What’s the Combination

The impact on press run speeds is always a concern and is not limited to screen printing. “A major issue in combination printing is with the addition of each process, overall production speed is compromised,” says Colletta.

Besides these specific, process-related tradeoffs, general concerns come from the knowledge and skills required for each of the processes. “In-line combination processes require the user to understand the strengths and tradeoffs of each process, as well as having the procedures to assure each process is well controlled,” observes Mike Lawrence, Comco product management for Mark Andy. “Added flexibility brings along the tradeoff of increasing system complexity.”