2008 InterTech Technology Award Recipients Detailed Information Now Available

PITTSBURGH—July 23, 2008—Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) is pleased to present detailed information on the 2008 PIA/GATF InterTech™ Technology Award recipients. Twenty-eight nominations were submitted from twenty-one domestic and international companies, and ten innovative technologies were selected to receive the award.

The independent panel of InterTech judges deliberated over a unique cross-section of technologies-from consumables to MIS systems to large-format printing. Innovative advancements in technology were demonstrated in the form of digital press design, prepress content and color control, flexographic printing material, and value-added print processes. Process efficiency was a prevalent characteristic among many entries; submissions contained solutions to automate production steps, provide in-line process control, and manage production.

The coveted InterTech stars, recognized as a symbol of technological innovation and excellence, will be presented before an impressive audience of industry leaders during the 2008 PIA/GATF Premier Print Awards Gala, October 26 in Chicago, Illinois.

A technology review booklet showcasing all twenty-eight of the current year’s entries will be produced by Graphic Arts Monthly for release in Fall 2008; the booklet will also be available on www.intertechaward.com .

For more information about the InterTech™ Technology Awards, contact Eric Neumann, PIA/GATF Research Manager, at 412-259-1819, intertechaward@piagatf.org, or visit www.intertechaward.com .

The 2008 InterTech™ Technology Award recipients are: (Listed alphabetically by company, with the technology named first)

Alwan Dynamic DeviceLinks / Alwan Color Expertise (www.alwancolor.com)

Alwan’s Dynamic DeviceLinks technology applies highly sophisticated color management and quality control to standard PDF-based workflows. It evaluates the components of an individual PDF, identifying all elements, including color description and color spaces. Each object within the PDF is also analyzed for its CMYK surface and ink consumption. This “intelligent color preflighting” ensures perfect color from any input space to any output space-all with faster makeready, stable printing, maximum economy, and minimum waste.

Dynamic DeviceLinks technology powers Alwan’s CMYK Optimizer family of applications, which allow prepress companies and printers to check, as well as automatically and dynamically correct, the color spaces and ink weight characteristics of files before printing. The technology works in all print environments, including gravure, offset, and digital. The judges praised Dynamic DeviceLinks for ink savings and noted that its ability to solve color conversion problems for the digital press is far ahead of the competition.

EskoArtwork Neo / EskoArtwork (www.esko.com)

EskoArtwork Neo is a stand-alone native PDF 1.7 viewer and editor that provides the production tools needed to assess and edit multi-page PDF files. With an intuitive interface, every element of the PDF, including text, images, and other graphic objects, can be positioned and reworked as if Neo were a full-blown design application-but all within the PDF file. Users also have the ability to add separations, edit text with paragraph reflow, and transform object and image content. In addition, Neo contains an optional, interactive trapping function.

Every function in the Neo toolkit is targeted to support quick turnaround and meet tight deadlines. Compliant with Certified PDF, this application is highly beneficial for printers that run fully native PDF workflows and need to check files as a quality control. Neo’s high points for the judges were speed, on-the-fly functionality, and the ability to build and manipulate PDFs without restriction.

POLAR P.A.C.E. Cutting Systems / Heidelberg USA, Inc. (www.heidelberg.com)

Through automatic loading, turning, aligning, and cutting of paper lifts without manual intervention, Heidelberg’s POLAR P.A.C.E. Cutting Systems allow for faster throughput with less operators while achieving higher quality standards. Lower back issues and carpel tunnel complaints usually come from handling paper lifts around a stand-alone paper cutter or conventional systems. With P.A.C.E. Cutting Systems, cutting becomes an automated process-operators are no longer fatigued from manual labor, and there is significantly less risk of injury. P.A.C.E. stands for POLAR Automated Cutting for Efficiency.

Benefits of the POLAR P.A.C.E. Cutting Systems include increased productivity, reduced labor costs, economic cutting, ergonomic handling, high flexibility, minimum makeready, and minimal operator fatigue. For facilities that have more than two existing cutters and at least two shifts per day of cutting work, the POLAR P.A.C.E. Cutting Systems concept is worth consideration. Judges were impressed with its fail-safe interface, ergonomic improvements for operators, and productivity and resultant labor cost savings.

Prinect Inpress Control / Heidelberg USA, Inc. (www.heidelberg.com)

Prinect Inpress Control from Heidelberg is the first and only fully-integrated device for the sheetfed press that provides inline measurement and analysis of color using spectrophotometry while the press is in full production. The system also features automatic registration control. Prinect Inpress Control enables measurement and control during makeready and production without stopping the press to pull sheets for analysis and follow-up.

Measurement results (up to eight colors per side) are delivered directly to the Prinect Press Center, where any color deviation from desired standards is automatically determined and the appropriate adjustments are immediately delivered simultaneously to all printing units. This results in not only higher press utilization, but also more even and consistent quality throughout the production run. The system is available for the Speedmaster CD 74, XL 75, and XL 105 series presses and functions at the maximum operating performance of these presses. Prinect Inpress Control was lauded by judges for its ability to allow maximum color control at full speed.

Hiflex MIS and Web2Print / Hiflex Corp., North America (www.hiflex.com)

Hiflex MIS, including eBusiness, Office, and Factory with Webshop and Print Support use JDF to leverage total automation of procurement, estimating, production planning, order entry, and scheduling. This streamlined, paperless workflow allows individual personnel to perform multiple, integrated roles in a centralized SQL Database, significantly reducing administrative costs. Hiflex MIS is configured to a printer’s specific rules and equipment. Autopilot generates production plans and JDF files dynamically for every order. These JDFs are used to automate prepress, press, and postpress.

Hiflex Webshop provides multi-brand, open/closed storefronts. Online print buyers can create print product specifications dynamically, then automatically insert orders into Hiflex MIS, saving significant administration costs. Webshop is ideal for creating print orders of all types. Hiflex Print Support is a Web-based, JDF-enabled procurement tool that streamlines communications between buyers and vendors, simplifying and speeding up the procurement and cost analysis processes for both. Judges especially liked this JDF-Certified system’s remote contact management functions and the superior JDF integration of the Hiflex MIS.

Inca Onset / Inca Digital Printers Limited (www.incadigital.com)

The Inca Onset is a large-format UV digital flatbed printer that handles print sizes up to 10.5×5-ft. and achieves production throughput of three hundred 3×5-ft. sheets an hour. Edge-to-edge printing allows for substrates up to 3/8” thick and up to 22-lbs. at full speed. The Inca Onset can be equipped with a fully automatic load/unload system and is extremely easy to run by one operator with a minimal 20-minute setup time at the start of each day.

Inca Onset’s intelligent design identifies and remaps weak nozzles to assure consistent quality, uses the lowest energy levels possible for UV curing, and employs linear drives to move the bed for smoother motion and better drop placement and accuracy, resulting in higher quality prints. Judges commended Inca Onset for its speed and efficiency, and they felt it had great versatility as well as the potential to challenge other printing processes.

Kodak Flexcel NX Digital Flexographic System / Kodak Graphic Communications Group (www.graphics.kodak.com)

The Kodak Flexcel NX Digital Flexographic System is an integrated digital flexographic prepress system consisting of an imager, plates, laminator, and workflow. It produces plates of unprecedented stability that are capable of producing consistent, predictable, and repeatable results for a full tonal range up to 300 lpi-results not currently possible with digital or analog flexographic technology.

The Flexcel NX System accurately and consistently images dots as small as 10 microns onto the Thermal Imaging Layer, which is then transferred to the plate via lamination, ensuring an exact one-to-one reproduction of the dots from the layer to the plate, even for the smallest dots. The lamination process also creates stable, flat-top dots on the plate, which reduce makeready time, improve print consistency on press, allow print jobs to stay on color, increase plate life, and provide repeatability on subsequent print runs. Judges were impressed with the vast improvement in resolution, stability, quality, and productivity for digital flexographic platemaking.

MetalFX® / MetalFX® Technology (www.metal-fx.com)

MetalFX® is a printing system that creates thousands of metallic colors and effects in one pass on a five-color press. This provides a nearly unlimited selection of metallic colors without the expense of multiple spot inks. MetalFX colors are implemented at the design stage, where the designer creates artwork using the MetalFX color palettes and action sets.

Regardless of the number of metallic colors specified by the designer, the MetalFX system requires only one extra ink. MetalFX silver or gold is printed first, followed by standard cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks, used in their normal manner. The transparency of the CMYK inks permits the high luster of MetalFX base inks to shine through, creating an entire spectrum of metallic colors and effects. MetalFX impressed the judges because of the vibrancy that can be achieved in printed pieces; its affordability compared to other metallic inks or foils; and its designer-friendly capabilities.

Platinum White Technology / Sun Chemical Corporation (www.sunchemical.com)

Platinum White Technology ink is a low-shear, silicone-free, low-viscosity, excellent wetting UV flexo white ink that provides the same aesthetics as rotary screen whites with a single application. UV rotary screen white inks have long provided high opacity and brightness for package printing; however, rotary screen printers are restricted to low press speeds and sometimes borderline adhesion to many substrates. In addition, flexo or letterpress inks printed over them usually require modification for optimal wetting and adhesion.

Platinum White Technology improves on rotary screen technology by enabling increased press speeds, adhesion to many challenging substrates, overprint ability with standard UV letterpress, UV and water-based flexo inks and coatings, better color separations, faster makeready times, and reduced consumable costs. Flexo plate costs are also considerably lower than the cost of easily damaged rotary screens. Judges noted that Platinum White Technology will have a positive economic impact on flexo printers and praised the improvements in opacity and speed offered by this ink.

Xaar 1001 Printhead / Xaar plc (www.xaar.com)

The Xaar 1001 Printhead is used in a number of high-quality digital presses. It delivers excellent drop formation and placement accuracy with outstanding operational durability. Most printheads eject ink from a small nozzle at the end, which can fail due to blockage or air bubble formation. With Xaar’s unique Hybrid Side Shooter (HSS™) technology, ink flows past the back of the nozzle so air or particles are removed from the nozzles, keeping channels primed and operational.

Using XaarDOT™ (Drop Optimization Technology), Xaar 1001 grayscale printheads can generate up to fifteen different drop sizes by combining sub-droplets fired in quick succession onto the same printed dot. This allows the 360 dpi actual resolution to produce results equivalent to 1,000 dpi with far fewer nozzles, delivering a greater range of both resolutions and substrates, and a variety of print options. The judges appreciated the Xaar 1001’s faster speeds, ink savings, increased resolution, and its ability to support suspended particle inks.

Additional Resources:

• InterTech Technology Awards Home Page (link)

• Image of the InterTech Award (JPG)

• InterTech Awards logo (EPS)

• InterTech Awards logo (JPG)

• PIA/GATF logo (EPS)

• PIA/GATF logo (JPG)

About PIA/GATF
PIA/GATF is the world’s largest graphic arts trade association, representing an industry with over one million employees. It serves the interests of more than 12,000 member companies. PIA/GATF, along with its affiliates, delivers products and services that enhance the growth, efficiency, and profitability of its members and the industry through advocacy, education, research, and technical information.

About the PIA/GATF InterTech™ Technology Awards: Inaugurated in 1978 to foster awareness and understanding of advanced graphic arts technology, the PIA/GATF InterTech™ Technology Awards honor excellence in innovative technology for the graphic communications industry. The nomination criteria stipulate that the technology be recently developed but out of beta testing and be proven in industrial application, but not yet in widespread use. The technology must also be expected to have a major impact on the graphic communications industry over the next five years. Over 80% of past recipients have experienced commercial success in the marketplace.

PIA/GATF sponsors the award and coordinates the award process as a service to the graphic communications industry; however, InterTech™ Technology Award recipients are chosen by an independent, anonymous panel of judges. The judges, distinguished within the industry, all have experience in evaluating or commissioning new products or technologies and possess expertise in a wide range of fields, including premedia, printing, binding and finishing, and related software and services.

For more information on the InterTech Awards, visit www.intertechaward.org or email intertechaward@piagatf.org.

The InterTech Technology Awards logo is available to illustrate your article. Please contact intertechpress@piagatf.org to receive the logo.