Evolutionary new product from Grellingen

With its new Z-Evolution paper, Ziegler Paper Mill clearly demonstrates its position as market leader in the realm of inkjet printing. A manufacturing process unique throughout the world makes Z-Evolution particularly attractive for direct mail applications and book printing.

The real evolution behind Z-Evolution:
For the first time, it is possible to apply coating to both sides of inkjet paper
inline using a film press.

With a production capacity of some 70,000 tonnes a year, Ziegler Paper Mill is not one of the world’s largest paper manufacturers. But that has never been its aim. Instead, the Grellingen-based paper mill concentrates on catering to niche markets with its premium-quality papers and this is a policy Ziegler Paper has pursued with considerable success for a good number of years. One such niche comprises papers especially developed to meet the requirements of high-performance inkjet printing. These papers include the company’s Z-Plot 450 and Z-Plot 650 products, which were introduced several years ago and targeted at the demands of inkjet plotters and transactional and transpromotional printing applications. Thanks to products of this quality, Ziegler established itself in the inkjet market early on and can rightly be regarded today as a global player in this segment. The list of the mill’s business partners reads like a who’s who of the inkjet sector: Infoprint Solutions Company, Océ and Kodak, to name but three. Ziegler has enjoyed close collaboration with Kodak for several years now and it was also Kodak that named Z-Plot 650 its “Golden Standard”, thus making the paper a benchmark for the entire paper industry.

The innovation is Z-Evolution
This new inkjet web paper is a further development of Z-Plot 650 and lives up to its Z-Evolution name in full. As Susanne Oste, Ziegler’s Head of Product Management and Technology, says: “Z-Evolution is a logical development of our core competence – and a world first. Z-Evolution is a highly innovative product that can be manufactured inline on a paper machine for the first time. In the past, papers of this kind could only be coated offline”. Until now, the size of the pigments made it impossible to apply the coating to the paper inline using the paper machine’s film press and the majority of pigment manufacturers were not previously prepared to develop their raw materials in this direction. Now, an American pigment manufacturer has succeeded for the first time in producing a smaller pigment that can be applied inline via a film press - an event that Ziegler had long been waiting for. This is the real evolution and it also has an effect on price. To date, there has been a considerable price gap between expensive offline-coated papers (approx. CHF 3000 per tonne) and lightly pigmented papers (approx. CHF 1500 per tonne) like Z-Plot 650. For the time being, however, the people in Grellingen are not saying exactly how much Z-Evolution costs.

Better, faster - Z-Evolution
The film press is a simple two-roller system situated after the paper machine’s dryer section that applies the coating to both sides of the paper at the same time using a spray system and doctor blade. The coating completely covers the fibres of the paper and prevents the ink from penetrating into the paper. This results in lower ink consumption with higher opacity and improved colour intensity. Yet the coating remains sufficiently porous for the ink to be quickly absorbed, thus drastically shortening drying times. At the same time, the solvent can penetrate into the paper, the colour is precipitated and the paper can be processed further straight away.
The colour coating concept for inkjet applications, that is to say the mixing of pigments, binders and polymers, is different from that used for offset printing papers. To enable the binders to penetrate into the inkjet paper, it is necessary for porosity to be higher. Thanks to the new pigments it is possible to get closer to offset printing. For this reason, Z-Evolution can also be used in offset processes, which opens up new possibilities with an eye to hybrid applications.
During development of Z-Evolution, concentration was focused on drop-on-demand inkjet technology. Susanne Oste explains why: “In continuous inkjet printing, the drops are 42 picolitres in size and therefore considerably larger. A lot of solvent has to be used; the demands placed on the paper are different. With a drop size of just 4 to 12 picolitres in drop-on-demand or in Kodak’s Stream technology, it is possible for other papers to be developed. Added to that is the fact that an above-average number of drop-on-demand systems are going into operation at present.”
While Z-Plot 650 is principally used in the transpromotional area, new Z-Evolution is ideal for direct mail applications and for printing books. In these areas in particular, the demand is for greater colour density and higher resolutions, that is to say for printing photo-realistic images. Also, in these segments demands in respect of printing speeds and further processing are markedly greater. This is therefore an area where the unrivalled advantages of Z-Evolution can be exploited to the full.

Ziegler at Ipex 2010
Ziegler Paper Mill will be officially launching Z-Evolution at Ipex 2010 in Birmingham (Hall 12, Stand C118). The new inkjet paper will also be in use on equipment being exhibited by a large number of leading providers of inkjet solutions. Following its launch with OEM partners this February, 200 tonnes of Z-Evolution have already been produced. By the end of the year, the figure will be 1000 tonnes. As the company had been reckoning on a volume of only around 500 tonnes, this looks like the beginning of another success story.


Text by Daniel Bischof, Viscom print & communication, Switzerland
Pictures: Viscom print & communication, Switzerland