After the 2020 Milestone: Inkjet, Short Runs and Sustainability Push Digital Flexible Packaging Into View

For digital printing, 2020 stands out as a landmark year that brought a cluster of new technology launches. With consumer trends and behaviour continuing to shift, the digital flexible packaging market is on the verge of opening up. Even so, a number of challenges and barriers remain.

Matt Burton, global sales director at AB Graphic (ABG), compares flexible packaging today with the label market two decades ago, when digital label printing was only beginning. He sees similar trends and lists the current digital drivers for flexible packaging: adoption of digital presses; demand for shorter, more customised and more economical runs; brands' growing sensitivity to total packaging cost; personalisation; and product quality. Given its scale, flexible packaging offers a major opportunity.

Juan Cano, flexible packaging business development director at Screen Europe, says packaging is viewed as an extension of the brand and another platform for direct consumer communication and more personalised experiences. New technologies such as digital printing allow brand owners to be more creative and deliver more individualised messages through pack design. Consumer attitudes and new regulations calling for more ethical and sustainable flexible packaging are also pushing the industry toward greener production and printing methods.

Randy Vandagriff, senior vice president of printing at Eastman Kodak, says the need for greater agility and shorter time to market is accelerating digital printing adoption in packaging. That contrasts with analog printing, which involves longer lead times and higher costs. More brand owners now seek solutions supporting personalisation, versioning, more frequent design changes and efficient short-run output. By using digital flexibility and variability, packaging designers can also bring striking creative concepts to life.

Joe Collins, technical sales specialist at Afinia Label UK, echoes several of these points. He says shipping delays and supply chain complexity have shaped customer thinking, leading brand owners to want control over this part of product packaging. He hopes that mindset will remain after the pandemic. Pandemic-related problems forced many to act, and they are now open to the feasibility of in-house digital printing, even in normal times.

For Phil Smith, general manager at BakPac, an 'Amazon Prime' mindset is driving a new era of short-run packaging, where fast delivery from the point of order is expected. The potential for promotions and late-stage differentiation is also attracting larger brands to digital, while emerging brands are speeding up their digital packaging efforts.

Smith and Paul Humpage, sales director at CS Labels, both highlight the number of small businesses created during the pandemic and their role in developing the digital flexible packaging market. They note that these firms need flexibility, smaller minimum order quantities and quick, responsive service.

Humpage says research shows around 85,000 new companies were established in 2020. Most operate in markets that will certainly use pouches, such as animal, nutrition, food and snack products. Traditional minimum order quantities (MOQs) may have been an obstacle for these companies, because digitalisation has not helped to reduce them; in some cases, CS handles orders as low as 1,000. With conventional flexible packaging production, MOQs in the tens of thousands could be a reasonable expectation.

Such customers may also have less technical knowledge, which deepens their engagement with the UK printer through its CS Pouches brand. They want to use the company's experience and technical knowledge to bring packaging to market, helping them gain a foothold and attract consumer attention. That is the nature of the modern B2C relationship. Humpage adds that pouches look really good, and with social media platforms growing, aesthetics are almost as important as the product itself.

In flexible packaging, CS is known for innovating with Xeikon five-colour toner printing equipment, through which it developed and launched fleXflow. The technology is driven by Xeikon's X-800 DFE and runs from the CX500 toner press for printing, to the LCoat500 for thermal lamination, and then to inline pouch construction.

Adam James, operations director at CS Labels, notes that food-safe toner is a major advantage of the entire solution and a significant win. After migration testing, the results were clear: this technology is truly the way forward. For pouch construction requirements, CS first had a custom line built by QuadroPack and has since upgraded to Karlville's KS-DSUP-400-GSW. The Karlville line handles a wider range of pouch sizes and can process up to 200 pouches per minute, far faster than the QuadroPack line. He says the company does press technology manufacturers to recognise, accept and support it.

BakPac also relies on the HP Indigo 20000, supported by Enprom thermal lamination equipment and a Karlville bag-making line. BakPac is the dedicated flexible packaging division of Baker Labels, created so trade printers can gain a foothold in the emerging and profitable digital flexible packaging market.

Smith notes that the HP Indigo 20000 is ideal for the flexible packaging market, offering an ideal print width and impressive print quality. Combined with thermal lamination, it immediately provides a product ready for pouch converting or slitting. Karlville's bag-making development focuses on short-run orders by turning long setup times into a fast process. Pouches have been printed, laminated, formed and shipped in under 24 hours to meet urgent customer needs.

Print-on-demand and short-run printing, along with the ability to control design changes as needed, are also fuelling demand for systems such as the Afinia Label FP-230. This compact desktop system has a maximum media width of 230 mm. It is based on the L901 Plus inkjet printer and uses Memjet VersaPass DN technology to print full colour at 1600 dpi and a maximum speed of 18 m/min. When water-based CMYK inks are used with inline lamination, the system has been approved for food packaging. It is designed for use with Sihl Artysio packaging films.

While the FP-230 is described as the only desktop flexible packaging press on the market, the TrojanLabel T2-L is promoted as the world's first industrial-grade professional digital press for flexible packaging using water-based inks. It also uses Memjet VersaPass technology, offering 1600 dpi resolution and a maximum speed of 18 m/min when printing only. When inline cold lamination is required, printing speed is 9 m/min. Sihl Artysio packaging films are again recommended, and Natura water-based inks are food-safe and durable.

Mohit Bhushan, global director of product management at AstroNova, the parent company of TrojanLabel, sees agile supply chains as another driver. Because of pandemic-related disruption, manufacturers and contract packers are showing much greater and more urgent demand for these attributes. Supply-side developments aim to meet this need through new printhead technology and ink formulations, optimised coatings for flexible substrates, and new equipment models including smaller sizes and more affordable hardware.

BakPac and CS are just two examples of the growing number of converters active in digital flexible packaging, and many more are preparing to move. Both sit firmly in the camp of label companies taking market share. Diversifying into flexible packaging offers opportunities, while traditional flexible packaging companies are targeting the opportunities created by the technology and seeking to adopt a digital-first mindset.

Pierina López, sales specialist and marketing manager at Enprom Solutions, believes the label market has adopted and accepted on-demand digital printing over the past 20 years, which in some ways makes it easier for label printers to move into flexible packaging. However, digital technology is still very new to packaging companies.

Cano says traditional flexible packaging producers face growing pressure to deliver smaller quantities of packaging material, shorter turnaround times, better cost efficiency and lower environmental impact. Some innovative flexible packaging converters have invested in low-speed toner-based digital presses and have seen many benefits of digital printing. Yet when they finally gain some market traction, the very low productivity of those early systems prevents them from growing the digital market. They are now looking for higher productivity and industrial-scale machines to truly advance digital printing and greatly increase the flexibility of their printing operations.

Screen's answer is the Truepress Pac 830F, a water-based inkjet press designed specifically for cost-effective short-run printing at 75 m/min, producing up to 20-22 jobs per day or 4,500 sqm/hour. It can use CMYK and white water-based inks and handle substrates up to 830 mm wide at a printing resolution of 1200 dpi.

The first models are expected to be delivered later this year. Future press generations will be faster, up to 100 m/min and more than 1 m wide, to raise productivity levels and further lower total cost of ownership.

The first machines from Kodak's collaboration with Italian packaging press manufacturer Uteco, the Sapphire Evo, have already been delivered. The M and W presses use Kodak continuous inkjet technology and water-based QD packaging inks. The Sapphire Evo M has a maximum web width of 650 mm and targets the typical mid-web flexographic segment, while the Sapphire Evo W has a maximum web width of 1370 mm for the wide-web market. Their mechanical speeds are 300 m/min and 200 m/min respectively. Image quality is said to be comparable to flexographic and gravure printing.

Bhushan points out that several models of UV and water-based inkjet presses have been introduced in recent years, while material supply has increased, lowering the overall barriers to entry for newcomers to this market.

Cano says there is no doubt that the future of digital printing for flexible packaging lies in inkjet technology. Inkjet digital printing is a more scalable technology that enables faster speeds, higher output and more than 90% machine uptime. Static printheads eject billions of ink nanoparticle droplets onto fast-moving substrates.

To realise his vision for digital flexible packaging, Cano identifies a need for converters to see the added value digital printing can bring to their operations, and how the technology can transform their pressroom through the optimal press configuration: digital and analog. The digital cost model must clearly communicate and explain intangible benefits, higher profit margins and service differentiation opportunities.

Vandagriff says brands need a better understanding of what digital can do on flexible substrates, and more printers need to adopt the technology so brands can print their products digitally. Printers are reluctant to invest without demand, while brands are reluctant to start new digital projects without local testing by printers.

According to López, customers once focused only on a machine's maximum speed, but development and market demand have expanded that approach to include reducing machine downtime caused by job changes and achieving more automated processes with only the necessary personnel. The industry's latest systems also benefit from modularity, as converters can upgrade equipment to better meet their needs. Environmental issues will play a key role in market demand, with customers placing increasing value on sustainable packaging materials and technologies with minimal environmental impact. For example, Screen identified how the Truepress Pac 830F platform eliminates obsolescence, runs recyclable water-based inks, and reduces waste in multiple ways, from minimising ink, substrate and solvent waste to eliminating plate making and minimising overproduction.

Bhushan adds that the entire packaging ecosystem must evolve to create more realistic options for new entrants. Much existing post-press infrastructure—form-fill-seal (FFS) equipment—is compatible with older analog printing equipment. That equipment also needs significant changes to truly take advantage of newer digital technology. New materials and inks that comply with sustainability regulations in key markets are also proving essential.

As noted earlier, one urgent issue in Cano's view is an industrial-scale digital press that can deliver the full promise of digital transformation but is suitable for mainstream flexible packaging applications. This should include high-productivity digital printing systems capable of producing a larger number of short runs each day, ranging from 0-6,000 m, more cost-effectively than traditional analog printing and with faster job turnaround. Converters have their own views on what is needed to drive the digital flexible packaging printing market forward.

For Smith and BakPac, wider printing widths would help achieve finished products in certain formats, because compared with standard flexographic printing widths, digital presses are indeed very narrow when producing very large bags. Speeds are also faster when running high white ink coverage.

Collins confirms that Afinia is looking to increase the maximum media width of the FP-230, and the company is also focused on improving the press's current resolution and speed, expanding media compatibility and refining ink formulations.

This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (news.pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-377837.html. Copyright belongs to the original author; it is provided for industry exchange and learning.