Bringing Flexo Into the Fold

Will offset-loyal folding carton printers buy into flexo's quality gains and process efficiencies?

By Susan Friedman

A $4 billion dollar carrot could be dangling in front of folding carton printers interested in pursuing flexo, according to The Future of Flexo Printing for Packaging and Specialty Markets 1996, released by Graphic Arts Marketing Information Service (GAMIS).

All but 20 percent of the $5 billion folding carton printing market could potentially be done flexo, the report states, with the exception being high-end packages for cosmetics and other industries. Flexo is more likely, however, to jump from 20 percent to 40 percent penetration within five years, mostly at the expense of sheetfed offset, it claims.

Quality quandary

The gap between flexo's potential and the reality of its penetration in folding cartons raises questions around how close flexo's quality gains, while sizable, can edge toward offset's doorstep. New flexo users may also have to steer through the learning curve of a foreign, in-line web process.

Suppliers' flexo quality assessments are upbeat, but grounded. Brace Cooper, VP sales and marketing at Mark Andy, Chesterfield, MO, comments, "We've been selling modified narrow web presses to folding carton printers for more than 10 years, but penetration has been small because these printers are tied to offset quality."

Chris Faust, marketing manager at Comco, Milford, OH, contends new generation presses are designed for 4-color work, and sees flexo as "complementary" to offset, which he believes "still owns tighter registration and has advantages in vignettes."

Mike D'Angelo, VP at Bobst Group, Roseland, NJ, confirms "we are not selling the flexo press as offering litho quality, but as competitive to litho quality," and points out "from the perspective of a [consumer], offset- and flexo-printed packages look the same." Ed Jansen, product manager at Bobst, estimates that 7 percent to 10 percent of flexo folding carton work is indeed "high-end" traditional offset work.

Anilox savvy could enhance results. Dan Reilly, graphics specialist at Harper Corporation of America, Charlotte, NC, reports carton printers are running thinner inks on anilox rolls up to 900 line screen and with 1.3 to 1.8 BCM volumes to achieve desired color density and wide tonal ranges.

UV flexo, which Faust says comes closest to offset quality, may be poised to win a folding carton following for additional reasons. Duane Polkinghorne, president of Propheteer Int'l, Palatine, IL, says a 1991 Propheteer survey showed flexo's lengthy clean-up, makeready and unproductive time on press suited it solely for longer runs. UV flexo turned the tables toward short runs, he notes, because basic colors can stay on-press, reducing down-time.

One person examining flexo's potential is Dennis Pratt, materials manager at Menasha in Neenah, WI. He's currently conducting a cost analysis comparison of flexo, sheetfed offset and web offset to determine if flexo is viable for Menasha's SBS and clay-coated folding carton work.

A cornerstone of Pratt's investigation will be establishing a clearer definition of printing "quality," a word which he says is too often used with adjectives, not numbers. As examples of vague quality claims, Pratt points to "common folklore" about flexo: statements such as "it doesn't print as many dpi as offset" and "it doesn't perform as well on vignettes" that don't mention specific substrates. Pratt wants instead "to take press limitations to where they meet the substrate." If a flexo/offset quality equivalent on a certain substrate can be found, it eliminates cost-quality tradeoffs, he says.

Single source strategies

One voice of assent for flexo comes from Jeff Robb, director of graphic services at Mebane Packaging Group, Mebane, NC, who relates their installation grew out of a desire to be more of a one-stop shop, along with a renewed focus on shorter run efficiencies and new offering areas such as labels.

A customer provided initial motivation by requesting smaller quantities, more frequent printings and faster turnaround—with the potential for turning over all of its folding carton work to Mebane.

In Robb's experience, 150,000 units or less have run most efficiently with narrow-web flexo. One of the biggest benefits he cites is manpower savings; only three people are needed to supervise flexo's in-line set-up, whereas up to 11 people can be needed with offset's separate set-up steps for sheeting, printing and diecutting. These efficiencies may take some patience. Robb advises "you shouldn't underestimate the time it takes to learn in-line carton production if all you've ever done is sheetfed production."

Faust confirms the notion of flexo as a path to single-source servicing for Mebane and other folding carton printers. Labels can be run after making typical impression adjustments, without mechanical changeovers, he explains, and pressure-sensitive labels handle better on flexo than offset.

"Many narrow-web folding carton presses are sold to new carton converters who built their business in labels," counters Jim Coddington, technical sales center manager at Webtron, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. He believes few folding carton printers are looking to labels, due to their strong sheetfed background and limited web experience.

Mark Andy's Cooper seconds this view, stating "it's usually a commercial or label printer with a vertical integration strategy to sell more product to the customer" who expands into cartons. Mark Andy's strategy is to offer a "packaging platform" press that enables job transitions in either direction.

Propheteer's Polkinghorne emphasizes pharmaceuticals and other industries are seeking continuity with color matching on cartons and labels. "Flexo is mostly solids and line work right now, but when people realize they can make the label and the carton look the same, more inroads will be made."

Peter Giannandrea, general manager of Somerville Packaging, Ontario, raises another strong "yea" vote for flexo. Somerville's initiative began when Kraft Canada asked the printer to explore supply strategy alternatives to enhance customer value. Flexography allowed Somerville to become a lower cost producer, maximize flexibility and improve turnaround times for Kraft's folding cartons.

"Involve a key individual who is flexo literate to drive the project," Giannandrea advises. "Build a team of motivated employees and suppliers, from press manufacturer to ink, film and plate supplier, to diemaker and everyone in between."

What's pressing?

What are typical budgetary and design considerations for flexo folding carton presses? Jansen contends that 87 percent of the market—printers posting $12 to $15 million in annual sales—are candidates for 32-inch presses, which cost up to $5 million. The smaller printer doing $5 to $10 million in business is a good candidate for 16-inch, 18-inch or 20-inch presses in the $750,000 to $1.5 million range.

Of an 18-inch to 32-inch press width range, Comco's Faust sees the 22-inch width as most popular because it provides a means to run currently wider jobs at decreasing run lengths.

Flexo press suppliers are promoting a range of efficiencies to the folding carton crowd. Jansen highlights sleeve-based plate cylinders and anilox rolls that "weigh nothing" and enable faster changeover. He also plays up infinitely variable repeat via independent drives that form a gearless, electrical line shaft which allows repeats to bump up against one another, eliminating layout waste.

Webtron's Coddington describes an infinitely variable feed approach—the ability to drive the draw or pull cylinder at a different rate than the print cylinder to accommodate a wide window of substrate thicknesses. He also turns the spotlight back on flexo's newer-founded short-run appeal. "Web offset technology requires up to $100,000 of tooling per deck for a different repeat, while flexo's inexpensive one cylinder or one sleeve change per repeat can bust the paradigm, allowing printers to make money running a few cartons or many millions," he says.

According to Mike Polkinghorne, Propheteer marketing manager, a UV flexo web path that avoids aggressive idler rolls can minimize converter's concerns about breaking board fibers.

Faust stresses flexo's signature inline, all-in-one-pass structure—a potential breath of fresh air for sheet-fed offset printers accustomed to multiple converting steps and longer changeovers.

"There is no question that flexo will continue to gain market share in the shorter run folding carton market," says John Little, president of Nilpeter, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Little expects to see a trend toward narrow-web offset, with complete in-line finishing, in higher quality applications.

"Offset's going to be here for quite some time," contends Mebane's Robb. "But flexo has become a major contender in folding carton production. We haven't seen flexo technology peak."