Registration Rates:
Member: $1750
Non-Member: $2400
The 2025 NAPIM Summer Course will take place at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC - July 14-18. Appalachian State University has one of the premier graphic communications departments in the U.S. It offers excellent instructional facilities and state of the art ink laboratory and printing training resources. It is also conveniently accessible from Charlotte Douglas Airport (90 minutes) and is located in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
This is your chance to take a comprehensive "foundation" course that starts with the fundamentals and moves to more advanced topics. This unique, "one of a kind" week-long course will give you a solid understanding of printing ink formulation, performance and testing.
Designed to appeal to both technical (formulators, in-plants, chemists,) and non-technical (sales, support personnel, anyone new to the industry) staff, you'll get actual hands-on press experience and learn new ways to maximize productivity while improving your skills.
Instructors include printing and printing ink experts from:
Allnex, BASF, Cabot Corporation, Appalachian State University, IGT Testing Systems, Kershaw Instrumentation, Kustom Group, NAPIM, Printers' Service, Sun Chemical and others.
Each Summer Course instructor has been carefully chosen not only for their technical expertise, but also for their interest in, and ability to communicate, complex information in a classroom setting. And while this is an annual course, it's not the same as last year! Each instructive session has been reviewed, refined and improved to ensure that the most current and up-to-date information is provided.
Why Attend:
- Gain basic technical knowledge to help you do your job
- Get first-hand exposure to printing presses (offset, flexo and digital)
- Learn the "where, how and why" of raw materials
- Learn more about basic ink formulation
- See state-of-the-art design and prototyping labs
- Learn how regulatory issues affect printing ink in both the manufacturing and printing
- environments
- Learn how national and international rules affect the graphic arts industry
Highlights Include:
Paper Properties and Printability: This session will cover cellulosic/porous substrates. The important paper properties (i.e. paper optics, opacity, basis weight, internal bond, etc.) will be discussed. Paper testing for printability covering ink gloss, drying, pilling, dot-gain, etc will also be explained.
Organic/Inorganic Pigments, Metallic & Special Effect Colorants: This session will explain the basics of color in printed applications. Among other topics this session will cover: the (CIELAB) L*a*b* Color Space and important pigment properties such as: color strength, transparency, stability, hiding flow properties, dispersibility, etc.
Fundamentals of Carbon Black: Carbon black is a very commonly used component in printing ink formulations. This session will cover the carbon black process, types and grades, surface structure and chemistry and other important graphic arts properties.
Film Substrate: Polymeric substrates (films) are one of the major packaging substrate. This in-depth session will cover the technical aspects of the different types of films (e.g. polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate, nylon, polyvinyl chloride, etc.) and their printing related properties.
Formulating Litho Inks & Vehicles: This interactive session is designed for the registrants to use the concepts they’ve learned earlier in the seminar while they are guided through the “whiteboard” construction of a lithographic ink formulation.
Principles of Rheology & Practical Applications: A basic understanding of rheology is essential to understand printing ink formulation. This presentation will focus on what rheology is, how it is measured, how it affects all types of printing inks and other issues.
Lithographic Print Process: Lithographic printing is still the majority print process. This presentation will provide an in-depth understanding of how lithography works and why it is used in today’s printing/graphic arts space.
Energy Cure (UV, EB, LED): Energy cured inks continue to grow in popularity in the graphic arts space. This session will focus on the different types of energy curable inks, how they are formulated, how they are applied and why they are used.
Inkometer Demonstration: The printing ink inkometer is an essential mechanism for measuring printing ink stability. This “hands-on” session will demonstrate its operation and interpretation of the test results.
Viscosity Demonstration: Printing ink viscosity is one of the most important ink properties. This “hands-on” session will demonstrate viscosity measure through the operation of an ink viscometer.
