Short-order Impact

Developments in presses and ancillary equipment have made gravure's consistency and vibrancy viable for short runs.

by Jessica Millward, Associate Editor

Call it the "me" generation of packaging. Individualized, shorter runs are on the it-list of customers across the gamut of package printing processes. Fifteen years ago, this wasn't particularly good news for gravure, the king of long-runs. The larger set-up costs and longer pre-production time involved in printing with cylinders rendered "short-run gravure" a near-oxymoron.

The evolution of quicker-change presses and innovative ways of engraving, however, has introduced gravure into the shorter-run arena. And with set-up costs on a steady decline, gravure's long-term future in short run looks better and better.

Hot on the press

"Early acceptance of short run was slow to come because the market of the day did not require the fine line vignette capability and process work gravure is capable of," explains Dick Chesnut, president of Chesnut Engineering. As printing on all packaging came to necessitate better quality graphics, he says, gravure short-run began to make a name for itself. Another factor in its rise was the shift to films, rather than paper, as the substrate of choice. In response to that trend, Chesnut developed the SUPRA 1600 narrow-web press, featuring an on-press system which matches the set-up speed of a trolley-based press without off-press makeready.

Michael D'Angelo, vice president/sales & marketing for Bobst Group, affirms that approach to press development. The Idea press from Schiavi, a Bobst Group company, reduces changeover time to less than 20 minutes by washing every print unit's inking group and cylinder, and by changing all cylinders, simultaneously. Start-up and run waste has been drastically reduced through a compact press design that shortens the distance between printing nips.

The DRUPA premier of the ECOPLUS® wash-up and cylinder changeover mechanism was Windmoeller & Hoelscher's answer to the short-run challenge. With considerably reduced makeready involved, Senior Vice President Hans Deamer asserts, it is especially suited for short-run orders.

Dr. Christian Becker, product manager for BHS Printing and Converting Machinery, reasons the digital direct drives in BHS print units provide better accessibility and ease of operation, because the mechanical line shaft has been eliminated.

Nuts and bolts

According to Max Daetwyler's Gerd Koehler, senior vice president/marketing development technology, and Bob Balzan, vice president/sales and marketing, the perception of gravure printing being more expensive than flexo is still largely shaped by manufacturing technologies based on chemical etching of cylinders. This viewpoint, they argue, doesn't reflect the current state of cylinder engraving.

Electro-mechanical (EM) engraving speeds have more than doubled in the last few years, and laser-engraving, employed in Daetwyler's Laserstar process, bests the top EM speeds by more than eight times. Lighter-weight cylinders are also an increasing asset to the industry. Chesnut's PRIMIS direct print gravure system brings down cylinder costs and shortens lead times by eliminating and polishing processes. The image carrier can be engraved from digital data and used immediately in the press.

Short-run gravure's future could get a major boost from the ink industry as well. Becker would like to see the development of UV-curable inks for gravure. "That," he predicts, "could have a major impact on the ecological as well as the economical aspects of gravure printing."

Print relations

Sherrie Hayes, manager/label purchasing and graphics, Sonoco Consumer Products Division (CPD), spoke on her company's use of gravure at a recent Packaging and Label Gravure Association conference. CPD repeatedly has witnessed the benefits of the gravure process: better line screen gradations, better color consistency, more accurate dimensions, and better-held tolerances. Hayes also appreciates the ability to see pre-production samples provided by the engravers' proofs.

She emphasizes, "Narrow-web rotogravure can bring cylinder costs closer to flexo." If the job re-runs several times, the cost is amortized over each re-run.

Short-run gravure economics also have been resolved at Package Service Co., a Kansas City-based label converter whose gravure printing on two Chesnut presses comprises about 50 percent of manufacturing volume. Larry Johnson, director of manufacturing, notes a majority of jobs are "short-run but high volume." The run may be short; however, the customer usually commits to an annual batch of several short-run jobs, in which, for example, a run of labels is produced every quarter.

In cases such as these, the same cylinders can be used repeatedly. Because of the wear and loss of plasticity associated with flexo plates, Johnson points out, "You would need several flexo plates to print the required volume."

Johnson cites household cleaners as a big up-and-comer in short-run gravure usage. "They have a lot of different scents, and a lot of different sizes, all in one product line." He also stresses the importance to food labeling of short-run gravure's ability to reproduce graphics, because, in that market, "You want to keep a look and familiarize customers with that look."