Heidelberg USA, Inc.

This month and next month, packagePRINTING will cover two types of packaging enhancements closely linked together: stamping and embossing, and next month, foil decorating. According to Steve Lee, vice president and director of technical support with RotoMetrics, “Stamping and embossing have quickly become recognized as value enhancements.” It’s well known that consumers experience a tremendous amount of visual noise as they peruse store shelves. “In the competitive retail world,” says Christopher Raney, vice president, folding carton, Bobst, “you need a package to stand out on the shelf. Whether it is foil or embossing, they will both make a difference.” Jim Kingsby, technical service manger,

What will I look like? How will I perform? If a package could ask questions, these might be among the first and most important it would pose. The answers are less elusive than they used to be, thanks to the development of automated workflows that understand the complex nature of packaging work. However, for mixed commercial and packaging printers wanting to increase the amount of repeat packaging work they take on, or for pure commercial printers wanting to tap the potentially lucrative packaging market, it is important to grasp that their familiar thinking in pages and jobs no longer applies and also that

By now, job definition format (JDF) is part of the lexicon of commercial printing, and with good reason. The addition of JDF production language to PDF-based print workflows has been shown to dramatically reduce production time and costs while ensuring consistent, reliable output, even when last-minute changes are required. However, despite these benefits, JDF has not enjoyed the same level of adoption by package printers for a variety of reasons. Its use in the commercial realm has proven that using JDF streamlines production by enabling RIPs, imagesetters, presses, finishing, and other equipment and software to speak a common language and combine JDF-enabled products from

The concept of workflow is probably easier to understand than it is to define. Workflow incorporates the many step-by-step decisions and deliverables that are required from the original concept stage through production—in the case of printing, the printed product. Workflow automation is somewhat easier to define. It incorporates a variety of tools—within each workflow segment—that are available to help users maximize efficiencies, drive down costs, and reduce the impact of human error, leading to faster time to market. Most commercial prepress workflows account for basic production steps that include trapping, screening, and imposition, along with color management, proofing, and platemaking. Packaging workflows differ from

Turnaround times are critical in today’s package-printing world. Couple quick turnaround with the demand for shorter runs, and your press operators will be switching tools almost constantly. Diecutting is an integral part of the entire printing process and can impact the speed at which you can fulfill print orders. Just as diecutting impacts the speed of your print job, external forces, such as consolidation, globalization, new substrates and shorter runs, affect the ­diecutting market. “The label printing industry as a whole has been changing rapidly in recent years,” says Frank Hasselberg, executive vice president, Kocher + Beck USA. “These changes also have a huge

Commercial printers are moving into the world of packaging. Not all of them, but enough that it’s been getting a lot of attention over the past several years. Many times, the first approach is to print packaging items for existing clients that use paperboard materials—substrates commercial printers use routinely and are familiar with. In addition, they are up-to-speed on required colors and the demands placed on them by existing clients. Other package printing segments, such as traditional product labeling and printing of flexible packaging materials, would be much further down the pike—if in the business plan at all. From a business-strategy standpoint, commercial