Doing Digital

The world’s going digital; ain’t no doubt about it—at least in my humble opinion. Digital technology has a firm foothold in printing, especially in the front end of the process—in prepress.

Computer-to-plate is firmly entrenched in offset printing and is well on its way in flexo (see “CTP Flexo: Preaching to the Printers,” p. 16). The reasons for this encroachment into prepress are primarily based on cost savings and quality improvement. The future growth of digital printing for packaging and labeling will not only embrace these aspects, but will also include the capability for unique, distinctive graphic and text content that is just not feasible (a.k.a., economical) with more conventional printing.

Where we’re at today

Digitally printed packaging can be seen today in each of the package-printing market segments: tags and labels, flexible packaging, and folding cartons. Of these, label printing is experiencing the highest level of activity.

Ray Dickinson, product marketing manager for HP Indigo, notes that digital printing has been around at a practical level for about 10 years, and estimates that digital printing currently accounts for about 1 percent of worldwide label production. Not quite eye-popping numbers as yet, but he does note that the second half percent came about much faster than the first half percent, and this trend is likely to continue.

Mark Andy’s Product Marketing Manager Ken Daming, breaks digital printing down into two types. “The first is a single color to print numbers, addresses, or bar codes. The second type of digital printing is to print the complete label/package with a digital printing device.”

Daming says most of the interest he sees is in single-color digital printing in labels. “This is printing variable data like a serial number and/or consecutive bar codes,” he says. There is also a growing interest in full-color digital printing, not only in labels, but also in folding cartons, he notes.

Some of the growing use of full-color digital printing is invariably coming from market segmentation and regional marketing. In answering the question, “What is driving digital printing in the packaging market?” Xeikon’s Filip Weymans, business development manager - labels, says, “Increased results (sales) by having a short time to market for each product, and by addressing a segmented audience. Through this way, marketers can respond quickly to regional events. This market approach creates the need for medium to short runs and also quick turnarounds, a perfect match with digital printing.”

With digital printing capability, the concept for regional marketing can be carried down to very small levels. Amie Hoffner, public relations manager for Primera Technologies, notes that the company’s LX810 Color Label Printer can be used to “produce labels in-house when you need them and in the quantities you can really use.” This can be used for holiday themed labels for Halloween, St. Patrick’s Day, Mother’s Day, or Valentine’s Day promotions.

“We also see this carry over into industries with personalized items where variable content is required, such as wine bottles with personalized wedding labels, party favors, city festival premium items, right down to 30 individual flavors of popcorn or ice cream,” says Hoffner.

Mac Rosenbaum, vice president of Aquaflex, also acknowledges the use of digital printing for low-volume specialty items, such as regional foods and wines. In addition, he points to its use in test-market applications. “Companies who want to test market variations in their graphics can usually print digitally for less than conventional printing.” For these types of applications, though, “as soon as the volume increases, these products become the domain of conventional printing processes,” he says.

Aside from regional marketing and even test market trials, digital printing can be an effective option in more mainstream label printing applications. Dickinson notes that 65 percent of label printing jobs are a fit for digital printing in terms of run lengths. Markets where this is especially true are highly regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals and neutraceuticals. In these industries, where there are requirements to track and trace products and packaging components throughout the product supply chain, just-in-time production can reduce the burden significantly.

Kevin Karstedt, of Karstedt Associates, Ltd., points to two packaging segments that have been most active in adopting digital printing: labels and point of purchase (POP).

“In the label segment, adoption has largely been due to the efforts of Indigo, now HP Indigo,” observes Karstedt. “HP’s Omnius systems have a format size that fits the label segment for many applications and has integrated diecutting and some finishing as well. They have been integrated into conventional label printers, both offset and flexo, and are used for short runs, sales samples, and special applications.”

While he notes that HP has done a good job placing initial systems in many label sites, “few buyers have made the leap to second, third, and more systems. This is mainly due to the high cost of consumables and operating costs. While these costs have come down in the past few years they are still too high for most users.”

Karstedt says that the POP market has made substantial investments in large-format, flat-bed printers over the past five years. “There has been an upsurge in very short run and localized promotions that have created a nice niche for POP producers that can produce as little as one version of a POP display,” he said.

Variable data for packaging

Variable data printing is a significant driving force for digital printing in the commercial markets, but has not nearly been to the same level in packaging. In packaging, “Variable data printing is being used at the lower end of the graphic spectrum for product identification labels and tags requiring product or part-specific information,” says Rosenbaum. “Applying variable information capabilities to mainstream packaging is far more complex and, in many cases, it is cost prohibitive with today’s technology.” Again, regional customization is one area that is appealing because the product can generally support a higher price, he says.

According to Karstedt, except for few specific applications, variable data in mainstream packaging has not seen much practical use. “In the early days this capability was touted as a major reason for buying a digital printing engine for packaging, but in reality it has seen little practical application outside of game cards and special promotions.”

That doesn’t mean it’s a dead issue, not by a long shot. There are hordes of marketing people whose sole purpose is to promote their products in distinctive ways. Digital printing is a tool that can be used effectively as a practical implementer of creative ideas.

An example noted by Karstedt is in direct-mail marketing of packaged products. Some brand managers are looking at sending personalized full-graphic packages of product. “These packages could include redeemable coupons and bar codes that will help track who redeemed the coupon and how long after it had been received. ... Brand managers are looking at this capability to gain a new level of data on their customers. Digital printing will help to reduce some of the distribution costs by eliminating secondary shipping containers and labels.”

John Palazzolo, product manager for Kodak Versamark, lists additional opportunities that lend themselves to digital printing, including language versioning, ingredient versioning, and security printing. With ingredient versioning, he notes that its use could eliminate the need for catch-all verbiage such as “May contain one or more of the following ... .” In security printing, the addition of variable content could be used as an additional method to thwart counterfeiting.

The use of digital printing in security applications is an area that Dickinson sees emerging in a big way in the near future. He notes that product diversion and counterfeiting is estimated to cost businesses $0.5 trillion worldwide, and many of the products, such as pharmaceuticals and baby care, come with a high emotional connection for customers that can support costs for higher levels of security. With digital printing, variable data can be cost-effectively used to make each label unique, aiding significantly in the efforts of product authentification, track-and-trace efforts, and overall security.

What’s in the cards?

Digital printing will be a wonderful technology to watch evolve. Right now, “there are still a lot of technical hurdles to full-color digital printing, including capital cost, run speed, reliability, and because it normally requires a lot more ink laydown, the consumable costs,” says Daming. But even with these hurdles, he says that “some converters are indeed becoming profitable!”

Dickinson is very confident in the future of digital printing. “In the end, digital has to win,” although he believes the winning technology hasn’t been invented yet. It could be a non-contact approach like inkjet, or even contact printing as done by his company, HP Indigo.

However, says Weymans, “It should not be expected that the packaging market will be replaced, overtime, by digital equipment. The conventional press will remain serving the main share of the market—mass production. Digital printing should certainly not be seen as a threat, but rather as a new opportunity in expanding the services you can provide to your customers.” n