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Chicago, IL – October 15, 2006 – Technological advancements and increased market demand will lead to a predominance of digital printing production in most operations in the near future, according to Robert Stabler, president of Nipson America. Nipson is a leading manufacturer of high-speed black-and-white digital printing presses and Stabler sees the wide-spread adoption of digital soon becoming a reality in mainstream print production environments. At GRAPH EXPO 2006 (booth # 4259), Nipson is demonstrating the unsurpassed combination of speed, print quality, cost and flexibility that is contributing to this trend.

“The convergence of market demand and technology developments is bringing us to a tipping point in digital adoption already,” remarks Stabler. “Cost per page continues to fall due to productivity improvements of over 10% per year, while print quality improves and demand for target printing increases. At Nipson, we are at the leading edge of this change, connecting market demand with technological possibilities. This is the result of continuous investment and enhancement in speed, print quality, and total cost of ownership.”

Stabler offers additional insight at the show regarding this changeover:

There is always a critical point when technology moves beyond niche markets. With digital black and white production, the speed, quality, and cost of consumables have all reached benchmarks that allow them to be adopted effectively into most print operations. In addition, market demand for targeted print runs in many different industries is driving the need. It is the convergence of these two factors that makes this point in digital development different.

• Are there particular markets that will be most affected by this change?

Direct mail, transactional, and book printing are all industries that are already seeing a level of convergence. The changeover in technology of direct mail and transactional markets is primarily occurring because of speed and productivity increases. With print, book-on-demand and specialty applications, the integration of digital technology into traditional operations is taking place because of vast improvements in digital print quality. For all of these markets, the cost is coming down and this is leading to greater adoption industry-wide.

Nipson has users in these industries that employ the speed and flexibility of our technology to integrate into finishing, labeling and offset printing equipment. These same industries are also noticing increased demand for more targeted print runs.

• How is Nipson postured to take advantage of market developments?

Nipson’s technology is based around magnetography and non-heat flash fusion. This combination of technologies makes our systems particularly well suited for integration with finishing equipment and traditional printing technologies. Also, our technology is able to sustain high speeds without degrading print quality or affecting the flexibility or integration. Nipson is well positioned to continue to serve this market since we expect the speed of our technology to continue to steadily increase while other technologies plateau.

VaryPress at Graph Expo

At GRAPH EXPO 2006, Nipson’s VaryPress 400, running at 125 meters per minute (415 ft/m), will be demonstrated producing a mix of technical manuals, direct mail, print on demand, transactional, and specialty applications. The systems will be integrated with finishing equipment from EMT International to show the flexibility of Nipson’s technology to effectively serve a wide range of markets.

About Nipson 

Based in Dartford, Kent, with R&D and manufacturing headquarters in Belfort, France and with subsidiaries in France, North America, Germany, the UK, and Italy, Nipson provides some of the most cost-effective, flexible digital black and white printing equipment in the industry today. Companies in publishing, print-on-demand, direct mail, transactional, financial, and security printing all benefit from Nipson’s combination of production throughput, reliability, and flexibility.  

Traditional hurdles in digital print such as linked offset to digital configurations, inline tipped on cards, printing on plastics, papers, and foils, as well as books-on-demand and newspapers-on-demand are now commercial, profitable, and real-world testimonials to Nipson’s leadership in heavy-dutydigital printing.

In addition to relying on a strong direct sales force in selected areas, Nipson also markets its products and services through a worldwide network of qualified value added distributors, covering more than 50 countries.