Milling for Optical Appeal

The cost pressures associated with a stagnant economy have hit the premium coated freesheet markets. Suffering in the midst of dot-com failures, a business spending slowdown, and sluggish financial activity, commercial printers are trying to make money by downgrading stock to lower grades of coated sheets. The brisk retail, home improvement, and insert advertising markets should provide enough volume to keep revenues up, but profits are likely to come from cost savings. That's not good news for coated paper mills.

Coated paper makers are not standing still in this quicksand. Aside from the mergers and acquisitions, closures, and "market-related" downtime, paper mills continue to develop products that they hope will be attractive to discerning buyers. The commodity markets are so contentious and unattractive that ultimately they may be left to the lowest-quality producers and foreign mills to fight over.

Shipments at the end of the second quarter will be off considerably from last year. Imports of coated freesheet are accelerating, up over 10%. Imports are helped by the strong U.S. dollar as well as the commitment of European and Asian players to participate in a declining market and capture unwanted market share.

Meanwhile, domestic paper producers are cutting back production to balance inventories, thus causing production to fall about 8%. Capacity in Europe and Asia will increase while U.S. capacity falls, perpetuating the current market conditions.

"Commercial printers are able to use lower grade levels with improved optical characteristics," says Mead Paper's Tom Gallagher. "The additional color units and/or coating, tints, and varnishes can provide unique characteristics on press that were previously thought to have come from paper."

Gallagher relates that designers and specifiers are pitching in to help with costs by downgrading paper and using the press for better appearance and message conveyance; printers thus can run fewer grades and stock fewer items, thereby improving productivity.

Gallagher states that Mead recently introduced Focus, a new No. 3 sheet and web offering. Focus features an 84 brightness rating, blue-white shade, and super-smooth, glossy surface for producing crisp, clean imagery and brilliant color. Focus is available with matching text and cover in sheets and rolls.

The smooth surface of Focus allows for more uniform ink lay, delivering solids that are more consistent, with better dot definition in detailed areas. The level of print gloss makes images pop, giving high impact to photographs with no need for a varnish to enhance the gloss of the image.

Not only will the new bluer-white shade provide the appearance of cleaner whites and colors that are more realistic, says Gallagher, the variety of weights in both sheets and web also afford the flexibility needed for a variety of printing needs. Focus is available in 60-, 70-, 80-, and 100-lb. text as well as 80- and 100-lb. cover sheet weights.

According to Westvaco Corporation Fine Paper marketing manager Steve Anderson, "Eight-color presses offer sheetfed printers a variety of advantages, such as the ability to reproduce a much broader palette of colors, the use of metallic inks, and the capacity to achieve a broad range of finishes using different varnishes and coatings."

Anderson continues, "High-quality graphic reproduction on an eight-color press, however, requires much greater sheet stability than has been necessary in the past. Paper grades that lack stability are likely to stretch or fan out on these presses, resulting in misregister and poor runnability."

Anderson says that Westvaco's activity in research and development and machine investment has helped the company's coated paper mills achieve market demands of uniform quality and higher value-added characteristics.

"There also are aesthetic issues, such as the ongoing shift toward whiter and brighter sheetfed papers, that must be considered," says Anderson.

He explains that Westvaco, taking a market-driven approach, used information gained through direct sales and a series of field interviews with its printing customers to develop new products that would deliver the desired results on eight-color presses.

"One example is our Sterling Ultra line of bright-white coated fine papers, which includes Sterling Ultra Litho Gloss, Litho Dull, and Litho Satin, and Sterling Ultra Cover Gloss and Cover Dull," says Anderson. "These papers feature an extremely bright-white styling for a clean, more appealing look while still providing the smooth, consistent surface and reliable on-press performance that today's eight-color presses require."

In addition to sheet stability, a key factor for superior reproduction and runnability on wide-width sheetfed presses is the stiffness or "body" of the sheet. States Anderson, "Sheets produced with limited fiber and/or high filler content may look good but may not exhibit the stiffness necessary in lighter basis weights to run consistently on wide-width presses."

Anderson adds that volumes are down across the industry, but that blue-white styling has continued, and glossy products dominate the market.

"We see a growing interest and considerable volume in alternative sheetfed finishes such as matte, dull, and satin," he says. "Westvaco has seen strong acceptance of its newly launched Sterling Ultra Dull text and cover papers, particularly within the fashion industry, where a 'softer' look continues to be popular.

"These papers feature bright-white styling and a crisp, clean look for outstanding graphic appeal, as well as a smooth, dull-coated surface that assures finely detailed images, rich textures, and outstanding readability."

Potlatch Corporation sees the same demand for blue-white, bright-white sheets, especially those with a soft finish. The company has had success with its McCoy Matte since the latter's introduction last summer: it was the second most popular grade used in annual report printing in its class.

But color unit increase is a far bigger trend affecting the paper maker's sheetfed grade line.

"Because of the installation of eight- and 10-color presses, paper has to perform better than ever," comments a Potlatch spokesperson. "Paper must absorb fountain solution so inks can trap later in the sequence, yet not absorb too much, which might result in 'wet pick.' The paper surface must be more resistant to backtrap mottle, as there are more inks to trap back to.

"Further, the sheet must be more resistant to picking due to the ink tack build-up from multiple units. It must be less prone to misregister because of more demanding registration, and must be very stable for good registration side to side when these presses are used for perfecting."

[Next month this column will continue its review of coated sheetfed grades on finishing and converting on press and in postpress applications.]