After a busy first two days where the emphasis was on packaging and regulatory issues, the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers’ (NAPIM) National Printing Ink Research Institute’s (NPIRI) Technical Conference turned its attention to new technologies in the closing session.
 
Led by moderator Diane Parisi of Flint Group, the closing session’s speakers covered a range of topics, from digital inks and printed electronics to extended color gamuts.
 
The session, titled New Technology Innovations Session, opened with Randy Vandagriff of Kodak, who discusses the trends and forecasts for the inkjet market in his talk on the “Digital Inkjet Market.” Vandagriff compared the present offset printing market to digital, adding that digital is making headway against offset.
 
Offset printing sales were $29.8 trillion in 2011, and will decline slightly to $29 trillion in 2016, Vandagriff noted, while digital will grow from $393 billion to $548 billion in the same period. Not including the SOHO and digital textile markets, digital printing should reach $81 billion by 2018.
 
While the numbers do not compare to offset, they are catching up. He also reported that the cost to print a page in offset s 2 cents, while digital has come down to 6 cents.
 
“Offset printing moving to digital is beginning,” Vandagriff said, adding that the book market is a good example of where the shift to inkjet printing is working well.
 
“Everyone is looking at wider width presses, higher production speeds, higher quality printing to 1200 DPI, an expanded substrate range and improved ink chemistry,” Vandagriff concluded.
 
Barbara Fisher of the OEA followed with her presentation on the field of organic and printed electronics, al look at current and future applications in areas such as OLED displays, transistors and functional sensors. These new technologies will appear in many areas, from rollable displays to wearable sensors and smart labels and much more.
 
Fisher also discussed the role that printing is playing. In particular, manufacturers are using a hybrid approach of silicon- and organic-based electronics as well as more than one production process.
 
“Companies an do printing with gravure, offset, flexo, screen and inkjet,” she noted. “There is no single process today. A combination of different processes is required.”
 
Doreen Monteleone, board member, Sustainable Green Printing (SGP) Partnership presented “Sustainable Green Printers Partnership Update 2015.”
 
“The classic definition of sustainability is ‘meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future,’” said Monteleone, adding that there is increasing interest in protecting the environment.
 
The SGP continues to gain market acceptance, and Monteleone noted that there are significant gains being made in areas ranging from VOC emissions to energy consumption and recycling. Meanwhile, sales and profit margins are not being negatively impacted.
 
The area of extended color gamuts is of much interest to printers and ink manufacturers alike, and Buzz Apostol of Pantone/X-Rite discussed the implications of this approach. Jim Niemec of Verso closed the conference with his talk, “Paper Substrate and Digital Printing Technology Update.”
 
NAPIM’s leaders were pleased with the overall conferece.
 
“I think the conference went great,” said NAPIM executive director Brad Bergey. “Our turnout was a little higher that last year. We had some great presentations that vered recent regulatory concerns, plus highlights in growing areas such as lamination inks and UV LED.”
 
“I think this conference has been outstanding,” added George Fuchs, director of technology and regulatory affairs for NAPIM. “We had an excellent blend of market, technical and regulatory information.”
 
“I’m very happy with the conference,” added Jerry Napicek of Colorcon No-Tox Products, who is serving as NPIRI president. “The sessions were well attended with a lot of questions. No longer do you need to bounce around between sessions, as now you can attend every meeting.”
 
Next year’s NAPIM Convention is scheduled for April 1-4 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas. For more information, see www.napim.org.