The Converting Curmudgeon

You’ve got only 10 days to get yourself over to Düsseldorf, Germany, for what’s left of drupa 2012. Yes, in one sense, that’s saying quite a lot because any other trade show that started on May 3 would have long since been over with by now. But drupa’s not just another s...

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Pretty much halfway between last year’s successful premiere of ICE USA (Intl. Converting Exhibition) and the next edition, I took part in a Steering Committee meeting on Tuesday for the 2013 show, along with nine other industry-advisory members. (Check out our team photo below). Set for April ...

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Today marks 30 days and counting until the opening of drupa 2012: world market print media, publishing and converting at the Fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany. The two-week trade show runs May 3-16 and fills Halls 1-17 plus outside areas on the massive site along the Rhine River. More than 1,8...

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In the course of reviewing the 65 posts I wrote this year, I came across a pretty astonishing statistic: More than 26,000 readers came to either this site or WordPress to read The Converting Quarterly Website in 2011. The fact that readers are spending an average of 2½ mins. on each post page...

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While the snow begins to fly across parts of North America, the Converting Quarterly staff is putting the finishing touches on our 2012 Quarter 1 issue, which features a Market and Technical Focus on Thin-Film Photovoltaics and Thin-Film Batteries. We appreciate your enthusiastic response to our fir...

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Editor’s Note: Mark Fihn, publisher of Veritas et Visus, a group of newsletters dedicated to the flat-panel display industry, gave a keynote presentation at the recent 2011 AIMCAL Web Coating Conference in Reno, NV. In his talk, he predicted what might lie ahead for touch panel displays and ou...

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By Dr. Peter Harrop, chairman, IDTechEx Most of the well-known objectives of printed electronics remain elusive because they are glamorous, Olympian dreams based on some very exciting demonstrations in laboratories. For example, we plan stretchable, invisible solar cells to go over the whole of a c...

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“Innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower.” –Steve Jobs And if anyone should know, it certainly was Steve Jobs. To help converters and their end-user customers get a better handle on reducing risk when introducing innovative products, Don McClure, president of Acuity ...

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Seventy-six labeling innovations for products ranging from wine/spirits, foods and pharmaceuticals to various consumer and industrial goods were recognized last night during the 2011 Tag & Label Mfrs. Institute (TLMI) annual awards banquet. Fifty-five first-place and 21 second-place winners from...

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As the autumn leaves begin to fall across North America, the Converting Quarterly staff is putting the finishing touches on our 2011 Quarter 4 issue, which features a Market Focus on Nanotechnology and a Market/Technical Focus on Vacuum-Coated Materials. Your response to our first three editions ha...

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