Business Management - Industry Trends

GLEN ALLEN, Va.—NanoMarkets announced an upcoming report that continues the firm’s coverage of the market opportunities arising from the use of silver powders and inks in printable electronics. The report will be available in late March of this year. Silver Inks and Pastes for Printable Electronics: 2008-2015 reports on the use of silver-based conductors used in printable electronics. It examines the changes that have occurred in the market and discusses how the rapid commercialization of printed electronics is changing the demand for silver. It updates and continues the firm’s 2007 report, Silver Powders and Inks for Printable Electronics: 2007-2014. The new report answers

ROCHESTER, N.Y.—As the NFL Playoffs advance to the Conference Championships, Donruss Playoff L.P., is bringing in a new lineman to protect its highly collectible National Football League (NFL) trading cards—Eastman Kodak Company. Donruss announced that it will deploy the KODAK TRACELESS System for Anticounterfeiting on selected high-value Donruss trading cards. The cards, which premier the week prior to Super Bowl XLII, will include an invisible marker that can only be detected with a KODAK TRACELESS Reader. “The TRACELESS System provides an easy method to distinguish genuine Donruss products from fakes, ensuring our customers an authentic product whose value will continue

RFID has been the “talk of the town” ever since Wal-Mart laid out its expectations to its largest suppliers in 2003—lots of press, lots of hype. Now, it seems as though more participants are asking that famous question posed in Wendy’s® commercials many years ago, “Where’s the beef?” It is true that the glowing light of RFID has dimmed during the last couple of years—reality has not lived up to the expectations that were created. That doesn’t mean, however, that RFID is no longer something package printers need to consider. RFID is being implemented in a wide range of applications and some of

During the last few months, packagePRINTING has explored various finishing effects converters can employ to give their customers’ packages the necessary zing to draw and hold the attention of consumers as they walk down the aisles. The holidays are approaching fast, and not only are consumers shopping for good old Aunt Joan, but if the packaging does a good enough job, they may pick out something for themselves. And it’s not only textiles, electronics, or toys—many people enjoy foil-wrapped candies around the holidays. How will consumers find them if they don’t jump out at them from the jam-packed shelves? Stamping/embossing avenue Like anything else,

The culmination of the Label Awards competition is one of the highlights of the TLMI Annual Meeting each year. And this year’s award winners will have the perfect backdrop, with the natural beauty of The Kohala Coast on The Big Island of Hawaii. The Label Awards competition capped off another successful year. A total of 50 companies (44 North American, six international) submitted 317 entries (260 North American, 57 international), up notably from 2006. A total of 81 awards was presented, including 56 first-place honors, along with Innovator and Best of Show awards. Steve Lee, vice president of RotoMetrics, again served as chair

Turnaround times are critical in today’s package-printing world. Couple quick turnaround with the demand for shorter runs, and your press operators will be switching tools almost constantly. Diecutting is an integral part of the entire printing process and can impact the speed at which you can fulfill print orders. Just as diecutting impacts the speed of your print job, external forces, such as consolidation, globalization, new substrates and shorter runs, affect the ­diecutting market. “The label printing industry as a whole has been changing rapidly in recent years,” says Frank Hasselberg, executive vice president, Kocher + Beck USA. “These changes also have a huge

Shrink labeling is a dynamic product decoration segment that is drawing renewed interest from consumer products companies and therefore, from package printers. Shrink labeling draws the attention of consumers with its unique ability to provide 360° product decoration and encompass today’s ergonomically shaped products. Extraordinary looking packages are incorporating shrink labels for a wide range of sizes and novel configurations. Because of the shelf appeal this labeling method can provide, shrink labeling has begun to grab attention away from other, more traditional labeling technologies. While many printers are considering or attempting entry into the shrink label market, anyone looking to get into this end

It seems every industry is affected by consolidation. In the industrial automation sector, blockbuster deals involving heavy hitters occurred almost weekly for a while with the big companies getting bigger and bigger, with fewer and fewer smaller players. The same thing occurred in the collision repair industry and fire service. Though on a more regional scale, larger collision repair facilities would purchase surrounding businesses and become the local major players. And, it’s the same with the fire service, with smaller local fire companies choosing to regionalize and become one department. And, so it goes with the paperboard market for packaging. Consolidation in the

As consumers change their shopping behaviors and refine their tastes in the selection of products, opportunities arise for tag and label converters; that is, if they keep an open mind and are willing to reinvent their businesses. It is not good enough to display products in packaging that is simply functional. People are drawn to the bells and whistles that make effective labels stand apart from the rest. Living in a world of convenience and information that is readily available at our fingertips, people also desire packaging (such as smart labels or RFID tags) that can actually communicate with end users concerned with product safety

Helsinki—UPM is continuing the strong development of its label business by building a self-adhesive label materials factory in Poland. Construction of the factory will begin in the third quarter of this year, and production is scheduled for start-up in the final quarter of 2008. The new production and logistics centre will serve the growing eastern European markets and meet increasing demand for filmic label materials European-wide. “For UPM, this will be the first industrial operation in eastern Central Europe. Label business is one of UPM’s core businesses, and a strategic growth area for the company. We have invested strongly in its development in recent