Continuous-Feed Inkjet Paper Options Continue to Ramp Up

Continuous-feed production inkjet means high-speed digital printing. Digital printing. Short runs. Why do we need high-speed short runs?

As we evolve from digital printing being about short runs to digital printing being about versioning and personalization, higher speeds and greater efficiency mean lower cost. With mass customization, runs can indeed be long, but with each piece different. One example that demonstrates the value of continuous-feed inkjet is a case study with Hearst Magazines' Popular Mechanics. The project featured 4.8 million localized pages as 16-page customized inserts that were bound in the November 2011 issue of Popular Mechanics, plus 300,000 personalized onserts. There were several critical requirements that could only be met with continuous-feed inkjet. The customized onserts and inserts required digital printing, and the more than five million total pages could not be handled cost-effectively with toner-based printing. Moreover, quality had to be appropriate for a high-quality, offset-printed magazine and, with an HP color inkjet web press and Appleton Coated's Utopia Inkjet, the quality demand was met. The response rate was more than 4 percent, far exceeding the typical 1 to 2 percent response rate for direct mail.

Indeed, continuous-feed inkjet continues to be an exciting, evolving market. Interviews with various paper mills suggest that growth is strong, with several mills reporting growth rates of around 100 percent per year, and one mill reporting growth in excess of 200 percent. According to Don Burns, Kodak business development director-inkjet technology partnerships, "The technology is well past the tipping point."

Data from IT Strategies confirms this: 146 billion pages were printed globally with continuous-feed inkjet in 2013 (Figure 1). Average annual growth since 2010 has been at 93 percent. Market-Intell estimates that this represents 350,000 tons of paper in North America in 2013.

Still a Small Market, Comparatively

However, based on discussions with mills, the market for uncoated inkjet treated papers and coated inkjet papers remains less than 5 percent of the total market, and some reports put it below 1 percent. Moreover, while 350,000 tons is a big number, it represents less than 2 percent of the 20 million ton North American paper market. If we take out publication papers and converting grades, inkjet is still only about 5 percent of all pages printed.

Why isn't the market share of inkjet papers bigger?

There are technical challenges for paper. This challenge is greater with more color because more color means more ink and more water, and because more color often means coated papers. Coated papers are especially challenging for inkjet because the water must pass through the coating while the colorant remains fixed on the surface.

There are also marketing challenges. Historically, paper and print have largely been sold on price. While quality and service have always been important, it has long been difficult for printers or paper companies to get a premium price based on quality or service. The cost per page is higher for inkjet than for traditional, long-run offset printing, but the value proposition is lower total cost and a better return (ROI) for the print buyer through better targeting, shorter runs and less waste.

This value proposition can be a difficult sell in a commodity-oriented environment, but at Canon Solutions America, Marketing Director Kris Albee reports that their clients do indeed get a premium price per page. Albee adds that "many of our customers have figured out the value proposition: in 2012 75 percent of all customers bought a second press within 12 months." Domtar's Ann Rieser, director of market development, echoes the importance of the value proposition, and explains that "inkjet is a different sell; it requires consultative selling."

Cleary, the high growth rates indicate that continuous-feed inkjet printing is meeting the challenges. Inkjet is finding opportunities in new types of jobs, in replacing offset with shorter runs with variable data, and in replacing toner-based printing with longer runs at lower cost as data mining improves. IT Strategies estimates that 51 percent of inkjet pages are replacement of toner-based pages, while only 31 percent are replacement of offset. The balance, 18 percent, is new pages. This suggests that the early success has largely derived from converting those who already understand the value proposition for digital printing. However, Marco Boer, IT Strategies vice president, advises that the future growth will likely be in new pages, and that new pages will surpass offset replacement or toner replacement within five years.

Kodak's Don Burns notes that each market segment is at a different level of maturity. In transactional printing, probably the earliest adopter of production inkjet, high-volume customers have moved to lowest cost solutions, typically hybrid printing. He adds that customers are moving to pigment inks, which are inherently waterfast and can often be used on less expensive papers. Customers are also using hybrid printing with inkjet heads on offset presses, often on ordinary offset papers, according to Burns.

Based on interviews with mills and OEMs, Market-Intell believes that as much as 80 percent of all continuous-feed inkjet is printed on ordinary uncoated offset papers.

Book publishers have also been early adopters, as they quickly understood the value proposition in terms of shorter runs, fewer returns and less waste. Matte coated inkjet papers have met with success in book publishing, and growth has supported longer runs, which have helped the mills keep costs down.

Other markets, such as high-graphic-content direct mail and commercial printing, have been slower to adopt continuous-feed inkjet. With higher ink coverage, ink costs rise, and premium inkjet papers are needed. Mary Schilling, of Schilling Inkjet Consulting, notes that the break point to move to a better sheet is around 15 percent to 20 percent ink coverage, depending on the artwork and image quality required. Beyond that, it is preferred to upgrade to premium treated or coated inkjet papers. She adds that with high ink coverage, a heavier inkjet paper stock may be needed to handle ink saturation to reduce paper cockle and curl, which can cause finishing issues. Schilling believes that if continuous-feed inkjet wants a large share of the conventional market, "utilizing an ink with high water percentage as its base carrier just isn't the right way to go. There will have to be a change in ink chemistry."

Albee reports that Canon Solutions America is now seeing more applications with higher ink coverage: more brochures and advertising with as much as 55 percent of the sheet printed with full-color. Media includes glossy and matte coated from Mitsubishi Imaging, Glatfelter and Cham, and uncoated from International Paper, Ziegler, Cascades, Domtar, Mondi, Georgia-Pacific and Resolute Forest Products, among others.

According to Albee, Canon Solutions America continues to work with all mills, and "is testing as many papers as possible to build toward the future." She adds that CSA has launched a new Solutions and Media Lab and also created a dye media catalog, which was presented at the 2014 Inkjet Summit. The catalog is available as a tool for customers and features samples of various images on a range of papers including 50 stocks from 10 mills. A pigment media catalog will follow.

Aron Allenson, sales support specialist for Screen USA, advises that paper manufacturers face a number of challenges. Every order is different, and there are no standard sizes. Moreover, every inkjet ink is different, and the paper coatings are technically challenging. Creating one coating that works equally well with every ink and every engine is very difficult. Screen USA provides a paper certification that ranks papers on runnability and price, as well as print quality. They list 200 papers, including weights and finishes. Papers include Cascades, Boise, Crown Van Gelder, Ziegler, Mondi, Domtar, Finch, International Paper, NewPage and Appleton Coated.

Early on, Ricoh's focus was on transactional print, mostly with uncoated paper, much of which was untreated. Mike Herold, Ricoh's director of marketing for inkjet technologies, notes that Ricoh "continues to innovate" and has added drying capacity to handle more challenging applications. Ricoh is working with customers to move beyond transactional print into data-rich applications with variable data printing, and can handle coated papers, depending on the level of gloss. Ricoh offers three ink systems: dye, pigment and MICR.

Kodak has further optimized its technology to print on many standard offset papers, especially for trade books. Burns adds that Kodak has been working with mills for more than 20 years and has tested 4,500 papers. The Kodak Prosper Paper Rating program now has over 250 papers rated, and about 25 percent are standard offset grades and are suitable for monochrome applications. With full-color printing, paper technology matters greatly and Burns says that "for inkjet, no two papers will print exactly the same. Paper science is just that, and some mills are achieving our Four and Five Diamond Levels for print quality."

Impika Now Part of Xerox

Xerox continues to invest aggressively in the expansion of its inkjet business with the addition of the Impika aqueous technology in 2013 and continued development of the CiPress production inkjet systems. Jason Rider, worldwide manager, CiPress Business, says that "by offering a choice of technologies, Xerox can propose the best solution for customers. The CiPress solid ink platform was designed to deliver excellent image quality on plain paper, but the CiPress Tested Media List also includes coated, light- and heavy-weight paper, and specialty media." Impika's Compact, eVolution and Reference printers are compatible with Impika's High Density (HD) or dye-based ink. Rider adds that "the HD ink set delivers excellent optical density on traditional offset or digital media, as well as enhanced gamut on inkjet papers, and some coated stocks."

Xerox also has long-standing relationships with paper companies, according to Rider. "An expanded media testing program, available for both waterless and aqueous ink, allows for efficient screening and robust testing of media."

At HP, Yale Goldis, worldwide product marketing manager, inkjet high-speed production solutions, reports that more than 50 billion pages have been printed globally, and growth has been strong—both from new installations and higher utilization rates for older installations. More than 16 percent of the 50 billion pages printed since 2009 were printed in the past quarter alone.

Goldis says one big factor that will support future growth is the availability of lower cost media solutions, especially gloss coated. HP inkjet web presses can now use Appleton Coated or NewPage coated dull and gloss papers with up to 80 percent coverage. HP is working with paper companies to accelerate the market.

At last month's Inkjet Summit, Fujifilm North America, Graphic Systems Div., was voted "The Company to Watch" by the printer attendees. The Fujifilm J Press 720 is the world's first B2 format (19.69x27.83˝) sheetfed inkjet press and is said to be an excellent companion to the Fujifilm J Press 540W continuous-feed inkjet press. The J Press 720 prints on standard papers from 70-lb. text to 14-pt. cover, and the J Press 540W supports both inkjet and non-coated papers between 64 gsm (43.3-lb. text or 17-lb. bond) and 157 gsm.

Fujifilm does extensive paper testing at its Tech Center in Illinois, and uses proprietary technology to develop profiles for various papers. This enables Fujifilm to help customers optimize performance, not only on Fujifilm presses, but also on other equipment such as offset presses for hybrid printing.

Media Options Expand

Appleton Coated continues to expand its range of coated papers, most recently with the addition of high yield 7-pt. and 9-pt. Matte Cover to the Utopia Inkjet line. Ann Whalen, senior vice president, notes that they perform very well on HP T-series and Kodak presses. Appleton Coated's line includes Utopia Inkjet Gloss, Dull and Matte ranging from 60-lb. text up to the new cover weights. The line also includes Utopia Uncoated Inkjet with ColorPRO Technology, plus Utopia Uncoated Inkjet for dye-based systems and Utopia Inkjet PE for piezoelectric inkjet presses. Appleton Coated's Book Inkjet line includes Utopia Book Inkjet in Smooth (uncoated) and Matte finishes, and Utopia Book Inkjet PE for piezoelectric inkjet presses.

Whalen points out that coated inkjet prices have come down, as greater volumes and longer runs have helped bring down costs. However, premiums over standard coated offset grades have not come down because prices for the offset grades declined in the third quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014.

Dennis Essary, NewPage director of digital papers, advises that NewPage TrueJet was developed for the Kodak Prosper press, is also recognized for use on HP T-series presses without a bonding agent and works well on Canon (Océ) engines. TrueJet is available in 80-lb. and 100-lb. gloss text, and also 7-pt. and 9-pt. gloss cover, and TrueJet Book is available in 45-lb. matte with 756 ppi.

TrueJet sales nearly doubled in 2013, according to Essary, but from a small base. He adds that full-color hybrid printing is growing, with four-color inkjet capability on offset presses. Four-color imprinting provides challenges that black text does not, and NewPage offers TrueJet Hybrid, which he says is the "only guaranteed gloss product" for hybrid printing. It is suitable for full-color inkjet up to 50 percent coverage, and also for offset printing at speeds up to 1,000 fpm.

Cathy Cartolano, vice president of sales and technical services at Mitsubishi Imaging (MPM), advises that SWORD iJet Gloss has garnered a Five Diamond Rating for Kodak Prosper presses, the highest rating within the program. She adds that Sword "works well on all presses" and is available in satin, matte and gloss finishes.

SWORD iJet carries a premium price, and MPM has launched a new grade, Premier IJ Book, which is priced to be "competitive with other matte coated inkjet papers and is targeted to the higher volume book market." Premier IJ Book is available in 43-lb., which offers a yield advantage versus 45-lb. with a higher ppi. It is also available in 90 gsm, 105 gsm and 130 gsm. MPM is also launching another new grade, ValueJet, with a lighter coat weight and lower cost for transactional and transpromo printing.

At Glatfelter, Dennis Betz, senior business development manager, says his firm has been a leading producer of production inkjet papers since the inception of the market, booking its first production inkjet paper order 10 years ago. Glatfelter offers two coated grades: Pixelle Restorecote and Pixelle Duo Matte, which work with both dye- and pigment-based inks. Glatfelter also offers 7-pt. and 9-pt. inkjet stock, on both treated and coated.

Glatfelter also offers a range of papers for high-volume statement printers, as well as papers for direct marketing and book publishing. Inkjet treated papers (uncoated) include 20-lb. and 24-lb. Engineering Bond and 20-lb., 24-lb. and 32-lb. Pixelle Bond HiBrite for dye- or pigment-based inks, plus Pixelle Book 50-lb. and 60-lb. text for pigment-based inks in both white and natural shades. Glatfelter recently introduced a new treated paper—Pixelle Bond Xtra—that has nearly the color gamut of coated inkjet papers.

At Domtar, the strategy continues to evolve. Domtar is launching a new grade: VantageJet, which is similar to VividJet, but optimized for dye-based inkjet. According to Rieser, Domtar's approach is "to drive the Domtar products that best match the customers' needs in terms of their end-use application, print quality expectations and budget." She adds that Domtar is working closely with OEMs and ink companies "to find the right solutions for this ever-changing market." Because of the need for consultative selling at the printer and end user level, Domtar continues to market its inkjet paper through the Enterprise Group.

At International Paper, Rick Williams, product development coordinator, notes that because of the growth in digital printing IP made a decision to be the leader in inkjet. "We believe that we have a wide range of uncoated papers that were developed to run on digital equipment." Williams confirms that inkjet is growing rapidly, albeit from a very small base, and notes that the major growth is with transpromo applications.

The IP offering includes Accent Opaque and Williamsburg Offset with ColorPRO Technology, created for the HP T-series presses, plus Accent Opaque and Williamsburg Offset with ImageLok Technology for a range of pigment-based inkjet presses. For dye-based inkjet presses, waterfast Accent Opaque Dyemond, is specially formulated to allow inks to dry quickly and better maintain their color when subjected to water or UV light.

Finch Paper is now marketing a new grade, Finch Digital Web XP, a cross-platform (XP) grade designed to work on high-speed inkjet web presses, both pigment- and dye-based, as well as laser and offset printing applications. Beth Povie, director of branding and communications, adds that it "is an excellent choice for hybrid offset-inkjet printing." The new grade is a complement to Finch Inkjet Pi, which is designed for high-speed pigment inkjet applications.

Normand Champagne, Cascades Fine Papers Group general sales and marketing director, says that Cascades Enviro Jet is the only inkjet paper with 100 percent post-consumer recycled content made in North America. It is designed to produce high-quality results with both dye- and pigment-based inks. He adds that samples shown during Paper2014 showed solid blacks and vivid colors, and compared favorably with other inkjet treated uncoated papers.

According to Champagne, Cascades Enviro Jet performs well on Kodak Versamark and Prosper presses, Ricoh InfoPrint, HP T-series presses, Canon Océ Stream presses and the Fujifilm J Press. Cascades Enviro Jet is available in 20-lb., 24-lb., 28-lb. and 32-lb. with smooth finish (110 Sheffield) and 92 brightness, and is suitable for direct mail, transactional print and books.

In September 2013, FutureMark Paper Group launched Future Jet, said to be the industry's first coated inkjet paper made with more than 90 percent recycled fiber. FutureMark has tested Future Jet with various printers and digital inkjet OEMs, including Ricoh's InfoPrint 5000 and Screen USA's Truepress Jet. According to Steve Silver, FutureMark president and CEO, "Our testing on dye-based printers has revealed that Future Jet paper provides breakthrough print quality, with the added benefits of consuming less ink and no need for an extended media dryer."

Future Jet digital also secured high ratings from Kodak and HP. Kodak's Paper Rating Program gave the product a Four Diamond rating on pigment inks. Future Jet is also now certified for HP pigment inkjet web presses, with a rating of "Recommended Media to Best Performing Media." The Future Jet product offers a high quality recycled digital inkjet solution with both dye- and pigment-based printers for book publishers, direct mail providers and commercial printers. Future Jet is available in 45-lb. and 50-lb. matte finish.

The range of papers suitable for continuous-feed inkjet printing continues to expand. Still, market penetration for high-speed production inkjet remains low as challenges remain for high ink coverage, high-quality graphics applications. "The industry needs to take a step back," suggests Schilling. "More collaboration. Better understanding of the needs of the commercial printer and commercial print buyer." The market is experiencing strong growth as challenges with ink and paper are being met every day as the industry develops a deeper understanding of the value proposition for continuous-feed inkjet. Consultative selling is essential, not only for paper mills, but also for printers, to sell the value proposition and also to better understand the market needs. PI

About the Author

Jack Miller, known as the Paper Guru, is principal consultant at Market-Intell, a supplier of strategic consulting and "Need to Know" market intelligence in paper, print and packaging. Formerly, Miller served as senior consultant, North America, with Pira International and was also director of market intelligence at Domtar. He can be contacted by e-mail at jack.miller@market-intell.com.