Missy Smith

Synthetic materials are well known for their their ability to stand up to tough conditions or to maintain their structure and print quality once off the press and on to packages. They are often incorporated on shampoo bottles and other health and beauty packaging, as well as pharmaceutical packaging.

packagePRINTING’s 2009 Top Flexible Packaging Converters Survey. (Click on the link at top right to download a PDF of the ranking.)

This Q&A with MaryBeth DeWitt, CMM International 2009 event director, previews this year’s show.

When presented with a challenge, MPI Label Systems stepped up to the plate, impressing its customer, as well as the judges of this year’s packagePRINTING Excellence Awards.

Decorative foils continue to hold a strong presence on consumer product labels and cartons. Studies show that more than 70 percent of purchasing decisions are made once they are at the retail store. This provides brand managers and packaging designers the opportunity to set their products apart from others on the shelf through eye-catching labeling and packaging.

Company: J M Heaford Limited, www.jmheaford.co.uk Product: Flexo Plate Mounter Proofer (Viper) What is it?: A device with cameras for attaching flexo printing plates to print sleeves in register using microdot technology and, afterwards, making a printed proof of the plates to confirm register, separations, and plate quality. Features: • High magnification cameras, servo drives, and PLC control • Simple touch-screen operator interface for ease of use • High-quality construction for extreme repeatable accuracy, low maintenance, and a long operating life. Company: DuPont Imaging Technologies, packaging-graphics.dupont.com Product: Cyrel Microflex 850 mm What is it?: A plate mounting system, developed for

It seems as though labels are everywhere. In an office, many items like White Out, hand lotion, and water bottles all have labels adorning the exterior of the package. At restaurants, one can’t help but notice the labels. They appear on bottles of almost every condiment: ketchup, mustard, Tabasco sauce, soy sauce, and even some salt and pepper shakers. Where one can see a decent amount of labels is at the bar or at a social gathering. It is truly amazing what the “turnaround” time is on beverage labels. It’s not that long after seeing someone twist off a bottle cap that you can

Company: Schober USA, www.schoberusa.com Product: Tungsten Carbide dies What are they?: Tungsten Carbide dies from Schober USA are used to manufacture various products such as flexible packaging, folding cartons, high-volume household and personal care products, technical parts, and more. Features/Capabilities: • Available in solid or segmented designs or with shells • Maximum length of 13.8˝ and a maximum diameter of 7.8˝ • Can absorb vibrations and keep all relevant parameters to minimum variation for predictable die/anvil life cycles • Can be re-sharpened as often as regular dies Company: Gerhardt, www.gerhardt-usa.com Product: Five Star & Seven Star Rotary Dies What

Last month, the staff at packagePRINTING packed its bags and flew to Chicago for Labelexpo -Americas. This was my second time attending this show. My first go at it was two years ago. I had just started with packagePRINTING and had only gotten a taste of the package-printing industry for about two months, before I stepped on the showroom floor for the first time. Needless to say, I was completely overwhelmed and felt as if I had stepped into another world. I knew very little about tradeshows and knew even less about the printing presses and equipment I would see on the floor. And,

The results of this year’s Top Folding Carton Converters survey reflect the growth reported by package printers in this month’s State of the Industry Report on folding cartons, despite industry reports that the market is hurting. A majority of participants in the survey reported growth. About 80 percent of converters said that their businesses grew in 2007, while the remaining companies said business stayed the same. And, 77 percent of participating converters plan to expand into new areas of package printing. This number increased slightly from last year. Most respondents reported that they would like to look into new end-use markets, as well as

Company: Advanced Vision Technology (AVT), www.avt-inc.com Product: The PrintVision/Orion What is it?: A 100-percent automatic inspection system and quality assurance for folding carton single pack applications. Features: • Inspects quality with a Linear CCD camera • Detects diecut and creasing faults and will eject defective blanks while collecting and stacking good ones • Can handle blanks of up to 17˝ at speeds up to 40,000 blanks per hour Company: Rotoflex International, www.rotoflex.com Product: VLI eDRIVE series What is it?: Inspection slitter/rewinders designed for consistency, low maintenance, lower tension, higher speeds, and easy job setup/operation. Features: • AC Vector Motor

When the judges of this year’s Excellence Awards began examining the more than 200 entries, it was like watching kids in a candy store. And, the judges were excited for good reason. packagePRINTING received a great collection of entries this year. But, the entry that took front and center was a wine label submitted by MPI Label Systems of California (MPI, Calif.). The label, produced for Lodi Vineyards’ Windmill Estates Chardonnay, part of the Michael-David Winery’s family of wines, impressed judges with its complexity, aesthetics, embossing, tight tolerances, and small type. “I think it’s a combination of technical difficulty and overall aesthetics,” said Joe

More than 20 years before “sustainability” became the buzz word it is today, Flower City Printing (FCP) was already rethinking the inks it was using in its pressroom. In 1985, Executive Vice President Bill Oliveri began replacing petroleum-based inks with vegetable-based inks, as well as eliminating alcohol in press fountain solutions. “Inks made from renewable resources were already in existence, but mainly used for newspaper production,” Oliveri reflects. “FCP was one of the first printers to experiment with vegetable-based inks for the offset sheetfed industry. Switching to vegetable-based inks [resulted in] a reduction in VOCs (volatile organic compounds), less ink [required] in the

As reported in our State of the Industry Report on tags and labels, the global market grew from 4 to 4.5 percent in 2007, even in the face of a struggling economy. And, this year again, a majority of participants in packagePRINTING’s Top Tag and Label Converters survey shared that they experienced growth in their businesses. Although the number went down from last year, about 68 percent of converters said that their businesses grew in 2007, as opposed to 75 percent in 2006.

Last year, the Flexible Packaging Assocation (FPA) predicted that the flexible packaging industry would grow at a rate of 2 to 4 percent in 2007. In reality, the industry grew about 2.9 percent, according to the FPA—right in its target range. Compared to 2006’s growth rate of 5.1 percent, the more modest increase seems to reflect the hard economic times. packagePRINTING’s 2008 Top Flexible Packaging Converters Survey indicated that growth, though modest, was achieved by the large majority of flexible packaging converters that responded. About 86 percent of these converters reported that their businesses experienced growth in 2007, while 14 percent said business