Industry News
Demand for sustainable print tech creates new opportunities, study finds
M
ore environmentally friendly printing is fast emerging as a key industry
trend for the 2020s.
With the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issuing a Red Alert for climate change on August 9, brand owners and consumers are increasingly searching out and choosing solutions that minimise carbon emissions and waste.
This is examined in detail in the new Smithers report – The Future of Green Printing to 2026. It is a trend that will increasingly reward print service providers, inks and consumables suppliers and OEMs, that invest in more sustainable solutions over the next five years, and beyond.
This will evolve into specific opportunities at each stage of the print value chain. Among the highlight topics Smithers’ expert research identifies are: • Cutting wastage in make-ready and set-up will favour wider use of digital (inkjet and electrophotography) print systems. A forecast reduction in the
Merchandise World marks a return to exhibitions
P
romotional products exhibition Merchandise World returned on Wednesday, September 8 at the Marshall Area, Milton Keynes. After 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the networking event was the first national industry exhibition held since February 2020.
Around 80 exhibitors booked stands to meet with distributors, including USB2U, Preseli and Sharon Lee.
Expectations for visitor numbers were low, but on the day around 400 distributors attended the show. According to Sourcing City News, many exhibitors commented on the high quality of the people they were speaking to and were delighted that their commitment to the show had paid off. The next Merchandise World will take place on Wednesday, January 26 and Thursday, January 27 at the CBS Arena.
| 12 | October 2021
average run length for many print jobs will magnify this impact.
• The rapid adoption of bio-based solvent and water-based inks, with the current generation of vegetable oil inks already promising over 50% recycled content, and reduced emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
• Increased sales of sustainable substrates, including recycled fibre and virgin paper grades accredited to sustainably forestry schemes. For PSPs there is an onus to limit use of virgin materials, and print on recycled paper grades when a premium surface is not necessary.
• A consistent trend in packaging is to substitute away from existing plastic packaging to fibre-based alternatives. Printers can capitalise on this trend by retooling their print lines to support these less uniform substrates.
• There is interest in developing new fibre sources for printing papers, such as bamboo or agricultural by products; as well as a limited impact from wider use of recycled plastic and biopolymer substrates in some packaging applications.
• Investment in print processes that minimises secondary raw material use, such as reduced water consumption for wash off.
• Greater support for technology platforms that enable the collection and reuse of print materials, both in industrial closed loop and consumer recycling streams. Simultaneously the desire to implement more planet-friendly working practices will support a reordering of print businesses: • The trend to reshoring production and printing improves supply chain security, and can also deliver saving on carbon emissions and wastage in transit.
• Larger organisations can switch to centralised printing models, with a single server assigning job requests most efficiently across its network of presses and end-users. This can also extend into the integration of web-to-print platforms for consumer sales.
With 2021 set to be a pivotal year for the world’s efforts to contain climate change, these and other important timely trends for the industry are examined critically in The Future of Green Printing to 2026.
Josero appointed as new Ricoh reseller R
icoh has appointed Josero as a UK reseller for its full range of direct to garment printers and the very latest generation of wide format Latex printers. The two businesses will partner to deliver these advanced printing solutions to end- user customers throughout the UK. Ricoh’s DTG printer range includes three models: the entry level Ricoh Ri 100, the mid-range Ricoh Ri 1000 and the commercial print focused Ricoh Ri 2000. They have been specifically developed to meet the needs of promotional printing on items such as T shirts, cloth bags, hoodies, sweatshirts, socks and more. The businesses are also renewing their Latex print partnership to encompass the latest generation of Ricoh Pro L5160e and Ricoh Pro L5130e extended gamut wide format Latex printers. Based on Ricoh’s market leading inkjet head and ink technology expertise, these printers are an evolution from the successful Ricoh Pro L5160 and Ricoh Pro L5130 Latex large
Ricoh Ri 100
format printers and add green and orange ink to the set-up
Three staggered Ricoh print heads achieve class leading print speeds of 46.7sq m/hr on outdoor high speed four colour mode and 25sq m/hr on indoor standard four colour mode. As well as running the expanded gamut inks, print operations can also run double CMYK for increased productivity, and CMYK and white for transfer materials, metallics and dark substrates. Josero will also be supplying its customers with original Ricoh inks for use in the above machines.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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