Hitting The Big Screen
The demand for screen printing is on the rise—and could be the ticket to a blockbuster summer for package printers.
By Chris Bauer
IT LAYS DOWN ink thicker than the British accents of the Red Coats in the movie "The Patriot." The eye-catching graphics it produces grab your attention faster than Renee Zellweger in "Me, Myself & Irene." It's much quicker than any of the bulging characters in "Big Momma's House," and the quality work it produces will definitely keep your business afloat—unlike George Clooney's doomed Massachusetts swordfishing boat, the Andrea Gail, in "The Perfect Storm." Of course screen presses are not usually associated with your local megaplex theater and buttered popcorn, but these analogies between summer cinema and screen give a quick review of how suppliers see the screen printing market.
"Whereas letterpress, water-based flexo, UV flexo, and gravure printing processes were standard choices, the need for more vibrant colors, greater durability, more protection from fading, and thicker protective surfaces have led converters to install screen heads on their presses," explains Gerry Nigg, sales director for Ko-Pack. "Another added feature is the eye-catching raised image."
Label printers are becoming increasingly aware of consumer demands for more specialized labels, particularly bottle-beverage labels, Nigg says. Due to this and other trends, screen printing is becoming a more appealing option.
"We see the health and beauty market as still the largest for screen-printed labels," adds John Costenoble, sales manager for Stork Rotaform. "We are seeing high growth in the beverage market—wines, beers, [and] soft drinks are using screen-printed labels for more eye-catching effects."
The beverage market was well represented in the Labels, Screen category at the recent Excellence Awards judging. One printer, Spear of Mason, OH, swept the category with its beer label entries. Produced on a Kammann press, its screen-printed label work for Coors, Miller Genuine Draft, and Icehouse took home awards for their complex production and overall good looks. (See page 26 for these and other Excellence Awards winners.)
A market that is starting to gain popularity among screen printers is security printing. Bob Yates, sales manager for Gallus, reports screen is being called upon to print on circuits and antennas used for anti-theft devices, utilizing confidential inks. Time lapse and temperature-sensitive printing for some food packaging products is also a growing trend according to Yates, again using confidential inks not necessarily available to the industry in general.
The thickness of the ink produced by a screen unit lends itself well to certain specialty applications, Yates continues. Tactile warning labels and Braille printing for the blind on certain packaging is now done using screen units. Special 200 micron mesh, with a puckering additive to raise the ink higher than 200 microns after curing, is used to place raised Braille warnings on packages such as chemical bottles. Ink thickness also can be a marketing tool to give new product packaging a pebbled or raised effect to stand out on the shelf. "It can really add value and make a product look totally different," Yates confirms, adding that a new look can also open new markets for established products by giving it more consumer appeal on the store shelves.
Blockbuster or B-movie?
According to Costenoble of Stork, there are some mixed feelings in the industry when it comes to screen printing. "We see some bad market perceptions associated with screen printing such as difficult, expensive, etc.," he admits. "As with any new process brought into a printing plant, time is needed to allow operators to learn and understand a new printing technique." He stresses when good training is used, screen printing is quite simple when compared to flexo.
Suppliers seem to agree screen is best suited within a combination press design. Combination presses offer more flexibility to job designs. With the need for more printing capability and versatility, combination presses are in greater demand, Nigg of Ko-Pack says. "Therefore rotary screen is the perfect match for a press offering a broad spectrum of printing capabilities that respond to niche label markets," he notes.
"Combination presses clearly are the presses of the future," Nigg contends. High-end label manufacturers have prompted Ko-Pack to add a 201&Mac218;2&Mac253; press to its existing line of 10&Mac253; and 15&Mac253; combination presses. "I think we can look forward to even more advanced technology as marketing strategies take new and more diverse directions in the food, pharmaceutical, and general consumer product industries," he says.
Costenoble adds most Stork RSI units are integrated in a movable fashion, such as a cassette or on a rail above the flexo decks. This, he says, gives the printer greater flexibility with jobs' specifications. Since the RSI units are servo-driven, there are no mechanical interfaces with the press.
Screen: The sequel
Looking back to the mid-1990s, Yates of Gallus recalls experts calling for the demise of screen due to advances in UV flexo technology. "Well guess what? We sell more screen material today—probably double worldwide—than we did five years ago," Yates boasts. He feels the market for screen printing will always be strong, since no other process does what screen can.
"If you want complete opacity, unless you hit the color twice with UV flexo, you cannot duplicate what rotary screen can do," he says. Most rotary screen units' opacity is running from seven to ten microns, while UV flexo reaches its highest levels at about six microns, which Yates points out is rare.
A big advancement in screen printing technology suppliers point to is speed. over the last decade, most rotary screen print jobs increased from running at 100 fpm to now being run at between 200 and 300 fpm. This can be chalked up to advances in screen materials, better screen printing equipment, and better ink systems. screen head set-up and changeover times have also been revamped. Ken Daming, product manager for Mark Andy, reveals his company will introduce a new method of changing from UV flexo to screen on its presses at Labelexpo. Screen will no longer be a separate module or a device that sits atop the press, he explains.
"The whole print system is designed to simply remove the plate cylinder from UV flexo and replace it with a screen cylinder—and that's it," Daming says. Mary Sullivan, marketing manager for Mark Andy adds this will be possible at any print station on the press. It is expected to allow operators to change from UV flexo to screen in under 10 minutes.
Suppliers stress it is now much easier to operate screen printing units, and there are cleaner and neater screen unit integrations. Wider screen units are available, featuring quick job-change screen units, automatic ink level controls, automatic register controls, stronger technical service support, and better ink systems. These trends are predicted to continue, as suppliers foresee even wider and faster screen print units, the advancement of more sophisticated rotary screen printers utilizing the strengths of screen printing for their products, and the creation of new market applications such as folding cartons and flexible packaging.
