August 2004 Issue

 

An Interview with Amos Michelson

Creo CEO Amos Michelson shares his vision of the printing industry and the direction he has established for Creo. AS PACKAGE PRINTING gets ever more complex and demanding, it appears likely that the ultimate solution for these challenges comes down to ones and zeroes, or in another word—digitization. This solution represents the vision that Creo CEO Amos Michelson has for the printing industry as a whole—what he calls "complete digitization, from idea to delivery." The beginnings of this digitization can be seen in some of the current trends sweeping through the commercial printing markets, says Michelson, trends such as variable data printing and short

And The Winner Is

Q.C. Packaging Systems takes Best of Show in packagePRINTING's 18th Annual Excellence Awards competition. Q. C. PACKAGING SYSTEMS (Mississauga, Ontario) will take home this year's Best of Show honors for the intricate printing and packaging of its "Buick Rainier" compact disk case. This entry was the first place winner in the Folding Cartons—Flexo (Process) category. The consistent color, the diecut registration, the UV inks with water-based coating, and the quality of the flexo printing job made this year's judges of packagePRINTING's 18th annual competition look twice at the CD case. Commenting on the print quality, Clemson University Instructor Dean Gilbert said, "This piece could

Combine and Conquer

Divide and conquer may be the key to success in some endeavors, but for package printers, combining processes is a clearer way to winning. COMBINATION PRINTING MEANS different things to different people, but that's the nature of the beast. It includes different printing processes, along with various other processes, to accomplish one thing—add value to the printed product. That is the game—adding value to the product to meet customer needs. By combining a number of processes, printers can use the strengths of each particular process to provide the best possible look for a product. There are several requirements driving

Foil Decoration

For sprucing up a product's image, foil decorating has lots to offer. HERE'S ONE WAY to make a product stand out on a store shelf: don't make it bright and shiny. It will stand out—just like the Model T once did when Henry Ford said that cars come in one color, black. Today's products that are vying for the consumers' purchasing dollars must be bright and shiny. It's a fact of life on the store shelf. Although there is no question that high-end products must provide this high-quality look, it is also necessary for just about any product category, at any pricing

Full Coverage

Coating is paperboard's key to functionality and printability. STRONG, BRIGHT, AND value-added is the composition of many a woman's dream man. It's also what consumer product companies (CPCs) are looking for in their paperboard packaging. And for the most part, that's what they're getting—a resilient substrate that's brighter and more functional than ever. Improved paperboard materials continue to hit the marketplace, spurring and supporting a slow but steady growth of the substrate. While it's still rebounding from a low base in 2002, the growth is expected to climb steadily at 2.8 percent per year to more than $35 billion in 2007, according to Corrugated

Inspection Rewinds Yield Press Productivity

By performing off line inspection and various finishing functions, inspection rewinders allow presses to focus on printing. INSPECTION REWINDS HAVE one primary purpose—increase press productivity. Although inspection rewind is an off-line operation, it all goes back to printing press uptime and productivity. "Off-line rewinding equipment should increase productivity in a label shop by taking work off of printing presses," says Nick Knezic, applications engineering, KOR Engineering Inc. "A good quality-finishing machine should perform all inspection, editing, and slitting operations, allowing press operators to focus on the task of printing. By increasing press time, rewinders increase productivity in a shop, which translates into a

Life-Saving Packaging

Food CPCs are taking a serious look at smart packaging, exploring inventive ways to protect their products and consumers. FOOD-BORNE ILLNESSES cause more than upset stomachs. According to the Center for Disease Control, food poisoning results in more than 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,200 deaths in the United States each year. Worldwide, the World Health Organization reports that 3.2 million children under the age of five die of food-poisoning-related illnesses annually. The statistics are grim, but there's hope. Beyond better food-handling methods, packaging is becoming another avenue for food companies to better protect their consumers from the hidden dangers of organisms such as Salmonella, E.

Openness, Connectivity, Productivity

Progressive package printers are finding new ways to open new levels of communication with their customers and attract new business. Digital workflows—and the Internet—are helping. ADVANCED DIGITAL WORKFLOWS, sporting Internet collaborative tools, are significant time savers for prepress departments—and are targeting the package printing environment with fervor. Gee Ranasinha, director of marketing at Dalim Software, reports one way a package printing operation can differentiate itself from its competition is by offering its customers the advantages of a more digitized workflow and online collaborative services. One such workflow is the DALiM MiSTRAL PACK, which provides converters a complete view of their entire prepress production. It