As many of you know, postal reform has been slow moving in Congress this summer. Accordingly, Printing Industries of America’s Government Affairs team has been busy on Capitol Hill, trying to encourage lawmakers to stop the political messaging and pass H.R. 2309, the Postal Reform Act of 2011. The Senate has done its part and passed its bill, but postal reform cannot become law until the House acts. A bill is ready to go, but election-year politics are making it very unlikely that the House will bring postal reform legislation to a floor vote this summer. As a result, we have voiced our concerns regarding the disastrous consequences this delay would pose to the printing and graphic communications industry—and to the overall future viability of the U.S. Postal Service.
Now it’s time for you to tell lawmakers to pass postal reform now! The month of August is a crucial time to reach out to lawmakers and staff while...
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Printing Industries of America Blog
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07/30/2012
by
Ms Megan Flynn
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07/19/2012
by
Ms Megan Flynn
Does this sound familiar?“We knew we weren’t as efficient as we could be. We were experiencing long makereadies and jobs were being rejected because the color consistency across processes and devices was non-existent. We had the best of intentions to make improvements, however between difficulties in finding time and not knowing how to get our arms around the issues, we procrastinated. It wasn’t until we risked losing our biggest client that we were forced to reach out for help. With outside support, we turned it around! Our client relationship was saved, finally we have consistent color, faster makereadies, and less waste in time and materials. If only we had done this sooner! Times are too challenging not be deadly serious about becoming a smarter, better-run company.”
-- CEO, XYZ Printing
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06/12/2012
by
Ms Megan Flynn
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has asked Printing Industries of America to assist with revising their national annual hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emission factor, which is used to estimate HAP emissions and to determine the need for further regulation of the printing industry. HAP emissions occur from the use of specific chemicals and chemical categories classified as toxic air pollutants, some of which are used in printing.
Recently, Printing Industries assisted EPA with revising the national annual volatile organic compound (VOC) emission factor. Due to this success, EPA has requested that the printing industry provide emission information on HAP emissions, so that the nationwide HAP emission factor can also be updated.
EPA revised their national annual VOC emission factor for the printing industry from 1,482 pounds/employee to 201 pounds/employee. This revision was in part due to a survey of printers in the Salt Lake City area, which received a high...
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05/29/2012
by
Ms Megan Flynn
The quality of print-centric websites is just getting more creative and technically advanced. They are able to provide customers with an extraordinary product. Just take a look at The John Roberts Company, Mimeo, and Wells and Drew.
These companies happen to be winners of our web2award. This is the only award of its kind that honors the best websites in the print/marketing service provider industry. Winning one means that your company receives benefits like prestige, publicity, and, not to mention, an applause-worthy statue!
You could say that winning a web2award is like winning an Oscar but even better for a print service provider like you. That’s why we created this...
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05/22/2012
by
Kristina Iorio
Attendees at the upcoming Automation Solutions Network meeting, May 2-3 in Las Vegas, NV, will hear Bill Wieners, president of Digital Lizard, describe his company’s remarkable use of automation.
Digital Lizard’s experience should make every company take notice.
Its workflow automation boosted productivity from an average of 175 orders to over 400 orders per day, while still meeting its promise—all orders placed by 10:30 PST are delivered the next day across the country. Wieners attributes their Web-2-print software for the company’s productivity increase. Digital Lizard chose their software based on capabilities not only with their existing facility, but with future expansion in mind. The software allowed them to customize modules and optimize... -
05/18/2012
by
Kristina Iorio
The Call for Papers for the 65th Annual Technical Conference has begun, and papers for both Technical Papers and the NEW Technical Innovations Papers. The conference will be held February 3-6, 2013, in Portland, Oregon. John Seymour of the TAGA Technical Program Committee and TAGA Technical Paper contributor shares the success he has achieved through TAGA.
I work in the research group for QuadTech. Our company develops and sells control systems for printing presses. My own work has...
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05/09/2012
by
Kristina Iorio
One of the major stories developing at drupa 2012 involves the Nanographic Printing™ Presses unveiled by Landa Corporation founder, chairman, and CEO Benny Landa. These presses use water-based inks comprised of pigment particles only tens of nanometers in size. These nano-pigments are reportedly extremely light absorbent and the new process used to print with them—Nanography™—boasts high uniformity, high gloss fidelity, and a broad CMYK color gamut. And here’s the hook that’s getting everyone excited: Nanography is a digital printing process with offset speed.
Landa spoke about the implications of the new process:
“Nanography is a new technology for applying ink to paper. In developing Landa Nanographic Printing we had to re-think and reinvent the printing press.
The result is digital printing with remarkable performance—from a family of presses that share stunning ergonomic design,...
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05/03/2012
by
Kristina Iorio
This article was contributed by Larry Kroll, Vice President, Development, PGSF, whose ongoing commitment to expanding the printing industry by cultivating the next generations of printers and graphic artists through the PGSF has resulted in an incredibly successful foundation for the past 56 years.
Graphic arts students pose with Ben before a pressroom tour of Printing Industries of America headquarters in Sewickley, PA.
Twenty-eight years ago, long before our current Print and Graphic Scholarship Foundation (PGSF) scholarship applicants were even born, one of this country's leading...
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04/23/2012
by
Kristina Iorio
Printing is not just a business for many print professionals. It is a passion. People have made printing an integral part of their lives, and we want to highlight some of these individuals as part of our 125th Anniversary here at Printing Industries of America.
Watch as Brad performs quality control ink testing.
Few people are more passionate than Brad Evans, Senior Research Technician/Lab Coordinator at Printing Industries of America, who has spent three decades performing various testing to make better, higher-quality materials for print production. One of the ways his department serves the printing industry and our members is by analyzing issues such as ink tack for quality control. He is truly devoted to his trade and to assisting printing companies. Here, he...
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04/19/2012
by
Ms Mary L. Garnett
Energetic conversations, brief comments, some confusion, and plenty of ideas are exchanged in networking groups and office cooler conversations daily. Virtual gatherings with Twitter chats create the same experience, and, in some ways, are even better. You stay in your office, read the comments, and meet people with passion for the industry who reside all over the country. Meet “PrintChat,” an industry Twitter Chat.
This week marked a milestone—the original host, Quad/Graphics, passed the hosting baton to PrintMediaCentr (www.printmediacentr.com). For over a year, Quad/Graphics has hosted PrintChat on Wednesdays and has done a terrific job introducing many of us to the value and fun of a TwitterChat. Topics change, participation fluctuates, people who have never met make acquaintances and chat. The experience can be odd the first few times. I just watched and became amazed that out of 140 character comments, an actual...
