Continued consolidation and a losing year financially may be the big picture for 2003 thus far for the forest products industry. That doesn’t mean all players remained static, however. For example, in the specific area of digital papers, two machine vendors surprised the market by jumping into the paper business. This is not to say that it hasn’t been done before. IBM, Océ, and Xerox all are OEM distributors of digital papers and have been for a long time. It’s the timing that may have caused a few raised eyebrows but the vendors in question, HP and Xeikon, are both showing they mean business.

　　Another mill, Mohawk, chose this September to launch an entire line of brand new papers for production color “copiers.” In doing so, the company further demonstrated its faith in and commitment to the digital printing industry. In addition, more mills added digital papers to their lines or expanded existing lines. We’ll also highlight a few of these offerings.

　　HP’s House Sheets

　　Last April, HP announced that it was offering HP Indigo Printing Paper for its digital presses. In North America, there are currently eight grades available: coated and uncoated 80# text and cover and 100# text and cover in both gloss and matte. The uncoated line is also available now in Europe and the coated will follow shortly. These grades and weights are the most popular in the digital printing world and are the ones a printer would be expected to be running as a “house sheet.”

　　John Gowan, HP’s director of large-format media business, is also heading up this line. According to Gowan, the company launched their own branded media so that customers could be confident that they had papers that would run “right off the bat.” “We wanted our customers to literally turn on the machine and go,” Gowan says. “These are not products treated offline. They were developed by International Paper and brought to market specifically for HP Indigo. There is special technology in these papers.”

　　In addition, HP is also addressing availability, which has always been a challenge for all digital color press owners, not just Indigo printers. While lots of mills now offer digital papers, the merchant community around the United States has yet to be fully convinced that digital papers would be moneymakers for them. Part of HP’s deal is an exclusive agreement for North America with IP-owned paper distributor Xpedx. Products can be ordered and delivered within 24 hours to most major markets in North America.

　　You may recall that to get Indigo’s ElectroInk to adhere to substrates, a special “sapphire” coating has to be applied to papers. While that was problematic for a number of reasons in the early days, since the late 1990s, mills have brought an increasing number of sapphire coated substrates to market and even some that perform successfully without the special treatment. Even in light of this, Gowan doesn’t believe that HP’s entry will have a chilling affect on development. “We like to think that the market is growing fast enough for all the people in the market,” he says. “We are helping to grow the use of this technology and consequently increasing the size of the pie.

　　“Our goal is about serving the customer but we’re also in the media business,” he continues. “The two things come toget-her but this is predominately about what customers need more than anything.”

　　Gowan also points out that there is still plenty of development left to do. For example, he notes that on the coated side, digital papers are still considerably more expensive than comparable offset lines, while uncoated prices are much closer to uncoated offset grades. “As we move forward we need to develop the technology that allows us to go to the offset level,” he says. “To do that we are focusing on existing processes and materials in the mills. The idea is to make the least changes to existing grades. We’re trying to understand the chemistry. In papermaking, there are different places to make changes—at the head box plus subsequent steps. What we want to do is make changes to the recipe in the least disruptive way possible.”

　　Xeikon House & Specialties

　　Actually, Xeikon America preceded HP Indigo into the paper business by announcing its intentions at Graph Expo last year after it purchased the assets of the former Russell-Field Paper Company and hired digital paper pioneer Laura Field as vice president of its digital paper division. Now that they’ve been at it for awhile, Field says it’s been a challenging year.

　　Like HP, the Xeikon America brand is aimed at being a house sheet. “We are offering the standard paper that RF-Digital had, Mizar from the Italian mill Burgo,” Field says. “Customers love it, and it’s nice to have a reliable gloss and matte. For uncoated we’re offering Ultralaser.”

　　She also points out though, that the greatest challenge has been moving the RF-Digital inventory that Xeikon purchased. “The market has changed,” she says. “The inventory was geared to longer runs and different uses and applications. Now Xeikon has that inventory and so users can get tremendous deals on discontinued stocks.” For example, the once popular Diane is being discontinued after eight years and some basis weights of Nopa Color are also being discontinued.

　　“We’re doing three things,” Field summarizes. “We are continuing to carry house papers; we’re offering great opportunities on discontinued stock; and we’re bringing on new products as well. Basically, we have something for everyone. It was a good strategic move and a help to our customer base…It generates additional sales for Xeikon but it also assists customers. That’s critical to Xeikon’s history.”

　　Currently, Field waxes enthusiastically about a new, repositionable, ultra removable adhesive that is being used as an alternative to static cling substrates for labeling applications (simplex or duplex). The Xeikon press process is too hot for existing static cling products, but Field says these new adhesives are “nicely tweaked for the Xeikon.” The two products are a 2-mil PET clear Ultra Removable Adhesive and a 3.4-mil Opaque Vinyl Repositionable Adhesive. Applications range from stickers and window displays to POP applications for doors, floor graphics, and pharmaceutical labels that have to be removed at the time of sale.

　　Mohawk’s Copier Launch

　　Mohawk’s decision to focus on the color copy market now by launching a full line of papers is a significant move for a smaller, independent mill. According to Laura Shore, creative director, the decision to launch a line is based on Lyra Research’s analysis that shows the installed base of color copiers growing at 13 percent per year. Mohawk is aiming at machines like the Xerox DocuColor 2060 and 6060 down to equipment running at 20 to 30 ppm. In other words, the target is a production color copier environment that spans the corporate office and in-plant plus print-for-pay plants that run copiers.

　　The Lyra Study and Mohawk’s own estimates put the market for uncoated color copy papers (96+ bright) at 75,000 – 85,000 tons with a forecast of seven percent annual growth through 2006. Coated color copy papers are at about 10,000-15,000 tons with 10 percent annual growth forecast for the same period. “The market is really changing and copying is where the growth is,” Shore says.

　　In talking to Shore prior to the launch, POD discovered that this move is a case study of how a nimble company can move quickly. Shore notes that the decision to develop and launch a line this fall came after the On Demand Show last spring. Therefore, in around three months, company technicians developed a new, trademarked digital imaging surface, a treatment for both uncoated and coated papers that the company claims enhances paper/toner performance and increases print fidelity. The idea is that Mohawk will compete in a well-populated field by offering superior quality and performance.

　　Products in the line, each of which offers a variety of text and cover weights are:
• Color Copy Premium, a 100 bright neon white shade
• Color Copy 96, a 96 bright white with a super smooth finish
• Color Copy 100 percent recycled, a 100 percent post consumer waste product with a 96 bright PCWhite shade
• Color Copy Gloss, 96 bright pure white shade with a gloss finish and 15 percent post consumer recycled fiber

　　Not only did the technicians come up with the new technology, but the line was manufactured and tested extensively at the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation in Pittsburgh. “We sent them thousands of sheets and they just ran their equipment for hours,” Shore says. “We scored very well on runnability, and the GATF technicians were very impressed with our quality.” She also admits that the only way to be ready for a launch with marketing materials and a merchant program is for marketing to work on a parallel track with manufacturing. “We have amazing people making paper. We have to take a giant leap of faith in marketing but they always come through,” she says.

　　Shore also notes that their merchants “are amazed.” “They pigeonholed us as a digital paper mill and in their minds that means small. However, they do lots in color copiers and ours are different enough, especially the 100 percent recycled, to give them something they can sell. For example, Kelly Papers is putting the line in the system and they needed product on the floor by the September 15 launch date. They have 50 stores in California, Arizona, and New Mexico and they do understand the business. Kelly is also now stocking some other Mohawk premium grades. We can’t own a huge range of shelf space but the 100 percent recycled also has potential in the retail environment.”

　　Mohawk describes pricing for the line as “competitive.” “We offer a lot more value dollar for dollar,” Shore says. We understand the pressure to reduce cost per copy and as the market grows there will be more papers on the low end but also a growing niche for premium papers.”

　　Market Highlights

　　Digital paper manufacturers kept the pipeline full this year with new or improved products and announcements. Following are just a few highlights plus a list of mills that participate in the digital market.

　　Domtar
　　www.domtar.com

　　In August, Domtar, a Canadian company, opened new distribution centers in Chicago and Dallas to better serve North American paper buyers. Specifically for digital printing, in March, the company introduced Microprint Coated Laser, a high bright premium coated, cut-size sheet for color laser printers and copiers, which also performs consistently on offset presses. Testing was performed at Buyers laboratory and through GATF.

　　This non-sapphire coated sheet is certified for the HP Indigo 3000. Domtar also guarantees its performance on the NexPress, Quickmaster DI, iGen3 and DocuColor 6060, Xeikon engine machines, and the Presstek-Ryobi DI.

　　International Paper/ Hammermill
　　www.ippaper.com/hammermillretail

　　Hammermill branded Color Copy Paper products are well known and widely used. This spring, owner International Paper introduced a new print promotion for the entire line called “The View from the Top.” There is also a swatchbook for the entire digital line available online at the URL listed above. Perhaps the most significant additions this year were new sizes that offer printers alternative imposition possibilities. One is the Hammermill 18x12" color copy gloss for projects that contain bleeds or require an oversize sheet. The other is a new 17x11" sheet size for Hammermill Color Copy Paper, Photo White, that is available short grain as well as the typical 11x17" grain long size.

　　Mohawk Paper Mills
　　www.mohawkpaper.com

　　While its color copy line launch may steal the headlines now, Mohawk also added product this spring that’s significant to the digital market. First, the company began inventorying sapphire-treated papers for the HP Indigo family of presses. This includes uncoated Mohawk Superfine and coated Mohawk 50/10 plus matte and floss in a wide range of weights, sizes, and shades of white. Second, the company added new sizes of Archival Mohawk Superfine, specifically aimed at book publishers. The product is now available in 12x19" and 14x19" softwhite, 24# smooth. The company also claims to have the widest range of digital cover stocks.

　　Smart Papers
　　www.smartpapers.com

　　In June, Smart Papers unveiled what it calls the most extensive redesign and modernization ever of its Carnival Writing, Text, and Cover printing papers line. The company said Carnival is now the most complete offering of branded papers in its class—at value price points. Of specific interest here, Carnival Digital is now available for the HP Indigo family, DI presses, Xeikon-engine presses, and it is also laser and inkjet guaranteed. The line consists of four white, two finishes, and six weights. The company also accepts special orders.

　　Tekra
　　www.tekra.com

　　In April, Tekra announced two new product lines, DigiGo and ToneKote for the HP Indigo as well as other toner-based printing platforms. Both lines were initially developed as custom products for specific customers. DigiGo and ToneKote are complimentary products to Tekra’s Dura-Go product line, film substrates optimized for HP Indigo presses and DuraKote product line, film substrates optimized for toner base presses. Both will consist of paper or synthetic papers. The first two DigiGo products launched were a 60# Hi Gloss paper PSA with permanent adhesive and a 60# Matte paper PSA with permanent adhesive and the first ToneKote product is a 7.5 mil HI Grade Synthetic.

　　In addition, Tekra released Dura-Go 7-mil ProTek textured Hard Coated Poly-ester for HP Indigo. It can be used for applications such as membrane touch switches, nameplates, faceplates, and more. It is stocked in 12x18" sheets and roll stock and can be made on a custom basis.

[时间：2003-11-17  作者：Bisenet  来源：Bisenet]