Throughout the years, the National Printing Ink Research Institute (NPIRI), the technical arm of the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers (NAPIM),  has provided the industry with education and technical guidance. The crown jewel of NPIRI’s efforts is its annual Summer Course, which draws more than 50 attendees from ink manufacturers, printers and suppliers to learn the basics of ink.
 
The NPIRI Summer Course dates back to 1948, when it was established at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. In 2005, the course moved to Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, WI.
 
However, Fox Valley closed its graphic arts program this year, and NAPIM reached out to Clemson University, home of the Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design & Graphics, one of the premier graphics communications institutes in the country.
 
As a result, the NPIRI Summer Course will now call Clemson University home, beginning with the 2017 NPIRI Summer Course, which will be held July 16-21.
 
“We are very excited about this year’s NPIRI Summer Course at the Sonoco Institute at Clemson University,” said George Fuchs, NAPIM’s director, regulatory affairs and technology.. “We look at this transition to Clemson this year as a definite upgrade to this one-of-a-kind ink formulation training course. We are also excited to add printed electronics and digital printing components to the course curriculum this year.”
 
Clemson’s Printing Facilities
 
One of the key draws for NAPIM is Clemson’s excellent printing facilities.
 
“We have a breadth of printing processes available, including offset, digital, flexo and gravure, and can provide attendees with hands-on experience,” said Bobby Congdon, assistant director, Sonoco Institute of Packaging Design & Graphics.“Our equipment includes an Omet VaryFlex and Nilpeter seven-color flexo presses and a Ryobi four-color sheetfed press, and we recently installed an HP Indigo 5000.”
 
“Clemson’s facilities for instruction and demonstration are truly state-of-the-art,” added Fuchs.
 
 
Printed Electronics Module
 
New to the NPIRI Summer Course is a Printing Electronics module, which will focus on the process capabilities and limitations of flexography for printed electronics applications. The new session focuses on benchmarking studies conducted at Clemson using nano-silver inks in a production environment. Clemson printed and fully sintered conductive grids in-line at production speeds of 200 m/sec.
 
The module will also include gravure printing, as well as the results of a collaboration between Clemson and PARC, a Xerox company, to print antennas designed to capture ambient RF energy. 
 
Future Partnerships
 
Fuchs and Congdon noted that there are plenty of opportunities for the partnership between Clemson and NAPIM to grow.
 
“Not only are we planning on holding our summer course from here on out, but we are also looking to set up internships and development a recruitment relationship with the university in both their packaging and chemical sides,” Fuchs reported. “We can also offer insights and opportunities for career paths for the ink industry, particularly on the chemical side.”
 
“Our Graphics Communications Program offers exceptional learning for all facets of the industry, from design through prepress and production. We are really looking forward to working with NAPIM, as well as learning from their in-depth ink classes,” Congdon added.
 
The 2017 NPIRI Summer Course will feature five full days of classes, covering raw materials, testing equipment, formulations of inks and printing processes. Instructors include leaders from Allnex, Apollo Colors, BASF, Cabot Corporation, Clemson University, IGT Testing Systems, Inksolutions, INX, Joules Angstrom U.V. Printing Inks, Kershaw Instrumentation, Kustom Group, NAPIM, Printers’ Service, Sun Chemical and Verso Paper.
 
For registration information visit the NAPIM website at www.napim.org. For more information, contact Fuchs at 770-209-7291 or Ben Hopper at 770-209-7289