Page 18 - Print21 November-December 2021

Inkjet Printing
Inkjet challenging offset
Continuous feed inkjet printing systems has been around for more than a decade, and on paper seem a real alternative to offset for volume printing. Are they ready to achieve cut-through? Wayne Robinson reports.
For a technology that first appeared back in the mists of time, at drupa 13 years ago, with the promise
to be the next big thing, continuous feed inkjet printing
has had a steady rather than quick gestation into commercial print – this has been more evolution than revolution.
Certain markets, including transactional printing and book printing, have embraced mono inkjet continuous feed print systems, although with utilities bills, and now it seems share trading notifications moving to digital delivery, the transactional market is slowing.
HP says its figures show inkjet printing is set to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7 per cent over the next three years, with commercial inkjet showing a 13 per cent CAGR. It says 382 billion pages were printed by inkjet last year, it predicts this will drop to 313 billion this year thanks to Covid-19, then says pages printed will rise again next year to 353 billion before reaching 420 billion in 2022 and 482 billion in 2023. A 13 per cent CAGR means the market will double in five years.
For webfed inkjet systems vendors – and they include heavyweights Canon, Fujifilm, HP, Kodak, Ricoh and Screen, as well as technology companies such as Miyakoshi and Domino – the holy grail though is commercial offset, the market served so well for so long, half a century now, by offset B2 and B1 sheetfed presses, and heatset web offset presses. Offset is still responsible for more print than any other process.
Take-up of inkjet presses among commercial printers has been, well, muted to put it kindly, both here
and overseas. Commercial printers are aware of the benefits of inkjet, with no plates, no makeready, inline finishing, variable data. But they remain to be convinced on the ability of inkjet to deliver the quality, and the consistent quality required over long periods of time, and repeated quality for the same job at a later date. Offset has proved itself.
The big advantage of offset litho is its industrial scale printing capability, a printer knows that the quality of the job will be the same quality level at 100,000 sheets as
it was after 1000, and the same quality on a 10-year-old press as it was at 10 weeks old. While inkjet can now clearly reach the quality levels of offset, the question for offset print business owners is ‘can it do it consistently, in an industrial environment, over many years?’. Up to now it has been a question that has not been satisfactorily answered for the legions of sheetfed offset printers in the commercial market to make the move into inkjet. The vendors though are convinced that now the systems they are marketing will do the job in an industrial context.
Part of the reason for their confidence is in the ink development. Inkjet ink, and applying inkjet ink,
is far more complex than offset ink application, even with the multitude of rollers necessary on an offset press. Offset inking is a mechanical process, inkjet press inking is an electronic process. Offset ink is transferred from surface to surface,
Right
Compact footprint: Fujifilm JetPress 540W
Below
Aimed squarely at commercial printers: Canon ProSTream 1800
inkjet ink is fired through the air, through a nozzle. Offset papers
have been created over decades to be receptive to offset ink, inkjet papers may need a special primer or coating, or may be a limited range. The inkjet vendors though say that inkjet ink has now ironed out any initial issues, and their systems have developed
to be able to deliver the level of consistency needed at the speed required, over the time.
Not all inkjet presses use the same technology: Canon, Ricoh, Screen and Xerox, are using piezo printheads with an aqueous ink; Kodak is using its own continuous inkjet technology, while HP is using thermal inkjet.
Canon uses a primer coat in the paper, Ricoh and Screen in the ink itself. Kodak uses water-based proprietary nanoparticulate pigment inks, and proprietary NIR drying,
to enable what it says is higher ink coverage for optimum quality and the widest range of applications. HP is promoting its high-speed inkjet webs direct into the offset market, claiming that with the new Brilliant
18 Print21 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021