By Noel Jeffrey and Liz Fedorowicz

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.

Color Press Substrates
Stora Enso has also maintained its commitment to the Xeikon-engine market. This year, Yrjokoskinen reports that Stora’s 4CC line offers rolls for both the narrow 32/DCP and wider 50/DCP Xeikons and OEM-engine machines. Equally as important, perhaps, is that the company has moved to more aggressive pricing, some 15 percent down, according to Yrjokoskinen. It also now distributes its products through local merchants as opposed to a few geographic hubs.

“The merchants can match the end users’ service expectations and delivery needs,” he points out. On the sheetfed side, Stora Enso made 4CC Art glossy available for Indigo presses at the end of May. No Sapphire treatment is needed.

Yrjokoskinen also adds that this year, for the first time, the anticipated trend to lower basis weights, for example 28-lb. bond as opposed to 95-lb. cover, indicates that variable-data work is increasing. He is not alone in this observation.

“The early digital printers were emerging businesses,” says Laura Field, vice president of RF Digital, Bellwood, IL, another digital paper pioneer. ” Now that they’ve gained years of experience and educated customers, they’re seeing a diversity in what customers want. They are asking for more unusual things. For instance the pharmaceutical and financial industries are asking for 50-60 gsm (grams per square meter) lightweight papers. Others are looking for synthetics, pressure sensitives, and textured products. Designers are even asking for colored papers. These are positive trends that should encourage paper suppliers.”

According to Yrjokoskinen, 4CC rolls now also offer better quality. By quality, he specifically means maximizing imaging quality and runnability of the substrate. “This has to be studied,” he says. “You’d better invest in your own machine.” Stora Enso has had its own Xeikon for a number of years and works closely with Xeikon manufacturing in Belgium to provide media behavior feedback.

In the United States, the Rochester Institute of Technology plays a similar role. Bill Garno, head of RIT’s Printing Applications Laboratory, which has 14 full-time employees and upwards of 20 students working in support roles as co-op or part-time employees, explains that digital paper qualification is only part of the Lab’s charge to evaluate and develop printing materials across the board.

RIT has served as a Xeikon qualifier for over two years now and began a similar program for Indigo in February. And, while the Lab has no “official” agreement with Xerox, it does run two DocuColor 40s and two DocuTech 135 Publishers and shares information on image quality, runnability, and other printing characteristics.

Paper mills approach RIT when they have a product for either the Xeikon-engine, an Indigo, or both. For the Xeikon, the process is called scripting. For the Indigos, the primary challenge is to determine if a substrate needs the special Sapphire coating.

“Scripting a paper for a Xeikon engine means adjusting the parameters of some 40 variable set points,” Garno explains. “Xeikon, Pira (U.K.), and RIT have defined the process, so that it is part of the qualitative assessment of what you get when you do these prints. Next, the scripts and prints are sent to Xeikon, where a quality level is assigned. Then, Xeikon publishes a comprehensive list of substrates each quarter and printers are able to download the scripts. The benefit to users is that there are now over 200 qualified substrates in a range of categories. The printer can go to proven materials and avoid pre-set up. ”

As for the Indigos, Garno says that 90 percent of the papers they have tried so far are not treated, and that they have had a good number of successes. New papers from Champion, Modo, RF Digital, and Stora Enso, for example all perform without Sapphire. Garno also anticipates that further developments in Indigo’s ElectroInk will broaden the spectrum of untreated substrates that perform well after printing.

RF Digital, for example, has cooperated with RIT since the qualifying program’s inception. In addition to its Xeikon-scripted offerings, the company now offers products from its SilverBlade, Fairfield, and Cameron lines for Indigo presses. “We have nine products for the Indigos now,” Field says, “and none of them has to have the Sapphire coating. We’re always looking for new products for the Indigos.”

And, while the toner-based output devices may seem to present the greatest challenge, direct imaging devices like Heidelberg’s Quickmaster DI need consideration as well. Although the QMDI and other DI presses run offset sheets, Garno points out that it’s important to remember that most of these presses are waterless. Since that means they are running without the “lubrication effect” of fountain solution, both the surface strength and the cleanliness of the substrates require consideration.

More Color Updates
Chris Harrold, manager of Digital Papers for Albany, NY’s Mohawk Paper Mills, sees the biggest change in the market since last year as more acceptance of digital equipment from the printing community. From the paper perspective, he notes that there are now more mills in the game and more products available. Mohawk offers a full line of smooth uncoated and a coated stock for all digital color segments, including color copier/printers and the QMDI. In one sense, Mohawk is a rarity–a small, independent U.S. mill. In deciding to move early into digital papers, the company made a substantial commitment that included a $90 million capital investment and merchant education.

Adding to the initial capital investment, Mohawk is currently investing over $15 million in capital improvements to increase productivity and respond to growing demand. This investment, budgeted over 1999 and 2000, is funding improvements at its plants and includes a new Bielomatick cut-size sheeter that creates 100 reams a minute.

“We began educating our merchants in 1998,” Harrold says. “The process was really almost more information on digital printing than on paper. Now that effort is paying off. We’ve seen double digit growth this year because our merchants are knowledgeable, and they know how to identify potential customers.”

This year for the first time, Mohawk not only exhibited at the drupa show in Dusseldorf, Germany, last month but also played a part in one of the significant equipment introductions there. Its Options Smooth Warm White 216 gsm (80-lb. cover) was selected as the uncoated cover paper of choice for live print demonstrations on the new NexPress 2100 Digital Production Color Press

“We are honored to be associated with a product announcement of this magnitude,” Harrold says. “We began working with NexPress over a year ago to establish a position with the next generation of digital color printing. After comprehensive testing by NexPress engineers, Options was selected for its ability to yield consistently beautiful color–and Warm White was specified by the designer for its universal appeal.”

Mohawk Options was featured as the front and back cover stock on the premier collateral booklet demonstrated at the announcement and NexPress theater presentations.

CAP Ventures, Norwell, MA, reports that other papers used for the NexPress drupa demos included substrates from SAPPI and Zanders, all companies that have offered digital papers for some time.

Therefore, if you’re wondering who some of the new suppliers to the market might be, certainly Mead Coated Papers is a significant entry. Starting last month, a new line–Meadware, paper gone digital–became available in coated and uncoated grade offerings. It is already converted to the specific sheet and roll sizes required by Xeikons, Indigos, and the QMDI. According to the company’s release, the Meadware product line is made up of grade names such as Mark V, Signature, Mead, and Focus. This summer, Prima, Mead Postcard Matte, and C1S coated grades will be added as well.

The company says Meadware will be distributed through its coated merchant and direct channels. What’s more, it will also be available through an online e-commerce site for digital papers, www.meadware.com. Expected to launch about the time this issue of POD mails, the site is supposed to be set up to let designers and digital printers order small quantities of Meadware and pay via credit card as well as allow franchised merchants to place wholesale orders if they so choose.

Of note is that Mead, which has not participated in the digital paper market prior to this new line, is the first mill to offer an e-commerce capacity. Most mills we spoke to are in the process of developing programs with their merchants. Mead’s bold move may well presage what could be the story on digital papers next year.

Response to Market
Another theme from longer-term digital paper suppliers is change in their lines based on experience in the marketplace. “We’re seeing more demand and an increasing use of digital paper as a viable option for brochures and promotions,” says Bob Hieronymus, market manager, Georgia-Pacific Imaging Papers. In response, GP has rounded out its MicroPrint line in color copier/printer cut-size categories to include an 80-lb. smooth cover as well as a 60 lb. According to Hieronymus, this uncoated line is known for its “smoothness and excellent formation quality.” The addition of the 60 lb. means that some of the “older” equipment will now have a choice of cover stock.

Hieronymus also observes that they are seeing ” a split in consumption between business and graphic arts printing.” It seems that graphic arts customers are opting for the company’s MicroPrint Laser 1000, a 94 brightness sheet available from 24-32-lb. basis weight, while businesses are choosing MicroPrint Color Copy, still a hi-brite but more economical premium laser paper.

GP is also watching the growth in inkjet printing in the office market. Although the SOHO customers have been the strength for desktop inkjet consumables, Hieronymus points out that as networked inkjet printers capable of 12- to 15-ppm printing are installed throughout corporate America, inkjet may become a viable alternative to laser. Both this trend and the increased consumption of economic laser sheets are helping to increase color business printing, he believes.

The highest growth area this year, however, continues to be in the monochrome printing market. Hieronymus says GP’s Quantum Digital Opaque is being used increasingly in book publishing as well as booklet-making applications. Like Broadhurst at Océ, Hieronymus reminds us that generally, paper modified for high-speed laser printing will usually print successfully on an offset press. “You’d want a better sheet for high-quality offset,” he says, “but digital papers are adequate. You can’t go the other way, however.”

International Paper is yet another player that has made modifications to its digital paper products. Greg Womble, segment marketing manager for Commercial Printing Papers, notes that several IP brands, Williamsburg Offset Plus Grade, for example, carry an EIG logo, which stands for Electronic Image Guarantee. This year, IP is relaunching its Accent EIG with a new name, new packaging, and more “user friendly” sizes. Now called Accent Opaque Digital, because as Womble says, “the name digital is important to this market,” this line will have a true 8.5×11-inch size as well as more nonstandard cut sizes to match digital presses.

Interestingly, Womble says that digital printers were asking for non-standard sizes all along. The company was offering them but they weren’t selling so they were discontinued. IP discovered that they had “the right sizes but the wrong grain direction.” Now, new 9×12-inch, 9×14-inch, and 12x-18-inch sheets are being relaunched in a grain short configuration that supports economical graphic arts impositions and allows for folding without cracking.

Growing a Market
Although it owns no forests, pulping, or paper machines, Xerox is and intends to remain part of the digital paper picture as a vendor. Under the Xerox Supplies Group banner, the document company already offered a wide variety of Digital Color media for digital printing. At drupa, Xerox added to that collection with 27 media products that extend its global line of papers and specialty materials. Seven of these are designated for the North American market.

Each new Digital Color product that we’ll see in the United States is aimed squarely at graphic arts. For example, there is a Tri-fold Brochure that is a one-sided, “mirror finish” gloss coated sheet with score marks already in place to ease folding. Others are Graphics Parchment and Fibered, whose names are self-explanatory. Then there is DuraPaper, a synthetic 10-point polyolefin plastic film for waterproof, tear-resistant applications, including labels, tags, and POP signage. Finally, Xpressions 98, 100-lb. cover, is an uncoated stock that Xerox claims as the heaviest digital cut-sheet product on the market for posters, signage, calendars, and book covers.

Andy Burke, supplies business manager, Xerox Supplies Group, North America says, ” This is a full line of products specifically for the graphic arts. We are sending the message that Xerox is not just about copiers anymore. Our drupa theme, ‘The new business of printing,’ reflects that. In a sense, this is supporting the overall digital printing space but it also gives our sales force the ability to assure customers that they can do flexible things with our machines and that we have the media that will work.”

At drupa, Xerox executives claimed, “These new products further blur the line between digital and offset technology by increasing the array of applications that can be produced on digital printing systems.” That’s certainly a fair summation–both for the Xerox moves and for digital paper vendors across the board.

Digital Lightning

The experts say there is a fundamental difference between digital and offset papers, and it’s both electrical and chemical. Offset paper doesn’t go through charging and discharging as part of the printing process so it tends to build up a charge as it travels through the press. That’s why static elimination is an offset challenge as well as a digital one.

Papers going through digital devices that use electrophotographic laser imaging, however, have to go through a charge and discharge to attract toners and make them adhere to a substrate surface. Therefore, substrates cannot be allowed to build up a charge independently. Preventing this is a combination of paper chemistry content and moisture content, with digital papers having significantly lower moisture content then offset substrates. Digital papers should also be alkaline, and the move toward alkaline paper chemistry to increase paper’s archival properties makes this shift in papermaking recipes not solely a digital requirement. Vendors say European papers already are alkaline, and U.S. mills are changing.

Other aspects that are significant are uniformity of sheet, gloss, caliper, and formation, all of which are more critical for printing with toners.