Autor: Sven

Offset sales sag, large format grows
According to a new survey by the National Print Owners Association offset sales in 2014 are in decline. Meanwhile, sales from signs, banners, and large format are seeing growth across the board.
More at Ink World Magazine

Stratasys new innovation lab
Bre Pettis, who built up MakerBot, has launched a spinoff with MakerBot’s parent company Stratasys. Based in Brooklyn, new innovation lab Bold Machines will explore the cutting edge of 3D technology with third parties taking advantage of Stratasys’ industrial printers and resources.
More at Upstart

Pakistan packaging industry expanding
Rising exports and increasing local consumption of packaged food have caused growing demand for packaging products attracting foreign investment. But local packaging industry meets only a part of the domestic demand leaving much room for expasion, according to an article by a Pakistani newspaper.
More at Dawn

5 things to improve your color consistency
Helping companies produce accurate, consistent color is a full-time job for Dillon Mooney, Printing Industries of America’s Technical Consultant for the Center for Technology and Research. In this blog post, he provides five key improvements to achieve the consistent color a customer’s demands.
More at Printing Industries of America

Innovative compostable packaging
Ecovative is bringing an alternative to plastic protective packaging foams to Japan. But it is neither a plastic foam nor a bioplastic but actually grown from mycelium (mushroom “roots”) and low value crop waste.
More at Packaging Europe

Grants to enhance AM
Recently, additive manufacturing has rapidly advanced the production of complex-shaped metal components. However, developing complex geometries remained a problem. Now, engineers at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering are developing enhanced modeling and simulation technology and new qualification standards with a three year 300.000 USD grant funded by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation.
More at Phys.org

German packaging award 2014
61 innovations are nominated for the Deutscher Verpackungspreis (German packaging award). The nominated innovations are from Germany, Austria, Witzerland, USA, UK and Netherlands and include packing machines, displays and promotion packagings,
More at neue verpackung

Universal Flexible Packaging invests in new factory
Universal Flexible Packaging, a flexible film manufacturer and contract packer for the food industry, has announced an 11m £ investment in a new site and equipment in Leicester .The new site is 36,500 m² and creates more than 56 new jobs.
More at Packaging News

Nanoscale printer for electronics
The demand for miniscule electronics in smartphones, tablets and cameras is higher than ever and prices in those markets continue to be high because electronics are made in an expensive process. This might soon change: Scientists from Northeastern University now revealed their NanoOPS printer that prints nanoscale electronics.
More at 3Ders

Hubergroup to merge two German companies
Hubergroup announced that it will further align sales structures and strategic segments by merging its two largest entities in Europe. The group will combine two German companies Michael Huber München GmbH and Hostmann-Steinberg GmbH into the new hubergroup Deutschland GmbH.
More at Packaging Labels

PrintStars 2014
The winners of the innovation prize of the German printing industry “PrintStars” have been announced. This year it featured the new category 3D printing. A list of all winners can be downloaded in German.
More at Print.de

Space printing history on Saturday
NASA has been talking about using 3D printing in space for quite some time. Now they want to find out if it is really going to work. This Saturday, 20th September, a 3D printer manufactured by a company called Made In Space will be launching to the International Space Station to test out the capabilities of printing objects in zero gravity conditions.
More at 3D Print

DS Smith results satisfying
Yesterday, DS Smith held its annual general meeting. According to the company’s statement, it had made progress in line with its plans. Eastern Europe and the UK were highlighted as leading growth.
More at PrintWeek

The best technique for garment printing
In a series of articles, FESPA takes a look at direct to garment printing, this time with Gavin Drake, Director at Garment Printing, and Nick Brunton-Reed, Managing Director of Adlogo. Both explain that selecting the best technique to use is a complex process for the printer.
More at FESPA

New Highcon euclid generation
At Graph Expo 2014 Highcon will launch the Highcon Euclid II series of digital cutting and creasing machines. This second generation feature several new features, for example a built-in waste stripping mechanism and a fine cutting accelerator.
More at Highcon

Print-API-developer Lob raises 7 million USD
Bridging the world between writing, printing and mailing documents, API developer Lob has attracted the attention of venture capitalists. Lob makes printing and mailing standard documents such as postcards, papers and checks easy and has already more than 3500 customers. More at Venture Beat

BluePrint brings environmentally friendly printing to Yale campus
Students at Yale University will now be able to track their paper use more accurately in an attempt to make printing more environmentally friendly and less wasteful. By using the new PaperCut software Yale is also hoping to streamline the printing process.
More at Yale Daily News

SPGPrints launches UV-inkjet label printers for food and pharmaceuticals
To provide safe, uncontaminated packaging solutions to the food and pharmaceutical markets, SPGPrints launched a range of low-migration UV-inkjet inks. The inks meet the guidelines of the European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA) and are compliant with the Swiss Ordinance on Materials and Articles (SR 817.023.21). More at What they think?

Jonathan Sands sees sustainability as a growing trend
In an interview with The Die Line, Jonathan Sands, chairman of the brand design consultancy Elmwood, shares his insights about the future of packaging. While he sees sustainability as a growing trend, he also believes there will be “a second moment of truth”. More at The Die Line

BASF introduces Sustainable Solution Steering
BASF has developed a new process for steering its portfolio based on sustainability criteria. The Sustainable Solution Steering method is used to evaluate the sustainability aspects of the approximately 50,000 relevant product applications in the company’s portfolio, which represent sales of 56 billion Euro. More on InkWorld Magazine

Less paper, not paperless, is the trend
A new study from industry association CompTIA shows that nearly 80 percent of businesses are actively involved in efforts to use less paper. The businesses are trying to reduce cost and become more sustainable by limiting their dependency on paper. More at FierceCIO

Miller Lite and the power of packaging
When Miller lite switched the color of its beer cans from blue to white and changed the label design to a retro-look last year, sales spiked. People even reported the beer in the new packaging tasted better than before even though the recipe hadn’t changed.
More at Ad Week 

Samsung buys mobile printing company
To strengthen its cloud printing services for the business-to-business market, Samsung Electronics has acquired the Canadian company PrinterOn. PrinterOn focuses on three major markets – enterprise, education and printing in public places. It uses cloud technology to facilitate printing from any device in any location.
More at PC World 

Coca-Cola’s Alex Center on the future of package design
In an interview with The Die Line, Coca-Cola’s lead designer Alex Center states that he believes that the future of packaging and design is in-house. Companies need to concentrate on branding and on communicating their brands’ values to remain successful in the long run, Center says.
More at The Die Line 

Millennials prefer eco-friendly packaging
According to a study by Barkley, a Missouri-based ad agency, Millennials prefer packaging that communicates lasting benefits. They viewed products in eco-friendly and re-usable containers favorably and cited freshness as another priority. Martin Predd of Brand Amplitude LLC describes Millennials as “marketing savvy, environmentally conscious and socially empowered.”
More at Retail Wire 

Graphene 3D Lab files patent for printable batteries
While there have been considerable advances in printed electronics, printing whole batteries seemed years away. Not anymore. Graphene 3D Lab Inc. has filed a provisional patent application related to 3D printable batteries with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The batteries are based on graphene, a material consisting of a single layer of carbon atoms.
More at 3D Print

Big boxes are internet shoppers’ pet peeves
In a survey commissioned by the UK’s largest packaging distributor, Macfarlane Packaging, more than 25 % of online shoppers complained about receiving packages that are too large for their mailboxes even if they ordered a relatively small item. A large percentage of online shoppers also criticized the quality of the packaging that was often prone to damage during transit.
More at Packaging Europe