• IP to sell industrial-papers biz to Kohlberg & Co.: CT-based International Paper signs an agreement March 15 to sell its Industrial Papers Business for approximately $180 million. The division includes lightweight packaging papers, pressure-sensitive papers and related converting assets. To be sold are paper mills in DePere and Kaukauna, WI; the Akrosil business with paper-converting facilities in Menasha, WI, Lancaster, OH, and Heerlen, The Netherlands; and Thilmany Packaging located at the Kaukauna Mill.
• Integrated Packaging opens new corrugated plant: The New Brunswick, NJ-based company's 60,000-sq-ft facility in Alexandria, LA, will employ more than 50 people and make liquid-detergent shipping boxes for customer Procter & Gamble. Currently, the plant operates one shift and plans to have three shifts by next month. IPC is the largest African-American-owned corrugated company in the US. The plant, which will be run by IPC, is a joint venture with Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp.
• German carton converter expands offset capabilities: Leopold Verpackungen adds a new KBA (Williston, VT) Rapida 142 to its stable of 11 sheetfed-offset presses. The six-color press with coating tower and extended delivery was installed last year.
• Every other year: Auburn, WA-based flex-pack maker Mohawk Northern Plastics purchases its third press in five years from supplier Windmoeller & Hoelscher Corp. (Lincoln, RI). Installation of the new NOVOFLEX® XS 10 press, a 52-in., 10-color system, is expected to begin this summer.
• UV curing goes wide-web: Ling Industries (Warwick, Quebec, Canada) adds a three-lamp, UV-curing system to cure overprint varnish on folding cartons. The Prime UV equipment (Carol Stream, IL) was installed after the in-line coating unit on Ling's new 48-in.-wide BHS Printing Machinery (Hampstead, MD) in-line flexographic press.
• Personal-care wipes will continue to dominate the market for such converted products through 2008, says a new study by Cleveland-based researcher The Freedonia Group, Inc. Pushed by consumer-market success, converters are increasingly developing wipes for the industrial market. Applications include cleanroom, surface preparation and other specialty areas.

Three individuals were presented with Flexographic Technical Assn. (FTA) President's Awards March 20 during the group's Annual Forum banquet in Orlando, FL. Leo Suokus, Ian Hole and David Lanska were recognized for their strong sense of volunteerism related to important flexo industry initiatives.

Leo Suokus of George Brown College (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) spearheaded the incorporation of flexo into the graphics curriculum at the school in 1982. He co-ordinated creation of the industry-wide Flexo Presswise Program, inaugurated in January 1993. It now boasts more than 300 graduates across Canada. Suokus will retire at the close of this school year, but his contributions to flexo education in Canada will long be remembered, FTA says.

Ian Hole of Esko-Graphics (Vandalia, OH) has shown untiring support of flexo education and industry advancement through a variety of means. A well-recognized figure on the FFTA speaking circuit, he has been a frequent participant in a number of Forum programs. Also one to lend his technical expertise to evaluation of flexo quality standards, Hole has been an expert judge in the FTA Excellence in Flexography Awards Competition for the past two years. His involvement on important flexo industry standards initiatives—such as FIRST™ (Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications and Tolerances)—is vital to FTA's drive to elevate quality and consistency across all print segments.

David Lanska of Stork Materials Technology, Cellramic Div. (Milwaukee), is regarded as one of FTA's more "colorful" volunteers. He has served as a valuable member of the FTA Environmental Committee, contributed to The Flexo Environment & Virtual Flexo Plant and judged the Environmental Excellence Awards Competition. Lanska has twice presented papers at the National Environmental Health & Safety Conference. A frequent Forum speaker, he has been affectionately dubbed FTA's very own "Turbo Member" for his great accomplishments in recruiting new FTA members.