It is no accident that Screen drop-on-demand inkjet technology is transforming the digital printing industry.

With its rich history of innovation and precision manufacturing, Dainippon Screen, the parent company of Screen (USA), has played a transformative role in graphic communications for the past 67 years. From glass screens in the early 1940s to process cameras in the 1960s to color scanners in the 1970s, Screen has built a tremendous portfolio of technological advances.

Screen's record of accomplishment has continued uninterrupted into the second decade of the 21st century. Notably, sales of Screen-manufactured computer-to-plate recorders have exceeded 15,000 units since 1995.

Screen recently marked another important milestone with its variable inkjet web printing system. Between 2007 and March 2010, Screen and its partner, InfoPrint Solutions Company, sold and installed more than 200 Screen Truepress Jet520 and IPS InfoPrint 5000 continuous-feed color inkjet presses worldwide.

Introduced in 2005, the Truepress Jet520 immediately gained a reputation as an impressive on-demand printer capable of handling diverse applications. Featuring an output speed of over 110,000 (variable) 8.5 x 11-inch pages per hour, the Truepress Jet520 is designed for high-volume production of books, newspapers direct mail and transactional printing.

Screen collaborated with Seiko Epson Corp. on both the piezo drop-on-demand inkjet print heads and ink. This combination brings outstanding results on a wide range of uncoated and inkjet treated stocks, as well as the emerging class of matte and gloss coated stock.

InfoPrint Solutions, after an in-depth review of all inkjet technologies available or in development, selected the highly reliable Screen inkjet technology as the best balance to address customers' high-speed production requirements. Today, the Truepress Jet520 and InfoPrint 5000 are used in a broad variety of applications, including account statements, books and newspapers.

"Color variable print output allows production efficiencies for faster turnaround at a lower production cost by utilizing the variable print capabilities in conjunction with inline finishing," said Bill Brunone, Screen's vice president for targeted inkjet systems. "For example, calculate the time and money it would take in a shop to make plates, print signatures and cut, collate and trim pages to produce finished book blocks. Now imagine a world in which one operator can output two 500-page trimmed book blocks every two minutes with the touch of one touch screen. Screen and InfoPrint customers have discovered such a world and without sacrificing litho quality."

Take Flagship Press, Inc. in North Andover, Mass. Flagship, an early adopter of the Truepress Jet520, services publishers in the educational and high-tech markets.

Christopher Poor, vice president, recalled the process that led Flagship to install the Screen system: "When we began researching inkjet technology, our first reaction was, 'Will the printing be of commercially acceptable quality?' We are extremely impressed by Screen's inkjet technology in terms of speed, quality and reliability. The Truepress Jet520 offers faster printing speeds and the capacity to produce significantly higher volumes at a lower cost. We are finishing jobs in one-quarter of the time compared with our existing digital color output engine."