This issue of Graphic Arts Monthly greets subscribers just as the doors have opened on PRINT 05 & CONVERTING 05 at Chicago's massive McCormick Place. The forklifts have beat a hasty retreat. The last of the giant banners are now unfurled, and the stacks of exhibitor shipping crates reach to the heavens. The controlled chaos that predictably envelops every night-before-opening of the mammoth Chicago PRINT exhibition has settled into a quiet buzz: the dawning crowds converging on Starbucks, as an exhilarating spirit dissolves the exhaustion of preparation. Seminar personalities and booth presenters (many of them well-rehearsed performers in that thespian specialty, industrial business acting) make a last run-through of their PowerPoints.

  Though the printing industry cannot be said to have an "industry convention," in fact, Print 05 (and the Graph Expo shows) fulfill that purpose. Standards groups, educators, analysts, and print associations congregate concurrently with PRINT: from the Waterless Printing Assn., to Seybold Seminars, from NPES standards bodies to PrintImage's Owners Conference, the NAPL Soderstrom Society gala, to the PIA/GATF Premier Print Awards banquets honoring the 2005 winners of the coveted Benny, to the RIT Cary Award, the PGSF Educator of the Year Award, etc. Exhibitors will woo customers at a range of gatherings, staging large-scale parties and intimate dining.

  Perhaps it was heavenly intervention, as the Rolling Stones' Bigger Bang concert takes place at Chicago's Soldier's Field the second night of the show. A lucky few individuals stand to win entrance as the Print & Graphics Scholarship Foundation offers for bid two tickets to the sold-out concert: generously donated by Heidelberg USA.

  With that as backdrop, the serious business of exploration and examination of printing, converting, mailing, and wide-format technologies is the real business of Print 05. And the tenor of technological change revolves around the recurring theme: integrating and automating the print factory.

  To that end, James Harvey helpfully provides readers with a preview of PRINT through the eyes of the CIP4 Committee. Following his synopsis are a representative sampling of bulletins on Print 05 plans that have arrived subsequent to the past three issue reports in Graphic Arts Monthly.

  JDF for the Rest of Us

  When print professionals hear terms like "JDF" or "CIM," the first thing that may come to mind is a vendor's advertisement, a product presentation or an article in a trade magazine that attempted to explain what these terms mean. For many it's very ethereal: an industry thing, something that they'll get around to - one day.
But beyond the hearsay about JDF technology being "not ready for prime time," print professionals want to know where they should begin. Where's the biggest bang for the buck; what product should I look at?

  The answer remains that evanescent "it depends," and that isn't necessarily very helpful. Sure, you can sketch a "typical workflow" at the highest level of abstraction. But in real life, just about every printer, prepress service or publisher has a different workflow, combination of equipment, customer mix, and so forth; so of course, "it depends."

  Although many of the advertised benefits of the Job Definition Format (JDF) and process automation seem to require big, cumbersome, enterprise-wide programs, in truth you're best off starting with a specific area where you think a little automation will give you that edge you are looking for.

  Take, for instance, Lavigne Inc., Worcester, MA. Frequently presented as a paradigm of the "print on demand" business, the firm basically operated a Web site that e-mailed job tickets to its production personnel. It was nothing more than an electronic means of job submission. Internal workflow was very much similar to the handling of conventional print jobs.

  But then, Lavigne used JDF to connect Printable's PrintOne Customer Center (Booth 7139) to the Hewlett-Packard Indigo (Booths 12005 and 8345) ProductionFlow digital front-end to automate its process. Since implementation, they have gone from 25 orders processed per month to over 700 orders per month while maintaining a 92% reduction in customer processing costs. Hmmm - not bad for a very simple implementation. How did they do it? LaVigne requested a joint meeting between HP and Printable to see if JDF could be used to tie the two systems together and implement Lavigne's workflow design. They identified the appropriate tags within the JDF specification that made the most sense, created workflow templates for the different types of jobs to be produced, created invoicing and reporting templates that utilized the JDF tickets, created the folders in the digital asset database, tested with a 'dummy' portal and went live with a single piece for an existing customer. The entire implementation took three months. So it wasn't an "out-of-the-box solution," and it did take some work; but hardly the rocket science that some folks make process automation out to be.

  You might say to yourself, "That's nice, but they could have done that without JDF," and you'd be right. You can probably get any two vendors together to work out integration issues with or without a standard. But the problem becomes more difficult as the number of vendors you add to the mix increases, particularly when you start crossing departments.

  Take Williamson Printing of Dallas, for instance. Williamson was looking for ways to make their bottom-line more attractive: aren't we all! They identified two areas where manual operations added time to production: imposition and cutter set-up. There's a leap - from prepress to postpress - what do these operations have in common? In imposition, Williamson was taking 15-30 minutes per job to manually make impositions, plus customer service representatives were often waiting 15 minutes just to take their turn at the imposition workstation. In the bindery, it was taking 25 to 30 minutes to set up cutters for each job.

  Williamson had been using the Esko-Graphics Scope workflow system (Booth 7233) in prepress and recently acquired a PRISM MIS system (Booth 6521.) They also selected Creo's (now Kodak Graphic Communications Group: Booths 7507 and 6707 ) UpFront Version 3.1, which customer service representatives use to enter job data.
A JDF file is created in UpFront and exported to the Scope workflow, which uses that data to automatically generate an imposition layout. The pages are entered into the page list of the imposition in prepress, as that information is typically not available at the moment of the calculation of the imposition in Upfront.

  Whereas imposition previously took three steps (which would have to be repeated every time there was a change in the job), now the CSRs no longer create impositions by hand, and prepress operators no longer have to re-enter information manually in Scope.

  Williamson sees 85% of its jobs run through the new workflow, and the results are pretty impressive. The prepress operator time to recreate an imposition has been reduced by 95% per job; the number of errors in prepress has been reduced by 100% (in other words, zero errors); and job latency has been reduced by one hour. Jobs are no longer waiting hours before the imposition gets done: it's instantaneous. If that isn't enough, Williamson had cutters already capable of automated setup via JDF, and now imposition data is also sent to Heidelberg cutting machines to automate setup.There is also JMF messaging between the PRISM MIS and prepress, as well as between UpFront and the postpress devices: which ultimately connects back to PRISM as well. With this connectivity, Williamson gets an instant, accurate status of any device it chooses to look at.

  Williamson plans on next automating the generation of soft proofs via JDF and one day they hope to automate the entire company, from accounting software to press to shipping (and receiving). Without JDF, such ambitions would only be pipe dreams for all but the largest printing houses; even then the complexity of proprietary integration would drive even the brightest IT manager mad!

  There's no need to skip over the pressroom either; in fact, the connection between prepress and the pressroom is one of the most common places to start for printers. Automating ink key pre-settings using the older CIP3 Printing Production Format (PPF) or JDF is low-hanging fruit: if you haven't done so yet, what are you waiting for? (Note: PPF is mapped to JDF and JDF can perform all of the functions of PPF, so systems that use PPF can be fully integrated into a JDF environment.) But there's more to automating the pressroom than just ink key pre-setting.

  One notable example comes from German printer Kraft Druck und Verlag GmbH. It upgraded its Hiflex MIS software (Booth 8121) so that they could provide customers with historic information on closed jobs using any standard Internet browser. As far back as 2003 Kraft Druck und Verlag also upgraded or replaced several systems:
Creo Prinergy PDF Workflow replaced an older Brisque workflow system.

  A fully-automatic Lotum 800 Quantum thermal platesetter replaced an earlier model.
Three MAN Roland 700s (Booth 1245) sheetfeds were updated to PECOM.

  "These upgrades were not coincidental," said Kraft Druck and Verlag GM Werner Kraft. "We were searching for seamless, cross-vendor communication between the Hiflex MIS and the production systems in the prepress and the press department. Our aim was to improve customer services by organizing operations more efficiently and making the production process more transparent and flexible."

  The resulting implementation used JDF (Job Definition Format) and JMF (Job Messaging Format) to create the interconnection between the Hiflex MIS and the Creo Prinergy Workflow System, as well as between the Hiflex MIS and the PECOM System of the MAN Roland sheet-ed offset presses. Hiflex uses the JDF interface to create customer details and printing instructions and data only needs to be entered once. The system automatically generates the complete production sequence, and the job information is ready to be passed on to the subsequent Creo and MAN Roland systems.

  The direct effect of the JDF connectivity project was an increase in productive hours (print run hours) in the first period of +9.6% (2004 compared to 2003). In prepress alone, Kraft Druck und Verlag estimates that it saves 24 minutes per day in job creation. Their ROI is 446.5% within five years (which means that the investment is paid back 5.46 times).

  So when the boss asks you to sharpen your pencil and get that 2006 budget in order, consider how you can automate processes that are labor intensive, involve re-keying data or are highly repetitive. Know that by specifying only JDF-enabled new equipment and upgrades, you can buy with confidence that new equipment will work with future automation projects and a quick ROI will add some greenbacks to that net profit line, and perhaps add a few dollars to the year-end bonus pool.

  Print 05 is the perfect place to get started. Grab a JDF Roadmap from the distribution bins at each Print 05 entrance to quickly find exhibitors with JDF-enabled products. Detailed case studies are now available on the CIP4 Web site (www.cip4.org, see the CIPPI awards and the document archive), from your vendors, and from groups such as NGP (www.ngppartners.org). Also, download the JDF Marketplace, (free of charge) from www.cip4.org for a listing of JDF-enabled products and services that are available today. Stop by CIP4's Booth 6002 if you have any questions. - Jim Harvey
In addition to JDF-enabled technologies, there are a number of major development trends in evidence at the show. Some of these key developments are summarized in the Must See 'ems selections of significant technology threads. This year's key categories, announced on the eve of the show by the Graphic Arts Show Co. and Bill Lamparter, who manages the program, include:

  New/significantly improved production software color management, color variable data printing, prepress, and other production areas.

  On-press integrated inline finishing

  Remote, soft copy, or screen proofing

  Color variable digital production printing

  Process-free, chemistry-free and inkjet imaged platesetting

  Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) production including label printing and affixing;

  Management information systems

  Computer integrated Manufacturing (JDF and other methodology)

 
  Now follows a representative selection of Print 05 & Converting 05 pre-show bulletins from exhibitors. Extended coverage will be carried in the October issue of Graphic Arts Monthly:

  Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses (Booth 4028) centers its presentation on the 13,000 sph 40" Diamond 3000TP five-over-five Tandem Perfector, running live jobs with inline aqueous tower coater. The alternative perfecting solution avoids problems associated with convertible-type perfecting machines. The need to control front-to-back register is paramount when flipping paper in a sheetfed press. The Tandem Perfector allows the printer to maintain the same gripper throughout the length of the press, which can encompass as many as 12 printing units.

  Reverse side prints first

  The front side of the sheet is printed after the reverse side. Backside printed sheets are passed to the front-side printing units without turning the sheets. As a result, the tail of the sheet becomes the "new" gripper. This method has proven to be far more reliable than stacking units because it takes away the stress at the print impression point, thus reducing fan-out of the substrate from unit to unit.

  To date, Mitsubishi has shipped 46 Tandem Perfectors worldwide, with another 17 presses on order. At Print 05, the Tandem Perfector is equipped for networked printing and JDF connectivity using the DiamondLink III automated control system. Mitsubishi is presenting a digital network linking a management information system (MIS), CIP4-compliant prepress, and the Tandem Perfector, which incorporates a spectrophotometer-based closed-loop color control system. Mitsubishi's ColorLink CIP4 server is transmitting makeready data from electronic prepress for ink presets.

  Goss International (Booth 3700) is demonstrating its Goss Automatic Transfer option for non-stop web printing during plate changes, and is operating a Goss Pacesetter 1100 saddlestitcher featuring servo-drive technology. The booth also features each model from the gapless Goss Sunday press lineup.

  "We see a strong future for web offset production, and we are uniquely positioned to help our customers create it," explains Bob Brown, Goss International CEO. The Goss Sunday press lineup includes the 24-page Sunday 2000, the double-circumference Sunday 4000, and the Sunday 3000/32, the world's first web press featuring a wider 2x8 (32-page) format. Additional technologies on display are the Goss Autoplate automated plate changing system, the Goss Web Center comprehensive, modular workflow and control system, the Goss Ecocool dryer with integrated chill rolls and closed-loop control options, and the Goss PFF-3.2 pinless former folder.

  Goss is also emphasizing versatile postpress configuration options through auxiliary components, including Ferag equipment, now represented by Goss in North America.
Goss has recently enhanced its Lifetime Support organization in North America. An area within the PRINT 05 booth is exclusively devoted to presenting service, parts, enhancement, training, and lithography services capabilities.

  Xerox's 35,200-sq.ft. two-story booth is one of the largest at PRINT. The second floor catwalk provides attendees a birds-eye view of end-to-end integrated solutions that address five specific themes: unified offset and digital; print-on-demand and web-to-print; book publishing; personalized communications; and promotional transactional. Each zone includes Xerox's FreeFlow Digital Workflow Collection, production technology, partner products, and professional services.

  Among the color products in the booth are the firm's flagship Xerox iGen3 110 digital production press and the DocuColor 8000 digital press. Monochrome products include the Xerox Nuvera digital copier/printer and digital production systems, Xerox also features its customer business development program that includes the Profit Accelerator portfolio, which helps print providers identify the best ways for operations to make and save money. In addition, its Xerox Graphic Arts Premier Partner Network is a global e-community of more than 400 print service providers. "We provide tools, resources, knowledge, and opportunities for our members to get together and share ideas on growing this industry," says Quincy Allen, Xerox Production Systems Group president.

  At Komori America (Booth 1262) President and COO Stephan Carter points to the four perfectors as examples of, "the versatility of the Komori product line and our commitment to our customers, by providing the flexibility and adaptability to stay ahead of market requirements." In addition, Komori will introduce the System 38S 16-page web press to the North American market by demonstrating the advanced plate changing and makeready features on this new offering to the web printing market.

  The Lithrone S40 perfector is being shown in a 10-color configuration. The LS40P incorporates all the technology found on the Lithrone S40, with the addition of Komori's double sized three cylinder perfecting mechanism. Komori is demonstrating the LS40P printing on 24 point board. Available options, such has UV technology, roll sheeters and inspection systems.

  The firm's Lithrone 40SP super perfector offers an alternative approach to two-sided printing. Since it doesn't turn the sheet over Komori claims sheetfed quality and near web press productivity for the machine. Its footprint takes only slightly more space than a five-color press. The L540SP at Print 05 features the optional Magnum roll sheeter, capable of handling rolls up to 50'' in diameter. It does not require retraction when flat sheets run.

  Komori and vendor partners, Screen (Booth 6100), EFI (Booth 8315) and Horizon Standard (Booth 2845) are demonstrating a fully integrated JDF workflow. The demonstration will begin with job ticket information entered into EFI's Hagen OA management system. Using Screen's TrueFlow digital front end software, the digital ink key preset information will be generated and sent to the Komori K-Station and automatically merged with the Hagen populated job ticket, which is then sent directly to the Komori press.

  Production data from TrueFlow for the 16-page job is also sent to Horizon's CABS4000 inline binding system to set up the final step of the JDF workflow. Throughout the course of the job, production information will be sent to Hagen for up-to-date job status information. Tying this all together will be a production report that summarizes the entire process.

  "We all talk about JDF, but we believe that through our partnership with EFI, Screen and Horizon Standard, visitors can actually see the process in action," says Jacki Hudmon, director of marketing for Komori America Corporation.

  Also on display: a SPICA 29P, and a 6-unit Komori NL28 perfector standard half size press. The latter features the three double sized cylinder perfector mechanism found on the LS40 perfector press and running press-side soft proofing, processless plates, and non-VOC inks.

  Komori says the heart of its stand will be the Digital Integration Zone. Every Lithrone press on the Komori stand is wired into the JDF network and live job tickets are submitted via JDF/JMF to each press (using Komori's KStation working in tandem with HiFlex and EFI's Hagen OA and Logic job management systems) prior to every run.
At QuadTech (Booth 1673), "We are highlighting some of our many customers who have become 'stars' to their own clients by embracing QuadTech technologies," says Sharon Quint, marketing director. "By increasing performance, these companies provide higher quality and more timely products to end users." The firm's Five Star theme also highlights the differentiators that it says position QuadTech as an industry leader in the supply of ancillary control equipment for web printers.

  "There are five main areas where QuadTech provides industry leading products and services to its customers: excellent color management and control, faster mark recognition for web and ribbon register, seamless integration across our product range, sophisticated information management, and comprehensive worldwide service and support," says Quint. Key products from its portfolio include color management and control with new features including the QuadTech color control system on ICON: incorporating System Brunner Instrument Flight technology to control every attribute of ink on paper, from solid ink density to three-color gray balance. The QuadTech color control system with Instrument Flight analyzes more than 30 color variables, and allows for comprehensive press optimization, a key component in fully color-managed production.

  For web and ribbon register the QuadTech register guidance and ribbon control systems, both with MultiCam, provide advanced register control for commercial web offset and newspaper presses. The MultiCam camera designed specifically for print (versus off-the-shelf cameras) is up to 30 times faster at finding marks than other sensors on the market, says QuadTech. It can also scan the entire cylinder circumference without compromising system performance, maintaining sight of register marks even during periods of maximum register upset, such as at a reel splice.

  To reduce trim waste, MultiCam sensors recognize marks in an area of circumferential white space as small 0.2'', increasing the printable area of the web. Readings are combined with QuadTech's control algorithms, to deliver a color-to-color or ribbon register solution that is fast, accurate, and reliable, says the firm. Autotron Gravure 2200 register guidance system makes a substantial contribution to improved efficiencies in the gravure printing process. Depending on the options chosen, it arms operators with fully automatic and comprehensive control over color-to-color register, cut-off, slit, and backup on presses of any size. In addition, the tilt and fit option provides control over moisture related web instability, ensuring optimum register under all running conditions.

  QuadTech's ICON integrated controls platform is key to making presses as efficient as possible, says the firm, allowing all QuadTech products mounted on a press to be driven by a single touchscreen, functioning as the interface to digital job tickets. This connectivity reduces changeover times and minimizes set-up times for both new jobs and re-runs. It's an open interface to the architecture of many press control units, enabling almost plug-and-play compatibility and a high level of control.

  Finally, QuadTech's Management Information Data Central integrates to JDF-enabled systems and controls. Overlaying the control provided by other QuadTech ICON-based products, it provides automatic configuration as well as sophisticated statistics and reports on press performance and optimization.

  Buying vs. Leasing

  Once the planning and analysis are completed and equipment and systems selected, the final step is finance. Large capital equipment suppliers have their own finance arms or close relationships with lending organizations. Exhibiting at Print 05 are People's Capital and Leasing (Booth 767), Ervin Equipment Leasing (Booth 13085) and Great Atlantic Capital (Booth 5180).

  Leasing was a $218 billion industry last year, says the Equipment Leasing Assn. Printing equipment was about $3 billion of that. With the array of technology and equipment on display at Print 05, it's a safe bet that graphic communications company leaders will soon be entering into new equipment leases.

  The growing popularity of leasing reflects its role as cost-effective way to keep pace with rapidly changing technology; another source of capital to printing firms seeking to expand; and a way to preserve capital. However, as NAPL associate consultant Mary Redmond, president of Independent Lease Review, Inc., notes, not all leases are created equal.

  "There are a whole host of variables in leases," she says. "While leasing contracts can provide significant benefits, many also contain potential pitfalls." Most are not obvious, sometimes "buried" under what can be frustratingly obtuse "legalese."
Also, as most leases are multi-year agreements, the negative repercussions to a company of a "mistake" can multiply over time. NAPL says its Consulting Services can help you avoid that. A careful review by someone knowledgeable with the process can cut as much as 5% to 15% from the cost of leasing equipment by trimming hidden fees.

  Visit NAPL at Print 05 & Converting 05 (Booth 862); or, after the show, call Mary Redmond or John Hyde at 800.642.6275.

  Rising Prominence: Digital Color Presses