Color Me Beautiful
What a difference a year makes.
At last year's NEXPO, newsprint price-spikes inspired workshops on saving paper, shrinking page sizes and close analysis of inventories.
This year, with newsprint prices stable, paper concerns mostly involved color reproduction. Jack H. Stanley, vice president of operations for the Houston Chronicle, suggested that advertisers would harbor more realistic expectations of newspaper color if they printed their proofs on newsprint.
"Don't send me a chromaline or anything like that," he said in a post-NEXPO interview. "If I know what it is supposed to look like on newsprint, I've got press [workers] that can match pretty near anything."
On the floor, ink manufacturers dove into the color skirmishes with several new products.
Flint Ink Corp. of Detroit uncapped Performance Plus, a color ink that was tested for a year at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland. Norman A. Harbin, Flint's technical director for publications, said the newcomer improves print quality with sharper dots, smoother overprints, less set-off, and significantly higher mileage.
US Ink of Carlstadt, N.J., introduced two inks. Beacon Black, a mineral oil-based ink, has a VOC of less than 2 percent and costs less than soy-based competitors. The firm also launched Aqua News Spectra Black, a resin-polymer flexo ink that provides higher density at lower VOC.
Demands for better press performance and runability led The Ink Company of West Sacramento, Calif., to develop UltraColor. Bob Throckmorton, director of corporate services, said UltraColor provides bright, clear color reproduction while increasing mileage and reducing page-to-page set-off.
Heritage Inks International of Edison, N.J., reported a warm welcome for Knight Star, a soy-based ink with a VOC of less than 1 percent and minimal pipe-roller buildup.
Despite the lack of emphasis on saving newsprint in the NEXPO'97 program, the exhibit floor still showcased several tech-driven approaches to paper handling.
FMC Corp., Chalfont, Pa., offered the Walkabot automatic guided vehicle, based on a standard electric pallet jack, or "Walkie."
Baumer Electric Ltd., Southington, Conn., introduced Scatec-2, an electronic position-sensing device designed for printing and paper-handling. The laser-based sensor, which is controlled by a microprocessor, has a sensing range of up to 60mm and can detect up to 600,000 individual sheets or signatures per hour.
Elise Burroughs, Presstime executive editor, e-mail, burre@naa.org; phone, (703) 902-1678; fax, (703) 902-1690, and Rosalind C. Truitt, Presstime staff writer, e-mail, truir@naa.org; phone, (703) 902-1684; fax, (703) 902-1690.