Digital printing has a great influence on document printing. Although the growth rate is slowing, inkjet technology is still driving the growth of current digital applications. In packaging printing, the growth rate is still very high. Both the installed capacity and the output of digital printing are growing in double digits, but these growth rates start from a very low base. Despite the overall growth of the digital printing market, some market observers have so far been disappointed with the popularity of digital printing in the current packaging market. In fact, there are many factors that should promote the rapid adoption of digital printing in packaging:
·Faster time to market
·Diffusion of SKU
·Product localization / Customization
·Reduce inventory
Although the limitations of digital printing technology still make more packaging printers adopt a wait-and-see attitude. For example, compared with the traditional printing, the cost of digital printing consumables is still high, which is still the standard of packaging scale production. This makes it hard to sell any strategy that adds value to mass production packaging. In addition, flexible printing production methods for short editions must be matched across all areas of the supply chain to make better use of this technology
As far as the popularity of digital printing in various countries and regions is concerned, the popularity rate in Europe is obviously higher. Compared with Europe and the United States, it is obvious that the population of Europe has increased by about 40%. In addition, Europe is made up of many countries and even more languages. This means that the number of orders per batch will be relatively small from the beginning and will continue to decline. The number of packaging enterprises in Europe is usually 50% higher than that in the United States.
The market absorption rate of ink-jet printing machine is very different from the packaging market involved, and there is also a trend of rapid change.
01. Corrugated packaging
A few years ago, it was hoped that corrugated packaging could catch up with the application opportunity of digital printing. Corrugated packaging is usually cheap, bulky, difficult to print and limited to low quality printing. This market has never chosen toner printing, and some large format inkjet printers are only used for a very short period of time.
Then, HP launched the T series for corrugated packaging digital preprint. DS Smith installed at least three in Europe, while ghelfi ondulati installed another two. There’s another one in chistiansen, Germany. With the emergence of single channel digital printing press, people’s interest has also shifted. HP, which uses pagewide C500 in B1 format, has installed at least three production lines, two in Italy and one in Austria. HP’s nozomi 18000 in B1 format of EFI has so far installed six production lines in Europe, although some customers also use it to print POS. Its largest user is the Hinojosa group in Spain, which has three production lines.
02. Flexible packaging
Ink jet technology belongs to “new series” in flexible packaging. This boils down to the need for special transport of substrates, inks that can be used on film and foil, and large enough format. Some companies have tried to use UV ink, but this is not the choice because most flexible packaging is used for food.
EP had the greatest impact on indigo 20000. In this case, the United States has been leading the way in the number of installations driven by large users Epac, with 52 units ordered so far. However, Epac also plans to expand to Europe, prompting other companies to install more than 50 units across Europe.
With the introduction of inkjet equipment by suppliers, changes in the market are slow. Fuji film owns Eucon, but has not yet launched in Europe. Kodak and uteco have just announced the sale of the first sapphire Evo to an unnamed customer. Landa is expected to install the first W10 digital printer for flexible packaging for customers in Europe by 2020.
In addition to the complete solution developed for flexible packaging, custom settings with inkjet imprint nozzles are used. Small scale flexible packaging production can be carried out on memjet press or okis pro9000 toner printer.
03. Folding color box
In Europe, the number of corrugated packaging digital printing production lines does not sound large, but each of these devices can achieve mass production. Therefore, corrugated is the fastest growing area of packaging. With more and more corrugated box delivery, there is enough growth potential.
Most folding carton printers agree that the size of the package is important. This greatly slows down the use of digital printing. Although brands are increasingly pursuing shorter production time, timely production and faster design changes, many packaging boxes require the use of large size wrapping paper, and larger packages can nest smaller color boxes more effectively.
Over the years, a number of printing press brands, such as igens, nExpress and indigo, have been used, but because of their small size, only niche markets can take advantage of them. That didn’t change until HP introduced the indigo 30000 for folding color boxes. Although the product is very good, it has limited influence on the mainstream Folding color box printing. There are some B2 inkjet solutions on the market, such as Konica Minolta KM-1 and Komori is-29, both of which are more for commercial use, but they can also print Folding color boxes, but so far, there is no printing user of pure color boxes in Europe. Fujifilm has a printed version of jetpress folding box, but P4P of Belgium and Ebro color of Germany are rarely used in folding box production.
The new B1 inkjet printer is the most promising attempt in the field of digital Folding color box printing. There are currently two suppliers offering products: Landa and Heidelberg, and Komori will deliver them later in 2020.
Landa S10 has been developed for folding color boxes, and has a number of equipment on the customer’s site and has started to produce products, including S10 in Edelmann, Germany, and another printing press in Schelling, Switzerland. Landa expects more S10 Folding color box digital printers to be installed in 2020, and K1 has been clearly installed not long ago.
Heidelberg also has some installations on primefire 106, at least three in Germany and one in Rondo in Switzerland. According to Heidelberg, although primefire 106 is fully available, it also noted that it was used more slowly than expected and therefore exited the market.
Finally, mention should be made of the large format press, which occasionally enters the folding box printing. But given the speed, these are more likely to be used for proofing, test runs, or very, very short orders.
Post time: Oct-30-2020