As more companies jump on board the production inkjet bandwagon and look for both new applications and those that can be transitioned from other production processes to feed these hungry giants, the lack of an optimized inkjet coated stock has been one barrier that many owners would like to see removed.

Last month, paper manufacturer NewPage was the first to announce an inkjet-optimized gloss coated stock for production inkjet presses with the launch of TrueJet™ Digital Coated Papers. While we certainly expect to see others following suit quickly, we also wanted to both recognize NewPage for this innovation and share more details about its background with our audience.

Dennis Essary, director, digital papers, told us, “Production inkjet presses are going into commercial print establishments, and they want coated stock. As a coated paper manufacturer, we were happy to take on this challenge. In this case, we have optimized a coating to handle inkjet printing, primarily focused on water-based pigment inks.”

The TrueJet family currently has two members: TrueJet and TrueJet Hybrid. TrueJet is designed for use with production inkjet presses, while TrueJet Hybrid is designed to be used on offset web presses with inline inkjet. NewPage has also specified its Sterling® Ultra line as a companion product for offset printing. Essary explains, “The shade and brightness of the Sterling Ultra and TrueJet sheets match. This means that if you run an offset job on Sterling Ultra and an inkjet job using TrueJet, you can put them together and the shade and brightness of the sheet will be the same. For example, you might be printing a personalized magazine or catalog cover on inkjet with the inside of the magazine printed offset. Customers like the papers to match for brand consistency.”

Coincidentally, I had an opportunity to visit Fenske Media in Rapid City, South Dakota, recently, an early adopter of this paper. Dave Fenske indicated the paper is working very well for them, as is the ability to closely match offset and inkjet pieces by pairing Sterling Ultra with TrueJet. I saw several examples of this at work on the Fenske production floor.

Currently, TrueJet papers are designed to function with the HP T-series and Kodak PROSPER presses. Although NewPage is working with Ricoh InfoPrint, Océ and Screen, Essary says, “These presses were not designed to print on coated paper. As early entrants in the production inkjet space, they were primarily designed for printing of low-coverage transaction documents with 10% to 20% coverage. But in the commercial print space, a typical full-color page might have 60% to 80% coverage. If you put down a lot of ink, you have to have dryers in place, and they have limited drying capacity. Also in many cases, these presses are using additives with slow drying rates so jets fire more reliably which can affect the rate at which inks dry”.

HP’s T-series offers the option to apply a binding agent to the pixel spaces on the page that will receive ink. This binding agent does broaden the array of papers suitable for the press. Essary indicates, however, that this consumable, which is less costly than ink but nevertheless carries a cost, will not be required when using TrueJet papers. It is our understanding that Kodak is working on a precoating unit for the PROSPER press, which also would not be required for use with TrueJet.

While Essary was not able to quote specific prices for the TrueJet product line due to variances that can occur in paper pricing based on volumes and distribution channels, he did state that that the paper costs more than offset sheets, adding, “We tried to make a sheet that will meet the demands of this technology and at the same time, keep it at an affordable price point. You aren’t going to sell a lot of sheets if the price is 3X or 4X that of an offset sheet; it kills the technology.” Dave Fenske indicated that in his experience, TrueJet carries about a 25% price premium which has not been an issue for his customers. He pointed out that Fenske is selling projects or programs where much less emphasis is placed on costs of the individual elements and more emphasis is placed on the overall effectiveness and return on investment for the entire program.

One issue with the cost of production inkjet papers is the fact that it is still a relatively small market. Essary estimates that less than 1% of everything that is available for offset is available for inkjet, commenting, “You are competing against a high-volume, mass-produced product. Offset papers are sold in the millions of tons, and inkjet papers are nowhere near that level yet.”

For NewPage, manufacturing of TrueJet means shutting down and completely cleaning a large paper machine. This is due to the fact that inkjet and offset coatings are not compatible, and if mixed, will coagulate. Essary estimates that this process yields only about three or four hours of production in an eight-hour shift, saying, “We are using materials that were not even invented a couple of years ago. Materials are going to cost more and paper is going to cost more. But we are focused on keeping the cost in line as much as we possibly can.”