NASHVILLE, TN—Flexography may be the most dominant form of package printing, but it certainly isn’t the only option. Aware of rival formats and the potential synergies that can develop from using them alongside a flexo operation, Forum 2015 closed with, “Multi-Market Commonalities: Alike But Different.” Geoff Roznak, from Great Northern Corp., and Rose McKernon, FTA chaired the final session.
Todd Somers, from Emerald Packaging, led off by addressing digital printing, explaining how his company has leveraged the format alongside its flexographic operations to grow. He used the idea of a jet ski and a cruise ship—both capable of getting you out to sea and back, but entirely different experiences—to illustrate the concept.
Leading through a brief history of digital printing, Somers offered some background on how it and Emerald Packaging intersected. In 2014, the company became a beta site for an HP Indigo 20000 digital press. He said that, with both formats under the same roof, flexo and digital are an “apples and oranges comparison” that has required a large amount of training and rethinking many operational aspects.
Somers gave attendees a glimpse at the needs driving digital print technology, which included:
- Environmental pressure
- Shorten time to market
- Targeted marketing
- Expansion
- Increased importance of point of sale
- Customization & personalization
- Increased regulation & increased counterfeiting
The posterchild for digital printing—Coca-Cola’s “Share A Coke” campaign—was discussed, showing the ability of digital printing to bring very short runs to market without breaking the bank. Other campaigns, from Goldfish and L’Oreal Kids Shampoo, were also highlighted. Somers referred to digital printing as “a brand owner’s playground” thanks to its speed to market and variable data capabilities, before he stated, point blank, that digital printing is “not a replacement for traditional print technologies,” rattling off some of the well known shortcomings:
- Press speed
- Press width
- Limited substrates
- Cost model: The “click charge” system
There are operational considerations like a cost analysis and front end setup charges that a printer needs to weigh, he said, as well as sales considerations to take into account when approaching both new and existing clients.
Behind Somers was Constantia Label’s Bob Feldman, who gave a look at his company’s cross platform approach that includes gravure facilities and digital partners. He reiterated some of the concerns in the previous presentation, noting the growing complexity in the marketplace:
- Higher quality demands
- Shrinking order quantities
- Changing customer interface
- Shorter development cycles
Speaking from a label standpoint, Feldman gave insight into how his company decides what process to use, comparing cost, functionality and design to determine the best path. He then went over benefits of UV screen, UV offset, solvent gravure, UV flexo and digital formats.
Feldman made sure to point out that, during the stage where Constantia Label is deciding what process to use, the company is also communicating with multiple departments internally as well as suppliers externally, using each’s expertise and knowledge to make an informed decision.
Up third, Berry Plastics Corp.’s Kirk Birchler talked about decorating in three dimensions. Rather than print labels and then apply them to 3-D objects, Birchler’s company uses indirect flexo, for which it won a 2013 Technical Innovation Award, and dry offset to print directly to the final product.
He proceeded to discuss how each system works, noting some of the similarities and differences:
- Similarities
- Part handling
- Blankets
- UV inks
- Plastic substrate
- Differences
- Plates
- Color heads
- Line screen
- Ink curing
- Colored substrate
Birchler admitted that in either scenario, color matching is very difficult. Thankfully, he said color profiling advancements have mitigated the issue. Colored substrates also present challenges, necessitating custom color characterization.
The No. 1 key to Berry Plastics Corp.’s success, he said, was Flexographic Image Reproduction Specifications & Tolerances (FIRST) certification; the company’s Evansville, IN facility is FIRST Company Certified.
Batting clean up and wrapping up Forum 2015’s final session was Chuck Buscaglia, also from Berry Plastics Corp. with a presentation titled “Putting The ‘Flex’ in Flexographic.” “When I say flex,” he explained to the audience, “think flexibility.”
One way a printer can be flexible is by having a solid understanding of its ink system. That includes how it performs on varying substrates, its limitations and when to get ink suppliers involved in decision making.
“It’s crucial you understand how your press prints,” Buscaglia told listeners, before listing five critical steps to follow:
- Optimization
- Fingerprinting
- Process control
- Characterization
- Continuous improvements