Every printer wants the first press impression to be as good as the last. Now, a new consumable from Wake Forest, NC-based Rhino Performance Products (www.rhinoperforms.com) reportedly solves a host of printing problems and helps build press performance to achieve that goal.

Rhino Ink Boost is a patent-pending additive for water- and solvent-based flexographic and gravure inks that reportedly increases press speeds 25 percent, reduces pigment loading up to 39 percent, and eliminates bronzing and ghosting up to 99 percent. In addition to sharpening fine details in process images, the supplier claims Rhino Ink Boost allows cleaner colors to be printed with less expensive bases (Rubine instead of Rhodamine).

In the example below of a process-magenta flexo-ink drawdown, the left side is untreated while the right side has 25 percent Rhino Ink Boost. Both contain 25-percent pigment base load, are 13-secs. #3 Zahn cup viscosity, 9.2 pH and applied with a 450-line screen. At a 5-10 percent level in water-based coatings, it reportedly increases gloss significantly.

Introduced in September, Rhino Ink Boost is being aimed at the corrugated, preprinted linerboard, paper plate and cup, multiwall-bag, label and newspaper industries.

While not exactly an "end all" solution to $3.00-a-gallon diesel fuel and those "transportation" surcharges showing up on your distributor's invoice, a new process called "Thermofuel" promises another source of energy from an unlikely place. Developed by Melbourne, Australia-based Ozmotech (www.ozmotech.com.au), the process uses liquefaction, pyrolysis and the catalytic breakdown of scrap and waste plastics to turn them into liquid hydrocarbons that can be used as fuels for diesel burners, trucks and generators.

Because all plastics are essentially solidified oil, there is no need to separate them by type. Most plastics can be processed directly even if contaminated with aluminum laminates and printing inks, Ozmotech says. Feedstocks such as polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene work the best, but ethylene vinyl acetate is also suitable. Typical flex-pack bags reportedly yield about 960 ml of oil from 1 kg of waste plastics.

A comparison of Thermofuel produced from a mix of plastics and regular diesel has been conducted by gas chromatography, Ozmotech says, and while similar, the distillate shows cleaner burning characteristics with no chemical elements other than those found in the original plastic waste.

With last summer's introduction of Budweiser and Michelob beers in 16-oz aluminum bottles, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, Inc., started a new trend in packaging away from the traditional amber or green glass beer bottle. They also started a trend that's liable to have a significant impact on label converters.

Besides becoming a success in the marketplace, A-B's aluminum beer bottle has also won industry accolades. The latest is its 2005 Foodservice Package of the Year honors in the QSR - Magazine-Foodservice & Packaging Institute (www.fpi.org) annual competition. Chosen "best of the best" from among 111 entries, it also won first-place in "The WOW! Factor" category. "The use of the aluminum bottle is a huge change...versus standard bottles and bottle labels," said the judges.

And therein lies the rub. Manufactured by Youngstown, OH-based Exal USA (www.exal.com), the colorful containers are directly decorated, similar to aluminum soft-drink cans that have been on the market for decades. If the package is adopted by other brewers—highly likely given A-B's success—long-term sales of glue-applied and pressure-sensitive labels are bound to be affected to some degree.