- Representatives from large paper mills generally felt that adapting papers that worked for both offset lithography and toner-based digital printing was relatively easy compared to inkjet.
- Offset papers are designed not to absorb water from an offset fountain solution. The rapid growth of inkjet has created a need for papers that won’t absorb a fountain solution but will absorb water-based inkjet inks.
- Inkjet-treated papers offer print service providers some assurance that the stocks will perform well for the applications that they print on their high-speed production color inkjet systems, but adding a pre-treatment increases the cost of the paper.
By Jim Hamilton
Introduction
Anyone who uses high-speed production color inkjet systems to produce documents knows that paper can be an issue, particularly for jobs that require glossy finishes and high coverage levels. System vendors and paper mills are working diligently to create effective strategies to address this issue. In a nutshell, these solutions can be distilled into two categories:
- Inkjet-treated papers
- Advanced inks and drying systems
This article, the first in a two-part series, will discuss the pros and cons of inkjet-treated papers. Next week’s piece will address advanced inks and drying systems.
The Perspective from Paper Mills
I recently had the opportunity to speak with a number of representatives from large paper mills about production color inkjet printing and the challenges it presents for them. In general, these representatives felt that adapting papers that worked for both offset lithography and toner-based digital printing was relatively easy compared to inkjet. Bear in mind, however, that offset inks and electrophotographic toners have something in common—in both cases, you are trying to press something (i.e., the inks or toners) into the paper. That model changes with inkjet.
Most inkjet printing systems use water-based inks that get sprayed onto the surface of the paper. The ink’s ability to adhere presents a vastly different scenario than offset inks or toners, particularly as it relates to drying the water associated with most inkjet inks for document applications. For years, paper mills made offset papers that were designed not to absorb water from an offset fountain solution. Now, because of the rapid growth of inkjet, they are trying to design papers that won’t absorb a fountain solution but will absorb water-based inkjet inks. It is easy to understand the frustration that paper mills must feel when faced with this monumental engineering challenge. It should therefore come as no surprise that when paper mills are asked about the ideal solution to this inkjet dilemma, they say it must come down to papers that are specially treated to function well with inkjet inks.
A treated paper is a stock that has been produced with a coating that enables inkjet inks to adhere well to the paper. Although these treatments are usually applied at the mill, they can also be applied at a separate location or even at the printing site. You can get an inkling of how this might work by looking into what HP introduced with its first high-speed color printing systems, now known at the HP PageWide Web Press series. These devices incorporated a row of inkjet heads whose sole purpose was to lay down a solution called a bonding agent just in the image areas. This is basically the same as treating the paper on the fly. Although this technique works well on lower coverage applications for uncoated papers, it struggles as coverage levels increase and is not particularly well-suited for coated papers. The treated papers that are sold by many mills apply a treatment akin to HP’s bonding agent, but the treatment is applied across the entire sheet as part of the paper manufacturing process.
Inkjet-treated papers offer print service providers some assurance that the stocks will perform well for the applications that they print on their high-speed production color inkjet systems. Although this is certainly appealing, the challenge is that adding a pre-treatment increases the cost of the paper. What’s more, print service providers generally need to stock two classes of paper—one for their offset presses and one for their inkjet systems. Although this scenario is not ideal, it does address the problem.
The Bottom Line
To summarize, here are the top pros and cons for water-based inkjet printing on treated papers:
- PRO: Strong results across all applications, including high-coverage jobs on coated papers
- CON: Increased cost in relation to comparable untreated papers
- CON: The need to stock two separate paper classes for offset and inkjet
- CON: May not work equally well for all inkjet ink formulations
This concludes my assessment of treated inkjet papers. Next week’s article will explore the case for advanced inks and dryers for production inkjet printing.
Jim Hamilton is a well-known industry analyst who serves as Consultant Emeritus for a number of Keypoint Intelligence – InfoTrends’ consulting services. He supports areas including production digital printing, wide format signage, labels & packaging, functional & industrial printing, production workflow & variable data tools, document outsourcing, digital marketing & media, and customer communications.
Discussion
By Kim Beswick on Jun 04, 2020
Hi Jim -
I appreciate this area of focus and discussion and look forward to the next part of the series.
It would be good to know what is happening with regards to the treated paper cost differential. What is the range of cost differential to expect on common media types - plain, matte, gloss finish? Has this come down over time? Where is this differential headed?
What is the growth rate at the paper mills for their inkjet medias?
Thanks,
Kim
By Rob Boumans on Jun 09, 2020
Hello Jim,
After working as operational manager at a print provider running toner and inkjet presses for long time, and now working in sales support for Crown Van Gelder in The Netherlands (one of the papermills producing high quality inkjet-treated paper and supplying this worldwide), I have been actively involved in understanding and explaining the key benefits of inkjet-treated papers. From my personal experience at the print provided and at many customers around the world I can add a few additions to your story:
Cost:
Yes, at this moment the production costs of inkjet-treated paper is still slightly higher than untreated papers, and partially this is due to the additives which are added during production, but other factors have maybe a bigger effect on pricing:
- Total volume of inkjet-treated paper compared to untreated paper is much lower, and therefore efficiency is also lower (bigger run lengths will help to bring pricing down).
- Deviations in paper quality are directly visible on a inkjet press, and therefore the production parameters are very strict. This will lead to higher rejections during production, which will lead to extra costs (quality will come at a cost).
- Not all inks will react the same to the treatment in the paper, and therefore different versions of the same substrate are necessary to accommodate the different inkjet presses to produce the highest quality (less versions will also bring pricing down).
- High quality inkjet-treated paper is still produced at a limited amount of locations around the world, and because of this transport costs are playing a big part in pricing.
- Inkjet print providers use relative only a small amount of paper on each inkjet press, and therefore pricing is also higher (buying more (full trucks/containers will bring price down).
- Because inkjet-treated paper is developed constantly, it is not possible to produce and big stock amounts in one production run.
At Crown Van Gelder we believe that the gap between treated and untreated papers will get smaller when volumes grow, and when we are able to merge all different versions of a specific substrate into one version the price will also drop. To accomplish this, the papermills need the full cooperation of the printing OEM’s in understanding the ink composition and to provide trial time on the press, because the newer inks and drying systems are not helping the growth and also create new challenges.
Benefits:
The only benefit which is described in this article is a “Strong results across all applications, including high-coverage jobs on coated papers”, but inkjet-treated papers provide a print-provider with many more benefits:
- Inkjet-treated paper will provide an overall better color reproduction (more intense color for each droplet of ink, or less ink needed to produce the same quality compared to untreated paper which lowers production cost (ink is still expensive))
- Inkjet-treated paper will need less drying compared to untreated paper (less energy reduces production cost, but also reduces problems in finishing).
- Inkjet-treated paper can be produced at maximum speeds on an inkjet press (no need to reduce printing speed and produce more every month).
- Inkjet-treated paper will perform better during finishing because the paper is less deformed during production due to moisture and drying (higher runnability will lead to lower cost).
- Inkjet-treated paper will also produce less paper dust in an inkjet press (and therefore less maintenance is needed each day/week/month), and also inkjet head lifetime is higher (less replacement is less cost).
- Inkjet-treated paper will provide a constant quality from reel-to-reel over a long period (no need to monitor quality for every new reel) and less problems with quality (less complaints at end-customers)
When a print provider would calculate the “Total Cost of Print” and compare untreated and inkjet-treated paper it would show that the inkjet-treated paper would produce at a lower price per page! Maybe the paper is more expensive, but all the other costs will make an untreated paper in the end more expensive…
For sure, not all inkjet-treated papers are equal in quality and there are big differences, but we are providing our (potential) customers with prove on their inkjet press (onsite) that inkjet-treated papers will provide them with a lower “Total Cost of Print” if they want to investigate this (also with the newer inks at the different OEM’s). Just challenge Crown Van Gelder!
If there are any questions, just let me know.
Rob
By Jim Hamilton on Jun 10, 2020
Kim, your questions about the cost differential are extremely timely and I wish I had a better feel for the actual percent difference between untreated and treated papers. I encourage print service providers who are in active purchasing roles to comment here to that point. That being said, I have always felt that the differential needs to be below 15% to be viable, and I think that in many cases today it is below 15%. As Rob mentions, there are certainly some factors that add to the cost of inkjet-treated papers, but by the same token there are cost-related benefits in regard to output quality and reduced ink consumption. The total cost per page should be the focus rather than the cost of the paper alone.