Mind the Gaps: The Industry Is Poised for Offset-to-Inkjet Migration

It’s no longer a case of “if,” but “when.” Advances in production inkjet technology have proceeded by leaps and bounds and, as has been said before, what was true as little as two years ago is no longer the case today, particularly regarding the limitations of production inkjet. And, likely, what is true now will no longer be true by the end of this summer. There will be many many new inkjet developments at drupa later this month, and at presstime only a smattering of new announcements and previews had been made. However, many of the overall market and technology trends remain clear.

More Paper, More Choices

The biggest hurdle for production inkjet has been finding papers that were compatible with the technology. As we reported in March’s Inkjet’s Age, paper is no longer the limiting factor in inkjet printing. “There are hundreds of certified papers now,” said Mal Baboyian, Executive Vice President, Large Format and Printing Production Solutions, at Canon Solutions America (CSA). “The ability that we have with our Media Lab and the relationships with [paper] vendors is that we can bring a paper in and solve a customer’s problem.” Last year, CSA revamped its Media Lab, which extensively tests and certifies paper for use with the company’s inkjet equipment, such as the recently introduced Océ VarioPrint i300 cutsheet press, as well as other recent arrivals such as the Océ ImageStream 2400 and the ColorStream 3000Z continuous-feed production inkjet presses.

“We’re seeing an opportunity move inkjet into the space of more demanding papers, for documents that have to be printed on coated, glossy, matte, and lightweight coated papers,” said Will Mansfield, Worldwide Marketing Director, Inkjet Printing Solutions, at Eastman Kodak. “Those types of applications are going to now become available for migration to inkjet.” The most recent entry in Kodak’s Prosper platform is the Prosper 6000 series. At drupa, Mansfield said, Kodak will be demonstrating heavy-coverage inkjet applications run on inexpensive lightweight coated papers. “These are going to, for the first time, move inkjet into the realm of customer acquisition type of documents,” he said. “Catalogs, custom catalogs, retail flyers that historically have been—and today still are—done on heatset web presses. We’re going show how that work can migrate to inkjet cost-effectively for segmented or versioned applications.”

At press time, it had just been announced that Kodak is seeking to sell off its Prosper division.

It’s all about showcasing the range of papers and new applications.

At drupa, HP will be demonstrating “more than 50 different media types from an array of more than 19 media vendors,” said David Murphy, Worldwide Director of Marketing & Business Development, PageWide Web Press Division, at HP. “Our message is that more volume, more applications, and more possibilities from historically offset-class applications can now be moved over [to inkjet].”

Late last March, HP announced new models in its recently rechristened PageWide Web Press line: the HP PageWide Web Press T490HD and T240HD, both based on the company’s new High Definition Nozzle Architecture (HDNA) and both boasting substantial speed improvements over their predecessors.

Also last March, Xerox announced that it will be using drupa to launch two new inkjet presses, the Xerox Brenva HD Production Inkjet Press and the Xerox Trivor 2400 Inkjet Press. “Inkjet is becoming more mainstream every day,” said Cristina Fernandez, VP and General Manager of Xerox’s Inkjet Business, at a pre-drupa press event held at Xerox’s Gil Hatch Center for Customer Innovation in Rochester, N.Y., in March, “That’s being driven by business objectives, such as shorter runs at lower cost.” Brenva and Trivor are the latest models to utilize the inkjet technology Xerox acquired from its 2013 acquisition of Impika. The rollfed Trivor is designed to replace the earlier Compact inkjet press, while Brenva is intended to serve as a more or less entry-level cut-sheet device, and runs uncoated and uncoated treated inkjet stocks to produce light direct mail, books and manuals, and transactional documents.

To expand the range of inkjet-compatible papers even further, and boost color quality and fidelity, hardware vendors have been introducing priming coatings. Last fall, HP launched its HP Priming Solution that allows its PageWide Web Presses to print on a wider variety of media, including standard coated offset stocks. In March, CSA announced ColorGrip, a spot pre-coat for the VarioStream i300 that only applies a pre-coat where the ink will lie, rather than all across the page. It is said to offer better ink holdout and produce colors that pop.

Speaking of color, one of the big advantages of inkjet is the ability to produce color cost-effectively, and the migration from black-and-white to color pages has generally been on the rise. “Over the last three years, the move to color has been much much faster,” said Baboyian. “The per-machine volumes are going up. That shows that our customers are learning how to sell it.” However, there are still holdouts. “I have one direct mail customer who said to me, ’80 percent of what I’m selling is black. I haven’t been able to convince my customers to go color,’” Baboyian added. “He knows how to do it, but there’s a challenge.”

As compelling as color is, not everyone needs it and as a result there is still a place in the market for black-only machines. In February, CSA announced the ColorStream Mono, a black-only press based on its ColorStream 3000Z platform.

Likewise, HP recently announced a black-only version of its 42-inch press, the T490M HD (“M” for “monochrome”). “We have book manufacturers who just want the higher speed, but may not have the need for high-quality imagery,” said Murphy. “They really want that additional capacity and the lower labor cost per print.”

Increased Applications

Between the expanded range of papers and the pretreatment options, the number of applications for which production inkjet is suitable is taking off. For much of inkjet’s life, the “killer app” was transactional printing, with book printing a close second. The advantages for transactional were fairly clear: rather than imprint preprinted offset “shells” with variable data, printers could now take a “white paper in” approach and print everything in one pass. However, few in the industry see transactional printing as a strong growth area—especially when you consider that one of the things that is often printed on transaction documents is “go paperless.”

“Customers that have adopted inkjet have by and large been able to create profitable businesses printing transaction documents,” said Mansfield, “but the transaction document is going to be a thing of the past. There is already a strong reduction in that area.”

On the other hand, book printing is almost unanimously seen as a strong growth area, especially as improved quality and range of papers expands the types of books that can be produced, and has the potential to change the traditional book printing model.

“The book work we’re starting to see is going beyond just educational books into travel books, with higher coverage, high requirements for saturation, contrast, and image reproduction,” said Mansfield. “Things like higher-end cookbooks, and science, technology, and medical journals are now all migrating to inkjet where in the past they were out of reach.”

Inkjet is also poised to take on on-demand, short-run, and “book of one” book printing and production.

“Flexibility and scalability are the hallmarks of our inkjet portfolio,” said Deana Conyard, World Wide Inkjet Manager for Xerox, at the Gil Hatch Center event. “Direct mail, catalogs, magazines, more and more commercial work is migrating to inkjet.”

The general commercial printing applications that are opening to inkjet are wide-ranging, said Ed Pierce, Product Marketing Manager at Fujifilm Graphic Systems Division. “They would include catalogs, brochures, direct mail because of the ability to print variable, pocket folders, annual reports, high-end brochures, versioned brochures, regional versioning, event-based tools, etc.” All of this is due to the narrowing of the gap between offset and digital inkjet quality. “From my perspective, with the [Fujifilm] J Press 720S, that gap is gone,” said Pierce. “We are delivering offset quality with an inkjet device. We’re able to run on the same stocks they’re able to run, coated and uncoated.”

The J Press 720S—marketed as the Jet Press 720S overseas—is the company’s flagship B2-size inkjet press, which Fujifilm will be demonstrating at drupa. The company has also jointly announced with Heidelberg the first fruits of their partnership: the Heidelberg Primefire 106 B1-format industrial inkjet press which will also be demonstrated at drupa.

HP is looking beyond traditional commercial printing applications. The new T480 offers a 108-inch frame length, up from 72 inches. “This can enable new applications that may not be obvious to established legacy markets,” said Murphy, “like wrapping paper, floor runners for weddings, banners up to 108 inches, and things like that. It takes away an additional layer of limitation.” Certain kinds of packaging are also not out of the realm of possibility.

Mass Migration

So we are poised for a migration of offset work to inkjet.

“In terms of technology, production inkjet printing has come a long way with regard to image quality, breadth of supported media, production speeds, and cost of operation,” said Ed Wong, Director, Product Marketing Production Printing Business Group at Ricoh Americas. “And when combined with the benefits of cost-effective on-demand short-run printing and personalization, it makes a compelling case for migrating offset pages to digital.” Ricoh offers the Ricoh InfoPrint 5000 and Ricoh Pro VC60000 that cater to different print applications.

“The total cost of print is more compelling and the quality and productivity are more in line with what higher-volume offset presses can produce,” said Murphy. “There are fewer limitations and barriers to adoption and transfer analog over to digital.”

So why the migration? Is it just technology transfer for the sake of technology transfer? Not really; it’s in order to close another gap, a run-length gap. Any sentient being can tell you that over the past 15 years run lengths have been declining, and entire magazine features can be, and have been, written about why. Toner-based digital was the beneficiary of much of this decline, but there has emerged the trend of run lengths falling into a range that is longer-run than toner can handle, and shorter-run than offset can economically handle. Enter inkjet.

“There are jobs that commercial printers may have to turn down or outsource to a third-party because they can’t handle shorter-run jobs,” said Pierce. “With today’s technology, that gap is eliminated.”

The Path Ahead

The key to further advancement of inkjet will come down to being able to print on more and more things. “How can we expand the range of substrates we can support?” said Xerox’s Conyard. “Especially heavier substrates.”

However, it’s not just a case of buying a press and shifting offset work over to it. Making production inkjet profitable is a whole other can of worms, one that we will be opening in the follow-up to this story in next month’s Inkjet’s Age when we look at “The Pathway to Profitability.”