PRINTING United Transitioning to a Comprehensive Online Experience in 2020 (piworld.com)

Brook + Whittle, a leading provider of pressure sensitive and shrink sleeve prime labels, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Custom Labels Group within Cenveo Worldwide Limited (“Cenveo”). The acquisition significantly enhances Brook + Whittle’s position in e-commerce and digital label printing in North America. “Cenveo’s Custom Labels Group is a differentiated business with incredible experience in short run volumes, fast turnaround service, and great product quality, all delivered through some of the world’s most advanced digital systems,” stated Mark Pollard, CEO of Brook + Whittle. “This acquisition places Brook + Whittle at the forefront of digital transformation in the label industry. Regardless of whether our customers require one or one billion labels, the combined platform has the capability to deliver high quality, custom designed products with the industry’s fastest lead-times. Brook + Whittle welcomes the Custom Labels Group employees, and we are excited about our collaboration to provide unmatched capabilities and value to our respective customers.”

A typical sheet of paper or cardboard is neither waterproof, interactive or able to harvest energy, but an innovative new printing technology developed at Purdue University can make it all of the above. The researchers demonstrated the technique by transforming a sheet of notebook paper into a music player, and say it could be scaled up to work with larger printing processes for more mainstream uses. “This is the first time a self-powered paper-based electronic device is demonstrated,” says study author Ramses Martinez, an assistant professor in Purdue’s School of Industrial Engineering. “We developed a method to render paper repellent to water, oil and dust by coating it with highly fluorinated molecules. This omniphobic coating allows us to print multiple layers of circuits onto paper without getting the ink to smear from one layer to the next one.” With this omniphobic coating as the starting point, the researchers were able to integrate vertical pressure sensors onto the paper. This not only enables it to become an interactive surface for a variety of applications, but also one that can harvest energy from user’s actions through friction as they apply pressure to the device, which can be used to power wireless Bluetooth communication.

Moore announces the acquisition of Worcester Envelope Company, an industry leader specializing in custom envelope manufacturing. This acquisition comes less than 12 months from the $31 million investment Moore made in envelope manufacturing with the opening of Richmond Print Group in Virginia. Moore is investing in Worcester Envelope to expand its envelope manufacturing in overall capacity, redundancy and location diversification. Based in Auburn, Massachusetts, Worcester Envelope specializes in the manufacturing of high color direct mail envelopes to service the medium to large volume mail industry.