Digitally printed lidding film from Shere Print
There have been several events recently debating digital labels and packaging. In October, Smithers Pira attracted nearly 200 attendees to its conference in London, while the AWA Inkjet Packaging Print seminar in Barcelona at the beginning of November was also well supported. Sean Smyth attended both events.
The majority of attendees at both events were keen advocates of digital technology. However, one dissenting view came from Angela Doyle, managing director of flexibles giant, Constantia Packaging Group. In her presentation in London, she explained how her customers are concerned with quality and cost issues, and digitisation is well down their list of priorities.
Chris Tonge, sales and marketing director, Shere Print (a subsidiary of Ultimate Packaging in Grimsby) had a very different view. Having invested over £1 million in an HP Indigo WS6600 press and finishing/priming equipment from AB Graphic International, the company is now producing digitally printed lidding film for Waitrose’s Mediterranean Salad Bowl. The film was produced for Waitrose and Wingland Foods. Karen Graley, packaging and reprographics manager for Waitrose, highlighted the key factors that make digital attractive for flexible packaging. She said, ‘An advantage of digital print is that we can go to market quickly, making products more relevant for our customers.’
Next year, Shere Print will install the UK’s first wide format HP Indigo 20000 press capable of producing a full range of flexible packaging. At a recent open day, Mr Tonge talked about a time when he expected to see flexible substrates being on-demand digitally printed as they are formed and filled. That vision is some way away today, but there is movement in that direction.
Alternative to labels
Two companies developing inkjet direct package decoration printers are Industrial Inkjet and Till Engineering, and their presentations provided an interesting alternative to label production.
Till Engineering is a German manufacturer and integrator of speciality equipment that presents a pack to a filling machine, then seals the pack, applies a label and prints batch information and ‘best before’ dates, etc. Chief executive officer, Volker Till, said that he sees there is movement to fully digitise production. Printing direct to the container is a solution that will make the packing process more efficient, and the company is selling a range of modular SmartPrint inkjet equipment. These allow fillers to decorate bottles and cans at the filling speed, and the top of the range model can print up to 900 pieces per minute. There are no labels, with the glue and associated release paper waste. Mr Till claimed there are commercial advantages, the inkjet ink is significantly cheaper than printed labels and the changeover time is very short, so simplifying the logistics at lower cost while lowering the environmental impact. There can be significant efficiencies when linked to online ordering that provide the message and graphics directly to the system.
Industrial Inkjet is a Cambridge-based developer of inkjet solutions using Konica Minolta heads. Managing director, John Corrall, is seeing changes in the market. The company develops inkjet solutions, supplying heads, print rigs with ink supply and control systems. It operates a development laboratory and is finding its new projects are changing. Label stock testing is becoming rarer, with much greater interest in directly printing onto the end product. The reason is simple: direct printing is 10-30% of the cost of a label and the company is selling systems for direct decoration, as is Cyan Tec which sells multi-pass print systems.
Ink issues
There can still be issues with limitations in colour gamut on a range of substrates. Controlling the substrate surface energy is vital and it is necessary to increase the free surface energy on glass and plastics to optimise adhesion and printability.
There are several issues to consider when inkjet printing an irregular shaped object. The first is the throw distance between the head and the printed surface. Different throw distances may result in different quality in printing lips and ridges on the same object. The larger the drop, the further the potential throw distance that might be over 5 mm for large drops of 42 pl. Using these large drops may compromise quality, however, but with smaller ink drops the impact of air turbulence limits the consistency and quality. The object to be printed has to be presented to the print heads, which may be fixed or they may move and there is much turbulence at high speed.
Another issue is ink lay and adhesion to the range of materials to be printed, and the impact of overprinting several colours, with white. The secret in successful applications is having a stable transport method, delivering clean, dry items that may be pre-treated with flame, plasma or corona treatment to improve the ink receptivity of the surface. The curing mechanism is also important, allowing the right balance between ink spreading and promoting adhesion. So there are still technical issues to overcome, but inkjet replacing label printing will certainly develop strongly.
Active players
There is still activity in label, flexible and carton digital printing with all the major vendors extolling the benefits of their technology.
Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP, provided the keynote address, entitled ‘Innovation in digital packaging: using new technologies to make an impact’ at the London event. HP sees packaging and labels as key future markets – some 20% of the $10 billion annual sales from Indigo users is in these sectors and this proportion will grow. The WS6600 system is the highest selling narrow web press and HP now has over 1400 presses for labels, with some producing flexibles and cartons. The company is developing print equipment to be more competitive against flexo, but the real benefit for converters is as a tool to add value.
Stefan Pieper of Océ presented the new Infinistream seven colour web printer that is now available. Initial systems are aimed at cartons, but it will not be long before the technology is aimed at flexibles when there are systems in the field.
Sharon Rothschild, packaging product line and segment manager, Landa Digital Printing, provided an update on the progress of its new digital nano printing technology. Samples shown were much better than those at drupa and Landa claims to be on track for launch at the end of 2013. Lightweight flexibles are a target sector, the very low contact time means there is no thermal shock and adhesion is excellent with no migration issues.
Future predictions
Market forecasts presented show that the rise of digital packaging is predicted to continue in most markets across the world. Digital label production is well established and Smithers Pira forecasts accelerating growth, with the $6 billion global digital packaging market predicted to more than double in the next four years.
Ralf Schlözer, director of On-Demand Printing at InfoTrends, broadly concurred with the figures, identifying a $200 million market for colour digital label and packaging presses in 2012 growing to almost $300 million by 2016. InfoTrends research identified two distinct megatrends that are pushing digital packaging, even in the midst of the global recession. These are target marketing by brands and retailers who are trying to reach and engage consumers, and from the converters following lean manufacturing principals to eliminate non-productive time and waste. This is particularly important as run lengths continue to fall and economic production of smaller quantities is key to winning work and maintaining profitability.
A recurring theme throughout both events was the innovation and opportunities taking place at converters who have a new set of tools to help them serve their customers better. As digital equipment is increasingly used, converters develop new applications that their customers want. Shere Print is one and Alon Bar-Shany and Filip Weymans, Xeikon global business development manager, labels and packaging, repeated this, a fact that was reinforced during discussions where many clever examples were discussed.
Digital production offers great opportunities, but will take time to replace established flexo printing. The early promise of improved economics for short runs is well understood, now the market is developing sustainable profitable business models based on adding value and developing new services for customers. As the digital market matures so the drivers are changing, from cost reduction into new value opportunities.
