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    PostPress

    Print Decorating, Binding and Finishing

    2019 May/June

    Go Big and Go Gold – PBS Wins with Unique Binding

    by Brittany Willes, contributing editor
    PostPress

    “Georgetown is a big idea, with a big future,” declared real estate development company Anthem Properties Group, Vancouver, British Columbia. Located in the heart of Surrey City Center, Georgetown is one of Anthem’s latest residential developments. In order to appropriately convey just how big Georgetown’s future is, Anthem turned to Thought Shop and Hemlock Printers to create a stunning promotional book for its clients.

    Pacific Bindery, also located in Vancouver, British Columbia, was chosen to produce the bindery aspects of this project and was more than capable of rising to the challenge. The result was a softcover book that is just as big on visual appeal as Georgetown itself. The 10-acre urban community, which includes residential towers, townhomes, office and retail space, is beautifully depicted in 44-pages of full-color photographs, maps and architectural renderings.

    Three rings of metallic, copper-colored foil combine to form a single letter – a bold “G” that stands out against a simple, navy background. The Georgetown G decorates the otherwise modest cover of the coffee table-style book. By opting to use a landscape format for the book, designers were able to make full use of an increased display area. The wider page styles allowed floorplans for the different buildings and apartments to be shown in larger sizes. Visually, it created a more impressive design that allows potential customers to get a better idea of all that Georgetown has to offer.

    On a more practical note, the landscape-style also “allowed the pages to lay flat much easier than portrait pages that have a much narrower width and a much longer binding edge,” remarked Jean Stewart, account manager for Pacific Bindery. “It lends the book a great sense of presence when displayed on a table.”

    The book cover itself was produced on 14 pt. Mohawk Carnival Cover in Deep Blue. Two different foils were used – the Copper #143 foil forming the prominent G and Gloss White foil used to spell out Georgetown along the binding, as well as Anthem’s name, logo and website on the back cover. Both foils were supplied by Great Western Foil.

    Once the foiling was complete on the front and back covers, a register emboss was performed on the copper foil. Overall, the entire cover required two passes for the foiling, with an additional pass for the final emboss.

    With the foil and embossing completed, an independent pocket then was glued onto the back cover. Next, D-tape was applied to the unfinished covers. The 44-pages of text were cut, collated and gathered together with the front and back covers. Finally, the book was bound using the relatively simple style of side stitching.

    However, stitching was not the end of the binding process. A section of the stitched pages was folded and creased on a platen, creating a slightly raised portion along the side of the front cover. This raised section was hand-folded and manually taped, resulting in a unique look for the finished project.

    “The look is a rare one,” Stewart explained. “We call it ‘Matchbook binding.’ It is a simple stitching job, but the wrapped cover over the stitching creates an altogether uncommon finished look.”

    While the book itself may appear simple at first glance, the binding definitely garners a second glance that reveals something unique and special – just like Georgetown. The book has proven popular for Anthem. After being released for only a couple of months, Anthem requested further reprints for its clients.

    At the 26th Annual FSEA Gold Leaf Awards, Pacific Bindery claimed awards in five categories, two of them for Georgetown in the categories of Most Unique Binding and Best Use of Foil/Embossing – Soft and Hardback Book Covers.

    Direct Mail Success

    By Hallie Forcinio, contributing editor
    PostPress

    The world of print communication has changed, and mail volume has declined, but direct mail remains an attractive, widely used method to contact customers and prospects. Although the number one sender is the credit card industry, direct mail is used across virtually all industries by the biggest (and smallest) brands in the world. One reason for direct mail’s continued popularity is the ability to target mailings. Another reason is less competition for readership since the average person views only a couple pieces of mail each day versus the dozens of emails and digital ads that appear online.

    The best reason to rely on direct mail is higher response rates. Citing statistics from the “2018 DMA Response Rate Report,” the January 31, 2019, Ripon Printers ePressLines newsletter notes direct mail house lists generate a 9% response rate and direct mail prospecting lists generate a 5% response rate – both substantially above the 1% response rate to email, paid search and social media and the 0.3% response rate to digital display ads.

    The ePressLines article continues, “Perhaps the best news is that direct mail tends to make digital perform better. Statistics show that direct mail combined with digital advertising improves conversion rates 28%. And, DMA studies show that direct mail paired with other channels can lift response by 450%.”

    Despite the strong success rate, direct mail marketers always are looking for ways to boost response rates even higher by enhancing printed pieces with specialty effects, such as variable and embellished print, embossing, foil, spot ultraviolet (UV) coatings, diecutting and tactile features that appeal to the sense of touch, as well as combinations of technologies. These value-added features are especially important when marketing a higher-end product, and the direct mail piece needs to reflect its upscale image.

    “Customers have pointed to better response rates when utilizing specialty effects,” said Sean Hurley, vice president of sales at MCD, Inc., which recently combined foil stamping and a spot gloss UV coating on a mailer for a customer loyalty promotion.

    He said, “These effects… increased the brand’s perceived value. Foil stamping, embossing and UV are instant brand enhancers… with spot gloss UV leading the way. Foil stamping elicits immediate attention from potential consumers. Embossing adds dimension and texture while UV is so versatile, with options ranging from gloss and matte to glitter and grit.”

    DirectMail-SWOSU-Gold
    >> This direct mail piece produced by Seidl’s Bindery recruits students to SWDSU.

    Combinations of features including tactile elements are especially popular. One example of a piece that takes advantage of multiple technologies is an invitation to learn about a new luxury car model, the Hyundai Genesis. Produced by Print Panther, the tri-fold invitation features a shorted gate-fold front; soft-touch lamination; matte, glossy and metallic elements; and embossing, all in perfect registration. When the invitation is beautiful, guests feel special. “It always is about highlighting your message or your product/brand,” said Christine Yardley, president of Print Panther. “The soft-touch lamination and holographic foil used in the Genesis piece instantly conveys quality and prestige.”

    Yardley added, “We have seen a huge increase in the use of embellishment across the board for all print – from direct mail to door hangers to annual reports. Volume is projected to be 25 billion pages by 2020. That’s more than twice the growth rate of CMYK digital printing.”

    She noted clients have experienced response rate increases of up to 40% with the use of variable and embellished print.

    >> Print Panther also produced this mailer for Bassett Direct.

    “Embellished and personalized variable data printing delivers a better response rate because it allows you to communicate with an individual, rather than the masses. Embellished print triggers sensorial responses, making the printed piece memorable,” she said. “I also think it depicts instant quality that transcends to the product being promoted within the direct mail piece. Email open rates are declining. Many potential customers have ad blockers. This makes the sensorial aspects of direct mail very important.”

    On the downside, specialty effects will increase the cost of a direct mail piece. According to Yardley, the upcharge today is minor compared to traditional foil stamping and varnish for many applications. “Previously, the cost of embellishments was cost-prohibitive; digital technologies have removed this barrier.”

    This is especially true for short- to medium-sized runs where digital coatings and foils can provide embellishments at reasonable costs never before possible. Very large runs still are most feasible on more traditional foil and coating machines.

    The added expense of a specialty effect is acceptable if the response rate meets expectations. “Ultimately, brands are looking for the best return on investment and specialty effects enhance perceived value,” said Hurley.

    In addition, it’s easy to start out with a relatively low-cost effect like embossing, gauge results and then perhaps add other effects – such as one color of foil, multiple colors of foil or spot coatings – to boost response. Furthermore, changes can be made relatively quickly if results for a mailing don’t meet expectations.

    Perhaps the biggest challenge associated with specialty effects for direct mail is understanding the processes involved. Some effects can be added inline, such as certain spot coating technologies. And, cold foil transfer can be accomplished inline and overprinted on an offset press. Others must be accomplished offline with more traditional foil and screen UV coating equipment. And, shorter runs now are being accomplished on digital coating and foil equipment. Offline processes will add time to the production schedule, but still can deliver an outcome that offsets the longer turnaround and higher cost.

    Involving the supplier early in the design process is key. “Our team reviews designs to provide input that can increase productivity and potentially decrease costs,” explained Hurley. In the end, he added, specialty effects win because the goal is to increase perceived value.

    Including Specialty Effects

    1. Is the effect compatible with your paper stock?
    2. Is the effect added inline or offline?
    3. What impact will the effect have on production? On costs?
    4. Highlight important features with spot varnish.
    5. For spot varnish and foil, less is more.
    6. Consider tactile features.
    7. Position dimensional varnish and foil effects away from folds to prevent cracking.
    8. Involve suppliers early to optimize designs and lower costs.

    Touch sells

    DirectMail-AudiTouch strongly impacts how people react to a product, evoking emotion and influencing decision making; as a result, touch plays an important role in brand perception. A Communicator’s Guide to the Neuroscience of Touch, a book published by Sappi, supplier of fine papers, explores why.

    The authors, Lana Rigsby and Dr. David Eagleman, director of Baylor College of Medicine’s Laboratory for Perception & Action and The Initiative on Neuroscience & Law, explained the hands connect directly to the brain. The communication between hands and brain remake the mind with each new experience. 

    “The most successful brands appeal to our haptic brains with clarity, authenticity and relevance,” they said.

    Evidence supporting the impact of tactile experiences includes the results of a lab study where subjects read a company brochure on high-quality coated paper, lower-grade uncoated paper or online.

    “The study found that those who read on high-quality paper understood and remembered the content best by significant margins. Companies presented on the coated paper left the best first impressions, and people were most likely to recommend those brands to friends. A week later, people still preferred the companies they read about on the high-quality paper, with name recall for those brands highest by a factor of 3:1.”

    The hands/brain connection also plays a role in what is termed the “Endowment Effect,” the feeling of ownership experienced when touching an item, which prompts one to value it more. The authors note, “It turns out the Effect is so strong that you don’t have to physically own something to trigger it – a suggestion of ownership is enough to make us feel possessive. Scientific studies show that people who merely touch an object, or even imagine touching it, begin exhibiting a sense of ownership.”

    In short, the authors conclude, “What we touch shapes what we feel.” It’s a powerful argument in favor of including tactile features on a next direct mail piece.

    Global Economy in a State of Flux (Again)

    by Chris Kuehl, managing director
    Armada Corporate Intelligence

    The International Monetary Fund certainly is not notorious for its upbeat forecasts. The institution began life after the Second World War as the lender of last resort – created primarily to give the shattered European nations an opportunity to rebuild their economies with borrowed money. It worked like a charm as these were mostly modern industrial states with the know-how and ability to compete once they had an opportunity to rebuild that shattered infrastructure. As that mission was completed, the IMF turned its attention to the developing world with the same basic plan – cheap loans to build infrastructure – but the outcome was not quite so positive as these states often lacked the background and skills to take advantage of this kind of support. Pretty soon, the IMF was the institution that set about correcting these bad habits through direct intervention – teams of IMF economists that virtually seized control of entire economies. This essentially set the IMF as the arbiter of good and bad economic policy, and its periodic reports on the state of the world are generally seen as very accurate – but they do tend to lean in a more negative direction.

    The latest edition of the World Economic Report is characteristically blunt as it outlines the factors that have been dragging the global economy to the slowest period of growth seen in the last several years – nearly as slow as was seen during the recession that gripped the US, Europe and the world in general. The report cites an “environment of increased trade tensions and tariff hikes between the United States and China, a decline in business confidence, a tightening of financial condition and higher policy uncertainty across many economies.” More than in past years these are all man-made issues that have been made more serious by political positions and the growth of populism as a political/economic motivator.

    This would seem to fly in the face of recent data collected in the US. The Q1 growth rate exceeded expectations with a reading of 3.2% when most were expecting no more than 2.5%. The US unemployment rate remains near record lows as it wavers between 3.8% and 4.0%. The level of capacity utilization has been getting close to the normal range, between 80% and 85%. With all this positive data, why is the IMF so bleak? And for that matter, why have there been equally downbeat projections from the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development?

    The growth expectation for trade now is for a rate of 3.4% in 2019 – and that is down from a previous estimate of 3.8% and way down from the nearly 5.0% that was notched in 2018. The growth spurt that was led by the US in 2018 faded quickly, and the corresponding surge in Europe was even more short-lived. The tax cuts in the US, coupled with additional European stimulus, provided an unsustainable boom – but from the start that surge was undermined by other policy decisions. For every step forward, there was a step or two back and the global economy ultimately started to falter. Growth estimates for the world economy are down by an average of 70% and almost every nation is looking at dramatic reductions in their GDP. Germany is expected to be down by 0.5%, Italy also is expected to be down by 0.6% and the UK will fall by another 0.3%. Mexico is down by 0.6% and all of Latin America is looking at around 0.7%, with big drops in Brazil and Argentina. The Middle East will see a decline of 0.9%. Even the once high-flying US economy will be coming back to earth with growth at perhaps 2.3%, as compared to the 3.2% noted at the start of 2019. The challenge is that some of the factors that sparked that high growth at the start of the year in the US are fragile and subject to major change. The two most important motivations for first-quarter growth were a surge in exports and a more active consumer than had been anticipated. The export surge only will continue if the rest of the world is in a position to buy the US output. The predicted slowdown in Asia and Europe and Latin America will affect demand for US exports, as the majority of what is sold by the US is high-value manufacturing.

    Of the issues cited by the IMF, the ones that seem to be causing the most concern revolve around uncertainty – and this confusion is firmly rooted in politics. The erratic nature of US trade policy has been attributed to the fact that there is no real policy in place. Tariffs are imposed and then lifted. Threats are made and then they are not followed up with action, but then the threat reappears at the time that most assumed the issues had been resolved. The policy is directed entirely by the White House.

    The agony of the Brexit process has taken everybody by surprise and has all but destroyed the British reputation in the world. It was assumed that cooler heads would prevail and an orderly and mutually acceptable deal would be thrashed out. Now the betting is that the UK will crash out of the EU in a chaotic mess that will set the economy back by years, taking a big chunk of Europe with it. At the same time that British isolationism and populism lead the UK toward this train wreck, there are similar elements in Europe with Italy at the forefront of populist crisis. The economy of Italy is in shambles and all the leadership can focus on is immigration.

    The IMF is not very enthusiastic about the situation in Asia either. China has shown some signs of life of late as the manufacturing data has improved, but there still are major headwinds due to the trade fight with the US and the slowing economic growth in Europe – a market that is more important to them than even the US. Japan remains mired in slow growth patterns, and India has not been in a position to exploit the market opportunity that has been provided by China’s struggles. Latin America is at near panic level over the mess in Venezuela and the bombastic leadership in Brazil. The hope for Argentina has faded as old problems have come back to haunt and it now appears there is support to bring back disgraced former President Cristina Fernandez.

    The US has been on the edge of a deal with the Chinese for many weeks, but it always seems to slip away at the last minute. The issues that once were seen as the most divisive have largely been worked out – issues such as intellectual property protection and forced technology transfer. The problem now is unwinding from the tariffs that have been imposed by both nations on the other. Which will be removed or reduced and in what order? Will some stay in place? This is part of that uncertainty situation again.

    Oil has been a rapidly shifting business as well. For most of the last 50 to 60 years, there was one economic development that could generally be counted upon. Anything that spiked oil prices would inevitably lead to some kind of economic calamity. Higher priced oil would usher in a recession of one kind or another – and often this downturn was brutal and lasted a long time. The price of oil has jumped by around 45% in the last few weeks and has hit levels not seen in many months, but thus far reactions have been muted. The issues that have affected the oil markets would have turned the sector inside out a few years ago – production cuts from OPEC and Russia; political chaos in oil producing nations like Venezuela, Libya and Algeria; the imposition of new sanctions on Iran and those that buy oil from them. Any of these would have been expected to have an impact, but this time around the impact has been minor.

    The reality is that US oil production has changed the rules. The production can expand more or less at will and oil markets assume the US will kick into high gear when those prices finally hit somewhere in the 80s. Beyond that, there is confidence that global growth is robust enough to sustain demand even if the prices approach $100 a barrel – at least for a while.

    It often is asserted that the global economy is in flux, and it nearly always is to one degree or another. This time, that uncertainty is at maximum levels – and it serves to almost paralyze business decision making.

    Chris Kuehl is managing director of Armada Corporate Intelligence. Founded by Keith Prather and Chris Kuehl in January 2001, Armada began as a competitive intelligence firm, grounded in the discipline of gathering, analyzing and disseminating intelligence. Today, Armada executives function as trusted strategic advisers to business executives, merging fundamental roots in corporate intelligence gathering, economic forecasting and strategy development. Armada focuses on the market forces bearing down on organizations. For more information, visit www.armada-intel.com.

    Dispelling the Myths about Print and Paper

    by Phil Riebel, President
    Two Sides North America, Inc.

    Communicating the true facts about the use of print and paper continues to be a struggle with certain companies and entities spreading untruths about its sustainability. Two Sides North America, Inc. is on the forefront of tackling the relevant environmental and social issues head-on with factual, authoritative information that exposes the myths, explains the sustainable features of print and paper and gives stakeholders a solid foundation for making well-informed decisions about the use of print and paper.

    Here, Two Sides North America provides an overview of facts and studies on sustainability as the organization advocates to keep the printing and graphic arts industry informed.

    Changing perceptions by challenging “greenwashing”

    A primary initiative of Two Sides North America is to challenge corporations when they are making misleading environmental claims about print and paper.

    Two Sides North America has released a new infographic that illustrates why 118 North American companies and more than 360 companies globally have removed ‘go green – go paperless’ and similar environmental claims. The arguments for why companies are changing their messaging include:

    • Paperless ‘green’ claims must follow marketing rules in the US and Canada. Claims need to be accurate, truthful and supported by reliable scientific evidence based on accepted standards.
    • Papermaking is not a cause of forest loss in North America. The main causes are urbanization, agriculture, hydro power projects and other developments.
    • Corporate marketing lacks transparency about the environmental impacts of going digital. Electronic communications have a significant and growing environmental footprint and use non-renewable raw materials for manufacturing.
    • Consumers are not switching to digital due to green claims. Paper still is preferred by many, and a recent study has shown that paperless green claims do not convince consumers to switch to online services.

    Paper and packaging have a positive story to tell

    Paper producers and the forestry industry, in general, have been battling the perception that using paper and packaging products is bad for the environment. While there always is room for improvement, the paper industry has concentrated efforts on responsible forestry management, recycling and reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

    One way Two Sides North America shares these messages is by showing how the paper and packaging industry is part of a circular economy where the renewability of raw materials, use of renewable energy, recycling and reuse all factor into the manufacturing design.

    Know where your paper comes from – sustainable forest management

    In the US, we grow many more trees than we harvest. Between 2005 and 2015, US forests had a net growth of the equivalent of 2,740 NFL football fields each day – that’s a total of almost 1.3 million acres a year. In fact, there are 20% more trees today than there were on the first Earth Day Celebration in 1970.2

    It turns out that the consumption of paper and other wood products, along with sustainable forest management, is essential to maintaining this growth.

    Private landowners provide more than 90% of wood and paper products in the US, which is an important factor in ensuring the long-term health of US forests. When receiving income for wood products grown on their land, family forest owners and other private land owners are incentivized to engage in smart, sustainable harvesting practices. Moreover, profitable forest management may prevent the conversion of land to non-forest uses like real estate development and agriculture.

    Recycled paper and fresh wood are essential to the paper life cycle

    In North America, paper is recycled more than any other commodity. The American Forest and Paper Association just announced that the paper recovery rate just hit a high of 68.1%, with a goal to reach 70% by 2020.4 Canada has one of the highest paper recovery rates in the world at 73%. Recycling is a key aspect of this circular economy – treating all materials, including by-products, as valuable resources rather than wastes. About 39% of the fiber used in papermaking in the US is obtained through recycling.

    While collecting and recycling paper is good for the environment, wood fibers in recycled materials eventually become weak and break down after a maximum of five to seven times of use. Without fresh wood, recycled fiber quickly would run out and paper production rapidly would cease. As such, a continuous supply of fresh wood fiber harvested from responsibly managed forests is vital for keeping the paper life cycle going.

    The carbon footprint of paper is lower than you think

    Two Sides Go Green
    Download a copy of this flyer at www.twosidesna.org/Two-Sides-Infographics/

    A look across the life cycle of paper shows that its carbon footprint can be divided into three basic elements: greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration and avoided emissions. Each of these elements make paper’s carbon footprint smaller than might be expected: it’s made from a renewable resource that stores carbon, it’s manufactured using mostly renewable energy and it’s recyclable.

    One of the great advantages of papermaking is that the manufacturing process uses a large percentage of renewable energy in the form of carbon-neutral biomass (wood waste from sustainably managed forests). Roughly two-thirds of the energy used by North American pulp and paper mills is self-generated using renewable, carbon-neutral biomass in combined heat and power (CHP) systems.

    In a 2018 US consumer survey, 91% of respondents believed that when responsibly produced, used and recycled, print and paper can be a sustainable way to communicate.

    Preferences for paper in a digital world

    Paper plays a significant role in our cultural development – contributing to education, literacy, security and personal preference to receive information on paper vs. digitally. Between 2015 and 2018, Two Sides North America partnered with global polling firm Toluna to conduct consumer surveys on how Americans feel about print and paper. Results include the following:

    • 88% believe they understand, retain or use information better when they read print
    • 62% of 18 to 24-year-olds have concerns that the overuse of electronic devices could be damaging to their health
    • 73% of Americans feel that reading a printed book or magazine is more enjoyable than reading them on an electronic device

    Two Sides North America will continue to bust myths about the print, paper and packaging industry through facts, research and data. Find resources and materials on the website at www.twosidesna.org, including infographics, fact sheets and marketing tools, or learn about becoming a member.

    Two Sides North America is an independent, nonprofit organization created to promote the responsible production and sustainability of print and paper. Two Sides is active globally in North America, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Brazil. Our members span the entire print and paper value chain, including forestry, pulp, paper, inks and chemicals, pre-press, press, finishing, publishing, printing, envelopes and postal operators. For more information, visit www.twosidesna.org.

    Five Key Trends Disrupting the Paper and Board Market

    Article courtesy of Smithers Pira

    The paper and board industry is diversifying and responding to an increasingly globalized marketplace. Global megatrends are reshaping the market faster than ever. Smithers Pira’s new report, “Ten-Year Forecast of Disruptive Technologies in Paper and Board to 2028,” pinpoints the top 20 disruptive technologies that are impacting the evolution of the paper and board industry. Five of these technologies are discussed here.

    1. E-commerce

    E-commerce retail sales are continuing to rocket, with the US and China currently the two largest e-commerce markets. By 2020, it is estimated that around $355 billion of all retail sales in China will be conducted over e-commerce, and that more than 15% of US sales will use this means in the same year.

    Internet shopping by consumers is a key driver to the demand for new packaging solutions. Consumer packaging – such as cartonboards – serves the needs of both on-the-shelf display and advertising and of the carriers of small-size goods. This trend is creating positive growth rates in the demand for corrugated boxes and its raw materials.

    Demand is growing for shorter lead times and for a commitment to next-day and increasingly, where feasible, same-day delivery services. This means packaging must be available immediately and in the best possible corrugated format.

    2. Big Data

    Use of Big Data for different applications – marketing, sales, production optimization and maintenance – is approaching Industry 4.0, which relies on connected devices, a large-scale deployment of versatile sensors and intelligent systems.

    Many key process control applications – such as online controls of basis weight, moisture and other properties – have long been based on Big Data analytics collected from fast-running paper machines. Another example of this trend is the use of Big Data analytics in forestry operations to evaluate the growth and volume of harvestable trees for wood supply.

    Big Data analytics will become widely popular in all phases of the paper and board value chain during the next 10 years. New innovations can be expected to evolve and reach further down the paper and board supply chain.

    3. Lightweighting

    Lightweight packaging boards offer multiple benefits, depending on the end use. In luxury carton boards, lighter weight boards can improve brand value to major customers. It also can meet the demands of expanding a customer base, building on successful branding and supporting business growth while increasing production capacity.

    Demand for lighter weight packaging board will continue to grow due to the many advantages it offers converters and end users. The principal gains from switching to a lighter weight board are reduced pulp costs; less weight in logistics, reducing costs and CO2 emissions; better pricing per ton; enabling more primary packs per pallet and shipment and less weight at end of life.

    4. Intelligent/smart sensors

    Typical measurements in the pulp and papermaking process – flow, temperature, pH, consistency – are taken and fed back into the process control cycle. One way of advancing process controls is to develop and fit sensors with smarter built-in intelligence.

    In the evolution of industrial automation and control, instrumentation is getting smarter and the data generated at all levels of the production processes is increasingly available to improve quality, flexibility, efficiency and productivity. This would not be possible without smart sensors, which generate the data and allow further functionality from self-monitoring and self-configuration to condition the monitoring of complex processes, such as paper and board machines.

    Across the next decade, the paper and board industry will feel the benefit of intelligent sensors in multiple applications in the mill – for example, when targeting reductions in downtime and breaks at paper and board machines.

    5. Recyclability

    Recyclability is becoming more of a key requirement for flexible and rigid consumer packaging products. When entering recycling streams, many traditional waterproofing and oil/grease-proofing barrier coatings are hard to remove economically and can lead to such packs being sent to landfill.

    Recyclable barrier coatings will develop fast over the next 10 years, but costs will be a limiting factor. The pressures are mounting related to the recycling of plastic waste and the EU has set a target to collect and recycle 55% of all plastic packages by 2030. This creates a significant potential for new ways to reuse this recycled material for new products, such as recyclable barriers.

    Executive summary courtesy of Smithers Pira. Smithers Pira is the worldwide authority on the packaging, paper and print industry supply chains. They provide world-leading expertise and market intelligence, and offer a range of testing services supported by comprehensive facilities in the United States and United Kingdom.

    Association News

    Binding Summit Draws Attendees From Across the US

    KSEA-Binding-SummitFSEA engaged its membership in the first-ever Binding Summit on April 30, the day before the opening of Odyssey Expo 2019. The event, held in Atlanta, Georgia at the Cobb Galleria Centre, was a great opportunity for Binding & Loose Leaf Division members of FSEA to interact and exchange new ideas. “The Binding Summit was a great experience,” stated Nick Graham, R & R Bindery Service, Inc. “I feel any time you can get owners, manufacturers, salespeople, operators in one room to talk about the industry and share ideas, it is a positive thing.”

    binding-summit-session-2019The Binding Summit kicked-off with a keynote presentation from Deborah Corn, Print Media Centr. Corn shared with the audience ideas on how to create meaningful and profitable relationships with print partners, including ideas that trade binderies should consider and some key To Dos. Additional panels and discussions included Training and Retaining Employees, Sales Tactics and Smart Expansion and The Future of Bindery. Technical Showcase presentations allowed supply partners such as Duplo USA, Standard Finishing Systems and Absolute Printing Equipment/Perfecta USA to discuss the newest advances in bindery equipment.

    Foil Recycling/Repulpability Study Remains Relevant

    FSEA_PiraReport_2019With the use of metallic decorating on the rise in several market segments, sustainability questions continue to be a hot topic for brand owners and end users alike. There has been a recent uptick in requests for FSEA’s study on the “Repulpability of Foil Decorated Paper” from FSEA members and others seeking information from the detailed report.

    The study, which was conducted by third-party research firm Pira International, describes the pulping and screening methods used in the research and provides a complete analysis of the reporting results from the testing methods. The study validates the recyclability of paper products decorated by both hot stamping foil and cold foil transfer. In addition, the study finds that neither hot nor cold foil-decorated products would give rise to problems found with other decorating processes that may render the decorated paper products unsuitable for recycling. “It is quite apparent that this study is extremely important to the long-term health of our industry,” stated FSEA Executive Director Jeff Peterson. “We are making every effort to continue to communicate the availability of the full study to our FSEA members and the entire graphic arts and packaging industries.”

    To receive more information on the FSEA study “Repulpability of Foil Decorated Paper,” email jeff@fsea.com.

    Next Odyssey Expo Set For Cleveland in 2021

    Odyssey-Expo-nodateThe Foil & Specialty Effects Association (FSEA) and International Association of Diecutting and Diemaking (IADD) have announced that Odyssey Expo 2021 will take place in Cleveland, Ohio in May 2021. “Moving Odyssey Expo to different US regions is important to the success of the Odyssey Expo,” said FSEA Executive Director Jeff Peterson. “Cleveland should provide a central location that will drive attendee traffic from both the Midwest and Northeast sections of the US, while allowing attendees and suppliers to enjoy a new and improved downtown Cleveland area.”

    odyssey-expo-2019Odyssey Expo is the industry’s only three-day event targeted specifically to the diemaking/diecutting, foil stamping/specialty effects, folding carton, corrugated and specialty markets. On-press classroom demonstrations, live equipment running on the event floor and experts from all sectors of the graphics finishing industry are just a few of the reasons Odyssey is a must-attend event. From interactive educational sessions taught by industry experts (both on-press in the Techshop and in the classroom) to a Technology Hall brimming with industry-related products and services from supplier companies, Odyssey Expo is the smartest way to obtain and retain a powerful market position. Watch for more information at www.odysseyexpo.org.