Printing World articles from September 2002

Printing World archives from September 2002

Bridge moves to Maldon site.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Bridge Communications is moving from Romford to a new plant in Maldon this month, armed with the ten-colour press it acquired from Carlton Barclay. At a time when many printers are edging towards print management, Bridge is going in the...

Johnston declares ad revenue rise.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Johnston Press last week declared that print advertising expenditure is on the up, albeit modestly, a first sign of encouragement to the market. A 1.2% jump in advertising spend aided by investment in extra colour capacity complemented a...

`Jpeg claim invalid' say experts.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Forgent's claim to have patents over the Jpeg software has no more validity than if the company claimed its patents covered Morse Code say German experts. Dr Klaus Jung, director of the German delegation to the Jpeg commission and Prof...

Classified spend up.(in Canada and United States)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Newspaper advertising spending in the US and Canada is down by 1.8% against last year but there are encouraging signs from some sectors, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Automotive classified spending was up 6.3%, property...

Helios tools for OS 10.2.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Helios Software, the German company that develops tools for the print sector, says its new products coming in September will support MAC OS X 10.2. The new software covers advanced print spooling, print job management and failsafes for enhanced...

HighWater online.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... HighWater has improved its website in order to give its dealers and distributors a better means of tracking support calls and finding technical information. A general download area has been created at www.highwater.co.uk to give authorised...

MY Cartons prepares for prepress hub.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... MY Cartons is centralising preproduction at its Gillingham site as part of a #1.5m ctp roll out across the group's four former Insight operations. Gillingham is to act as a prepress hub for the plants in Tring, Leicester and Crewkerne,...

Booming business sees MCG invest.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... One of the Europe's largest flexo printers, MCG Graphics, has continued making major investments in digitising its flexo plate manufacturing. Its third Esko Graphics (formerly Barco) CDI flexo imager is now being installed at its...

St Ives bans UK sale of webs to stave off overcapacity.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... St Ives has placed legal restrictions on the four web presses at its former Gillingham magazine plant, banning them from being bought by a UK competitor. St Ives has been worried about overcapacity, which is why it decided to close the...

Follum Group's new plant.(in Birmingham, England)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Folium Group had CBI director-general Digby Jones along to open its new plant at Minworth on the edge of Birmingham earlier this summer. The 30,000 sq ft plant replaces older factories in Aston and the Jewellery Quarter. The rapidly expanding...

Big blanket buy.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Mortons, the newspaper and magazine contract printer in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, has spent #300,000 on 46 Baldwin blanket cleaners for its 18-unit Goss Universal press. Production director Jim Lee says price and simplicity of operation were...

API off to Luxepack.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... From Salford to Monaco, API Foils is to exhibit at next month's Luxepack exhibition where it will be showing its range of holographic capabilities, its Henry & Leigh Slater brand protection systems and some previews of technology currently...

Timson down under.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Timson, the Kettering press manufacturer, has installed the first of its T48A web presses in Australia. The buyer was Adelaide book printer Griffin Press, founded in 1848, making it one of the few companies in the graphic arts sector older than...

AOT goes R&D.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Applied Optical Technologies is spending over #250,000 on a research and development department in Washington, Tyne & Wear. The upgrade to its laboratory facility will give it sophisticated analytical and diagnostic apparatus to develop...

Companies pool press resources.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Greenfield, a repro house in Surrey, is moving in to the same factory as local printer Butterfly Press and will share a new Heidelberg SM 74 between the two, though the companies will remain formally separate. Even though he says his...

Softproofing is easy sell for PPI.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... PrePress International has put in place a network of dealers to handle sales of Hamillroad's software. And the Bournemouth company, more used to selling Crosfield scanners, is finding that demand for FirstProof, a soft proofing application, is...

Delta plans are building.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Delta Display, Walthamstow, poster and large format specialist, is increasing its floor space to cope with increased business, adding production facilities. The most visible part of the growth will be a 3,500sq m building being constructed...

NI dismisses relocation rumour.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... News International has dismissed rumours of an imminent announcement of a move away from Wapping as "nonsense" and laughed off renewed talk of Convoys Wharf in Deptford as a possibility. Press manufacturers had been promised an announcement...

Firm foothold.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... MAN Roland has taken a foothold in China by forming MAN Roland Shanghai. 10% of MAN Roland's world sales come from China. Initially the site is to provide service and technical support, but this could change if it can win the targeted goal of...

Promising premises.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Planagraphics of Rayleigh, Essex, is marking 25 years within the repro sector by moving into larger premises. The new factory has 5,000sq ft and it will use the extra 1,200 sq. ft to install a large format digital inkjet printing and converting...

Goss goes for gold.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... The Preston manufacturing site of Goss has just been awarded the ISO 9001:2000 accreditation. This standard is much more demanding than the earlier version, auditing company-wide business processes. It joins Hewlett Packard, IBM, General Motors...

Goss moves on.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Goss International head office in the US is on the move. Following downsizing a couple of years ago when staff numbers dropped from 800 to 200 it has decided to relocate in dedicated premises in a small town of Bollingbrook, not far from...

C&R Printing restructure.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... C&R Printing Services in Leicester has installed a new five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 74 press and restructured its sales, estimating and production staff into "client service teams" each working with a specific group of customers. ...

Polaris X heralds new generation.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 2, 2002... Agfa's launch of Polaris X, a totally new generation of its best selling Polaris newspaper platesetter, could be a signal that first generation newspaper platesetters are nearing the end of their development potential. Agfa claims that to...

Smurfit takes on CA Coutts.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Smurfit Group has taken over the stationery unit of CA Coutts, the retail group that is backing out of lower quality print because margins are up to 10% less than the design and marketing work it does for the likes of Laura Ashley, Marks &...

Danes tighten grip on Esko.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Less than six months after an agreement to share ownership of Esko Graphics between Barco and Kirkbi, the Danish owner of Purup Eskofot, the Belgian company has sold more than half its stake to its partner. And free from the fetters of...

Boost by BasysPrint.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Irish printer D&A O'Leary has decided to stay with the plates it knows when moving to ctp and has consequently installed a BasysPrint uv- setter 75, purchased from Resolution Imaging. The move has led to a 25% increase in productivity and...

Tiara in Paris.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Tiara Systems is introducing two inkjet display printers, the Sapphire and Opal, at Viscom in Paris aimed at the outdoor market. They use Pentachrome LOD solvent inks for outdoor use from Lyson, the world's largest supplier of inkjet inks. The...

Vertec workflow.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Vertec, a B2 printer in south-east London, is boosting its prepress operation with a Fuji Valiano Rampage Room workflow. This provides the option of either a Rip once output many workflow or a pure PDF production flow. At Vertec it will connect...

Label printer chooses straight eight Komori.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Label designers and fmcg marketing departments will benefit from Gavin Watson's latest purchase - a uniquely configured eight-colour Komori Lithrone 828 with a coater and uv dryer for wet label printing. The new press, which is also...

Ctp scramble for top spot.(Screen and Agfa compete for best seller)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... A tit for tat row is taking place between Screen and Agfa as to which at present is selling more ctp devices. There is probably only room for debate because there is little difference between the two. Such competition is clearly good news...

Return of Pixelis under new brand.(Pixelis to be relaunched as Centurfax)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Centurfax, which acquired Pixelis around the time of Ipex, has invested significant R&D time in bringing several new features into this Rip once output many (Room) software system. It has decided that because of the extent of the revision the...

Watercolour challenge.
September 2, 2002... Image Art, Gillingham (Dorset), is using an Epson 9600 to turn out reproductions of fine art prints for artists and publishers across the south west. Proprietor Steve Payter is himself an artist using photography and digital technology to...

Crisp bags INposition.(Crisp Digital selected as sole distributor)
September 2, 2002... Crisp Digital of Tiptree, Essex has been appointed the sole distributor of INposition V5.0. Inposition is a Quark Xpress XTension from Dynagram, which allows seamless imposition with facilities to preview, edit, proof, colour separate and...

Children in Need.(McNaughton supplies fundraiser materials)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... The 2002 Children in Need fundraising packs were produced using the HannoArt range of wood-free coated paper and board, supplied by McNaughton. In turn, McNaughton is entering into the charitable spirit and are planning a fundraising day of fun...

Boost for Baldwin.(Baldwin supplying blanket cleaning systems for press line)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Baldwin is supplying the blanket cleaning systems on the longest press line in the southern hemisphere. Each of the six MAN Newsman 40 presses at the Herald & Weekly Times in Australia will be upgraded with eight print couple towers, each...

SE guarantee alleviates fears.(Scottish Enterprise contracts with Practical Print Solutions)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Scottish Enterprise has moved away from its former plans to draw up a closed list of approved printers, to work with Practical Print Solutions, the Oce subsidiary who was recently awarded the contract to manage the #2m per annum print...

PCM moves modular.(Heidelberg plans to expand print color management service)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... One year into its decision to offer a print colour management service, Heidelberg now plans to expand the service by creating modules that deal with PCM on a topic basis. Steve Fowler, PCM consultant for Heidelberg, explains the new...

Easy steps to ctp.(Litho Supplies offers equipment installation promotion)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Access to ctp is unlikely to get any easier if a deal being offered by Litho Supplies is any guide. It is prepared to install an Agfa Palladio platesetter and a new Sherpa 24 inkjet proofer plus a starter pack of materials free of charge. ...

Double win for Promail.(won two contracts)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Jersey Post's subsidiary division of Print and Mail, called Promail, has won two major digital printing contracts, one with a run of 1.4m and a the second consisting of 600,000 prints per month. This has prompted a round of investment with...

Showroom showcase.(Kodak Polychrome Graphics)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Kodak Polychrome Graphics' refurbished showroom in Watford will showcase its Colour Technologies products. The range includes the Kodak Approval XP4 digital halftone proofing system, the Matchprint Colour Inkjet and the Matchprint professional...

UV niche targetted.(UltraCoat plans ultraviolet varnishing facility)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Wimborne Dorset is the site of a new service spurred on by the increasing implementation of ctp. The generating of plates for uv varnishing can be a challenge if you have silver-based ctp, claims UltraCoat, a supplier of laminating and...

Bath Press completes challenge.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Bath Press has successfully completed a unique four-month project that used 210 tonnes of paper and kept its presses printing continuously for 600 hours. The fifth edition of Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine, regarded by medical...

Komori webs the `flexible friend'.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... An Italian printer has commissioned what is being called the most flexible 16pp web set up in the country after installing two Komori System 38II webs. The two five-unit machines are arranged side by side and can be set up as a single twin...

Floods help Grafitec clean up.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Silver linings in the clouds that caused the flooded devastation in central Europe have been hard to find, but one piece of comparatively good news has surfaced. Grafitec, the manufacturer of the Polly press, distributed in the UK by GAE,...

Folder set to return to fold.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Caledonian Offset, the printing division of The Scotsman and its allied newspapers in Edinburgh, now expects its damaged folder to be returned to service around the turn of the year. "In the meantime we're using a secondhand folder," says...

On the line.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Newsquest Media is the UK's second largest regional publishing group and it has given its wholehearted support to a Red Cross fund raising initiative. By recycling 160 old mobile phones used by staff Red Cross has benefited to the tune of #490....

Transfer time looms.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... The football season has kicked off and with it the transfer speculation is in full swing. Clubs that have invested heavily in new stadia now want to find highly skilled players to pull in the crowds to fill the grounds. Because such skills...

War of words.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... A war of words has broken out between Axel Springer, Germany's largest newspaper and magazine printer-publisher, and WAZ Gruppe, the rival regional newspaper company that is considering a takeover bid. The defunct Kirch Media's 40% stake in...

Magazine catastrophe.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Metal Bulletin, the specialist magazine publisher, has seen profits fall nearly tenfold because of `the most difficult trading conditions for more than 20 years' in its markets. Although turnover has risen 5% to #20.9m for the first six months...

More in the middle.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... The CBI is lobbying the Department of Trade and Industry to focus more on medium-sized companies with turnover of #300m-#1bn, the likes of Polestar and St Ives. The CBI says the Government has forged close links with multinationals and listened...

Slack demand spurs Potts offset review.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Thomas Potts, the print group that almost bought Hyway Printing last month, has increased its profits by 32% this year, but warned that it is considering whether or not to quit offset printing entirely. Chief executive Mark Scanlon, who was...

Directory dealings on the up.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... The decidedly old economy business of telephone directories continues to attract investors, hot on the back of Yell's expansion in the US and the news that BT is to go back to publishing its own business phone books. In yet another...

Post merger sales slump.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Hewlett Packard and Compaq have seen their sales fall since HP's takeover, but they deny that this means the mega-merger was a mistake. Combined sales have dropped from $18.2bn to $16.5bn in the three months to July 31 and net losses have...

Inveresk takes sales hit.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Scottish papermaker Inveresk has suffered a 13% fall in sales in the six months to June 1, because of its decision to back out of selling lower priced boards and papers. The company has also breached the terms of its loan agreements with the...

Refinance failure for AGT.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Applied Graphics Technologies, the US prepress company which owns Seven Worldwide in the UK, has failed in its bid to refinance and will now have to find another way to survive after its loans and credit facilities expire next April. ...

Banknote buyout an expensive mistake.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... Apax Partners has admitted that its takeover of the German state banknote printing works in 2000 has been a costly mistake that has forced it to write off #120m it first invested in the deal. At the time, the #615m deal was a small blow for...

Compulsory winding up.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... The following cases are due to be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL * Temple Print Ltd 72 Kaerau Road, Newport NP20 4HJ on September 4 at 10.30am. Petition by Inland Revenue * Wika Wika Woo Publishing Ltd 1...

Appointment of receivers.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... * New Day Printers Ltd Printing. Receivers: C Burke and GJ Corbett, Milner Boardman & Partners, Century House, Ashley Road, Hale, Cheshire WA15 9TG Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

Meetings of creditors.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... * Welton Print Ltd at 141 Great Charles Street, Birmingham B3 3LG on August 30 * Reflexion Digital Ltd (formerly t/a Whitebridge Press Ltd) at Buckingham Beales Hotel, A421 Ring Road, Buckingham, Buckinghamshire MK18 1RY on September 5 at...

Notices to creditors.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... * Printcity (Stratford) Ltd Creditors to send claims to S Draine, Moore Stephens Corporate Recovery, 3-5 Rickmansworth Road, Watford, Hertfordshire WD18 0GX by September 30 * Stewartprint Ltd Creditors to send claims to DH Bottomley, The...

Final meetings.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... * Premier Press Ltd at George House, 48 George Street, Manchester M1 4HF on September 23 at 11.15am for members and at 11.30am for creditors * Bookbiz Ltd at Harris Lipman, 2 Mountview Court, 310 Friern Barnet Lane, Whetstone, London N20...

SWOP for Oris.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... CGS Publishing Technologies has added support for the HP DesignJet 10/20ps proofer to its Oris Digital Proofing System. Oris was the first to receive SWOP certification earlier this year with the HP desktop printers gaining their acceptance...

Approval donors.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... KPG has added two donor colours to its Approval XP4 digital halftone proofing system, one is a white backing sheet aimed at the packaging sector and the other is reflex blue, one of the more popular spot colours. The white donor is especially...

Colour conversion.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Quad Graphics has begun to offer an online RGB to CMYK file conversion service for customers and smaller repro houses that lack the facilities or expertise to handle the task themselves. As the conversion is handled by inhouse staff, it offers...

Jaws third generation.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 2, 2002... Global Graphics has introduced V3.0 of its Jaws PDF Creator. Improvements include greater integration with MS Office, improved security, better colour accuracy and faster web downloads. It also includes support for PDF1.4. Copyright: CMP...

PS2 Digital in new home.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Runcorn company PS2 Digital has moved to new premises to accommodate a #300,000 Quickmaster 46 DI Pro press offering the company a longer run capability than it has previously been able to cope with. It is its second look at the machine,...

Presstek seeks sales expansion.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Presstek, the manufacturer of Anthem and Pearl processless thermal ctp plates is actively seeking to expand its sales and support team in Europe through the appointment of UK personnel to head consumable sales and to head direct imaged press...

Field trial Fresco to be on show.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... NUR will show the latest version of its Fresco wide format inkjet printer at Viscom in Paris later this month. The Fresco HiQ 8C is an eight-colour machine that was first seen at Fespa earlier in the summer. Since then units of the press,...

Fuji patents no process plate.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Fuji has been granted a US patent on a new type of no process erasable printing plate, that the consumables giant may bring to market before the end of the decade. It is issued under the name of Tetsuo Nakayama who has a number of patents...

Switch to Xinet wins new accounts.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... St Ives Graphic Media, its Bradford prepress operation, is the latest to convert to FullPress and WebNative applications from Xinet. In addition the company has bought Dalim Twist and an Sgi server from Turning Point Technologies. ...

Paperchase over.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... The European Commission has dropped its investigation into the existence of a newsprint pricing cartel operating in the first half of the 1990s. The investigation was announced in 1999. The EC told affected paper producers last week that the...

Brace of swatches.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Antalis has come up with new swatch designs for both its Simulator and Coloraction ranges. The latter is a family of 28 colours in folio and cut sizes for a wide range of uses, both printed and within the office. Simulator Colours is a range of...

Envelope choice.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... McNaughton has published Simply Envelopes, a guide to selecting the right envelope for the job and cutting through what can be a bewildering choice. Says marketing director Tony Porter: `An envelope is more than just a device for carrying...

Smurfit sale.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... The Irish High Court last week approved the sale of Jefferson Smurfit Group to Madison Dearborn Partners. The court was asked to approve the spin off of Smurfit's 29.3% stake in Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation in return for cancelling an...

StoraEnso acts now to recover US losses.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 2, 2002... StoraEnso is eliminating some pulp and paper production in North America and redirecting other capacity as it realises that the recession will not end in the near future. The capacity was acquired with its purchase of Champion Paper, one...

A Premier environment.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Premier Paper is underlining its commitment to good environmental practice in its second edition brochure outlining its strategy. Premier was the first UK merchant to gain ISO 14001 certification and has continued this with the decision to...

Davenport leaves retirement.(Norman Davenport joins Newsquest)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Norman Davenport, former managing director of UPM-Kymmene UK, has been tempted from retirement by Gannet Newspapers UK subsidiary, Newsquest. He has taken up an advisory role at the newspaper group focusing on its paper oriented...

Paper demands set to stay low until 2004.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Analysts at Morgan Stanley believe that there will be no recovery in paper until the second half of next year. The company's report in paper and packaging points out that coated paper inventories stand at excessive levels as production has...

Adpak advantage.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Adpak is again able to offer a complete range of flowrapping equipment with the UK agency for Gemini branded machinery. These units offer either fixed box or adjustable forming boxes to aid product changes. Copyright: CMP Information Ltd.

Rohm and Haas range.(nw adhesives)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 2, 2002... Rohm and Haas, in line with a strategy of providing specialised adhesives to meet particular packaging needs, has introduced RoBond L, water-based adhesives for dry bond laminating; Mor-Free ELM to reduce the risk of aromatic amine creation;...

Manual finishing.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Total Print Finishing Services has supplied three machines to Rolls- Royce aero engines to complete manuals and forms printed on Oce equipment in its inplant department. As each manual is updated, the pages are drilled on a Stago 2015 twin...

Mailer beats tight margins.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Sussex print finishing operation Harman Print Finishers has added a direct mail arm to help overcome the increasingly tight margins of general commercial work. The centerpiece of the investment is a Herzog+Heymann mailer purchased from UK...

Automation ups binding capacity.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Cambridge Printing, part of the University Press has completed the switch to automatic sewing machines in its Bible printing department with the commissioning of a second Smyth sewing machine this year. Previously the operation has relied...