packagePRINTING February 2015 Edition

Before the Box

Packagers and converters understand the "moment of truth," when a text or graphic element found on a product's packaging helps prod a consumer to make a purchase. When it comes to folding cartons, it could also be a uniquely shaped box, a strategically positioned foil stamp, or an attractive varnish.

Best Practices: Press Cleaning

Every printer and converter knows that the best printing is tightly bound to proper press maintenance. Yet, it’s all too easy for operators to take short cuts or not pay attention to details that can make the difference between average work and that which delights customers. For flexo presses, the foremost cleaning issues revolve around anilox rollers.

Data Points: What do Brand Owners Really Want?

Every year, in the work we do for TLMI and FINAT (TLMI’s European equivalent) and in our research for private clients, we probe what brand owners and packaging buyers want from their label vendors. Surveying hundreds of packaging buyers across North America and Europe every quarter, we often close interviews by asking two key questions: What can your label vendors be doing better? What could they do that they are not already doing?

Never Say No

It began with fan belt sleeves. Fred Arnold was meeting with a purchasing agent at Goodyear Tire and Rubber's Lincoln, Nebraksa plant. The agent, whose desk was strewn with fan belt sleeves, threw one at Arnold, then a partner at Fairbury Printing in Fairbury, Nebraska. "I need to print part numbers and bar codes on all these sleeves," he said. "If you can do that you'll have all my business."

Prepress Automation

Conventional presses and computer software have not always been a comfortable mix for many converters. And it’s no surprise: While CTP technologies offered clear benefits in speed and efficiency, other digital workflow tools have not always worked as desired and the shift from skilled craftspeople to software and computers have made digital workflows a tough sell. But some of the software is now living up to expectations.

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