Epson Bets on InkJet Printer Revival

Epson's president has stated that inkjet printers are the company's "mainstay".

Wall Street Journal reported on Epson President Minoru Usui's views on the company's future, noting that "inkjet printers are Epson's mainstay", and that the company is betting on the "revival" of the technology to grow its business worldwide.

Usui stated that whilst "other printer companies are racing to introduce" 3d printers, Epson believes there is still "opportunity" in 2d printing, adding that he believes 3d printers "lack precision and efficiency, and operate with too limited a range of materials for commercial use". To that end, Epson will not introduce a 3d printer "until it has developed a model for industrial use", which may not be for another five years.

Noting his belief that "existing 3d models are mostly for making plastic toys and things like that […] to Epson, this is a highly limited market", Usui and Epson are said by the article to be "counting on" the inkjet market "to bring back growth", with stock prices rising by 19% this month alone showing a growing confidence in the company's products.

Goldman Sachs Analyst Toshiya Hari stated that Epson's stock "had been really beaten down […] people were saying, ‘We won't be printing in two years’ […] now we're getting calls from US investors that can't believe a printer company is having this kind of rise", with business inkjet said to be part of the reason for the OEM's growth in popularity.

Tetsuya Wadaki, Analyst at Nomura Securities, added that whilst "big corporations may be reluctant" to use inkjet printers over laser, many OEMs are focusing on SMBs, for whom the machines "could be adequate for […] it is a huge business opportunity for Epson". The OEM plans to invest $100 million in expanding a production line for its business inkjet printer print heads, and still continues to make "most of the principal parts in its printers" and assemble them.

Uusi noted that Epson had previously chased markets "just because they were big", but that "in the future we will focus on our core technology. I'm not interested in making a smartphone—anyone can do it. The important thing is the core technology, not the device. If we could make refrigerators with inkjet technology, we probably would".

Source: The Recycler

Web Offset Printing -- Local Printing, World Class Standards

Visit expositionprinting.com to learn more about Exposition Printing's web offset printing capabilities, a full equipment list, their plant tour or to just contact them for an itemized quite.

Exposition Printing's specialties are brochures, magazine and catalog printing.

You will find that if you are producing more than 50,000 copies of a 160 page letter size A4 brochure, web print will cost less than sheet feed printing. That is simply because a web press is about four times faster than sheet fed press. It is also going to be much more expensive than a than a traditional sheet fed style press but the time savings passes on cost savings to you.

Exposition Printing are the local web offset printing company in Vietnam, China, Los Angeles USA and Korea.

Source: Web Offset Printing Shenzhen China Italy Los Angeles Korea: Brochure Catalog Textbook

Hewlett Packard to bring PageWide Technology to Wide-Format

HP announced it would be scaling up the technology to wide-format printers.

The technology consists over over 200,000 nozzles on a print "bar" spanning the width of the page, with HP stating this "nables users to produce a variety" of monochrome and color prints, and it believes that scaling this up to wide-format will offer "high-quality prints at faster speeds and lower costs", which will "disrupt" the production printing market.

New wide-format products utilizing the PageWide technology will be released later in the year, and a number of the machines were demonstrated by the OEM at its base in Palo Alto, California, with Industry Analysts invited to the demonstration.

The PageWide technology, HP stated, will offer customers "dependable and economical operation" in terms of wide-format prints, with the print heads used in the technology "built with thousands of identical drop generators" to offer "uniform volume, speed and trajectory for precise printing". This, alongside the OEM’s thermal inkjet technology, will apparently reduce the cost-per-page and offer users the opportunity to "use low-cost photo papers for graphically-rich applications".

Two new machines were launched alongside the announcement – the Designjet T3500 Production eMFP and the T7200 Production Printer. Both devices "can handle the volume and diverse print needs" of businesses using wide-format devices, with the 36-inch T3500 featuring an "ultra-fast processor and a high-productivity scanner" as well as scan-to-email functionality, "unattended and low-cost operation" and monochrome prints "at the same cost-per-page as LED MFPs".

The 42-inch T7200 meanwhile can "handle three heavy media rolls" and produce color and monochrome prints "on a wide range of media", with a "low cost of operation" that HP says is "comparable" to monochrome LED machines. HP added that the T3500 is the "most productive large-format color multifunction printer in its category", whilst the T7200 is a "full-color large-format printer built" for companies with "high-volume print demands".

The PageWide-utilizing machines will be available in the second half of 2015, whilst the T3500 and T7200 are available globally now for $14,750 and $12,644 respectively.

Industry Analysts noted that attendees "were treated to a glimpse of a working version" of the 2015 machine, as well as a "discussion as to where this product fits and the theoretical impact it will have" on the market. It noted that "the benefits are obvious" and that "unless competitors come up with comparable or similar products, HP should take the monochrome LED wide-format market by storm".

Stephen Nigro, Senior Vice President of HP's Graphics and Inkjet Solutions Business, stated: "Our customers are continuously seeking cost-effective and reliable printing technologies that improve the way they work. The new large-format HP PageWide Technology will disrupt the production printing market by offering customers an affordable option for high-volume quality prints, transforming an industry that typically prints in monochrome to now print in color without compromising speed."

Source: The Recycler

It's Dad's Day

Canon Releases Innovative Ad for PIXUS Printers

Canon's ad uses forced perspective and 3D drawings.

Gizmodo reported on the Japanese ad for the PIXUS range of photo printers, noting that "apparently the best way to sell printers isn't by boasting about its features, color fidelity, or DPI", but "by blowing our minds with a bunch of optical illusions that leave us wondering if anything in our lives is actually real, or just a printed ruse".

The ad utilizes models of Gundam robots, a collectible series of models popular in Japan, illustrating the supposed clarity of its prints of images of the robots in comparison with the real models, using forced perspective and the 3D design of the images printed to fool the viewer.

Source: The Recycler

Visit priceless-inkjet.com for Canon printer supplies

Konica Minolta Joins The Mopria Mobile-Printing Alliance

Konica Minolta of Toyko, Japan, reports that it's been appointed as a board member of the Mopria Alliance, a non-profit membership organization made up of leading global technology companies dedicated to providing easier mobile printing.

The Mopria Alliance was established with the goal of developing a set of technology standards to facilitate wireless printing from any smartphone, tablet, or other mobile devices to any printer certified by the alliance. Since its formation in September 2013, global companies from various industries – including printing, software, engineering, consulting, and semiconductor manufacturing – have joined the Mopria Alliance to work collaboratively towards providing an ideal mobile printing environment.

Konica Minolta first joined the Mopria Alliance as an executive member in January 2014. More recently, Konica Minolta was nominated and approved by Mopria members to become a board (seated executive) member. In this role, Konica Minolta says it will contribute to the dissemination and promotion of a seamless mobile-printing environment from a global perspective by participating more proactively in the activities of the organization. These activities include final approval of Mopria specifications and the product-certification process as well as press relations and developer outreach.

Source: Wirth Consulting

Fun Fact: Car Licensing Department Runs Out Of Ink

The Roodepoort licensing department has ground to a halt because it has run out of ink cartridges.

This means people cannot register new vehicles or renew vehicle licences, and hundreds of infuriated motorists are being turned away every day.

A woman, who asked not to be named, said she had been trying since last Wednesday to register a car.

"It is unbelievable that an organisation such as the huge Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, in a big city such as Johannesburg, does not have cartridges or toners to print official documents," she said. "If I don't get my car registered within a few days I am going to be forced to go and get a new roadworthy certificate, which costs time and money."

Another motorist said there was chaos, with people being turned away.

"I've been turned away four times," he said. "I am desperate as I have to register a new car. The staff inside are embarrassed but they say it is beyond their control."

Police department director Gerrie Gerneke said it was beyond their control as the City of Johannesburg had not renewed its contract with the company that supplied the ink and toner cartridges.

"To add to the problem, the Langlaagte testing station is being refurbished so people who would normally go there are now also going to Roodepoort."

Gerneke said staff would borrow cartridges from the Florida station, so things should be back to normal on Tuesday.

Source: iol

HP increases recyclable ink cartridge content by 50 per cent

Hewlett Packard has announced that more than 75% of its ink cartridges and 24% of HP LaserJet toner cartridges are now manufactured with "closed loop" recycled plastic, marking a 50% increase in the use of recyclable plastic for the products.

"Our customers want high-quality printed content for both business and personal documents—without breaking their budget or compromising their commitment to environmental responsibility," said Stephen Nigro, senior VP, Inkjet and Printing Solutions, for HP. "From cartridges with recycled plastic to energy-efficient printing products and waste-reducing packaging design, we are offering customers solutions that make it easy for them to enjoy cost and resource savings in their everyday lives," he added.

HP’s industry-leading "closed loop" cartridge recycling process uses recycled plastic from returned HP cartridges as well as plastic from other sources, including recycled plastic bottles and plastic apparel hangers to create new Original HP ink cartridges.

Reusing engineered materials, HP has contributed to the “circular economy” by:

Keeping 566 million returned HP cartridges out of landfills since 1991.

Using 2.5 billion post-consumer plastic bottles to manufacture new HP ink cartridges since 2005.

Incorporating 1.1 million pounds of recycled apparel hangers into the most recent expansion of the recycling process.

Manufacturing more than 2 billion Original HP ink and toner cartridges made with recycled content.

Delivering recycled plastic from HP’s "closed loop" recycling process with a 33&% lower carbon footprint and 54% lower fossil fuel consumption in its production than new plastic.

Source: Solid Waste & Recycling