The Converting Curmudgeon

Cal Poly State University professor Malcolm G. Keif is a self-proclaimed optimist. He says, as an academic, he’s the most unthreatening kind of guy. So, in his overarching presentation Sunday at Graph Expo 2010 on current questions swirling around printed electronics (PE) and tomorrow’s ...

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Last week’s Converting Influence meeting in Appleton, WI, offered a panel discussion with American Custom Converting, Optima USA and Tailored Label. These three firms provided evidence of why “The Converting Corridor” (the area along Lake Michigan from Green Bay on the north to Chi...

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Now that I’ve recovered from the three intensive days of Labelexpo Americas 2010, here are a few Converting Curmudgeon thoughts on the biennial narrow-web printing and converting extravaganza. The show floor and conference rooms were pleasantly crowded on the first two days—a welcome sign for both ...

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Hall F of the Stephens Convention Ctr. was the hub of digital label and packaging printing and converting at Labelexpo Americas. Here’s my Converting Curmudgeon roundup on a handful of interesting developments. After debuting at IPEX 2010 earlier this year, the production-model EPSON SurePr...

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Pressure-sensitive labels dominate the global labeling industry today. But that may not always be the case based on data presented at yesterday’s AWA Label Release Liner Industry Seminar 2010. Here’s a quick Converting Curmudgeon rundown on the stats and SWOTs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities a...

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I’m ramping up for one heckuva busy week in lovely Rosemont, IL. It starts off next Monday with the AWA Label Release Liner Seminar 2010. The intensive one-day program includes a Label Release Liner Market Overview; Trends & Developments in Global Label Markets;  a look at Global Con...

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It’s turning into a real oxymoron to call this “Labor Day” weekend. The string of bad economic news coming out of Washington just in time for the annual summer-ending holiday was capped off by a rise in the unemployment rate to 9.6% and the sad fact that 15 million Americans are ou...

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US degradable-plastics demand up 16.6% a year to 2014 The degradable plastic industry has been on the verge of commercial success for decades.  However, demand growth was limited because most degradable plastics were too expensive, were unavailable in large enough quantities or had performanc...

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If you want to see the future of digital packaging printing in action, you need go no further than Tulsa, OK. That’s clear from my visit yesterday to Odyssey Digital Printing as part of Xeikon’s pre-Labelexpo Americas 2010 briefing. Odyssey, one of the few digital-only packaging printers...

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I’ll be offline Monday and Tuesday while I attend a special pre-Labelexpo Americas 2010 briefing in Tulsa, OK, by digital-pressmaker Xeikon. Along with revealing its strategy and plans for next month’s show in lovely Rosemont, IL, Xeikon will offer a visit to one of its premier customers...

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