Epson America

ROSEMONT, Ill.—Despite the current unstable economic situation, Labelexpo Americas—which took place in Rosemont, Ill., Sept. 9-11—still saw a good turnout, with numbers exceeding 12,000. By the end of the show, more than 80 percent of the exhibition space had already been rebooked for Labelexpo Americas 2010. The show saw 420 national and international suppliers bringing their latest developments in technology and materials to demonstrate to the North American market. There were many new presses launched by market leaders: Nilpeter introduced its new FG-line of UV flexo presses; Mark Andy unveiled the Comco C1 ProGlide and demonstrated its updated XP5000 shaftless press. EFI Jetrion

Labelexpo Americas 2008 should have left little doubt in attendees’ minds that digital printing has made major inroads in the package-printing market. This influx is not necessarily representative of other print processes losing market share. Rather, digital printing’s emergence can be attributed to changes in brand owner preferences for shorter runs and the recent surge in regional packaging. Ken Stack, vice president/general manager of EFI Jetrion, stated in his presentation at Labelexpo that four factors are driving label printers toward digital printing: targeted marketing, localization, time to market, and the supply chain. All four factors cause brand owners to migrate toward shorter print runs.

Whether they are political or technological, most revolutions give way to a period of fine-tuning and incremental improvement. Having shown that they can meet the needs of packaging houses for fast, affordable concept and interim proofing, digital inkjet devices up to 44˝ in width now are proving that they also can satisfy the rigorous demands of legal contract proofing for high-end packaging applications. Traditionally, inkjet has had difficulties in reproducing trap and overprint characteristics, fine lines and text, moiré patterns, light pastels, and metallics, and has needed special media and color management tools. Because of these issues, brand-sensitive clients still may specify a

By Dr Peter Harrop IDTechEx The money spent on printed and potentially printed electronics doubled in 2007, as did the number of organisations participating. There are now about 1500 organisations doing significant work, most of them being academic. In 2008, there will be much more emphasis on commercialisation and many more countries will join the fray. New breakthroughs for European conference The leading European conference on printed electronics, the IDTechEx “Printed Electronics Europe” is part of the only global set of conferences on the subject in Japan, China, the USA and Europe. This year it moves from one centre of excellence Cambridge to another,

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., and CYPRESS, Calif.—Chromaticity, Inc., a leader in distribution and deployment of color management and digital imaging technologies, and Eizo Nanao Technologies Inc., have signed an agreement naming Chromaticity an EIZO master distributor in North America and making the full line of EIZO monitors available to Chromaticity’s growing network of graphic arts and systems integration resellers. The addition of the graphic arts industry’s leading line of LCD displays to an already strong Chromaticity product offering should further accelerate Chromaticity’s recent growth for what promises to be a strong 2008. “EIZO has the highest quality monitors in the world and they are a

BRUSSELS, Belgium—Labelexpo Europe 2007, which took place Sept. 26-29 in Brussels, surpassed all of its previous records in terms of visitors, exhibitors, and equipment sales. According to the show producers, this makes Labelexpo Europe 2007 the largest and most successful label event ever to have taken place. In total, 24,752 visitors from 114 countries attended this year’s show, an increase of 7 percent over the 2005 event. This included large delegations from Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, and the Middle East. Sixty-six percent of visitors extended their visit by at least a day (compared to 2005), which meant that the

BRUSSELS, Belgium—Labelexpo Europe 2007, which took place Sept. 26-29 in Brussels, surpassed all its records this year, in terms of visitors, exhibitors and equipment sales. This makes Labelexpo Europe 2007 the largest and most successful label event ever to have taken place. In total, 24,752 visitors from 114 countries attended this year’s show - an increase of 7 percent over the 2005 event. This included large delegations from Australia, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Turkey and the Middle East. An incredible 66 percent of visitors extended their visit by at least a day (compared to 2005), which meant that the daily attendance

Cambridge Mass.—More than 180 attendees from 12 countries came to the first IDTechEx Printed Electronics Asia conference and exhibition. The majority of delegates were from Japan, with many surprise attendances from major Japanese institutions getting involved in this exciting new topic. In addition, delegates from Korea, China, Taiwan, Europe, and North America came to learn from the 30 speakers including Sony, Konarka, Epson, Marubeni, Hitachi and Nokia. Eighteen companies joined the IDTechEx hosted tours to visit companies such as Toppan Printing, Toppan Forms, Dai Nippon Printing, Hodogaya Chemical and The University of Tokyo. These tours provided exclusive insight into the companies’ activities not easily

HINGHAM, Mass.—GMG announced that it has been granted IDEAlliance SWOP (Specifications for Web Offset Publications) and GRACoL (General Requirements and Applications for Commercial Offset Lithography) certifications. The color management and proofing solutions supplier received the certifications for its ColorProof digital proofing solution driving the new HP Z2100 inkjet printer with an internal spectrophotometer-and Epson series 800 (4800, 7800 and 9800) printers-for all 3 paper types: SWOP # 5 publication, SWOP #3 high end publication, and GRAcOL #1 commercial. GMG is the first company to receive certification on the HP Z2100 printer and was the first company to receive certification for all three possible characterization

Industry experts lend their advice on the best ways to approach remote proofing for packaging. IT HAS BEEN observed that Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except that she did it backwards and in high heels. It's the same with proofing (Fred) and remote proofing (Ginger). Throw in the complex proofing requirements of packaging printers and a straightforward series of dance steps becomes an intricate high-wire act, in which the accurate long-distance reproduction of graphics, text, placement, and structure—as well as the matching of special brand or logo colors—can make or break an important job. Like commercial printers, packaging printers can save