Horizon paper short grain investment

Paper Solutions Print Solutions

Following extensive research and collaboration with Sappi and machine manufacturers, EBB has invested in large stocks of Horizon Offset short grain material (80 to 170 g/m2).

Running short grain helps deliver productivity benefits in a world when all gains need to be taken advantage of. The development of printing machines to run at ever increasing speed while delivering high quality print every sheet, has seen increased stress on paper.

Short grain, as used extensively in Europe, allows printers to increase productivity with greater control and better image stability.

David Tennent, EBB sales director, said: ‘We have seen the significant benefit to customers on coated paper when printing short grain, it is a natural progression to make this investment in Horizon Offset to give UK printers the best option to deliver high output and high quality.

‘Short grain paper (80 to 170 g/m2) means the paper grain moves through the press in print machine direction thus giving greater stability and greater control.’

Matt Rockley, Heidelberg product executive – sheetfed and digital, said:

‘We first saw the advantages of short grain material many years ago with CutStar customers – (reel to sheet devices on the feeder of our presses), we very quickly found this to be advantageous in the press as well as in the post press departments in terms of stability and increased performance (speed of throughput and quality improvements for registration of colour).

‘In general we see an improvement in sheet feeding/delivering in the lighter weight range of materials (as the grain direction helps with stability in the feeder and delivery of our presses) we also see an improvement in colour to colour registration with short grain as the material holds its shape better than long grain when going from unit to unit (especially on the first four or five units of a long perfecting press, those reverse out text images/pages really benefit in short grain materials).’