Article prepared by C. Clint Bolte, C. Clint Bolte & Associates, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. For additional information please call 717-263-5768, fax 717-263-8945, or e-mail to clint@clintbolte.com.

GATF Tech Alert 2004 Conference

Two hundred print technology aficionados gathered at the Pittsburgh Airport Hyatt February 8-10 for the twelfth annual GATF Tech Alert Conference to hear leading edge case studies on applying the latest digital technologies successfully and profitably. Additionally every graphic communications firm's strategic planning was greatly enhanced by hearing the technology prognostications expected to impact the printing industry and its clients in the surprisingly near future. This was all presented in concise, vivid detail without a lot of scientific complexity.

The keynote address topic highlighted a niche, though potentially quite large, printing application that the most innovative printers will look forward to capitalizing on within a surprisingly short period of time. "I believe that the printing industry has an opportunity to capture new revenue streams from the soon to be created Printed Electronics Market," remarked Dr. Daniel Gamota. This senior manager of the Organic and Molecular New Products Department at the Motorola Advanced Technology Center and holder of 22 patents with another 23 pending described how he expects conventional printers to be the key resource in helping to roll out inexpensive organic transistors manufactured into a variety of traditional printed products.

One potential future printed electronics product, radio frequency identifier (RFID), could be manufactured inexpensively using conventional printing platforms that have been modified to achieve sub-micron features, according to Dr. Gamota. The "printed OFET process" is the way Dr. Gamota describes the four step additive process for printing the separate elements of the transistor: gate, dielectric, source, drain, and active layer. While not necessarily understanding how these elements interact to create the electronic responses, the attendees were led to visualize how a four unit press operating at several thousand sheets an hour or many hundred feet per minute provided the ideal medium for manufacturing these precise little transistors. He anticipated the process color printing to be done initially with the transistors applied by the last four units or as a separate pass.

Designed to be no longer passive, i.e., they will initiate programmed information in response to an electronically initiated inquiry or stimulus, these transistors are planned to be low cost as well as low functionality. Examples of these new products might be printed wallpaper that in detecting the mood of the room's occupant might change color hues to help the occupant calm down or be more productive. The hue shift could also be requested. A coupon in a newspaper or magazine could have an active imbedded transistor to accentuate a point or feature in the advertisement as the page is opened.

Initially the transistors are not expected to be any more than 80% effective due to broad tolerances experienced in the printing process, which should adversely impact yield. Those unknowns include surface roughness of the paper, dimensional stability, and reactivity to any solvents present. However, multiple transistors on the same lithographic image may statistically improve that yield.

The great majority of research efforts in this field are aiming at the higher value applications, which often are electronically encoded information designed to stay with a product through out its supply chain life cycle. However, Motorola and its consortium of venture partners to include Dow, PARC, and Xerox Canada are targeting novel materials, manufacturing platforms, and testing strategies to design and assemble low-cost wire less products based on printed organic and molecular devices.

While this team of companies will create and establish the printed organic and molecular semiconductor supply chain, they expect ultimately to qualify printers to bring this technology to the mainstream. A general commercial printer said he had a client who might be interested in testing this technology and how soon could such tests be initiated. Dr. Gamota responded that this might be feasible in less than two years.

Initial research results will be shared at this spring's TAGA conference. The first electronics printing workshop will be held this coming fall.

If ever there were a technology marriage made in heaven it would be a union of this venture consortium and GATF. GATF's extraordinary depth of applied research and product application refinement on the industry's state of the art equipment would allow the definition of the supply chain elements in the fastest possible time frame. Coupled with the Foundation's testing, qualifying or certifying, applied training capabilities, and shear credibility within the Printing Industry, there is no faster way to line up the most appropriate printers to roll this innovation into the market.

A number of colleges and private sector research entities, which claim to have printing applied research expertise, would logically be trying to tie in with this consortium. This amazing opportunity clearly rests on Mrs. Makin and Ryan's shoulders, as CEO and COO of PIA/GATF, to bring this long-term liaison into the fold quickly.

The 2004 Technology Forecast was both distributed and presented to the attendees by GATF Senior Consultant Ray Prince and invited podium prognosticator, Mr. Michael Murphy, President of JAPS-Olson. The 90 topical articles written by 53 experts in this 96-page book is the most concise compendium of critical issues available on the printing industry. Truly a must read for every printing company top manager. One copy was given to each attendee. The book is not expected to be distributed for a few more weeks. The list price of $199 is presumably for members and the nonmember tariff should actually be closer to the book's intrinsic value of $1,495. Some of the highlights are

1. The Forecast describes that large format presses - 73" from MAN Roland and 81" from KBA - are arriving with the full automation features of their 40" siblings. The 6-up or 29" format presses are selling well with sound economics for certain product applications. Interestingly MAN Roland is expected to be showing at DRUPA a DICO kit for upgrading select existing presses to the digital imaging on the reusable plate cylinders.
   
   
2. The integrated production promised by CIM continues to be embryonic applications due to "islands of automation" and vintage equipment according to consultant Bill Lamparter.
   
   
3. Mr. Prince shared Mr. Snyder's thoughts from the Book Manufacturers Institute that production of educational books are moving offshore for better economics. Prince added that China is Komori's biggest customer and that there are four new paper mills starting up in China as well. He further stated that the new Timson zero make-ready press (the first one being installed in Edwards Brothers) will help American book printers provide fast turn around production which simply can't be done from half way around the world.
   
   
4. The British Printing Industries is planning to launch a technology warehouse patterned after GATF. The Canadian print markets are expected to grow slightly less than the US though they did not experience as severe a downturn during the last three years as the US Printing Industry did. Twenty percent of their $10 billion in shipments for 2003 came to the US.
   
   
5. As digital storage technology falls in price with increasing speeds and capabilities, more on line tools can be offered inexpensively by printers.
   
   
6. This spring Sony will launch a new paper-like electronic display (e-Book) that uses power only when content changes. Up to 250 pixels per inch are possible.
   
   
7. In discussing their evolution in the successful adoption of color management Mr. Murphy said, " (You) must be open to change. We were not as good of printers as we thought we were when we started." The future of on press color management is near though it requires disciplined and consistent process control.
   
   
8. Several articles on post press automation suggest that this will be a major theme from many suppliers at DRUPA.

Last year's Tech Alert talked about how CTP has eased the transition to stochastic screening. Additionally last year's panelists alluded to the increased ink mileage also being experienced in the use of stochastic screens. This year John Lind, GATF's Director of Research, put together a research project documenting the runnability and printability of Stochastic versus Conventional Screens in what he called, "Stochastic Part II." Ink consumption was measured on GATF's MAN Roland web press on 38,000 runs. Actually higher screen rulings of 175 lpi and stochastic consumed less ink than did the 133 lpi work of the same images printed. Black was the highest savings of about 40% with less dramatic results from yellow ink.

A $25 million printer would be expected to consume a million dollars of ink. If higher screen rulings (250-300 lpi) or stochastic screening were used universally, 15-18% of this ink expense could be expected to be saved versus a 133 lpi standard. In addition a broader color gamut would be experienced. However, this savings could easily be offset by increasing costs due to more intensive training required, need to monitor paper surfaces more closely, possibly changing chemistry, blankets, and rollers more often, and simply the criticality of greater discipline due to the complexities of fine line printing. The deciding factor appears to be, "What does the customer want and what are they willing to pay for?"

Julie Shaffer, Director of GATF's Center for Imaging Excellence, gave a thorough tutorial on Automating Print-Ready Digital File Submissions. The proportion of problematic digital file submissions experienced down through the years with Post Script™ has not appreciably improved with the advent of PDF files. This is because the PDF files are being prepared improperly for conventional print rendering. Ms. Shaffer reviewed the myriad of mistake-proofing tools and technology centered around one of three approaches: (1) desktop based preflight and PDF creation tools, (2) upstream (client interface) tools for prepress workflow solutions, and (3) web-based preflight and delivery technologies. She reviewed the two or three highly credible solutions available in each of these approaches.

The ensuing panel discussion highlighted the on going commitment by printers to try and train or retrain their clients in the proper preparation of files and particularly PDFs for submission. David Mack of Banta said that they were beginning the use of webinars to custom train clients on their own files. This was saving staff time in travel and much more effective then simply telephone or e-mail explanations.

Joe Marin, GATF's Senior Prepress Technologist described the exhaustive survey results on users' experiences implementing color management. It was appropriately entitled "The Pain of Color Management." 94% of all respondents were using either Gretag ProfileMaker (69%) or Monaco Profiler (25%) software. 35% of all printers spent less than $20,000 on implementing a color management workflow and culture, half spent between $20-50 thousand, and the balance more. Those who were successful and satisfied acknowledged that it took over two years of disciplined, total commitment. There were no short cuts to process control.

John Lind and Ray Prince led a panel discussion on the best practices in printing UV and hybrid UV inks. A thorough benchmark sampling collection of UV and Hybrid UV printing was provided to each attendee. Six ink companies and seven printers participated in the benchmarking study.

Hybrid inks have been gaining in acceptance as it gives the printer the ability to broaden their product offerings, it's easier to obtain excellent print quality, it's better runnability, and less original investment versus straight UV.

Mr. Prince said that if hybrid utilization is not expected to exceed 10% of chargeable hours, don't do it. If utilization is expected to be 30% or more, there will be a most attractive ROI. Tony Bean, Manager of Energy Curing Inks for Kohl & Madden, said that his firm has developed an excel spreadsheet to aid printers in calculating their potential ROI for a conversion to hybrid inks. Contact him at tbean@na.sunchem.com or 201-933-4500 for a copy of this financial model. He added that if the basic study looks favorable then call together all of your suppliers in the same room to discuss the project and specifically define what it is that you want to achieve.

The Tech Alert Conference continues to provide one of the most salient venues for leading edge applied printing technologies. Its success rests on suppliers and printers candidly participating in the well thought out survey and research projects, GATF's honesty and candor at sharing sometimes surprising results, and the conflicting opinions often expressed from the panelists. Even after thirty years of studying printing technology, I continue to be excited at how much I learn each year at this gathering.

Article prepared by C. Clint Bolte, C. Clint Bolte & Associates, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. For additional information please call 717-263-5768, fax 717-263-8945, or e-mail to clint@clintbolte.com.