Two major changes have influenced ink development in recent times: the abolition of heavy metal pigments such as lead, cadmium and chromium and the need to diminish solvent use. Both changes have been driven by the imperative to reduce Health and Safety and Environmental hazards.

Modern society surrounds us with opportunities to gamble including lotteries, casinos, scratch cards and on-line poker. One sector that remains prevalent is fruit machines and with an increase in jackpot values, their popularity continues to grow.

Thank goodness we are all different in how we look, live, and run our businesses. There are times, of course, when replicating a look or product offering can be appealing and beneficial to our industry, but the power of product differentiation is also key.

Somewhere in Brussels is a mole with contacts in the sign and print industry who is insisting on warning labels, posters and displays being produced for every conceivable human activity. These explain whether you can do it, can't do it or the consequences of same. Be aware that many of these will have to be specific colour matches and lightfast for seven years. So where do we turn to but screen printing where the inks we can use are more stable that those used of other processes.

A steady business with satisfied clients and a growing order book is something to be proud of in today's economic climate. One company with a healthy order book is Stevensons Advertising Plastics, a supplier of screen printing services for ultrasonic welded plastic products.

A trip to India visiting graphics screen printing organisations revealed a host of sophisticated printing facilities. Fully air-conditioned and clean room environments were equipped with kit, inks and chemistry from Europe, US and Japan. The management were highly educated, with several having doctorates and CEOs determined to win the Best Place to Work competition for manufacturing companies.

It is unfortunate that screen printing is sometimes overlooked when in fact most advanced technologies are dependent on the process. This dependency is at the core of advances in electronics. Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are largely produced using screen printing technology and as circuits have become smaller, and the range of applications increased, so screen printing has strengthened its position in electronics production.

What makes screen printing so attractive to production process engineers is the ability to apply a controlled film thickness over large areas relatively quickly and yet with precise positioning. In the graphics industry the material printed is an ink with a coloured pigment or dye that that can be adhered to a range of substrates for visual effect. Being able to control the ink film thickness and the precise position and shape of the image is crucial to the final appearance.

One of the main reasons why screen printing is under pressure is that waste has become part of the culture. Waste can be defined as rejects, both on-line and off-line, unused materials, inefficient use of materials and consumables, wasted manpower, machine downtime and excessive set up time. Any reduction in waste goes straight to profits.

THE CAR is in a treasure trove of printing applications. The speedometer dials, the indicator arms, the air conditioning controls, the windscreen, most of the front facia and the side windows all feature printing of some kind. Open the bonnet and printed electronic circuits are a major feature with dozens of printed sensors sending signals to help the suspension, for example, sense mistimed braking on a corner. Printing is present in almost every modern environment and it allows our technological world to operate.

PRINTING ON fabrics and promotional products encompasses a host of applications and substrates from textiles to titanium. Although this market segment is in fact huge, it can seem almost invisible to outsiders. Not only this, those who do be­come involved often overlook the skills required to produce quality output, thinking that any printing is just printing. This attitude is a double edged sword. The ignorant think it is easy and fail, and the experts pick up the pieces and make money.

WHAT DO we mean by substrate? The substrate is the surface onto which you can apply a printed image. Some people call it material and others media. To your average general printer substrate is paper or board and the main differentiator is whether the finish is gloss or matte. To a screen printer a substrate is virtually any stable material that can be supported and make contact with the print side of a stencil. As screen printing breaks into more industrial applications, so the range of exotic substrates increases. The substrate can be horizontal, vertical or any angle in between. In reality 99 per cent of all print surfaces are horizontal. It is generally in some forms of container decoration that vertical printing is used. However, there is a UK-based specialist who can screen print onto walls and other vertical surfaces.

NEXT YEAR is likely to be the year that sorts the wheat from the chaff with challenging times ahead. That said, it is often easier to make more profit on a reduced turnover. Hard times make printers concentrate on being better at what they do, with the time to make improvements in systems and methods. It is also an opportunity to reassess sales and marketing by talking to existing customers, making sure, in the process, that they are financially secure.

PROVIDING CUSTOMERS with both product range and service flexibility is no mean feat. It relies on combining the right stock in the warehouse with appropriate technical expertise and equipment.

So the UK was going to be a service based economy with banking and insurance leading the way to future prosperity. Our vibrant economy riding on a wave of surging house prices was going to carry the nation forward. Small fortunes lent to people who would never be able to repay the debt. Millions in bonuses being made by sharp-witted dealers.

Choosing between flatbed or cylinder configurations is often a case of company tradition rather than analysis. Some prefer to use higher-priced cylinder screen printing systems for all applications, while others consider this overkill. Whatever the rationale for choosing between flatbed or cylinder configurations in the past, innovation in both systems mean it is timely to re-evaluate the choices.

All too often screen printing is considered the poor performer of print technologies. This is often the case in graphics applications, particularly point of sale (POS), however, operating a culture of excellence could change the perception of this process. The aim has to be to delight the client with a product offering that exceeds their expectations.

This family run firm operates successfully in the POS market, competing on quality, delivery and price, using screen printing technology. How is this achieved? Managing director, Dieter Jernej, believes it is down to investment in the best equipment, backed by sound research and regular upgrades, at least every five years.

As small business people we are being subsumed in a torrent of regulations, guidance and opportunities to become criminals in the blink of a camera or missed signature. There are some advantages in this bureaucratic onslaught: one is they all need print. In our sector it takes the form of safety signs, warning labels and illuminated displays. Think of the number of ‘No Smoking' signs printed for 1 October 2007.

The starting point for printing onto ceramics and glass is the range of inks that can be used. Inks fall into categories: inks or enamels containing finely powdered glass or frit, inorganic pigments and fired in a lehr at a temperature exceeding 600°C; inks containing organic pigments and resins heated to 200°C; and inks containing organic pigments and resins cured by UV radiation.

When preparing to write a feature, it's amazing how white an empty page or screen can be to a dyslexic like me. It's difficult to believe how liberating the keyboard is. When writing by hand the pen just won't go where the brain wants it to, while reading is sometimes like a slow motion landslide of words. So why the revelations?

In recent months I have travelled the world working with a range of printers and printing companies. East, west, north, south the problems are the same. Low margins, competition and the environment. There are some advantages as printers in some of the more welcoming nations provide excellent cultural exchanges, as can be seen on this page, where the new PDS Consulting representative for Asia is seen demonstrating our new company uniform. Notice the wool swatches for testing light fastness of colours and the excellent textile printing.

It seems like I have been writing these articles since Noah's dad was a lad. In truth it's probably ten years. Haven't things changed in that time? Back then the squeeze and squirt process was in its infancy and many companies saw multicolour screen printing lines as the way forward. Then came the digital technology revolution. However, in the PoS industry (superwide format and large flatbed) this revolution is turning into more of a small disturbance, with some equipment even appearing on E-Bay. There is the Onset but that is for the deep-pocketed few.

For a process that was supposed to be dead and buried in PoS applications, there are an awful lot of machines producing vast amounts of printed materials. One of the reasons has to be that the industry has realised that digital printing technology is simply not up to the mark. With the exception of Inca's Onset machine (which costs a stonking £1.5m), flatbed and many roll fed digital machines are just too slow.

We are in a world where buying decisions are lifestyle choices. Customers purchase because it makes them feel good. A product’s looks and perceived value are crucial factors. Just look at a supermarket’s ‘bargain’ shelf to see bottles of wine reduced because the label is torn or twisted. This demonstrates how fickle customers can be.