As more mills pump products into the chorus line, the digital paper show has gained as much importance as a long-running, usually sold-out Off-Broadway production. This is no small accomplishment. Remember the route of Tony-Award-winning Rent.

But even the earliest suppliers still agree that if there were a large enough volume of demand for all classes of digital paper, they’d be closer to better technical solutions, increased offerings, and streamlined distribution. In other words, when there is a significantly higher installed base of digital presses to support higher production volumes, digital paper will play on the Great White Way as a star product.

That’s not to say that a great deal of progress hasn’t been made since POD reported on digital papers in June ’99.

Monochrome Rolls

Not surprisingly, a number of mills produce papers that will run on roll-fed, high-speed monochrome digital devices from IBM, Océ, Xeikon (Nipson), and Xerox (Delphax). There’s good volume in this business. Guy Broadhurst, product manager Digital Print and Publishing Paper, Printers, Pre and Post and Finishing, for Océ Printing Systems, Boca Raton, FL, points out that his company’s customers produce over 20 billion feet a year on Océ machines in the United States alone. Taking a proactive stance with mills over the years, Broadhurst and his people in Florida work with the manufacturers to develop appropriate substrates.

Broadhurst explains that offset printers who buy Océ DemandStream and PageStream equipment are savvy about papers. “They want to keep the same characteristics as offset papers and price points as low as possible. However, there is a fundamental difference between offset and digital (see Box A). We’ll go to manufacturers that our customers use and ask them to turn a product into a digitally performing paper. We have paper labs here, and we help vendors understand what’s needed. They can add more digital functionally but the paper can then still be used on a traditional offset press–that’s the key,” he says. He also singles out Fraser Papers and Willamette for their work, but notes that Océ cooperates with other mills as well.

As for specific product developments, lightweight papers for financial and legal applications are in demand. Financial clients want to save on mailing costs and legal manuals have to fit on shelves and have to maintain this fit as documents are reissued. The number of pages per inch (ppi) is critical in these markets. And, because this is a national election year, printing voter ballots on strong, lightweight paper will be a significant application as well. Broadhurst says that working with Willamette on this challenge has paid off. There is now a 30-lb. basis weight with high opacity and brightness and a 1002 ppi available that outperforms a 27-lb. offset basis weight.

Ironically, one of the most significant equipment improvements in everyone’s devices over the past few years, pinless transports, has created a new challenge in the market. Broadhurst explains that with very few exceptions, mills that supply digital printers have traditionally used converters to create pinfed rolls. These middlemen then supplied the printers. Now it seems, the converters, who basically have nothing left to do with the mill rolls, want to keep their slice of the supply chain pie. “It’s a real problem in my view,” he says. “It will only change if the merchants and end customers do not tolerate vendors who go through converters.”

Juhani Yrjokoskinen, product manager for Stora Enso, whose U.S. headquarters is in Stamford, CT, sees this situation as a potential opportunity. His company, which has been a pioneer in supplying substrates for Xeikon-engine presses and digital copier/printers, does not offer paper for the high-speed monochrome machines in the United States. “We work closely with Océ and IBM in Europe in this area,” he says, “but in the United States, these printers have been traditionally supplied by specialty converters.” Yrjokoskinen anticipates that after Stora’s acquisition of Consolidated Papers is completed on Aug. 14, they will look at this market and want to draw on that company’s expertise in “massive production.” “Black and white printers have buying power. Their volumes are bigger per order. Some of them could even go direct,” he says.