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Described as a film substrate-based bendable colour electronic paper with an image memory function, the new electronic paper features vivid colour images that are unaffected even when the screen is bent, and an image memory function that enables continuous display of the same image without the need for electricity. The thin and flexible electronic paper uses very low power to change screen images and its makers initially target it for public advertising that can be changed from a central image server.

It's unlikely to prove to be the end of the printing world as we know it.

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Here’s a free kick at a favourite topic. Printing Industries is seeking industry members’ experiences of dealing with inefficient and unnecessary government regulations. The Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources is conducting a review and Printing Industries Acting CEO, Philip Andersen, said the association would be highlighting members' concerns and experiences.

"The examples and instances we can provide will be used by the Federal Government and will also feed into the Council of Australian Governments' review of regulation," he said. "This is a good opportunity to push for reform, the streamlining of regulation and removal of duplication that exists across a wide range of departments."

The Department is particularly interested in regulations that overlap jurisdictions and where there are inconsistencies between the regulations of various state governments with the Federal Government.

So don’t just whinge abut it at work, whinge about it on a national level. Send your examples to Hagop Tchamkertenian Hagop by Friday 29 July 2005.

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It’s not often we get a chance to celebrate an Australian invention that has become a world-wide standard, but this is the tenth anniversary of PageStore, the digital advertising delivery system. Developed by local company QuickCut, which claims that since its introduction it has facilitated the validation and delivery of more than one billion square centimeters of copy across the globe, PageStore is now used across Europe, the United States, South Africa and Asia.

Well done, the home side.

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Clancy confesses that there is little that stirs him quite like the sight, sound, smell and vibration of a big web press thundering along at full speed. The force is fantastic, which is why the announcement of a new web catcher S18 from Baldwin is something to be recognized. When a paper web breaks as it zips its way through the labyrinthine rollers at high speed it can cause a lot of damage, and even if it doesn’t break the press, it wraps itself around the rollers and takes forever to get off.

The S18 reacts to a web break in 28 milliseconds, initiating an emergency stop, and immediately cutting the web prior to the first roller. Inside the S18 a trolley cross bar pushes the full width of the paper web to a spinning catching roller, guiding it to the ground in front of the dryer, preventing the web from wrapping itself around the blanket or inking rollers.

The world’s first Baldwin S18 is on a 48-page Lithoman web offset press at the Nuremberg premises of German printer Heckel where it is gaining acclaim for its reliability.

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Even the largest companies can gain from concentrating on their knitting. International Paper, fresh from announcing it’s intention to sell the controlling 50.5 per cent share in Carter Holt Harvey in New Zealand, now declares the move is part of a strategy to reduce the company’s involvement to just two sectors – uncoated papers and packaging. To this end it will sell and spin off a number of assets around the world.

“Our portfolio changes will allow us to better focus management attention on these key businesses, which represent over 70 percent of our sales," said John Faraci, ceo and chairman.

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And finally … there are some good ingredients in this joke, but it is in bad taste.


Two cannibals in the jungle are standing over a fire with a large boiling pot, stirring the soup with wooden spoons. One cannibal says to the other, "I hate my mother in law, I really don't like her at all, she really makes me sick."

The other cannibal says, "So just eat the noodles."