was told only to be ready for a surprise. The press, like the...

Creo goes to Glasgow.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... After two years of research, Glasgow's Image and Print Group has invested in a Creo thermal ctp system comprising a Trendsetter 400 Quantum and Brisque workflow running 20 micron Staccato screening. The company produces more than 1,200 plates...

Cheque awareness.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Security documentation supplier Kalamazoo is warning that many UK firms are unaware of new anti-fraud regulations affecting company cheques. Research from KPMG Forensic and Management Today, says fraud costs more than #40m daily. Details of...

E-business opportunity.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... An e-business project has been launched in the West Midlands. The Regional E-Business Development Initiative is to raise awareness of e- business opportunities and establish a system of ICT suppliers, says the regional development agency...

Rebuilt Printhaus.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Printhaus in Northampton, which closed its trade bindery and sold off one of its two ten-colour Speedmaster 102 presses in the summer with the loss of 50 jobs, says its restructuring has paid off and it is now back in profit two months ahead of...

Oce off to China.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Oce intends to move part of its printer assembly and parts-purchasing business to China and Eastern Europe next year. It will mean the loss of about 175 jobs out of a production workforce of 1,200 at the company's base in Venlo, the...

MAN GB invests in new premises.
October 2, 2003... MAN Roland GB is to move out of its trademark Dover House headquarters to purpose built premises making what the company describes as a substantial investment in cash and commitment to the British presence. The company is moving across the...

Studio move.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... The Studio Workshop has relocated its London and Manchester offices to ensure balanced UK coverage. The Studio Workshop supplies professionals with high quality photography and digital-based solutions and fast transportation is a key...

Pre-Drupa demonstration hosted by Muller Martini.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Muller Martini has hosted an open house event at its VBF book technology centre at which it gave a sneak preview to a new inline hardcover system including the new Collibri backgluing machine. Visitors were invited to the centre in Bad...

No process from Konica.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Konica Minolta showed off a no process thermal polyester plate and matching imagesetter. The high powered laser softens the non image area leaving it to be washed away in the fount solution and ink. The plate may be suitable for DI presses, but...

Agfa double launch.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... The continuing market in Japan for filmsetters resulted in Agfa launching two new machines as the Avanxis IV and Avanxis VIII. These it transpires are badged version of Screen Tanto and Katana imagesetters and are unlikely to become available...

Troika in Litho deal.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Troika Systems' LithoCam is being sold in Japan by Ihara Instruments, one of the major densitometer providers in the country. Steve Colthorpe, who developed the simple to use, low cost device, was delighted, calling himself the company's...

KPG into ablation.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Kodak Polychrome Graphics had a no process ablation plate on display as a saleable product, but the Japanese market does not seem to have taken to direct image presses and the company was more interested in talking about its uv suitable...

Screen's thermal equal to violet productivity.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Screen is staking a claim to having the fastest commercial thermal B1 platesetter with the launch of the PlateRite 8800, using a Grated Light Valve imaging head, a device used on its VLF Ultima machine. The platesetter was launched at Igas...

Ryobi's eight-colour has uv.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Pride of place on the Ryobi stand went to its eight-colour 750 press which is only now being launched in the UK following a turbulent year in Britain. Neil Handforth who transferred with the agency to Apex Solutions says the appeal is both...

Digital print duo make their debuts.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... There were at least two new digital presses on display, both in prototype form and both due to appear at Drupa next year. The Miyakoshi TM1200 is a web press which uses a liquid toner which is magnetic, helping it adhere to the paper. ...

Sword is unsheathed.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... KPG used Chicago to launch the Sword Excel ctp thermal printing plate, which it says extends the benefits of its Sword technology, which combines a no preheat, no postbake thermal plate with negative chemistry processing. KPG says the ultra...

Capital injection.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Vio announced that it has received about #2m in further funding from LMS Capital, the venture capital arm of London Merchant Securities, and will significantly expand its US operations and also move into new markets in Europe and Asia-Pacific....

Esko's first demos.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Serious interest from printers in the US wanting to diversify into packaging prompted Esko-Graphics to put commercial and packaging ctp workflow products to the forefront. It had the first US demonstrations of the PlateDriver HS platesetter,...

Agfa shows Sherpa.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Agfa unveiled the new contract digital proofer, the Sherpa 44m, in its line up of wide format systems. The unit has a high-resolution inkjet system with the latest seven-colour piezo inkjet technology, advanced in-Rip colour management, quality...

KPG off the mark.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Kodak Polychrome Graphics is off the mark with its first ever press sale. A DirectPress 5034, a variant of the 46Karat, has been installed in Cleveland, Ohio. KPG announced in March that it would sell the digitally imaged press under an...

New DocuColor out at Graph Expo.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Xerox has used Graph Expo in Chicago to introduce a new DocuColor model and a range of finishing options for its high end IGen3 and 6060 series. Fred DeBolt, Xerox vice president production colour printing, says: "The IGen3 and the 6060...

NexPress gets Pantone nod.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Heidelberg has claimed milestones for the NexPress 2100 digital press, which is now in its second year of sales. It says two of its machines have each printed more than 25 million impressions and the NexPress has become the first digital...

Goss shows digital inking.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... The Goss digital inking system got its first public showing at Graph Expo. This closed chamber system has an array of digitally driven pumps that pressurises the ink against a specially designed distributor blade, and each pump chamber...

Stirring up the waters.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... "Agitators," claimed Oscar Wilde, who has never been known to be wrong about anything, "are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community, and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them....

Letter: Colour confusion.(Letter to the Editor)
October 2, 2003... I suspect that you will get several comments about the concept that Michael Wilcox proposes (Printing World, September 25) or at least I would hope you will. I think there are several problems with Mr Wilcox's concept. First, he seems to...

Letter: Comparison with Pantone is not fair.(Letter to the Editor)
October 2, 2003... I have just read the article in the September 25 issue entitled Concept of colour. It states that "In the Wilcox system, black is used sparingly...". This seems to indicate that along with the green and red shade yellow, blue and yellow...

Getmapping delisting.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Getmapping.com, the aerial photography supplier, has decided to delist from the Alternative Investment market because of continuing losses and the failure of its recent legal action against the Ordnance Survey. Getmapping tried unsuccessfully...

Printing.com is bubbling.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Printing.com is now enjoying `very encouraging' trading conditions after a quieter than expected summer, chairman George Hardie told the company's agm last week. The new Plymouth franchise is ahead of budget, new Lancaster, Oxford and Ashford...

Come out of garden.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Firms should stop making huge payments to executives on `gardening leave' and justify them to shareholders, says the Association of British Insurers and National Association of Pension Funds. Recent examples in print include Paul Utting, ex-web...

Xaar's loss.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Xaar made a trading loss of #3.3m in the six months to 30 June because of slow take-up of its XJ500 printhead, particularly in the Far East. Sales have fallen from #14m to #13.6m, but research and development spending has almost doubled...

Inkmakers force directive change.
October 2, 2003... The combined might of inks and coatings manufacturers and other chemical industries appears to have succeeded in getting the European Commission to think again about a tough new environmental regime that many feared would have greatly increased...

Fulmar has books to thank for increase in turnover.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Fulmar, the commercial and book printing group in south London, says there is "a lack of any improvement" in commercial printing, whose sales fell 4% to #13.85m in the first half of 2003. But the group's interim results show that total...

Four in peril.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... 4imprint, the promotional products supplier formerly part of Bemrose, faces a boardroom clearout after three shareholders ordered an egm be held in the next six weeks. The move is led by Hanover Investment Partners, which owns 26.6% of...

Havelock boosted.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Havelock Europa, the point of sale and retail interior company, increased its sales by 22% in the first half and upped its pre-tax profits by 80% to #1.36m. But the increase was down to retail interiors and furnishings, not the Point of...

Compulsory winding up.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... The following cases are to be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL * Central Binding Services Ltd Unit 5B, Silver Royd Business Park, Silver Royd Hill, Leeds LS12 4QQ on October 8. Petition by Inland Revenue *...

Appointment of liquidators.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... * JDM Trading Ltd Packaging Materials Suppliers. Liquidator: Tim Brown, Pure Recovery, 4th Floor, Holborn Hall, 100 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8AL * Abbey Reprographics Ltd Previous company name Doculogic South Ltd Printing company....

Meetings of creditors.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
October 2, 2003... * Classic Cheney Press Ltd at Fosse Manor Hotel, Fosseway, Stow on the Wold, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL54 1JX on October 9 * Digital Print Online Ltd at Express Holiday Inn, London City, Moorgate Suite, 275 Old Street, London EC1V 9LN...

Notices to creditors.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... * Abbey Reprographics Ltd Creditors to send claims to Malcolm Cork of 3- 5 Rickmansworth Road, Hertfordshire WD18 0GX by October 21 * Creative Ltd Creditors to send claims to Matthew Colin Bowker, Jacksons Jolliffe Cork, Lowgate House,...

Right car, wrong place.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Hugo Prado is famous for his automobile illustrations and if you are lucky you could get an autographed poster of one of his works. The difficult part is you have be at the Innovation gallery at this year's Graph Expo in Chicago where wide...

Polaris launched.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Agfa has launched a double wide version of its Polaris newspaper platesetter. Coming with a choice of violet or Yag laser and a cassette capacity of 2,000 plates the unit is specifically targeted at the Japanese market but it is possible to...

Sea air for Creo.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Creo's range of OXYgen scanners including the IQsmart now come with Mac OS X 10.2.3 support advanced workflow automation, improvements in input and output profiles and negative film support. These scanners have been used to capture and digitise...

NexPress versus litho.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Heidelberg UK has confirmed that its pricing structure for the NexPress starts around #250,000. Richard Bradley, marketing manager commercial presses, says that the total investment cost of going digital is little different to that when buying...

Dotrix scores in US.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Sales are now starting to come through for the high speed combination inkjet printing system called the.factory. This machine which was trailed at Drupa by Barco and given something of a launch at Ipex is a remarkably sophisticated printing...

KPG speeds up high end proofing.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Kodak Polychrome Graphics has announced a number of new proofing developments. Two innovations in particular stand out. Kodak Approval has always been looked as an important high end solution through its ability to create a proof with the...

Label market is on the up.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Xeikon's UK market presence has been given a boost thanks to the introduction of several improvements and the development of a UK-wide service team. The model that is receiving the most attention at the moment is the DCP 320S. Aimed at the...

London hosts digital applications seminar.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... A UK first will take place on October 22 at the Digital Solutions on Demand show being held at Excel, the exhibitions forum in East London. PODi created PPML, the vendor neutral royalty free language for digital print and it will be...

Metso's China line.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Metso Paper is to supply a complete newsprint line to Hebel Pan Asia Long-Teng Paper, China. The line uses 100% recycled fibre as raw material and will start production in summer 2005. This brings the total value of orders from China for Metso...

IP cuts jobs to cut costs.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... As part of its ongoing cost-reduction strategy International Paper plans to cut 3,000 jobs or 3.5% of its workforce. The company also hopes to improve efficiency by consolidating Industrial Papers, Kraft Papers and a portion of its Converting &...

Having a ball.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Thanks to a competition promoting Soporset from Robert Horne, Steve and Michelle Payne from the Wealden Advertiser, enjoyed a trip to the World Beach Football Championships in Portugal. Correct answers from the game, featuring a 1970s style...

Portucel opts for home bid.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... M-real has missed out on a stake in the Portuguese state pulp and paper firm Portucel after its bid was rejected in favour of a joint bid led by Portugal's Cofina. A draft report from the jury set by the Portuguese government did not...

Norske follows suit as prices rise.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Norske Skog has followed in the footsteps of UPM-Kymenne and Stora Enso by increasing its prices. It blames "a tightening of the markets for SC and CMR" in the UK for the rise from January 1 2004. The company says: "Price levels have...

Arjo rebuild adds capability.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... The ability to manufacture fine paper grades will be the main benefit of a paper machine rebuild at Arjo Wiggins Carbonless Paper Operations' Fort William mill in Corpach. When the revamped machine comes on stream later this year it will...

Conqueror gets artistic.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... More than 28,000 sheets of Conqueror paper were used in a paper sculpture called `Marilyn 2003' by up and coming artist Rita Parente at the Contemporary Art Exhibition on board HMS President, London. Sarah Flower, Conqueror brand manager,...

Premier Paper shows off its latest assets.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... The business forms market is the target arena for two products being launched by Premier Paper. Premium Constat is a high-white laser compatible bond in 60gsm and 70gsm for listing paper and general print while Target Preprint is...

Scotsman flying high.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... Scotsman Publications has been named advertising publishing centre of the year at the Newspaper Society's advertising awards. The group won six awards, including the innovation category for successful strategic thinking that incorporates...

ABB and X-Rite first.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... ABB and X-Rite have installed the first closed loop Colour Adjustment Interface in the US at the Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York. The software communicates between the ABB press controls and the X-Rite scanners, matching ink values and...

Wall wins on the web.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com, the largest paid subscription news site on the web with 671,000 paid subscribers worldwide, has won Best Newspaper website in the 2003 WebAward Competition. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

26-press start up.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... The world's largest circulation newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, is about to go ahead with the full installation of its massive 26-press order placed last year. Yomiuri Shimbun, which sells more than 14m copies daily, has successfully run in...

Tribune replaces offset with digital.
October 2, 2003... The International Herald Tribune (IHT) has joined the growing list of international newspapers using digital printing to replace offset in short run circulation markets. The IHT agreed a deal with Oce to print in Australia alongside the...

Adsml in first live demo.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... A Dutch software company is promising the world's first live demonstration of Adsml - the new XML standard for managing the publication and production of newspaper advertising. Rosetta, a founder member of the Adsml consortium and a key...

Norton makes hushed exit after only six month tenure.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2003... The newspaper executive named to head the newly formed Ifra and North Amercian Newspaper Association joint venture has left the position of managing director after less than six months in the job. NAA-Ifra Technical Solutions was introduced...

Bird's eye view.
October 2, 2003... Cost savings are only one of the benefits of PrimaSolve's new newspaper production management system which was developed as a result of a joint venture with West Ferry Press and Harland Simon By Robin Meade A production management...

Mean to be green.
October 2, 2003... Komori's stand on fast makeready is the key to its desire to respond to Japanese printers' high environmental awareness By Gareth Ward Komori has been promoting short run printing and short makeready longer than anybody else. It was,...

Contagious innovation.
October 2, 2003... Xerox puts its strong trading performance down to innovation, a lesson for others to follow By Rod Hayes "Innovation is contagious," says Anne Mulcahy, ceo of Xerox, speaking at a major event at this year's Graph Expo, the annual...

SCREENING: Stars of the small screen.
October 2, 2003... Ctp manufacturers are using technology to make high quality print easier to achieve on the shop floor By Rod Hayes Printers get very excited after installing ctp. The immediate improvement of image quality is there for all to see,...