Olympics Yield Gold For Printers

Much like quadrennial U.S. presidential elections, the Olympic Games are a boon to print on the world stage. Several printers and suppliers are reaping big rewards from the summer games in China.

Kodak and EFI are playing starring roles in Beijing, providing print and graphics systems for tickets and other documentation. In advance of the opening of the XXIX Olympiad until the closing ceremonies August 24, long-time sponsor Kodak provides digital print for thousands of credentials for athletes, entourages, workers and 5,600 journalists—also operating photo labs and medical diagnostic imaging.

EFI’s Jetrion 3025 monochrome inkjet printer was selected by a unit of the government-owned currency printer, China Banknote and Minting Co., to personalize millions of tickets for opening and closing ceremonies and competitive events. To thwart fraud, the tickets have embedded RFID tags produced on Melzer equipment from Germany, with electronic data that matches the Jetrion imprinting. Static color on the massive run was produced on Iwasaki 5-color flexo label printing presses.

The Jetrion was tasked with ensuring that every ticket meets with the highest image quality and clarity for attendees, inkjetting all variable and personalized information: numbers, names, dates and times, events, stadium names, seat information and a variable barcode for each of the 13 million tickets.

The phenomenal print runs—eight million single spreadsheet tickets and five million continuous fan-folding tickets—were printed on specialized, but porous banknote paper, presenting a challenging printing scenario for any inkjet printer. EFI won the bidding for personalization by offering the best speed and coupled with inks compatible with the substrate for crisp readability. The latter was particularly crucial, as fine print reproducing Chinese characters had to retain legibility on the highly absorbent stock.

Manufacture planning began in 2006, according to Zhu Yan, director of the Beijing Olympic Ticketing Center. As for the ticket design, “It is marked by a distinct theme and a harmonious color,” Zhu said at a press conference. “The tickets are, therefore, ideal collectibles of the highest aesthetic values.”

Tickets integrate a variety of anti-counterfeiting measures, both electronic and physical, including microprint, “dynamic holographic safety line and holographic dealuminization,” Zhu said,—features that result “in significantly shortened games-time ticket verification process.”

Beyond credentials, a limited edition set of official, 19.7× 27.6´´ posters from past Olympic Games went on sale in Beijing this month. Approved by the International Olympic Committee, each set contains 25 posters covering every edition of the Olympic Games, from 1896 to 2004. Printed on acid-free paper, 8,000 sets are available with a retail value of about $243 per set.

Another Olympic-generated run was delivered by Amity Printing, which produces Bibles at its new, multimillion-dollar facility in Nanjing—a state-of-the-art factory that outputs one Bible per second. Forty thousand Bibles and other religious texts were produced for use by Olympic athletes.

ONLINE: go to graphicartsonline.com/awardcentral