26 ■ October 3, 2010 • GRAPH EXPO


Official Show Daily • Cygnus Graphics Media


Easy Decision is the Right Decision for this Economy


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V-14 Miniature/Commercial Folder after they saw it at a trade show. Both credit it for playing a dominant role in keeping their employees busy even in a slow economy. Bruce Boyarsky, owner of Ocean State Book Binding, Inc. of Provi- dence, RI, says, “I had operated a Vijuk folder in my previous employment, and knew when it comes to miniature/phar- maceutical folders, Vijuk machines have the best reputation in the industry for reliability and dependability. Scout- ing out folders at the PRINT ’09 show in Chicago, I was impressed with the Vijuk V-14’s performance, and it was an easy decision.” In January 2010, Ocean State purchased a two-station V-14 folder from Vijuk Equipment, Inc. of Elmhurst, IL. A growing niche at Ocean State is


I


t was an easy decision,” says an east coast bindery owner and a southwestern printer, regarding their purchase of the Vijuk–G&K


miniature folding. “An important seg- ment of our business is what I’d call ‘base-line economy’ work. We have developed a folding niche centered on pharmaceutical, personal care, consumer, and military products that involve printed instructions, which for regulatory reasons will always be necessary. Typically, these jobs involve high-volume lot sizes,” said Boyarsky.


His company has run a variety of miniature items from folded 4x6" down to 4x¾". Lot sizes vary from 100,000 up to three million, with pro- duction throughputs of 25,000-30,000 pieces per hour on the machine. The new folder gives Ocean State a lot of flexibility in terms of how they run their jobs. Boyarsky says, “A two- station configuration in tandem allows us to make 12 folds on items with 13 panels. By running the two sections in tandem for jobs with fewer folds, we can get higher productivity. We can


also run the folder sections configured with six plates in the parallel and six at a right angle, which allows us to produce cross-folded items.”


Investing in a sure thing In June 2010, when it was time to replace an old folder, vice-president/ CEO George Shimshock of GMS Industries, Inc., says, “It was an easy decision to invest in our third two-sta- tion Vijuk folder.” GMS had installed two Vijuk–G&K V-14 folders in the fall of 2007. Looking to expand their small leaflet production, Shimshock attended the PRINT ’05 show where Vijuk was demonstrating the V-14. “I went look- ing for a folder that could fold small leaflets,” recalls Shimshock. “I had brought along some samples of a job we were doing and asked the Vijuk technician if he would be able to run them. He quickly reset the folder and it ran my samples at high speed. I knew then that it was the right folder for the work we were doing.” According to Shimshock, Vijuk had


Printed Electronics Brings Big Opportunities Emerging technology is poised to take off as applications increase


By Stephen Beals P


rinting RFID (Radio Fre- quency identification) tags is an emerging technology offering new opportunities


for printers. At GRAPH EXPO 2010, RFID and printed electronics are giv- en special treatment in an exclusive show floor feature called Future Print, under the PackPrint umbrella. The exhibit space gives print providers the opportunity to understand the tech- nologies and learn what it takes to integrate them into their product mix.


antenna—with ink. Very specialized ink and great quality control are nec- essary. A tiny pinhole in the ink sur- face can destroy the circuit. Printed RFIDs are generally created with silk-screening, gravure or flexograph- ic processes. Offset has not been terribly successful, though it’s still being considered.


RFID tags are created by building


several alternating layers of conduc- tive, semi-conductive and insulating materials in specific order. The passage of current between these layers at spe- cific points, voltages, and manners is what makes the circuitry work. Print is the only way to produce RFID devices for pennies rather than dollars. It’s not an easy task, as it requires the creation of radio components— transistor, capacitor, resistor and an


RFID in a nutshell RFID allows the same types of identifying information found in bar- codes to be transmitted electronically. Most RFID tags contain at least two parts. One is an integrated circuit for storing information and processing the radio frequency (RF) signal. The second is an antenna for receiving and transmitting the signal. The beauty of RFID is that the information can be processed automatically as items come within range of a receiver. No manual scanning is required. Data can be gathered within enclosed structures like buildings, warehouses, trucks or trains that might block GPS signals. Once gathered, the data can then be transmitted over satellite connections anywhere in the world, allowing real- time tracking of any item. Additionally, RFID tags have the potential of being updated on the fly. Since they are really integrated cir- cuits (IC), in some cases they can be reprogrammed as needed.


There are generally three types of RFID tags: active RFID tags, which contain a battery and can transmit signals autonomously, passive RFID tags, which have no battery and require an external source to pro- voke signal transmission, and battery assisted passive (BAP) RFID tags, which require an external source to wake up, but have more capabilities and greater range.


Printed RFID took a jump forward


in November 2007, when California- based Kovio introduced a thin-film transistor (TFT) printed with silicon ink on a flexible stainless steel foil substrate. The transistor is a compo- nent of an IC, which contains multiple TFTs that control various functions on the chip. The process uses silicon- based inks to print integrated cir- cuits, sensors and displays. The use of digital printing technology facilitates product customization and rapid time to market.


Applications


RFID tags are primarily used today for tracking packaging to provide real-time inventory of manufactured products, but innovative users have already put it to some unusual uses. RFID is big in brand protection, incorporating tamper-evident, anti- counterfeiting, anti-theft, or track- and-trace technology into a product


General manager Joe Jackson (left) and president Bruce Boyarsky by their Vijuk–G&K V-14 Miniature/Commercial Folder.


told him the machines were fast—but seeing was believing. “Within a month of owning our first two folders, I instructed our sales staff to get us a lot more miniature folding work— to go after the jobs we had to turn down because they were just under the dimensions we could formerly han- dle,” he says.


or package to prevent or limit dam- age from brand attacks. The glob- al market for brand protection is expected to be $6.7 billion in 2009, according to a new study by Pira International. Other innovative uses: • A Minnesota ice cream parlor uses RFID to track the inventory of its specialty-flavored ice cream. The signals automatically update signage in the store, and can even initiate an email campaign when a new flavor is in stock. • Mercy Hospital, a 271-bed hospi- tal in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, installed an RFID-enabled touchless hand-washing system in December 2009. RFID signals logged 10,000 hand washes in May 2010, following six months of operation, leading to a significant reduction in hospital- acquired infections.


RFID SEMINARS


Pack Print / Future Print Theater Booth 4627


Sunday: 10:30-11:00 am What Printers Need to Know About Printed Electronics – Professor Mal- colm G. Keif, Cal Poly State University


Sunday: 2:00-3:30 pm Printed Electronics: Today’s Ques- tions & Solutions... Tomorrow’s Chal- lenges – Professor Malcolm G. Keif, Cal Poly State University


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