Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc., Bennington, New Hampshire, has launched its Envi Performance Board portfolio, a comprehensive collection of sustainably advantaged packaging materials.

Its wide range of source materials includes 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled fibers, industrial hemp, reclaimed cotton and recycled jute. Ideal end-use packaging applications include cosmetics, fragrances, nutraceuticals/CBD, wine and spirits, fashion accessories, health and wellness, jewelry and watches, and technology and entertainment.

All Envi Performance Board products are manufactured in the United States and are FSC^®-certified, manufactured carbon neutral (VERs) and made with 100% renewable Green-e certified wind powered electricity (RECs) under a third-party certified ISO 14001 environmental management system.

Envi Performance Board features five distinct portfolio offerings with a range of caliper and coating options:

• Envi PC 100 Performance Board is available uncoated in a bright white smooth or vellum finish or coated in a cool white shade on one or both sides. Envi PC 100 Performance Board is crafted with 100% post-consumer waste recycled fiber.
• Hemp Envi^® Performance Board is available in a bright white smooth finish or coated in a cool white shade on one or both sides, a blend of 30% renewable hemp fiber and 70% PCW recycled fiber.
• Envi 96 Performance Board is a brilliant white vellum board crafted with virgin fiber from FSC-certified suppliers.
• Cotton Envi Performance Board is a bright white toothy vellum board made from reclaimed cotton linters.
• Kona Envi Performance Board is made with fiber from reclaimed coffee bean bags and post-consumer waste recycled fiber. It can be made in a variety of custom shades.

Envi Performance Board may be customized for caliper, shade, finish, and sheet or roll sizes.

For a swatch book, visit https://mpm.com/envi-performance-board-swatchbook. For more information, visit www.mpm.com.

Supplier of substrate processing, printing and converting equipment and services BOBST, of Mex, Switzerland, is set to deliver a large program of webinars and live discussions that will cover all aspects of label and packaging production, over four days in early June. With each day dedicated to one sector, industry experts will present what’s new and what’s important to optimize the production floor.

BOBST DAYS 2021 “Shaping the future of the packaging world” will take place June 7-10. Each day will focus on one industry sector, with multiple sessions covering technologies, applications and services in labels, flexible packaging, folding carton or corrugated board.

This online experience has been created with flexibility in mind, which means that attendees can tailor their individual participation to their specific interests by registering for any of the webinars on any day. Participants will gain insights into how BOBST is implementing connectivity, digitalization, automation and sustainability across all technologies to help converters optimize their production. All webinars will be broadcast in English. Live Q&A sessions will give attendees the opportunity to quiz the presenters, which also include industry experts and customers.

• Monday, June 7, is dedicated to the label industry. Webinars will cover digital inkjet, flexo and all-in-one technologies – flexo and inkjet – to help label converters optimize the entire production floor.
• Tuesday, June 8, focuses on flexible packaging, helping converters to transform challenges into opportunities. Among the solutions presented will be the new MASTER CI Flexo press, eco-friendly laminates, oneECG printing and recyclable substrates for new ways of meeting sustainability pledges.
• Wednesday, June 9, addresses converters in the folding carton industry. Experts will take an in-depth look at innovation in printing, diecutting and folding/gluing. This will include a presentation on a new hot foil stamper with cross-foiling ability for new embellishment techniques.
• Thursday, June 10, is aimed at corrugated board converters. Production floor optimization, versatility and automation will be key topics to increase productivity and better satisfy e-commerce requirements.

Jean-Pascal Bobst, CEO of BOBST, said during BOBST DAYS 2021 the company is looking forward to debating how the collective industry can shape the future of the packaging world. While BOBST is disappointed that the company is still not able to welcome attendees to a real-life event, BOBST wants to stay connected with all of its customers and the entire industry.

For more information, visit www.bobst.com/bobstdays.

Mohawk Fine Papers, Inc., Cohoes, New York, a manufacturer of fine papers and envelopes, unveiled a portfolio of papers, Mohawk Renewal, made from rapidly renewable, sustainable fibers – namely hemp, straw and recycled cotton – in April of last year.

Mohawk’s engineers devised a process that allows the mill to create high-performance papers using rapidly renewable, new fibers. The alternative fibers Mohawk has chosen for its new line rely on waste from agriculture and garment manufacturing. By using scraps that would have otherwise been disposed of, Mohawk is reducing waste and pollution while creating something beautiful.

Now, the entire range of Mohawk Renewal Hemp, Mohawk Renewal Straw and Mohawk Renewal Recycled Cotton papers have been reviewed and found in compliance with United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) requirements for use as an Indirect Food Additive (IFA), a designation for materials used in the handling, holding or packaging of food. This means that Renewal products are suitable for use in packaging and labeling applications that involve direct food contact.

Melissa Stevens, chief revenue officer at Mohawk, said this designation creates new opportunity for product packaging designers to use Mohawk Renewal label and packaging papers – from CBD and cannabis products to any CPG brands looking to amplify their sustainability messaging.

The hemp, straw and recycled cotton materials used in manufacture of Mohawk Renewal products are compliant under one or more of the following clearance criteria in Section 21 of the Federal Register:

• Part 176 – Indirect Food Additives – Paper and Paperboard Components
• Part 178 – Indirect Food Additives – Adjuvents, Production Aids and Sanitizers
• Part 182 – Substances Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS)

The hemp, straw and wood pulps that are used in Mohawk’s Renewal products are straight from field/forest-to-fiber without potential for contamination. Likewise, Renewal’s cotton pulps are produced from clean cotton clippings, a byproduct of the garment industry. Mohawk’s recycled pulp is sourced from a high-quality, deinked pulp mill that is producing FDA food-contact pulp.

All non-fiber additives used in the manufacture of Mohawk’s Renewal products have been reviewed and found compliant for use in the context of FDA IFA requirements. This includes not only dyes, product performance additives and processing aids, but materials that allow Mohawk to operate a clean process and shrink its ecological footprint by reusing water and reducing energy. Label and packaging end users are in the best position, and are responsible, to determine regulatory requirements for labels and packaging used in food applications.

For more information, visit www.mohawkconnects.com/mohawk-renewal.

Kolbus America, Inc, Cleveland, Ohio, a manufacturer of printing and converting equipment for paper-based packaging, is strengthening its sales and service departments with the addition of Ryan Clark as its new technical sales manager for the mid-Atlantic and Northeast region. Clark began his new position on April 19 and will report to Jeff Dietz, Kolbus America president.

Clark comes to Kolbus from AG Stacker, where he held the position of regional sales manager for more than four years. Clark graduated from the Virginia Military Institute with a degree in economics and business. He served in the military for nearly five years as an ordnance officer and ended his service as a captain with an honorable discharge.

Dietz said the company welcomes Clark to its team in a very pivotal role. He will be positioned to work directly with customers, providing consultative and solutions-oriented support.

Clark said he looks forward to working with customers on the breadth of equipment and services that Kolbus offers. His goal is to be a trusted resource for customers who need help successfully navigating the evolving manufacturing landscape.

Kolbus Hycorr also made additional staffing news. Within its customer service department, Kolbus has added two CSR staff members. Jim Monte is based in the corporate office in Cleveland, Ohio, and Stephanie Kosiba is based at the Kolbus Hycorr manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

For more information, visit www.kolbus.com.

LPI, New Berlin, Wisconsin, a provider of custom packaging and graphic finishing solutions and part of the S. Walter Packaging Group, has announced an agreement to expand significantly its high-end digital packaging and enhancement capabilities with the purchase of multiple large-format presses that will be the first of their size in North America. LPI has partnered with Park Afek, Rosh Ha’Ayin, Israel-based Scodix to purchase the Scodix Ultra 6000 Digital Enhancement Presses, the first of which will be installed at LPI’s New Berlin location in July 2021.

The announcement comes as more companies look to distinguish their brands with distinctive packaging solutions that include custom high-end enhancements and finishes. LPI’s expanded capabilities with the new presses allow for more highly detailed, short run and data-variable personalized projects with tactile applications such as embossing, foil, metallic effects, glitter and specialty finishes. A key advantage offered by this advanced technology is a large-format press that can accommodate 29 x 41-inch sheet sizes.

Mike Draver, senior vice president and general manager for LPI, said being able to offer digital enhancement at a 41-inch sheet size creates a viable solution for customers to experiment with different graphic and variable imaging techniques to enhance their marketing and brand equity. As a Safe Quality Food-certified facility, LPI also values the increased compatibility for its food-based markets and customers.

For more information, visit www.lpipossibilities.com.

The Association for PRINT Technologies (APTech), Reston, Virginia, has announced that registration is open for its new master class, “Master the Art of Selling.” The second course in APTech’s new-for-2021 Master Class series, the six-week course is a high-impact sales coaching program for companies and professionals in the printing industry who need to learn or refresh their sales performance and expertise. The class begins May 19, 2021, and runs through June 23 with one live session per week. Participants also can opt to include customized one-on-one sales coaching to complement the virtual class sessions.

“Master the Art of Selling” includes weekly live classes and coaching option with Leslie Groene, president of Groene Consulting. Groene’s roots are in the printing industry in Southern California, and she consults with leading companies across the country in diverse industries with sales teams that may be underperforming, missing top-line revenue or other goals, and need to strengthen their skill sets.

The six-week master class covers everything sales teams should fully master to create a powerful, collaborative and successful sales operation:

• Week 1 – Goal Setting and Building Your Success Plan
• Week 2 – Adapting Your Selling Style
• Week 3 – Relationship Selling
• Week 4 – Prospecting Planning and Execution
• Week 5 – Overcoming Objections and Closing
• Week 6 – Selling Tools and How to Effectively Use Them

Each session is interactive, with plenty of opportunity for live discussion and answers to questions. This course’s target audience includes commercial printers, manufacturers, suppliers and service providers. Attendees will leave this course with an actionable knowledge base, the right skill sets and an understanding of the goals that they should be working towards for each area of the sales organization.

The one-on-one sales coaching opportunity allows the sales rep to focus on identifying key accounts, creating account strategies and developing effective selling cycles. Groene anchors the sessions to the participant’s most important current opportunities. She builds their disciplines, skill sets and knowledge in whatever sequence will have the greatest impact for that individual. She will equip each individual with the skills to deal with complex environments, demanding customers and high-value opportunities. The six coaching sessions will be conducted at mutually agreed-upon scheduled times and last 30-minutes each.

APTech President Thayer Long said APTech is delighted to provide this opportunity for print businesses to experience the benefits that Groene’s expert coaching can bring to their sales operations and, ultimately, to their bottom lines. APTech encourages companies to invite their leadership and anyone involved in the sales process to attend this course, which is essential for any organization that wants to maximize its sales operations.

Groene said this course will build a foundation that will help salespeople understand their sales goals, perform better and master the right skill sets for their job.

The registration fee is $399 for APTech members and $499 for nonmembers for the full six-week master class. A discount also is available for multiple class seats for people from the same company. Email Julie Shaffer at jshaffer@aptech.org about this offer.

The one-on-one, private individual sales coaching opportunity offers six private coaching sessions via online interface, along with the class, and is available for members at $999 (master class + coaching) and $1,249 for nonmembers (master class + coaching).

For more information and to register for the “Master the Art of Selling,” visit www.bigmarker.com/series/aptech-master-art-of-selling/series_summit.

Muller Martini, Zofingen, Switzerland, a supplier of postpress finishing equipment, has introduced five machines and is set to showcase them at Printing Expo ready for virtual.drupa. The company has designed a large two-story showroom to accommodate its state-of-the-art equipment, plus a hospitality suite where visitors can learn more.

The additional machines include a Sigma Line III digital book block solution, an Alegro perfect binder and a Publica Pro perfect binder, a Ventura MC 160 sewing machine and a Diamant MC Digital bookline.

Adrian Mayr, head of project management and corporate marketing, said Printing Expo’s virtual exhibition is giving the company a unique platform to showcase its latest machines. Everyone is looking for new ways to communicate, and Muller Martini is convinced the company benefits most from a mix of physical and online interaction with its audiences. The Printing Expo platform can showcase machines to the widest audience. Muller Martini’s participation in Printing Expo’s 3D visual browsing experience is already having a positive impact on its business, according to company officials. The demand for customization and personalized printed products is driving interest in the company’s latest range of finishing equipment.

Muller Martini worked with Printing Expo’s design team to create the showroom. The company’s 3D graphics have been rendered on a “real world” scale into the Printing Expo space. Visitors will find Muller Martini’s latest machines plus detailed information on the technical capabilities of the equipment.

Muller Martini’s ultimate goal is to present a complete product portfolio online. For more than 70 years, the company has provided machines and system solutions to the graphic arts industries. It is renowned for its high-quality engineering and innovation and its continuing development of new systems to meet the ever-changing market requirements.

Wayne Beckett, event director, said Muller Martini’s success at Printing Expo is an example of the benefits of taking the broad overview of all the possibilities at this time. Companies that see the advantage of utilizing virtual, as well as physical, resources to market themselves and engage with their audience are benefiting from continual engagement. Printing Expo was not designed to replace live events but to complement them. Beckett added that Printing Expo is seen as an ongoing opportunity for companies to invest in a digital asset that can be used for their own digital marketing campaigns, like virtual.drupa.

For more information, visit www.printing-expo.online.

Wide-format digital imaging leader Roland DGA, based in Irvine, California, has announced a schedule of “Business Builder” Demo Days Roadshow stops for 2021 – unique events at authorized dealerships nationwide that enable print professionals to get a firsthand look at the company’s newest technologies safely and conveniently.

Last year’s series of Demo Days were well received, prompting the company to expand the number of scheduled events to 10 this year compared to eight in 2020. Each event involves a two-day “stop” by roadshow truck carrying Roland DGA’s latest printers and printer/cutters. Attendees can set up pre-arranged appointments and interactive product demos at the dealership of their choice, with complete safety and social distancing protocols in place.

“We will be continuing the nationwide roadshow tour we started in 2020, which was incredibly popular,” said Amado Lara, Roland DGA director of sales. “With the ongoing pandemic resulting in the cancellation of physical industry trade shows, these stops bring our latest and greatest devices to prospective customers. In addition to seeing new and exciting Roland DG products in action, the events create opportunities for shop owners to discuss their specific business needs with knowledgeable representatives, safely, at a nearby dealer location.”

This year’s Demo Days Roadshow tour will kick off with an April 15-16 stop at the Salt Lake City-based dealership Regional Supply Utah. After that initial event, the roadshow truck will make its way to nine additional Roland DGA authorized dealer locations across the country, including stops in Nevada, Michigan, Ohio, Maryland, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and California. At each location, attendees will be able to see live demonstrations of next-generation Roland DG inkjets like the TrueVIS™ VG2 printer/cutter, TrueVIS™ VF2 printer, VersaUV^® LEF2 flatbed UV printer and the newly launched VersaUV^® LEC2 UV printer/cutter.

“Some of these devices, such as the newly launched LEC2-640, are products that attendees would normally have to attend a tradeshow to see,” noted Lara. “Having the opportunity to see machines like this in person – and obtain expert advice on how such devices can help build their respective businesses, makes attending one of our roadshow stops a worthwhile experience for any print provider.”

To view the full 2021 Demo Days Roadshow schedule and arrange an exclusive appointment at a stop in your area, visit https://www.rolanddga.com/sites/2021-business-builder-events. For more information on Roland DGA Corporation or the complete Roland DGA product line, visit https://www.rolanddga.com.

Spiral Binding LLC, Totowa, New Jersey, a manufacturer and distributor of print finishing, graphic arts and presentation products and services, now offers the Akiles CoilMac-EX, an all-in-one electric coil punch, electric inserter and manual crimper.

The Akiles CoilMac-EX makes coil binding fast, easy, convenient and professional; it’s the ideal partner for customers that have medium volume workloads. The CoilMac-EX is a more cost-effective solution for those customers that don’t have the production requirements needed for an Akiles CoilMac-EPI system, but are looking for a more robust and durable machine than an Akiles AlphaCoil-E.

The CoilMac-EX was built on the same platform as the CoilMac-EPI but with a smaller motor to reduce cost. The CoilMac-EX also is available in two versions, one with 4:1 .250 pitch round holes and a second version – the CoilMac-EX Plus – with 4:1 .248 oval holes, making it perfect for customers looking for a high-quality machine with a limited budget and mid-volume workloads.

The CoilMac-EX features:

• Round Holes – Standard 4 mm round holes
• 5 Disengageable Pins – Specially designed disengageable positions guarantee a clean punch with most standard paper sizes, making the CoilMac-EX very simple to use.
• Standard 4:1 Pitch (.250): Standard pitch for coil binding. Punches 43 holes in a 11″ sheet.

The CoilMac-EX Plus features:

• Oval holes – Special 4 x 5 mm oval holes, makes coil insertion much faster as compared to standard round holes.
• Fully Disengageable Pins – For a completely clean and professional punching of any paper size, all 54 pins can be independently pulled and disengaged.
• Letter 4:1 pitch (.248) – The .248 coil pitch is specifically designed to give you 44 evenly-centered holes in an 11″ sheet, which provides the most ideal hole to edge-of-sheet margins and easier coil insertion. Hole pattern is 100% compatible with 4:1 pitch coils.

For more information, visit www.spiralbinding.com.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as national and international lockdown measures and associated travel restrictions, the PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION congress and trade fair originally planned for June 2021 will be moved to Oct. 20-21, 2021, in the Congress Center at the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany. The organizers, Fachverband Medienproduktion (f:mp.) and Messe Düsseldorf, are counting on better general conditions in autumn and extended planning time for participants.

Rüdiger Maaß, managing director of f:mp, stated that the organizers have a responsibility when it comes to the health of their visitors and exhibitors. Against the background of the current COVID-19 pandemic and continuing restrictions, it is unfortunately not guaranteed that the organizers will be able to hold the PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION at the Düsseldorf exhibition center in June. The exhibitors’ confidence in this decision is documented by the fact that 95% of the exhibitors who have booked already also will be present in October. The organizers see the congress as a platform for interaction focusing on selected highlight projects and knowledge transfer while placing a strong emphasis on interactive experiences. They therefore consider it important to hold it as a face-to-face event as soon as the framework conditions allow it.

Sabine Geldermann, director print technologies at Messe Düsseldorf, said that even if virtual formats are the measure of all things in these times, the organizers’ customers recognize, based on the experience of the last 12 months, that face-to-face events are indispensable, especially when it comes to the haptic experience of technologies and their applications. That is why the organizers are confidently looking ahead to October 2021.

The PRINT & DIGITAL CONVENTION will focus on the presentation of innovative technologies in projects that not only showcase individual machines or tools, but also demonstrate overall solutions oriented on practical requirements. In addition to exciting exhibits and intensive expert advice at the exhibitor stands, visitors can expect an extensive and top-class program of lectures on all relevant aspects of corporate communication and print and digital technologies. As an established annual event in the industry, the congress and trade fair – together with virtual offerings such as virtual.drupa and drupa’s global Print Technologies trade fair portfolio – will bridge the time until the next drupa staging in 2024 and will offer an important platform for knowledge transfer, exchange and networking.

For more information, visit www.drupa.com/en/drupa_global/ and https://tdm-e.f-mp.de/.