Change is Good

Digital technology, working with conventional processes or on its own, is making package personalization a more tangible marketing tactic.

by Terri McConnell

The label and packaging industries were among the first to harness the power of digital technology for variable data printing. Employing ion deposition and inkjet print heads driven by computerized controllers, we've been marking products with bar codes, expiration dates, security codes, and sequential numbers for a long time. But we may have only scratched the surface of the potential offered by the latest crop of digital printing solutions.

In its most highly evolved form, variable data printing is the science of making every single page, label, or carton in a press run totally unique. For marketers with access to terabytes of consumer information, this means printed communications can be tailored not just to trends or broad demographics, but to an individual's lifestyle, tastes, and buying habits.

The advantages of one-to-one marketing are obvious in many information-driven segments of document and commercial color printing. Variation printing can also create new opportunities for packaging brand managers and line developers, however. Let's take a look at how three digital printing equipment vendors, tuned in to the need for cost-effective shorter runs, and the desirability of personalized, regionalized, and otherwise acutely targeted package decoration, are positioning their technology for deeper penetration into the packaging markets.

Ultra alliance

Five years ago, press manufacturer Didde, now Chromas Technologies, Inc., and 16 label and packaging converters in Europe and North America formed the Digital Label Alliance (DLA). The goal of the group was and is to develop digital printing and converting technologies for the packaging industry.

Chromas will unveil the DLA's latest achievement next month at Labelexpo in Chicago. According to Marketing Director Jason Oliver, the ARGIO 75SS is the first digital system specifically designed to run with a mixable base set of UV inks. Focused on single spot color applications, the ARGIO is a 600 dpi, 100 fpm digital print station that can be retrofitted to conventional roll-fed offset or flexo presses. Featuring a Windows NT controller with a Harlequin RIP and optional variable page layout program, the system is operated by a press-side touch-screen interface.

"The biggest challenges for digital printing in packaging have been color consistency, image durability, and the ability to print on a variety of substrates with different characteristics," says Oliver. "Because of the opacity, laydown, and scuff-resistant qualities of UV, the ARGIO is ideal for packaging. It may well take the place of rotary screen in health and beauty applications, for instance." Oliver notes that the ARGIO is targeted at short-run, multi-version print jobs. The system has already been installed in four DLA partner plants, and Chromas expects a significant retrofit demand for Webtron 650 and 750 presses.

"We see the ARGIO as both a productivity enhancement for copy change jobs that require plate swapping, and as a complement technology for opening new business opportunities. For instance, if Coca-Cola wanted to do variable printing in their signature red color, this is the system that can offer that."

The need for speed

Dayton, OH-based Scitex Digital Printing has been attacking the packaging markets from a high speed perspective. The company supports an extensive line of continuous inkjet technology, employing water-based dyes, capable of running 100 percent variable data at speeds up to 1,000 fpm.

Targeted at high-volume applications, the Scitex digital printing controllers can drive up to 16 print heads from either the 4&Mac253; and narrower Imprinting product group, or the 9&Mac253; VersaMark line, launched at the beginning of last year.

With the flexibility to "stitch" together multiple print heads for wider imaging areas, and the ability to achieve greater speeds than either alternative drop-on-demand inkjet or electrophotographic digital printers, Scitex products are being used extensively in forms, labels, and direct mail applications. According to Niels Frederiksen, director of the Imprinting product group, "The attributes of our systems have certainly found a home in the gaming industry. Maybe as much as 85 percent of the variable and security data in scratch-off lottery tickets is printed using our technology."

Beyond that, Frederiksen suggests there is tremendous untapped potential in the packaging arena. "We've designed the print heads to be mounted on virtually any kind of transport system—web or sheetfed; flexo or offset—so theoretically we can print on any substrate within the limitations of our water-based ink formulations."

"Variable data digital printing holds a solid position in single-color product marking. For full color packaging, it becomes increasingly more viable as turnarounds shrink, inventories disappear, and runs become shorter. Where we expect to see digital expand is in markets where it has become difficult to gain an edge through cost reductions alone," says Frederiksen.

"Digital affords strong opportunities and will have a great impact from a marketability standpoint—by increasing the value of the goods through the packaging. Just look at some of the examples we have in the rigid packaging arena, where we see regionalized promotions such as amusement park discounts printed on soft drink cans. This is where we see digital variable printing moving in the future."

Short-run solutions

Started as a research project at Agfa in 1988, Xeikon shipped its first revolutionary four-color digital printing presses in 1994. Initially, the company's electrophotographic technology was taken to market in the document world, sold by OEM's Xerox and IBM. Since then, encouraged by annual decreases in consumable costs, Xeikon's 100 percent variable data presses have been slowly gaining acceptance in commercial applications, and most recently have found a foothold in specialty and novelty markets.

Last October, Xeikon began concentrating on folding carton and label markets. "Our presses have a real advantage for short runs because there is literally no cost for films, plates, or makeready between jobs," comments Don Bence, packaging group vice president and general manager. "We can apply water base or UV coatings inline, and the product coming off in most cases you couldn't tell from an offset job. The dry particle toners exhibit no dot gain, no color variations, and are not affected by temperature and humidity. With electrophotography, we don't see any of the doubling or separation which occurs with offset inks."

Xeikon's packaging presses are roll-fed, run at a constant speed of 24 or 48 fpm, and can handle up to 18 pt board material. Bence says the systems produce good results with polyesters, foils, and some oriented polypropylene, but highly heat-sensitive substrates generally pose a problem. A five-color press with an opaque white station is available."Admittedly we're living in a CMYK world, and packaging is a Pantone world," says Bence. "We don't suggest we can replace conventional packaging printing processes; we complement them. Where digital pays off right now is in traditionally unprofitable ‘nuisance' runs—small quantities, prototypes, focus group samples, etc."

Bence says the payback occurs anywhere under 2,000, 20&Mac253; x 26&Mac253; sheets. "Some ideal applications are behind-the-counter pharmaceuticals with language variations, limited edition music and software packaging, and package decoration for small, specialty food companies."