Pipedream or priority? Addition or replacement? Imminent or an eventuality? Examine, evaluate, invest? Time to pull the trigger?
Preferred Platform
What will your next press be?
No matter the answers, no question is more intriguing to a package printer or converter than, “What is my next press?” Utter the phrase and eyes widen, unintentional smirks emerge and the innovative juices start flowing. Unbridled emotion and imagination run rampant. The mission at hand: harness it and focus all energies on finding just the right fit. Evidence in support of this claim can be culled from
FLEXO Magazine’s latest Flash Poll bearing that very title. Conducted in the three weeks stretching from May 20 – June 10, response rate came in at 26 percent of FTA individual printer membership.
By their accounts, business is booming. Demand for newly engineered protective packaging that meets today’s safety and security thresholds is skyrocketing. Busy plants are looking for new opportunities. Expansion is in the works. Efficiency is driving every move. Bringing new machinery online is the strategic charge, primed to enhance both productivity and profitability, starting with the press—the heart of every package print production line.
Budget, format, purchasing window, function, must-haves, desired features, critical concerns and influential forces—all contribute to determination of the perfect press; just ask any printer poised to make a purchase. FLEXO did. Findings follow.
Class Rankings
Thirty-four percent of survey respondents favor a wide web flexographic press. Twenty percent prefer a narrow web option. Finding middle ground, 15 percent say they will opt for a mid web model. By necessity of what they do, 3 percent designate corrugated. Additionally, 17 percent express a desire for a digital complement, and another 17 percent—reflecting a mix of all traditional classes—see a hybrid machine—likely flexography + digital—as attractive.
Favored Format
What is your preferred press format?
Half of those polled expect to purchase a central impression (CI) press. Forty-eight percent will opt for an inline footprint and 2 percent, a stack press.
New or Used?
Are you inclined to consider a new or used press?
The vast majority, 92 percent, desire a brand-new machine. Twenty-one percent will consider used models and 9 percent may go with a retrofit.
Point of Origin
Where do you prefer your next press to be “Made in”?
Better than 40 percent of printers polled have little or no concern with respect to the point of origin. When preference gets a nod, Europe places first, the US second.
Expansion or Replacement
Will your next press be an expansion or a replacement?
Half of those surveyed maintain the press purchase represents an “expansion of my plant”; the other half deem it a “replacement of an existing model.” Additionally, 2 percent, those in a very distinct position, decree it to be the “heart of my start-up operation.”