The Best of Both Worlds

Eddie Smith, vice president of Sonoco's Flexible Packaging division, explains that while flexo meets (and often exceeds) the needs for most packages, gravure is still necessary for accuracy.

"Using a gravure head on the back end of a flexo press is fairly standard," he says. "We typically use it to apply cold seal coatings. The most common use for the flexo stations on our gravure platforms is to offer flexibility so customers get the benefit of gravure's high-end graphics with lower cost flexographic copy where appropriate."