Candy, Anyone?-Mary Schilling

By Mary Schilling

Oh, the excitement of everyone preparing for GRAPH EXPO. Although I love summer, I really look forward to the fall season and the print shows each year at McCormick Place in Chicago. It is a truly exciting time seeing all the new technologies and devices. It is like being a kid in a candy store.

But it can also be quite overwhelming. For printers who are looking to get into inkjet, it can be confusing and a bit intimidating with all the different technologies, processes, front-end processing and back-end finishing options. At these shows, each step of the inkjet printing process is highlighted in a different booth, so it is hard to know which pieces fit together if you are not familiar with the entire industry.

Wouldn’t it be sweet to have a booth sponsored by an industry, say...book printing? This exhibit would address which front-end processing systems, print devices, paper stocks and finishing equipment are proven and work interchangeably. I am not suggesting having all the equipment in this booth, but instead various solutions as a template to from which to pick and choose. This would provide interested printers multiple solutions for each piece of the process, enabling them to match them to their existing business instead of solutions being dictated by one manufacturer or the other. This would definitely narrow down a printer’s confusion about finding the right device and solution for the right industry.

It would be just like designing a candy basket yourself, instead of the clerk handing you a premade bag.

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Mary Schilling Author's page Mary Schilling works with all the elements of the digital process-from conventional and inkjet technologies to fluids and substrates-and provides technical support to print providers on optimizing print quality while lowering total print cost. Understanding the dynamics of the digital marketplace, and the incredible growth and advancements in inkjet technology, Mary provides customers with print quality, color gamut, fluid consumption, machine and print quality analysis, utilizing G7 methodology. She also works with inkjet fluid and machine developers to align paper development of new, innovative inkjet substrates. As the owner of Schilling Inkjet Consulting, she consults with fluid and inkjet machinery suppliers and end users on how to improve color and print quality for paper, plastics, metal, fabric and glass with UV, solvent and aqueous inkjet fluids. Mary received Innovator of the Year awards from the Flexographic Technical Association and from Xplor International for her efforts in closing the gap between document printing and digital packaging. She is G7 certified and a member of the IDEAlliance Print Properties Committee.