The first European customer for the Oce JetStream full color inkjet system is Cromwell, a Slovakia-based company. They ordered two Oce JetStream 1500 systems that will replace two of the three offset presses they use for producing preprinted mailing shells. The first system is already installed with the second to follow in November.

Cromwell was founded in 1991 and now employs over 60 people. It specializes in transaction printing for a client base of large corporations and medium-sized enterprises. Among their clients are two Slovakian mobile telecommunication providers that use customer invoices. Cromwell also works for many banks and financial service providers, producing well over 10 million A4 pages per month. The two Oce JetStream systems will enable them to accelerate and increase the flexibility of their entire workflow.

Cromwell is looking to complement their traditional transaction printing services by expanding the TransPromo business. This is done by diverting part of their offset fleet and place greater emphasis in future on digital full-color printing. The company expects a complete move to digital printing to deliver efficiency gains right along the print process chain, with more flexibility, time savings in prepress, and the opportunity to individualize the full-color elements of documents.

Inkjet continues to prove a formidable contender to screen and flexo in the well-developed arenas of wide-format and narrow-web label printing. Inkjet is also making inroads into general production printing and offset. In wide-format, EFI Vutek competes against screen with the DS series.

Inkjet has pushed into the narrow-web label sector and opened the door to added-value short-run labels previously out of the budget of anyone but the most high-end packaging buyers. Narrow-web presses, like the Nilpeter’s Caslon, offer a host of inline extras, such as single-pass foiling, embossing or laminating. EFI’s Jetrion 4000 machine, also equipped with Xaar’s 1001 printheads, is another full-color competitor to flexo- or toner-printed labels.

Inkjet also successfully complements other processes. For example, label press manufacturers demonstrate how their machines could run inline after flexo kit offers variably printed label runs. Variable data is a key driver, but there is a buzz about industrial inkjet with the HP Inkjet Web Press that churns through 122m per minute, working out 2,600 A4 pages per minute.

EFI, the world leader in customer-focused digital printing innovation, announced a strategic investment in Jettable, an inkjet technology company specializing in digital printing onto ceramic substrates. Jettable is based out of Netanya, Israel and its product portfolio add to the ever-expanding suite of inkjet solutions offered by EFI, including the VUTEk, a superwide inkjet for the display graphics market, and Jetrion, a digital inkjet for the labels and packaging market, as well as investments in Komit and Raster printers.

Jettable was founded in 2003 and offers a line of ceramic inks and unique ultra-fine ceramic pigments with distinct benefits that create a sustainable competitive advantage. Inkjet continues to be the strategic high-growth engine for EFI as built on the success of the VUTEk. This new product offering reaffirms EFI’s commitment into inkjet printing solutions, offering new market penetration for EFI’s customer base into the architectural and design markets.

The inherent characteristics of ceramic composition inks create the need for a specialized flatbed inkjet printer with color management tuned to the distinctive ceramic colors in order to generate the widest and most attractive color gamut.

Fujifilm has announced the release of its new sheetfed inkjet commercial printing press, the Jet Press 720 and demonstrated that they are moving into inkjet-based digital printing. As a company, they have invested heavily in the acquisition of inkjet technologies, as well as in companies including Sericol and Dimatrix. Up to now, Fuijfilm has not manufactured any inkjet printing equipment, despite the fact it is already a major player in digital printing through its 75% ownership of Fuji Xerox.

Fuji Xerox was involved in the development of the Jet Press 720. Being a sheetfed B2 digital press, it fits into a unique space in the market where there are no equivalent presses. Before this press, the largest-format sheetfed digital press has been the Xerox iGen3. The Jet Press 720 is built upon a paper-transport system from an unnamed offset press supplier. Fuji Xerox added an impression cylinder for the paper and the inkjet printhead assemblies for the four colors.

The press also has a paper-coating system to lay down the binding agent that prevents the ink from being absorbed into the paper. As a result, the press can run standard offset papers. The inks are aqueous and specifically formulated by Fujifilm and use what they call Rapid Pigment Ink Coagulation Technology.

While it is true that it is a lot easier to recycle paper if it has been printed with offset or gravure or dry toner, it cannot be recycled if it has been printed with current inkjet. Waterbased does not necessarily mean environmentally friendly because many waterbased inks cannot be recycled. This is true for inkjet inks regardless if they are dyes or toners. They are unrecyclable for new graphic paper – even in small amounts, inkjet printed papers can spoil a load of recycled paper dedicated to be recycled for newsprint or office papers.

The current inkjet inks dissolve in the process of water, and dye like a red sock in the white wash. Most inkjet manufacturers try to ignore this problem. The green process produces printed product that does not harm the environment. A company should think “green” production-wise and product-wise. One possible solution is to pass legislation to mark products that do not fit in the established paper recycling system like they do in Germany.

Ingede is a relatively unknown organization that is a key player in the greening of the print industry. They take recovered paper and recycle it to produce cardboard, packaging paper, office papers, newsprint, and hygiene paper. In the future, more recovered paper can and should be recycled.