Summary

Many standards for quality exist within the graphic arts industry. This research project has investigated the relevance of such standards to the UK newspaper printing sector, in particular regarding the quality control of ink and paper. The aim was to build up a picture of current procedures and opinions regarding standards and conformance monitoring within the newspaper printing sector. The information was gathered using both interviews and questionnaires. The main focus was on finding out how newspaper printing organisations deal with the issues of quality and consistency regarding the newsink and newsprint that they purchase. The key issues were the use and origins of standard specifications for paper and ink and the way in which conformance to the specifications is monitored. The investigation also looked at whether or not the ISO 9000 quality management standards have a part to play in the UK newspaper printing sector. This was included to gain some insight into how the industry deals with general quality management. Data was collected from three types of sources. These were suppliers of newsink within the UK, suppliers of newsprint within the UK and newspaper printing plants within the UK. Data from newsink and newsprint suppliers was collected in the form of interviews and data from newspaper print sites was collected in the form of questionnaires. Results from the questionnaire responses were compiled. The results from the interviews were then compared and contrasted witht the results from the questionnaire responses. Apart from the ISO standard for shade (which is contained within ISO 12647-3), there are standards for physical properties of newsprint (DIN 19306-41) and newsink (ISO 2824-22). The results show that newspaper printing organisations hold mixed views about the ISO 12647-3 standard as a whole. It seems that very few printers in the UK have embraced the standard in its entirety. For properties other than shade, the quality of the ink and paper is regulated to a certain extent by the users. Ten out of the twelve participants in the research project had some way of monitoring the quality of the ink and the paper that they purchase. Also, three quarters of the participants had a standard specification for ink and paper. The majority of newspaper printing organisations monitor the quality of the newsink and newsprint that they purchase using quality assurance certificates from the suppliers. In addition to this, over half of the participants of the questionnaire had or have access to facilities to test the properties of the ink and paper. It was unclear from the results of this research how these methods for monitoring quality were used. In terms of general quality management, it would seem that the newspaper printing sector is largely self-regulated. Although the majority of the newspaper printers that participated in this research had considered setting up an ISO 9000 standard quality management system, none of them had pursued the idea.