Printing Industries of America Announces 2011 InterTech Technology Award Recipients

Printing Industries of America has released the recipients of the 2011 InterTech Technology Awards. The technologies receiving this prestigious award have been judged as truly innovative and expected to have a major impact on the graphic communications industry, reports Printing Industries of America.

The independent panel of judges considered nominations ranging from plates and digital printing to a variety of production and management software. Demonstrations included advances in packaging software, inkjet printing, workflow automation, offset press efficiency, UV curing, and variable-data printing.

The InterTech recipients will be presented before an audience of industry leaders during the 2011 Printing Industries of America Premier Print Awards and InterTech Technology Awards Gala, September 11 in Chicago, Illinois. Eight innovative technologies were selected to receive the award including:

*TrueJet Digital Coated Papers
NewPage Corporation
TrueJet Digital Coated Papers is designed for use with roll-fed production inkjet printing and related hybrid printing solutions. The digital coated papers feature both gloss and non-gloss finishes with improved drying times, especially for aqueous inks. In addition, the paper facilitates inkjet printing in combination with web-offset, roll-fed laser technology, or off-line in the bindery.

*Memjet Technologies
Memjet
Memjet’s printhead, controller chips, and software are used by OEM partners to create new ways of color printing in the office, label, photo, and wide-format markets. Able to work with printers operating at speeds up to one page per second. Memjet printheads can print in a single pass (700 million drops per second) across the width of a sheet.

*Enfocus Switch
Enfocus
Enfocus Switch, available in several versions, is a modular, open automation platform for receiving, processing, and sorting files automatically. Switch collects incoming files, sorts the files into different folders, and routes them through predetermined processing steps. Existing software investments are protected, as Switch easily integrates and therefore automates functionality derived from third-party applications. All of this functionality is driven by a visual flow editor that allows users to create automated workflows or import pre-designed flows from the Enfocus community website.

*KBA Flying JobChange
KBA North America, Inc.
KBA’s Flying JobChange reduces make-ready time on sheetfed offset presses by allowing an operator to prepare the next job – changing plates on one or more units – while the press is running. At the conclusion of one job, the next immediately begins at 10,000 sheets-per-hour before accelerating up to production speed. Ideal applications for Flying JobChange are language versions on a six-color press, four and five-color jobs on long perfectors, and one-over-one work on a four-color press. Important automation solutions to facilitate this include Plate-Ident, a dot matrix code on the plate used to confirm that the correct plate is in the correct unit and Simultaneous Plate Change.

*Komori H-UV Drying and Curing System
Komori America Corporation
The Komori H-UV Curing System is for inks and coatings that requires just one lamp in the delivery. The single H-UV lamp can cure up to 400-percent ink coverage plus coating at maximum press speed. The specially designed lamp also generates much less heat with a printed sheet pulled from delivery being only about 10 degrees warmer than ambient room temperature. This eliminates stock deformation from excessive heat resulting in better color fit and easier second passes through the press, the company reports. A press running H-UV can be switched to conventional ink and coating as desired.

*Manroland autoprint APL
Manroland, Inc.
Autoprint APL is designed for the newspaper industry and reduces times for plate change – an important feature in times when newspaper circulations are getting smaller and change-over more frequent. Utilizing robotic technology on a printing press, autoprint APL uses a four-axis robotic arm to change plates on two cylinders with a positioning precision of 0.01 mm. With one button make-ready, the system can simultaneously change plates in all or selected units within three minutes with no manual intervention necessary, reports the company. A barcode reader can also verify that plates are in the correct position.

*PDF/VT (ISO 16612-2)
NPES The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing and Converting Technologies*
ISO 16612-2 Graphic technology – Variable data exchange – Part 2: Using PDF/X-4 and PDF/X-5 is designed to help production workflows for personalized documents (e.g., direct mail and transpromo). The use of PDF/VT allows VDP content files to be portable, easily proofed, color managed, and preflighted. Building on the PDF 1.6 imaging model, transparency, ICC-based color management, and layers are fully supported. PDF/ has the ability to drive digital presses in a job-ticket-driven workflow (via JDF, for example). Finally, to reduce file size and facilitate caching, a repeating element is defined only once, regardless of the number of times it appears in a job.

*Studio Toolkit for Shrink Sleeves
EskoArtwork
With Studio Toolkit for Shrink Sleeves, designers and prepress professionals can quickly create, test, analyze, communicate, and produce designs with 3D visuals without the need to produce mock-ups. The software accommodates asymmetrical shapes and multipacks, color shifts introduced during shrinking, barcode distortion, and it works in 3D from start to finish. The virtual shrink tunnel allows distortion to be easily determined determined.

A technology review booklet showcasing all of the entries will be produced and distributed this fall at Graph Expo (September 11-14 at McCormick Place in Chicago) and in an issue of Printing Industries of America: The Magazine. The booklet will also be available at www.printing.org/InterTech.

PRINTING INDUSTRIES OF AMERICA
www.printing.org