Asian Flexo Gravure and Labeling January 2016

Asian Flexo, Gravure& Labeling MCI (P) 169/12/2013 - KDN PPS1529/05/2013(025527)

Jan 2016

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Covering the Flexo, Gravure & Labeling Industries across Asia MICA(P)046-11-2010 - KDN PPS 1529/05/2012(022768)

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The machine of choice for high mix, low volume orders Brand new perspectives in packaging print A complete future-proof solution for packaging development Message on a bottle Xeikon to feature innovation in wallpaper production Pemara adds a powerful new dimension to folding carton digital production GOOD ENOUGH TO TOUCH: ENHANCING THE POS EXPERIENCE Serve national and international customer base World's first BOBST VISIONCUT 106 LER in-line separating die-cutter.

HP Inc. Reinvents Corrugated Packaging Printing with KBA Staying ahead of trends in flexible packaging The digital transformation of industrial printing Yet another success for FESPA China Goss appoints Alles International as agent in South Korea Grand opening for KBA (Taiwan) Company Limited Touch the future -Applications that can create growth Flint Group announces the creation of a new Digital Printing Solutions division and the acquisition of Xeikon Sustainability and the PACKAGING Industry

AFTA Pte Ltd 39 Robinson Road, Robinson Point #11-01, Suite 25A Singapore 068911 Tel+65 6733 5342 Fax +656733 3586 Chairman

Paul Callaghan paul@cpublish.com.sg

Business Director

Elizabeth Liew eliew@cpublish.com.sg Advertising Sales

Matthew Callahan matt@cpublish.com.sg Accounts accounts@cpublish.com.sg Chairman Judging Panel 2014 Packaging Excellence Awards Head Judge - Bob James Afta has 11 active Committee members for 2016 For everything you need go to www.afta.com.sg

AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

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The machine of choice for high mix, low volume orders Malaysian company Aident Corporation Sdn Bhd installed the Truepress Jet L350UV press to solve issues as the demand for short run orders increases.

Sha Jumari reports.

Today’s print environment calls for an increase in short runs, a trend that does not escape Aident Corporation Sdn Bhd (AISB). AISB is one of the leading premium label and die cut component converters in the Asian region. The company is renowned for printing self-adhesive labels, barcode labels, nameplates, die cut insulators, high performance labels, and other premium label products.

As the number of orders of short run print continues to rise, especially for CMYK jobs, AISB began experiencing issues such as long setup times and product wastage. To combat this, the company had to explore digital options. In September 2015, AISB announced the successful installation of Screen’s Truepress Jet L350UV press.

“The decision process took about two months, in order to fit into our specific requirements. We really needed the machines to be able to complement our existing production process,” said Lee Yeow Suen, plant manager, AISB. “We tested systems from other digital print manufacturers, but found that Screen was the most suitable to our business needs.”

The Truepress Jet L350 UV press is Screen’s solution to the industry’s rising need for value-added labels and packaging. The winning characteristics of this inkjet label press include photorealistic quality, fast job turnarounds and a stable output. The Truepress Jet L350UV is able to accommodate a printing width up to 322mm with media width from 100mm to 350mm and prints at a top speed of 50 metres per minute.

The L350UV machine will perform high mix and low volume orders, particularly those involving CMYK jobs. By using Screen machines, AISB has reported faster setup time and less setup wastage: “We’ve experienced an improvement of order turnaround time. We’ve been able to provide faster sample submission and a consistent

From left: AISB’s Jeremey See Shang Ling and CEO Tan Kok Kuang with Screen’s Keiichi Kometani.

AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

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printing quality,” said Tan Kok Kuang, CEO, AISB. The L350UV press utilises singlepass grayscale piezo printheads with a minimum droplet size of picoliters.

With print resolution of 600 x 600 dpi, the printing system is able to deliver sharp, well-defined images and text. In addition, its advanced colour management technology based on the Screen EQUIOS universal workflow creates smooth, vivid gradients.

AISB was first established in 1994, having humble beginnings in a shophouse in Penang. The company has since gone through rapid expansion to evolve to its current factory equipped with the latest machinery and facilities.

Along with the L350UV installation, AISB purchased the Screen Katana 5040 CTF, a high-speed A3 format flatbed imagesetter.

“The installation of the Screen machines have significantly opened up our market opportunities and allowed us to be more diverse in our service offerings. We hope to explore the new deployment opportunities after a certain period of usage,” Tan continued. “To summarise, the

Truepress Jet L350UV is a dream machine that solves all problems with our high mix, low volume jobs!”

“We are exceptionally proud to provide the best solution for Aident Corporation and help them grow their business. As AISB continues to expand, we look forward to continue supporting them in their endeavours,” said Keiichi Komatani, vice president, Screen.

AISB is also a subsidiary of Adampak Group, which consists of six other manufacturing plants located in Asia, including Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, The Philippines as well as Suzhou and Tianjin in China.

The company’s reputation in quality management also led it to be the first and only label and die cut converter in Asia to be accredited to ISO 9001:2000, Underwriter Laboratories (UL) and Canadian Standard Association (CSA).

AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

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Brand new perspectives in packaging print Looks count and first impressions matter. How products are judged by their many differing attributes - not least fitness for purpose, consistent reliability and value for money - will determine the extent to which they build market share on an ongoing basis.

Prior to that, however, it will probably be a particular spot colour, a distinctive font, or else the artful application of a metallic ink on the exterior of the pack that initiates the relationship between a brand and a consumer.

“Thanks to impressive print packaging, brands can seduce customers into a change of purchasing vote at the point of purchase,” says Superbrands founder Marcel Knobil. “We would end up with less brand and more bland were it not for the attention that the packaging attracts.” Superbrands is acclaimed worldwide as being an independent authority and arbiter of branding excellence, committed to paying tribute to exceptional brands and promoting the discipline of branding.

beyond fronting up that initial beauty parade. As well as being the ‘eye candy’ that hooks the consumer in the first instance, a perfectly reproduced external image provides consumers with an often subliminal product recognition and reassurance that can be the brand owner’s banker in a congested retail space.

Today’s packaging trends are driven by longer supermarket opening hours, continually enhanced print technologies and capabilities and demand to protect brands and increase recognition. Not only surviving but attaining the status as the preferred choice under such highly testing conditions is one half of the brand owner’s greatest challenge.

The other is to meet it at an affordable cost.

The impact of a winning combination of text and graphics extends way

Controlling quality With the high probability of colour variations occurring not only between different substrates, but also print processes - and indeed from one printer to another, not only in different locations but even when they are running presses made by the same manufacturer - maintaining consistency can be a complex undertaking.

The best way to meet it is to ensure that all the contributory links within the supply chain which are engaged in

AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

9 (consumer packaged goods) businesses and retailers. We also make it possible for the brand owner to ensure that the flow of data is secure and transparent, mistakes and errors can be picked up early or avoided altogether and the net result is to get products to market faster.”

Similarly web-based colour management systems can extend the same degree of comfort and control to brand owners over how pre-determined colour parameters are then replicated accurately irrespective of substrate or supplier, ensuring a guaranteed consistency of colour reproduction that underpins brand authenticity and integrity. The X-Rite PantoneLIVE

directly instrumental in achieving cost and performance benefits to brand owners. Using high-definition flexo plate and software technologies, it is now possible to meet the requirements of 85% of current flexo-printed, flexible packaging without detriment to the finished result from CMYK + white rather than using special inks.

“Working out of a reduced colour palette means there are less plates and less waste ink. It ticks a lot of boxes,” says Ultimate Packaging (UK) Sales Director, Chris Tonge. “Whilst global players like Unilever and P&G have been specifying these solutions for the past 10 to 15 years, smaller brands are realising there is a cost advantage in that you can control the colours a lot better if you set the right standards.”

It’s not just improvement at the front-end that is raising quality and performance standards in flexo, still the sector’s most widely used print process accounting for over 40% of a current global printed packaging market worth around an estimated €250bn per annum, particularly for flexibles and corrugated board applications. Speed on the press and consistency across substrates are key. Ultimate Packaging has recently installed two additional servo-driven Bobst flexo presses ahead of drupa.

Offset has also responded positively to deliver cost-efficient shorter runlengths, for example Heidelberg’s Speedmaster Prinect Inpress Control inline automated turbo charged system which can change plates between jobs within ten minutes.

steering the progress of a printed pack from hatch to despatch are all able to interact via an open entry web-based platform.

“Our vision is to connect the supply chain from the brand owner to the retailer and to make that flow broader and richer,” says Jef Stoffels, Esko Marketing Director.

colour management solution is ideal for the brand owner as it has control over the pre-determined colour parameters, these are then stored in the cloud for use as and when required by his supply chain. This ensures accurate replications of the accredited brand image irrespective of substrate or supplier.

“We do this by adding greater functionality which meets the go-tomarket and quality needs of CPG

Pressed to perform Converters equipped with smarter production facilities can be more

Digital mindset What has sparked these improvements in analogue press technology is the increasingly potent challenge posed by digital print; not least in meeting brand owner requirements for costefficient shorter run lengths – and thereby, lower inventory levels – and the ability to differentiate products onshelf through customisation. Whilst affordably utilising variable data has always been part and parcel of the digital print proposition, it’s now clearly on the retail marketing radar following its successful adoption by high-profile retail marketing campaigns run by Coca Cola, Heineken, Nutella and a steadily growing band of global blue-chip brands.

AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

10 “To take our brand off the packaging and replace it with something other than the Coca Cola script wasn’t easy to do within a structure like ours, where we operate according to very tight brand guidelines to protecting it,” says Coca Cola Packaging Innovator Greg Bentley. “The digital print capability enabled it to happen, but the marketing campaign is the really smart thing.”

“The combination of technological muscle and marketing inspiration is what it takes to make customisation fly,” says Paul Randall, HP Worldwide Brands Business Development Manager.

“It’s breaking away from the mindset of packaging being the static bearer of logos and ingredients tables and using it as a media opportunity for consumer engagement to the benefit of the brand.

The media landscape has changed. It is becoming increasingly fragmented between above the line spend (bought media), PR and below the line (earned media), and packaging (owned media) – with the latter two increasingly linked together. Not surprisingly, brand owners are now regular visitors to HP’s Graphics Experience Centre in Barcelona.”

Likewise Xeikon’s technology centre in Antwerp. “For brand owners attending our Xeikon Café programme, it’s a two-track learning curve,” says Labels & Packaging Marketing Director, Filip Weymans. “First, understanding how the benefits of digital production can be translated into diversifying communication towards the audience they’re reaching out to and second, how the technology can address needs within their business model - notably, being faster to market and making better use of working capital.”

“While the adoption of digital is an accelerating trend, despite the buzz being created it’s still under-selling its potential,” says SAB Miller Global Packaging Manager, Doug Hutt. “The top ten brand owners in the world are generating over a quarter of a trillion dollars in sales. If just 10 - 20% of these were digitised with the balance going to analogue, that is still a very large potential revenue that converters haven’t yet grasped.”

“FMCG companies should be more proactive in going out and talking to the packaging industry – and the packaging industry should be addressing those issues and coming up with solutions,” says Doug Hutt, SAB Miller Global Packaging Manager.

Meanwhile, faster-running inkjet technology looks poised to dictate the next chapter in the digital packaging print story, not least via the keenly anticipated commercialisation of digital guru Benny Landa’s ‘nanographic’ presses engineered to deliver variable data printed material at offset speeds.

The finishing touch Customisation is not the only route to catching the consumer’s eye on-shelf.

Short-run, cost-effective special effects such as high gloss, glitter, metallic without recourse to hot-foil stamping and even Braille are also within the remit of next-generation digital postpress enhancement technology now establishing itself within the finishing sector. Also providing a more costeffective means of achieving greater stand-out is the take-up of cold foiling using the analogue process - notably as an alternative to laminated / metallised substrates for labels and cartons.

Meanwhile, at the higher end of the scale is the arresting 3D effect achieved through the use of Fresnel lens technology providing instant ‘stand-out’ in retail duty-free for cartons containing the global gin brand Bombay Sapphire. “It’s obviously more expensive than a normal foil by about onethird, but you do get significantly greater impact. If you want something that is undeniably eye-catching and alluring then that’s what it takes,” says Dominic Burke, Webb deVlam UK Managing Director.

The new frontier “The adoption of online-oriented technologies is pointing the way towards next generation applications aimed at facilitating greater engagement between brand and consumer,” says Sun Branding Solutions Packaging Technology Director, Gillian GarsideWight. “Who would have thought that

AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

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12 forward-looking brand owners,” says Eef de Ferrante, Managing Director of the Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Association (AIPIA).

“Brand owners need to meet the challenges faced by counterfeiting, product security in the supply chain, consumer engagement and ‘Big Data’ management. Brand protection and better marketing of their products are major starting points towards averting potential reputational damage and simply saving money.”

the Apple watch would be available five years ago? Brand owners need to deliver what consumers want including smarter packs that integrate with a digitally driven smarter life-style.”

Quite a number of applications on the market bring into play mobile technology. For example, on-pack augmented reality (AR) applications pioneered by Blippar that allow users to simply look at an object through the camera on their smartphone to activate an instantaneous digital search and draw down information from the web.

In a recent campaign for Perrier, the invitation to consumers to shake their phone like a cocktail shaker to reveal a recipe was a typically innovative way to highlight the overall concept and add fun by using the technology to unique advantage.

Rather than position an icon onpack to facilitate interaction, UKbased prepress specialist Reproflex3’s proprietary ‘PackLinc’ scanning technology embeds a hidden code within the ink itself, enabling the consumer to effectively treat the entire pack as a portal. Most recently applied within a limited edition run of the children’s POM-BEAR crisp packet, the system was the recipient of EFIA (European Flexographic Industry Association) and the prestigious Starpack gold awards last year. Debbie Waldron-Hoines, EFIA Director says, “Brand owners need a deeper understanding of the processes so that they can help make considered decisions on what is best suited for their brand. Both flexo and digital can work wonderfully together to enhance the brand.”

Underpinning product security and thereby underpinning brand integrity is another obvious avenue being explored by smart technologies. A fully printed near-field communication sensor tag (NFC) developed by Thin Film Electronics for Diageo’s Johnnie Walker whisky doubles as a security and anti-counterfeiting device as well as interacting with smartphones to dispense product advice and information.

As a lot of the labelling and preprinted information currently required to be displayed on-pack is gradually phased out, just imagine the potential for branding afforded by that freed-up real estate. Brands are currently getting maybe only 40% of the pack’s surface for its primary purpose. However, if one small interactive barcode resolves all the regulatory and legal requirements 90% of the print surface could be released for marketing the product.

“Ironically, the most practical bridge linking brand and consumer might simply entail upgrading the humble linear barcode into a 2D format,” says Domino Printing Sciences Global Account Manager, Craig Stobie. “Brand owners are yet to fully realise the potential in having a machine-readable code that not only contains a lot more data but with the same footprint or smaller than a human-readable, but can also actually be cheaper.”

“Whether it be products that communicate with your tablet or temperature or time sensitive thermochromic inks that indicate when your lager is perfectly chilled or provide the re-assurance that pre-packaged meat is safe to eat, the facility for interactivity ticks all the right boxes for

Eye-catching and innovative printed packaging is a shrewd investment towards building a loyal and enduring customer-base, concludes Des King.

Whilst consumers are exercising greater versatility than ever before in choosing how and where they are able to gather information through which to determine product preferences, packaging offers the brand owner a uniquely guaranteed opportunity to control how they communicate with prospective customers face to face instore at the very point of purchase. No surprise then that the ways in which the package is printed will occupy centrestage at drupa 2016.

Executive summary

Printed packaging is the key mechanism enabling brand owners to build expanding and enduring customer loyalty in order to out-sell and outperform their competition.

Changing patterns of communication have elevated the role of packaging from protective wrapper to front-line sales & marketing tool. In a medianeutral environment it’s a function that is increasingly as much marketing as technology, and that provides the brand owner with guaranteed profiling and exposure in front of the consumer.

In order to optimise consumer response at the point of sale, brand owners will want to invest not only in imaginative, innovative and wellexecuted creative design in order to achieve distinction and differentiation, but also in the appropriate colour management technologies to ensure its accurate replication irrespective of substrate or geographical location.

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14 link all components within the packaging print supply chain will be on show at drupa 2016.

Whilst a consistently reproduced and instantly recognisable image is vital in underpinning authenticity, brand owners are increasingly required to be able to demonstrate rapid response agility in order to maintain competitive edge via updated printed messaging and as these tactics are often short-term and invariably short-run, as cost-effectively as possible. The same level of expedien-

cy applies to the introduction of brand extensions and new products.

Enhanced analogue process print and next-generation digital equipment designed to deliver accelerated costeffective time to market will compete for attention at drupa 2016.

Special decorative effects and added functionality are increasingly providing an added value finishing touch that can extend beyond the point of purchase to enhance the consumer’s relationship with the branding propo-

sition throughout its life expectancy.

The appropriate systems and solutions to accomplish all of these imperatives are not only readily available to print service providers but are constantly updated and extended. Applications to facilitate the synergy between printed text and graphics, the internet and social media through the development of on-pack interactivity accessed by smart mobile technology will constitute a growing area of visitor interest in Dusseldorf.

Author: Des King Des King has worked as a freelance journalist in the printing & packaging industries for the past twenty years. During this time he has appeared regularly in leading UK magazines as well as several of the leading European & international trade publications. He writes a regular monthly opinion column in Packaging News. Des is a long-standing member of IPPO, The International Packaging Press Organisation.

Over the past four years he has edited UK print & packaging industry supplements within The Times, the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph and has been responsible for editing the English-language version on-site show newspapers at interpack ’08, ’11 and ’14 in Düsseldorf.

Prior to joining the ranks of the ‘fourth estate’, Des King was marketing director at Reed Exhibitions (UK) for seventeen years, during which time he was responsible for the promotion of PACKEX (packaging); INTERPLAS (plastics) and IPEX (printing) events.

His main interests within the packaging sector are the increasing impact of digital technology in accelerating time to market and increasing on-shelf impact; the role of packaging within product branding strategies; and ways in which packaging can be made more user-friendly to fellow ‘grey consumers.

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A complete future-proof solution for packaging development A complete future-proof solution for packaging development from the market leader: that's why Thimm Verpackung, the largest division of the Northeimbased Thimm Group, chose ArtiosCAD Enterprise from Esko (www.esko.com), as part of its enterprise-wide project to modernise its business systems across its 18 locations.

The project, for which planning and needs analysis began five years ago, was implemented in 2015 in the record time of just six months. The total investment for the conversion and modification of Thimm’s locations in Germany, the

Czech Republic, Romania and Poland amounted to over €500 000.

"Thimm Verpackung has grown very quickly in recent years,” says Hardy Hull, manager of the development centre at

Thimm Verpackung. “Our vision was to synchronise and centrally control all processes in packaging development across all of our locations, leaving behind the era of time-consuming and cost-intensive siloed solutions that did not communicate with each other.” Following a detailed market analysis and comparison of offerings from different providers, Thimm Verpackung opted for ArtiosCAD Enterprise from Esko. It came out top for all criteria: a networked crossdivisional workflow, data security, process reliability, traceability, error avoidance, transparent structures, simplified communication, avoidance of multiple entries, the cross-platform use of data in different systems (including mobile devices) and efficient administration.

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AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

18 focus on complete software solutions for the packaging industry both speak in its favour,” Hull adds. “It's not just major branded goods manufacturers that use Esko; many suppliers also work with the company in order to offer interfaces to their own solutions.”

It was essential that the chosen solution could be integrated with Thimm’s MS Dynamics AX ERP solution to standardise calculations and cost accounting throughout the company. Additional packages, such as Esko Cape for pallet optimisation and Studio Visualizer for 3D visualisation, also impressed Thimm Verpackung as practical tools that would enhance their business and production processes.

Centralising data handling across locations ArtiosCAD Enterprise stores all resources in a central but private corporate database in the cloud. The WebCenter-based Enterprise Database Server includes a secure, web-accessible database as well as project management functions. It makes dynamic online collaboration possible among design groups, CAD and graphic designers,

suppliers, brand owners and production.

The ArtiosCAD Enterprise Client makes all CAD-specific metadata, such as geometry and materials, available to WebCenter projects so that all details of a packaging project are reliably recorded and managed from beginning to end.

"Thimm Verpackung chose the Esko networked packaging solution as the result of a rational and detailed technical analysis of the solutions available on the market,” says Armand Gougay, Vice President Europe and Middle East (EMEA) at Esko. “As for the potential savings, it's still too early to provide any concrete figures, but Thimm Verpackung will be able to free up a significant amount of time and resources across the creative process. That makes us proud.” The protected cloud-based database system and its controlled access ensures the ultimate in data control and security for Thimm Verpackung across all locations and for all employees. "That's an essential consideration for an efficient, automated workflow," says Gougay.

Hull was very pleased with Esko's handling of the project: "Above all, I'd like to thank the Esko team and, of course, our team here at Thimm Verpackung. Without their hard work, the implementation would never have gone as quickly, smoothly and efficiently.” In a future stage, in addition to internal availability, Thimm intends to make the online WebCenter platform available externally to its customers to improve efficiencies even more.

About Thimm Thimm Verpackung is the largest division of the Northeim-based Thimm Group. Founded in 1949, the group is one of the leading European manufacturers of transport and sales packaging made from corrugated cardboard; high-quality displays; packaging systems of various material combinations; and packaging-related services. More than 2,800 employees at 18 locations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland and Mexico generate an annual turnover of more than €530 million. www.thimm.de

touch the future Inspiring ideas for success drupa is the must-attend event in 2016: Starting point of highly promising visions. Focus of future technologies.

Meeting point of ideas that electrify the markets.

Innovative business models and best-practice examples will show the growth potential of the future: print, packaging production, green printing, functional printing, multichannel and 3D printing.

The programme “drupa future visions” is a look far ahead.

Be part of it!

daily news, trends, innovations blog.drupa.com

May 31 – June 10, 2016 Düsseldorf/Germany www.drupa.com Share

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AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

Game changer Combining high-quality color with the efficiency of digital printing, HP Indigo will take your business to the next level.

Engineered for mid-web packaging applications such as flexible packaging and label printing, the HP Indigo 20000 Digital Press is a superior alternative to analog technology. It brings the same quality as gravure to your operation so you can meet all your client demands for medium and short runs, whilst minimizing your operational costs.

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Message on a bottle In the last couple of years we have witnessed a strong growth of industrial inkjet printing in the interior decoration markets, such as ceramics, flooring, walls, panels, amongst others. In the meanwhile inkjet is also a firm stakeholder in the label industry, in flexible packaging and folding cartons. More and more new implementations of inkjet technology take inkjet straight where it belongs: right into the production line.

Innovative inkjet solutions in the packaging world Innovation is a process starting from a creative idea over evaluation, development and finally implementation. This innovation process applies to products, processes, structures, relationships, strategies and maybe also to YOU! Today’s inkjet technologies have gone through a number of significant changes with regards to reliability (e.g. through flow TF architecture), quality and performance. These changes nicely combine with advances in new jetable fluids and inks, with improved materials handling, transport and finishing systems all leading to a new generation of cost effective printing solutions. The scalability and noncontact capabilities of full color inkjet systems have the potential of filling

roles in package printing that cannot effectively be serviced conventionally.

Over the next decade more and more inkjet based printing solutions will find their way in the packaging world to enable product decoration, impacting how packaging is created, printed, distributed and managed. Inkjet could truly be a disruptive technology; you may not see it coming, and you notice it only when it’s too late, by which time your market position could be totally undermined.

Digital label printing leading the way Label printers are familiar with the digital printing process for labels. It all started with the toner based HP Indigo and Xeikon systems, but during the last 5 years a couple of new inkjet based label print solutions have joined them. Thanks to the success of the

digital label print solutions and with an honest believe in the potential of digital alternatives, label printers start introducing digital print to help with product versioning, ever decreasing batches and customization.

Also brand owners support that evolution and demand increased efficiency and flexibility. They have a holistic view, looking for solutions with smaller lot numbers, more personalized products, print-on-demand and just-intime deliveries while eco trends drive material reduction, sustainability and carbon footprint.

Industrial inkjet solutions – Jetting labels in the production line Today printing and converting are separate processes. Labeling is a laborintensive process: labels are printed on rolls, often pre-cut, just to finally glue/

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21 Developing and integrating an inkjet based solution in a manufacturing line The true virtues of the inkjet technology are scalability and non-contact; no more compromises, no image carrier, no step-and-repeat to fit short runs of labels of different formats, no limitations in material and widths.

Robust inkjet heads with a choice of resolution, speed, and inks are available now, highly reliable. However inkjet technology is only part of the equation.

Integrating such single pass inkjet system in a production line adds a different level of complexity: mastering the filling, handling, positioning and registration for printing on the bottles in a production-speed bottling system.

It sounds obvious that a leader in industrial automation systems (like KHS is known in the beverage industry) are the preferred partners to define the specifications for such a system, because they have access to the market, know the product requirements and speak the “language” of their customers. They have the mechanical engineering expertise to guarantee high precision bottle handling, positioning and accurate motion control, and are thereby ready to find answers to the challenges of the development and integration of the inkjet building blocks to print directly on the bottle.

transfer/attach/pull them on a box, container, bottle, tube or whatever needs to be labeled. Labels are expensive too, even though the costs don't stem from the printing as such, but rather from the substrate and the transfer materials, which are thrown away afterwards anyway.

No wonder that the industry thinks about taking product decoration and production into a single integrated process. Inkjet technology is key to that. Already today there are solutions available, to either work without transfer materials or to use inkjet technology and directly print on the bottle, container or tube. We will soon witness a marriage between printing and industrial production. That will not only reduce costs and simplify logistics, but it will also be more environment friendly reducing waste. That is why

more and more companies will think about reengineering, about simplifying processes while increasing flexibility.

First inkjet based direct product decoration for PET bottles A first version of a direct print solution for printing on PET beverage bottles has been installed at Martens Brouwerij in Belgium for the printing of special campaigns. The system merges a variety of new and existing technologies into one brand-new production line, ready to take on new challenges from their customers.

Before entering into the specific benefits of the Martens Brouwerij print-to-PET-bottle case, let’s discuss the challenges to engineer and build such integrated inkjet based direct print solution.

That is where industry experts meet...

KHS has not disclosed too many details of the Direct Print system. They have been working on the solution for many years, and it is encouraging that KHS had worked on the development of the solution with industrial partners specialized in inkjet, for example Xaar and Agfa Graphics.

The Direct Print by KHS is commercialized by a wholly-owned KHS subsidiary, NMP Systems. It is configured with Xaar print heads optimized for single pass printing and it uses low-migration inks from Agfa.

It will print with an optical resolution of 1080 X 1080 dpi at a speed of up to 36.000 PET bottles per hour.

The cornerstones for a successful direct product decoration solution are reliability, quality and overall performance.

AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

22

As already mentioned inkjet printing is all about finding the ideal interaction between an inkjet print head, ink and surface. Good understanding of the inks, material surface tension issues, UV curing/pinning and finishing elements are important factors.

Setting up the right configuration, the vertical jetting station, jet straightness, firing and throw distance control for variable drop volumes, perfect colorto-color registration (including white), dynamic fluid system, electronics and maintenance system are all crucial to the system.

Not to forget about the digital image path. The availability of a digital front end and workflow system are new to this industry. It is required to initiate jobs, handle data, ripping, screening,

color management and print engine operation control and will be a key element to drive productivity and ease the operation.

Decoration for PET bottles as an example - Inkjet technology The Direct Print equipment at Martens uses the Xaar print heads to jet text and images in five colors (CMYK+W), using low-migration LED-cured inks from Agfa directly onto PET bottles at the production rate of 12,000 bottles per hour. The print heads use the TF TechnologyTM; this ink recirculation architecture is key for any single pass inkjet system, as this will determine the reliability and productivity of the system solution. At head level the waveform-, voltage- and temperaturecontrol are a “must� when combined with this through flow ink circulation.

Maximum reliability is achieved with these continuous flow heads, the right reflow rates for the inkjet heads for recovery of failing nozzles and a sufficient slight under-pressure to control meniscus. The jet straightness, the throwing distance (the distance from the nozzle to the bottle substrate) and drop formation all influence the image quality.

Techniques like variable dot printing and appropriate software algorithms allow for smoothening distance tolerances and can assist to generate distorted imaging.

Addressing these variable throw distances and controlling the drop formation is the combined result of jet dynamics and the fluid properties. Firing conditions such as pulse amplitude, pulse width, and pulse frequency will also affect

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AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

24 drop formation. Finally the UV ink’s viscosity, wetting performance, surface energy and careful control of drop spreading behavior contribute to the control of dot gain, which is vital for a consistent image quality.

Some secret is definitely in the ink Inkjet systems can only perform well if the inkjet head and the ink meet the criteria for heavy-duty production. A successful printing result can only be achieved if the correct jetting properties (particle size, latency, viscosity, surface tension, ...) have been set for a specific inkjet head. If this is not the case the ink may not jet at all, nozzles may fail or the nozzle jet direction might be slightly angled.

As much as material compatibility between ink and the ink-supply system (tubing, manifolds, pumps, level sensing, ..) is crucial, also conditioning the ink for optimal production performance, the jetting properties of ink and the interaction between the ink and the object surface requires specific development from the ink manufacturer. Typical properties of the inkjet ink are color gamut, ink density, adhesion, light stability and scratch resistance.

The concept behind a low-migration ink for printing direct on the PET beverage bottles is to limit migration through the substrate as much as possible, even for a thin wall PET bottle, which is the trend in the industry today.

For direct print on a PET beverage bottle, many more requirements are

demanded to the ink formulations in order to meet the customer expectations of adhesion, scratch resistance, flexibility etc.

The company uses this new direct product decoration system for a new application called the Talking Bottles Kampioenenbier.

Impressive is also that the digitally printed bottles fully support the existing recycling processes in order to be used again.

Last but not least, it must have been a big challenge to design the inks towards the industrial reliability of constant jetting performance.

A new marketing campaign to promote the upcoming release of a movie “Jubilee Generale” by a popular group of local TV actors “F.C. Kampioenen” was the reason for the new beer and according printed images. The direct color decoration on the bottles is combined with digitally printed QR codes and augmented reality. A special app brings the images of the actors printed on the bottle to life. They bring a small performance on your smartphone. When two bottles are scanned together, the app even starts a dialog between them – very innovative and engaging talking bottles.

Martens Brouwerij: first direct print solution for PET bottles.

Back to the original story now: the world’s first ‘Direct Print Powered by KHSTM’ system in industrial- scale production and printing directly onto PET beer bottles was installed at Martens Brouwerij in Bocholt, Belgium and is operational since mid June this year.

The entire set-up is a great example of creativity and innovation. The design and direct print solution for this late stage and customised packaging illustrate the capabilities of a true complete digital world. The “no label look” image on the PET beer bottles does not only inform, but communicates the message over a relative small surface on the bottle.

The QR code and augmented reality are instrumental to bridge the off-line and on-line communication, which fits perfectly with upcoming digital technologies, social media, online shopping, globalization and the like.

Message on a bottle – the future It is interesting to see how this new direct product decoration solution for PET beer bottles already deals with trends in the industry: short run printing, print-

AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

25 on-demand and customization straight in the manufacturing environment.

Digitally printed alternatives are the only way to tackle these challenges.

Thanks to the non-contact inkjet printing technologies that are available today, it is possible to print on a wide range of industrial surfaces. The single pass printing concept is ideally suited to take inkjet into the industrial packagingconverting-production lines.

Technology drives business innovation and customer requirements drive technology development. Beyond the technology, there are many drivers in favor of integrating print at multiple stages in the product supply chain: just-In-time procurement and logistics systems of major retailers, environmental initiatives aimed at reducing packaging, and the demand for customized and regionalized labeling within global distribution models

'versioning' products and most certainly offer sustainable products. Everybody in the 'value chain' will benefit from better-planned production, reduced levels of stock and a tight connection to the order process.

These are powerful arguments for consumer producer groups to integrate print activity in the in-line packaging process, aiming at serving customers better and potentially saving costs by integrating production with customer consumption, reducing lead times,

Will packaging’ converters rigorously re-engineer their business processes?

Many of them have been working for decades with their existing equipment and print technologies and may not see the new possibilities today. But the message on a bottle is clear: Doing

the things like we used to do is not an option; packaging converters will eventually embrace these new digital technologies and admit the need for change. As a believer in single-pass inkjet we know the challenges and we are convinced that direct print will take bottle printing (as an example) — whether in-line or near- line — into the manufacturing process as an integrated part of a production-speed system.

Is there any beer left in the bottle?

Commitment to the planet Our mission is to offer global solutions unique to a world with ever-increasing flexibility and efficiency needs. We strive to provide you with the most convenient services and easy product maintenance.

Our pledge to sustainable innovation means we are committed to research and technological design aimed at creating products that are efficient, reliable, energy intelligent and environmentally sustainable.

Our commitment is also to the knowledge. The objective of the Manel Xifra Boada Technological Centre is to position itself as a driving force for know-how within the flexible packaging sector. Founded in 2013 as an independent body, activity is centred on training and consultancy services, academic activities, innovation and development.

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AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

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Xeikon to feature innovation in wallpaper production Creative approach demonstrates broad market possibilities for digital printing in wall décor Xeikon, an innovator in digital color printing technology, will push the creative boundaries of wallpaper design with the Xeikon Wall Decoration Suite at Heimtextil, the largest international trade fair for home and contract textiles. The show ean from 12 to 15 January at the Frankfurt Messe..

high quality work that Xeikon’s Wall Decoration Suite can produce. We anticipate that Ludivine’s work on display at Heimtextil 2016 will elevate that interest to an even greater level and help customers see the broader potential that digital printing of wall coverings offers.”

This is the second time Xeikon has exhibited at Heimtextil, and this year the eye-catching and nature-inspired work of graphic artist Ludivine Lechat will be featured on the stand’s wallcoverings and in sample racks.

Monika Olbricht, Xeikon’s Sales Director, Document Printing Europe, explains, “Last year’s Heimtextil was very successful for largely due to the fact the digital printing of wall coverings and indoor decoration is taking off. We expect this year to be just as exciting.

Previously, we showcased 3D bleached wooden paneling, bronzed iron sheets and cartoon character inspired designs.

These applications really captured the imagination of the industry and demonstrated the huge variety of

Xeikon will also showcase the creativity of other users providing services to the walldeco industry. De Resolutie (www.resolutie.nl) will demonstrate their design prowess with the former developing patterned wallpaper to highlight the finesse of digital printing with details that cannot be achieved with traditional printing. PPS Imaging GmbH (www.ppsimaging.de) will be present on booth to show their products. Also on the stand will be the Xeikon “explorer” touchscreen that will enable visitors to locate Xeikon customers providing services to the wall covering/interior decoration industry.

The Xeikon Wall Decoration Suite

allows cost-efficient production of highquality wall decorations for commercial, retail and residential purposes. This short-run user-friendly ‘all-in-one’ solution addresses increasing demand for more customized and personalized wall coverings and other interior décor, and enables the production of a small roll of finished wallpaper from a large roll of paper.

The Suite integrates four major components - a Xeikon Digital Press printing on the widest media range available, with dedicated workflows and software, application-specific toners and process optimization tools, and pre- and post-press equipment for an end-to-end solution.

At the show, Xeikon will have a Xeikon 3500 Digital Press equipped with an inline Web Varnishing Unit that includes an integrated cutter for side slitting and matte varnishing. The small finished rolls will be picked up and rewound by a coreless rewinder.

The ability of the Xeikon 3500 to print full-rotary and endless patterns without any breaks makes it ideal for producing any kind of wall-coverings, from shortrun wallpapers of standard lengths to large murals. With an output speed of 600 m²/hr, the Xeikon 3500 press is the fastest digital printing press in its class.

Xeikon toners are odor-free and comply with EN15102 standards, while the inline finishing systems available with the Wall Decoration Suite ensure accurate cutting in both process and cross directions, producing a finished roll ready to be wrapped and sent out.

The development of key partnerships is crucial to Xeikon’s core offering and its ability to deliver a complete solution.

At Heimtextil 2016, Xeikon will again promote its collaboration with Felix Schoeller, Neu Kalisse, Ahlstrom and Lahnpaper (formerly Neenah Lahnstein).

KBA Packaging Expertise AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

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Pemara adds a powerful new dimension to folding carton digital production Pioneering print solutions is embedded in Pemara’s DNA. Over a 49 year history it has scored many rsts in Australia. It introduced high quality rotary self-adhesive label printing; the first self-adhesive vehicle registration labels; the first ‘peel ‘n stick’ postage stamps. Now Pemara has installed the first HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press in the Asia Paci c region, pioneering further packaging innovation.

Challenge “Our customers are in the pharmaceutical, animal health, personal care, food and beverage sectors. These are highly regulated industries which face frequent changes to the information their labeling and packaging must carry. We help our customers avoid the expensive, wasteful and inaccurate downsides that this phenomenon can cause.”

Family-owned Australian print company, Pemara, adopted HP Indigo digital printing technology for the rst time in 2001. Damien Prunty, Pemara’s general manager, recalls that in the early days of o ering a digital print label solution to customers it was a “pretty rocky road” as Pemara had to act as both a developer and builder of the market.

Solution

“The disconnect between the look of the label and its carton is a legitimate concern for regulatory, branding and market applications. HP have the perfect match between the two packaging formats and we can guarantee the product label and its carton look identical.”

Pemara now has plants in Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia, supplying a range of print labels to multi-national companies in the pharmaceutical, animal health, personal care, food and beverage sectors. These markets are highly regulated and the information carried on the labeling has to be frequently altered in line with new legislation, market regulations or to re ect brand imaging changes.

Result

“In the HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press, HP has produced an advanced and nely tuned machine. It enables us to provide new marketing opportunities to our customers.

For instance, the ability to prototype new products before full scale market production is of growing importance in the sectors we serve. It is inexpensive and viable with this HP solution.”

“The HP Indigo ElectroInk technology delivers print quality indistinguishable from o set. The high quality we produce on the HP Indigo WS6000 and WS6600 Digital Presses is just a given with our customers. They are striving to achieve leaner operations. They look to us to meet the ever complex challenges of changes and shrinking turnaround times. They want a better speed to market, greater productivity, reduced waste and more e icient use of raw materials.”

Prunty refers to one of Pemara’s multinational pharmaceutical customers, manufacturing locally in Australia and exporting into many countries that require di erent languages on their packaging. “We produce small batches, eliminating wasteful redundancy and unnecessary capital investment. If changes are

AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

29 guarantee the product label and its packaging look and feel the same. “The HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press is such a compelling concept. As folding carton converters struggle with the economic and productivity issues of shorter and more frequent print runs, this machine delivers minimal setup, reduced waste and easy versioning capabilities.

“The evidence is powerfully clear for our customers when they see for themselves the awless color consistency between the label and its carton.”

An advanced and highly tuned machine The HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press o ers a signi cant bene t to the packaging supply chain, it’s a key selling point.

“We can show our end customers, high color quality, savings in paperboard waste, reduction in overstocking and elimination of obsolete stock.”

Pemara prints on carton board up to 600 microns. “The ability to use a bigger sheet, 29-inch format, delivers us greater productivity and means we can say ‘yes’ to requests for bigger cartons and longer runs.”

needed we can send an inexpensive proof for approval.”

The perfect match for labeling and packaging Digital print label and carton technology has unquestionably helped grow Pemara’s market reach. In 2014, the company decided to expand its folding carton business by investing in the latest digital technology, the HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press. It also set up a new division within the company called Pemarapack, comprised of a team of experts dedicated to managing business for its latest investment.

Prunty says: “We saw customers’ frustration when there was a disconnect between the look and feel of the product labeling and the carton in which it was housed. The concern was compounded by the diversity in SKUs. It was often the variations caused by di erent packaging suppliers. The complaint was simply: ‘It doesn’t look the same’. That is a legitimate concern for regulatory, branding and market applications.”

He recalls: “HP had the perfect match between the technologies for the two print packaging formats. We can

The company is also able to o er new marketing opportunities to its end customers. Prunty notes that the technology opens the door to a myriad of personalization options that simply weren’t possible for folding cartons before. “Customers can now create many individual designs their cartons. It’s an excellent way for them to give their products a more personal touch, as well as help them to stand out on the market shelves. It also provides for unique security bene ts and opportunities with serialization to protect against counterfeiting.”

Looking ahead to further printing and packaging applications, Prunty identi es the possibility of a future move into the exible packaging market space. He says: “The support and training we receive from HP is excellent. As HP continues to develop this class of print and packaging technology we believe there will be more applications for us to o er our marketplace. Flexible packaging is just one of them.”

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GOOD ENOUGH TO TOUCH: ENHANCING THE POS EXPERIENCE Packaging can open doors at the point of sale. To allow customers to really 'feel' the premium product line of exclusive hosiery and shapewear brand ITEM m6 from high-tech German manufacturer medi, the rlc | packaging group developed an ingenious concept. The silky touch of Sappi's bright white carton material Algro Design and a practical click closure make the premium quality of the contents clear from the outside. The result: an award-winning packaging solution!

With its audible click closure and silky touch, the elegant packaging concept for premium legwear from Bayreuth-based German manufacturer medi doesn't just appeal to customers in stores: it has also won over two important award committees. At this year's Red Dot Design Award gala, the packaging for the exclusive hosiery and shapewear brand ITEM m6 was crowned a winner. And at the Pro Carton ECMA Awards 2015, the resealable packaging with the soft touch was a finalist in the non-food category.

In both visual and tactile terms, the packaging makes an instant impression, conveying the qualities of the product inside. Products for women are packaged in brilliant white – for which Sappi's bright white carton material Algro Design, with a weight of 350 gs/ m2, was chosen – while men's products catch the eye in intense black. In both cases, high ink coverage is achieved with UV printing. Combined with a soft-touch coating, this creates a silky surface finish that reflects the comfort of the products when worn.

Awakening curiosity about the product German company medi is one of the leading manufacturers of medical aids, primarily known for its compression garments, braces and orthopaedic supports. Four years ago, the manufacturer launched its first fashion brand under the name ITEM m6. The label combines stylish, elegant hosiery for women and men with the

company's expertise in compression technology, ensuring comfort for hardworking legs on the job, at events or while travelling. medi's criterion for the new packaging solution was clear: it had to show the customer exactly what they were

getting. This might sound easy at first glance, but on closer inspection it's a challenging task. The packaging not only had to make the customer curious about the product, but it also needed to help them understand what they were holding. It had to convey the accurately defined compression effect of the

AFTA AGA ALA • Jnn 2016

31 socks and tights, achieved by a specially developed high-tech form-fit thread.

In addition to providing a comfortable fit around the leg, the hosiery also stimulates circulation.

Crucial to the design, the packaging is not conventionally shrink-wrapped but can be opened like a book. This allows the customer to examine the product in the store and easily close the packaging again with the optimised resealable closure. The side closure audibly 'clicks' to indicate that the carton is resealed without causing any damage to the packaging or the product. "The resealable closure was adapted from a confectionery design," explains Andreas Brohm, sales manager at LEUNISMAN, the beauty and healthcare division of rlc | packaging group in Hannover. The click fastening that allows the ITEM m6 box to be fully opened and closed over and over again was originally developed for rlc's 'to go' packaging ZetKLIK, which is primarily used for candies.

The ITEM m6 packaging also features PET windows on the front and back to reveal the insert inside the box, which varies depending on the type of product. The smaller packaging variants also have a PET window insert with a hanger that can be slid outwards if required. This allows the product to be hung up rather than presented standing up at the POS. The perfect material for the job The choice of carton material shows how a smooth, bright white surface, flexural rigidity, protective functions and deformability impact the finished result. Algro Design from Sappi is one of the most popular coated carton types on the market. The product range impresses with its extreme whiteness, consistent surface finish, very high light resistance and a silky smooth touch. It is also very easy to process using standard finishing techniques. Brohm confirms, "First you have the unsurpassed whiteness of Algro Design. This gives the white packaging its exceptional brilliance. The click closure shows the flexibility and strength of the material.

It can be opened and closed numerous times without losing its tension."

For the white packaging, Algro Design sheets were carefully printed using a UV

printing process: in silver and double black for the text and graphic elements.

The soft-touch UV coating, giving the box its silky-smooth feel and protecting it from scratches, was applied over the entire surface. After the sheets were die-cut, the die-cut PET window films, produced at the same time, were joined using a special pick-and-place process at the rlc factory in Switzerland. Because the windows on the front are printed and hot foil-embossed, this method is the best choice to avoid damaging the previously finished lid of the packaging during assembly.

Teamwork: the recipe for success The packaging concept and design were developed in close collaboration between Leo Burnett in Berlin and rlc | packaging group in Hannover.

"Because of our complete system approach and the wide range of technologies available to us, we were able to develop the optimum packaging solution for ITEM m6 – from the first design drafts to printing, the client gets everything they need from one provider," Brohm explains.

The individual packaging parts are manufactured at LEUNISMAN in Hannover (Germany) and LIMMATDRUCK | ZEILER in Spreitenbach (Switzerland) before being supplied to Bayreuth for assembly. Here, the folding boxes for ITEM m6 are assembled by employees at a workshop for people with disabilities run by a social welfare organisation in Bayreuth. The inserts for the many different colours and materials are then digitally printed by medi on an on-demand basis and inserted, together with the products, into the folding box, complete with windows. Each product is illustrated in the relevant colour on the back of the packaging, so the consumer can see the contents at a glance.

Packaging as brand ambassador The resealable closure was a key requirement for the ITEM m6 packaging . First it was necessary to design the optimum closure mechanism.

It needed to be easy to operate and add value to the packaging. Secondly, it was necessary to find a carton material that not only offered brilliant whiteness but also had sufficient rigidity and bending characteristics to withstand frequent

Andreas Brohm, sales manager at LEUNISMAN, the beauty and healthcare division of rlc | packaging group in Hannover opening and closing without damage.

The choice of Sappi's bright white carton material for the women's range was the obvious one for Leo Burnett and rlc | packaging group.

"The desire to find new solutions was foremost, and everyone involved in developing and creating the packaging was inspired by it," says Brohm, describing the enthusiasm for the project among the team, made up of professionals from all areas of the company. The result is a unique, attractive, functional and deservedly award-winning packaging solution that engages the senses. In practice, it has significantly exceeded sales forecasts. It conveys the technology and comfort of the product with packaging that is more than simply a protective box but rather, a multisensory complete presentation, giving pleasure to the consumer even before the purchase is made. rlc | packaging group is a highly specialised provider of innovative packaging solutions for the branded goods and pharmaceutical industries, with sales markets throughout Europe. The company's system solutions focus on the needs of the beauty, pharmaceutical, food and luxury consumables sectors. To meet the complex requirements of these target groups the company operates eight highly specialised locations in Germany (Hannover, 2x Berlin, Aachen), Switzerland (Spreitenbach and Köniz) and Poland (2x Poznan), offering a full service from packaging development and production to logistics and packaging technology.

With approximately 1250 employees and cumulative annual sales of around €216 million, the group is one of the leading folding box manufacturers in Europe. The origins of the business date back to 1861.

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Serve national and international customer base GPS currently has three Esko digital imaging systems installed: CDI Advance 4260 HD, CDI Spark 4835 Full HD and the most recent CDI Spark 4260 Full HD, making it the first in Italy to install two Esko Full HD systems. install two CDI systems equipped with Full HD Flexo, knowing it was the best way to get what we wanted: excellent print quality and high productivity,” says Daniele Grotto, President and Owner of GPS. “We are a growing company and need to offer our clients bags and labels with an ever higher quality. Esko’s digital flexo solutions provide a print quality without compromise, with more effective solids, bright brand colors, crisp text, images with well-defined details and smooth gradations. Flexography can now compete with offset or gravure printing: the plates produced using Full HD Flexo ensure optimum results, uniformity and repeatability.”

Thanks to the Esko Full HD Flexo technology, the company has been able to significantly improve print quality and productivity. Esko Full HD solutions were the perfect choice for GPS, who produces the highest quality shopping bags in paper and plastic as well as plastic labels for the food and beverage industries. The company had the need to print a wider range of color shades, and at the same time ensure a good level of productivity. Products printed with Full HD Flexo plates have even better quality than gravure, and are suitable for all types of applications.

As a result, GPS could consolidate its relationship with existing customers, ensuring them higher quality while improving productivity.

Esko Full HD Flexo technology offers a real alternative to gravure The long-term relationship between GPS and Esko is based on mutual trust and believe in the quality of Esko solutions and services. "We choose to

Perfect ink laydown and dot control About the guaranteed quality of plates made with Full HD Flexo, Grotto comments, "Ink laydown is comparable to that of gravure printing, and our plate production flow is completely digital. This way flexography is able to guarantee quality and uniformity at a very high level".

Esko Full HD Flexo technology combines high imaging resolution (4000 dpi) with the main exposure with digital control in the CDI. The primary digital Inline UV2 imaging through a series of LEDs provides a UV power density high enough to be able to control the process of polymerization during the main imaging. It allows to create a completely digital production of flexographic plates, reducing human error and improving dramatically the uniformity of the plate. Consequently, the Full HD Flexo plates have digitally controlled dot sizes. "Full HD Flexo plates combine the functionality for the highlights of HD Flexo with perfect ink laydown in solids, increasing print

density and stability of flexo plates with flat dots. We can print with great results – even for very fine line screens," adds Grotto. This is because the high resolution imaging in the CDI unit creates a textured surface on the plate, improving ink transfer and increasing the density on the final print. The result is a richer and higher contrast, which is especially useful for PANTONE® colors and white underprints.

"Looking at the results, we are very happy with our choice to invest again in Esko’s digital flexo solutions.

The recognition we have received by customers and their renewed confidence is confirming this as well," concludes Grotto.

About GPS (www.gpsbags.com) GPS, founded in 1976, employs 250 people and exports 50% of its production, supplying major multinational companies. The company specializes in the production of shopping bags, packaging and labels which are manufactured using flexo, offset, UV offset and web offset printing. In the past year, the company hired fifteen 15 new people, a proof of its growth and economic health. GPS has three divisions: GPS shopping bags; GPS Packaging that produces roll-fed labels for the food and beverage sector; and Rotomet that specializes in weboffset printing and the production of shrink sleeve labels.

The company does not only stand for quality, they also take corporate responsibility, showing concern and care for the environment: GPS produces shopping bags using FSC certified paper with natural raw materials such as water inks, vegetable glues, recyclable and biodegradable materials and plastic shopping bags allowed under the Law with the use of recycled material.

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World's first BOBST VISIONCUT 106 LER in-line separating die-cutter.

In the first half of September, Ostermöller Verpackungen GmbH & Co. KG, which has its head office in Bünde, Germany, commissioned the world's first VISIONCUT 106 LER. BOBST had previously presented this completely new, 3B-format flat-bed die-cutter

equipped with a high-speed clamping device and permit tool adjustments to micrometer precision, greatly simplify the task of adjusting the stripping and separating tools for the machine operators. The shorter set-up times are particularly advantageous when it comes to short runs. But for the moment, the Managing Director is unable to say exactly how much of a benefit this will be. “We are still in the introductory phase and getting to grips with the many different capabilities of the new machine,” explains Ostermöller.

Alongside the VISIONCUT 106 LER's short set-up times and innovative technical features, it was the presence of the automatic separation capability at a competitive cost that won over Olaf Ostermöller, owner and Managing Director of the long-standing, mediumsized packaging company.

“In the fields of foodstuffs and technical products in particular, packaging is increasingly being erected and glued by machine. Given this background, we were absolutely determined to install a flat bed diecutter with in-line separation to replace our existing system. This now enables us to meet our customers' quality demands without any compromise," explains Ostermöller, emphasizing the importance of replacing another manual operation in the production process. And he goes on to explain that the VISIONCUT 106 LER is also flexible enough to be converted quickly and easily to full-sheet output. “With

three months’ production experience of the Visioncut we are very happy with the results. It underlines how right we were to make this investment,” concludes Ostermöller.

To make sure it selected the right system, Ostermöller compared flat bed die-cutters from a number of manufacturers. “Ultimately, we could see no reason not to stay with the market leader.”

The die-cutter was installed at the end of August and was up and running just a few days later. Since then it has been operating without the slightest problem. “Compared to our previous SP 104-E die-cutting machine, setup times have become considerably shorter,” says Ostermöller, turning to another important benefit of the new production technology. For example, Quick Lock frames permit rapid changeover of the die-cutting tools, while the unique tool frames, which are

The optical, non-contact sheet register, the fully automatic Smart Feeder and the double-cam gripper drive, number among the other technical highlights of this innovative flat-bed die-cutter.

Together, they guarantee reliable production during the processing of a wide range of packaging materials at sheet formats of up to 1'060 x 760 mm – including lightweight paper material with a grammage of 80 g/m2 or more, carton board up to 2'000 g/m2, as well as plastics and corrugated board up to a thickness of 4 mm – while ensuring outstanding quality and productivity.

“With the Visioncut 106 LER, we can achieve full production speed faster than with our previous die-cutter and accelerate it to its peak throughput of approximately 8'000 sheets per hour,” continues Ostermöller, illustrating one aspect of the new machine's enhanced productivity that offers his company an extremely attractive price/performance ratio.

RS 5002

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HP Inc. Reinvents Corrugated Packaging Printing with KBA be queued and printed together, with no make-ready in between jobs, while a long run is printed in another lane.

HP MLPA, coupled with all the advantages of digital printing, allows cost-effective customisation and personalisation of corrugated packaging, meeting the demands for shorter print runs without having to create inventory. Corrugated converters can now print only what is needed, when it is needed.

Meeting brand demands for fast, highquality production

HP Inc. today revealed the first HP PageWide Web Press T1100S, co-developed with KBA, which reinvents corrugated packaging printing for high-volume, digital pre-print applications.

Digital printing is the fastest growing segment in packaging with a projected annual growth rate of 17 per cent in a market expected to be worth $19 billion by 2019.(1) Digital packaging solutions enable cost-effective short-runs and unlock the ability to make every box different.

"Converters and brands alike need to create more targeted, effective packaging while reducing costs," said Eric Wiesner, general manager, PageWide Web Press (PWP) division, HP Inc. "HP Inc. and KBA have combined forces to bring the world's most productive press to market, (2 offering more value to high-end converters with the efficiencies of preprint and digital in one press."

DS Smith Packaging is the first customer to install the 2.8 metre width (110-inch) press, which can deliver significantly higher productivity and production flexibility than traditional analogue technology.

"We selected the new HP PageWide

Web Press T1100S as the next step in our ground-breaking digital PrePrint programme," said Stefano Rossi, CEO, DS Smith Packaging Division. "Our co-development with HP has resulted in the first digital machine able to print at the speed and width we need for high-volume corrugated production.

It will provide our customers with unprecedented short-run flexibility and quality consistency."

Reinventing corrugated printing While current analogue printing technology is limited to printing multiple copies of one box design - all boxes look the same and are the same size - the HP PageWide Web Press T1100S, with Multi-lane Print Architecture (MLPA), creates an immense paradigm shift in the production of corrugated board.

HP MLPA splits the web into multiple print lanes, so different jobs, with different box sizes and run lengths, can be printed in the individual lanes.

Multiple ultra-short or short runs can

As more brands pursue customised and personalised packaging, converters must accommodate faster turnarounds and shorter run lengths, while producing high-quality printed solutions at lower costs. Printing at speeds up to 183 linear metres (600 linear feet) per minute and 30,600 square metres (330,000 square feet) per hour, the HP PageWide Web Press T1100S helps corrugated converters quickly take on new, complex jobs at speed.

With enhanced priming options, including a combination of HP Bonding Agent, HP Priming Agent and fourcolour HP A50 aqueous pigmented CMYK inks, customers can print offset-quality on standard uncoated and coated liners from 80-400 grams per square metre (GSM), for greater cost savings, versatility, productivity and quality with high colour saturation, dark black optical density and crisp text.

In-line and near-line coating solutions for HP Priming Agent and aqueous overprint varnishing also provide outstanding print quality to help meet the highest brand standards.

Optional configuration features such as auto-splice/turret rewind, primer and over-print varnish coating solutions, as well as the KBA PATRAS "Automated Paper Logistics System," result in even greater efficiency of the overall solution.

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Staying ahead of trends in flexible packaging Higher quality, economic shorter runs, improved profitability and great customer satisfaction Packaging continues to be a growth market, and within the packaging market, flexible packaging is arguably the fastest growing segment. According to a Smithers Pira report (Future of Global Flexible Packaging to 2020), the global market for flexible packaging is projected to grow by 18% through 2020.

But this growth brings with it new challenges for flexographic printers.

Chief among these is the increased diversity of printed packs – smaller lot sizes, a wider variety of products and packaging formats, and a growing desire to regionalize packs as well as vary them seasonally and to support specific events.

According to the Smithers Pira report, flexible packaging is the most economical method for packaging,

preserving and distributing food and other consumables.

Flexible packaging also carries a lower supply chain cost than glass and metal and can deliver more shelf appeal and product protection. So while flexible packaging is on the rise, glass and metal packaging are on the decline in many regions. The lighter weights of flexible packaging reduce material and shipping costs. They also increase consumer convenience, since pouches can be easily stored, and they give

Image 1: Printed image using CMYK + spots with a dull appearance

the consumer the ability to get a meal on the go, instantly and at any time.

Consumer product companies (CPCs) want consumers to be able to prepare a microwavable meal from a pouch as quickly and conveniently as they can eat a breakfast bar. The diversity of packaged food products using flexible packaging solutions is endless.

Traditionally, flexible packaging using flexographic printing technologies has been manufactured in lot sizes

Image 2: Fixed ink set printed image using CMYK + OGV showing vivid colour

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averaging about 15,000 metres. In most plants, job change-over times can be an hour and a half or longer, depending upon the type of equipment, number of colours that must be changed, press modules required, etc. Clearly, as lot sizes decrease, the economics of conventional flexographic printing are challenged. It is for this reason that there has been an increased interest in digital printing solutions for label and flexible packaging production as well. But technologies are now available on the market that will allow flexographic printing to strengthen its competitiveness, particularly for short run small-lot jobs, to ensure that flexography remains the printing process of choice for CPCs well into the future.

Fixed colour palette printing to opens new market potential Printing with a fixed set of inks is also gaining popularity among both offset and flexographic printers. This approach typically uses CMYK, or CMYK + Orange, Green and Violet or Blue. The latter, often referred to as Extended Colour Gamut (ECG) printing, can completely eliminate the use of spot colours and delivers better quality than CMYK alone. [images 1 and 2] ECG Printing can also match a wider array of spot colours than CMYK alone. Some experts estimate that ECG can match as much as 90% or more of the 1,726 named Pantone spot colours.

In addition to elimination of the need to use multiple spot colours, fixed colour palette printing also reduces press make-ready and change-over times. In fact, in many cases, there is no need for wash-ups between jobs since there is a fixed set of inks being used. Simply change the plates and run-up to colour. This significantly improves throughput and brings down

the cross-over point between flexo and digital. For label UV flexo, the crossover point can be as low as a 400 metre job length. Using the fixed colour palette printing process, flexographic and offset printers are also able to significantly reduce ink inventories and waste. In addition, it makes it easier to include jobs from multiple clients in the same run, also known as combo printing, co-printing or ganging. All of this saves significant time and cost and better enables the faster time to market demanded by CPCs. While certain colours will still require a spot colour ink, the number of those inks required is vastly reduced. And, as pointed out above, the press is never down for wash-up and make ready between jobs!

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In Summary Printing with a fixed set of inks opens up exciting new opportunities for flexographic printers. It enables them to better address the low run length, small lot market claimed by digital printing while at the same time delivering faster time to market for customers.

Flexo can stay competitive against emerging digital printing technologies.

Now is the time to adopt printing with a fixed ink set in order to eliminate excessive job make-ready times, and to accommodate last-minute changes to facilitate the printing of combo print jobs on the same printing cylinder. The best choice of plate technologies to meet these requirements is technologies that are tailor-made to ensure high printing press consistency over the production run, fast availability of plates to the printing press for last-minute job changes, and perfect dimensional stability for the best possible plate-toplate registration.

by Dieter Niederstadt

ContiTech ElastomerBeschichtungen GmbH Market segment Flexo Products www.conti-laserline.com

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The digital transformation of industrial printing

Since ancient times, people around the world have been looking to beautify their environment and enrich their lives using decorations.

They have used decorative glyphs, paintings, and written words in monochrome and color to reflect their lifestyles and to communicate functional messages (e.g., a green light means go!).

Innovators on worldwide basis always seek solutions for the deposition of decorative and functional materials on everyday objects and surfaces. Some of these designs were intended to convey information, while others created a striking visual effect or enhanced functionality. First came early block printing on paper and textiles, and then the game-changing invention of Gutenberg’s printing press with movable type in 1440.

Since the time that Gutenberg revolutionized printing 575 years ago, this manufacturing process has evolved as a precise deposition of colorants or materials as part of graphic arts applications and industrial applications. Graphic arts technology evolved to produce printed matter used for information sharing, promotional activities, education, and a range of utility documents. Industrial printing became a technology used for enriching the decorative elements in everyday surfaces like packaged goods, decorative surfaces, and sophisticated functional materials for the electronics industry. Industrial printing applications have historically

been produced using a variety of analog printing technologies, such as offset, gravure, flexographic, and screen printing. The range of applications is dazzling, spanning applications such as textiles, ceramics, flooring, laminates, glass, wood, membrane switches, printed electronics, packaging, and even some bio-medical materials.

The impact of mass customization The driving force behind these developments was the need to massproduce printed items like books or packaged consumer goods from leading industry brands. Items such as fashion fabrics, decorated laminates, ceramic tiles, and product packaging became available to consumers with the help of mass production processes and technologies. Although mass production reduces unit price, it requires a large investment in manufacturing capacity as well as a suitable supply chain to manage the inflow and outflow of materials and goods.

According to InfoTrends’ estimates, worldwide mass-production of decorative products accounted for

just under half a trillion dollars in manufactured goods in flat glass, ceramic tiles, flooring/laminates, textile, and wallcoverings.

Our desire to increasingly customize our surroundings coupled with relentless innovations in materials science and digital material deposition technology is a major driving force in the transition from mass-production to mass-customization.

This transition enables consumers as well as institutional buyers to customize their environments with branded imagery, or with decorative surfaces that reflect their tastes and visual sensibilities. Digitally printed output is now increasingly used to enable masscustomization while also providing a range of other benefits, including operational efficiency in manufacturing and a positive environmental impact.

Industrial printing in the digital age Over a generation ago, digital printing emerged with a range of technologies that ushered in new integrated production processes as well as the ability to customize or personalize products. Although promising, early

Canon Singapore's Bob Endert with the Canon DreamLabo 5000

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41 innovations were often expensive and did not yield acceptable quality for endusers. One of the leading technologies in this space was inkjet printing. For many years, inkjet printing technologies like drop-on-demand and continuous inkjet struggled to gain acceptance due to high costs, reliability issues, and a limited range of available materials (e.g., inks and substrates). These factors hampered the range of applications that could be produced.

Over the past two decades, surging technological developments in materials and printheads have yielded a crop of products that have effectively transformed industry dynamics to enable mass-customization of graphic arts products using inkjet technology.

These changes are quickly expanding into industrial manufacturing as well.

At their core, these inkjet solutions enable manufacturers to produce quality products while benefiting from the operational advantages of digital print.

As important as operational efficiency may be, it is only one of the ingredients that is driving market growth. The ability to cost-effectively manufacture products in short runs is democratizing the creative process. In a market where printing requires less make-ready and inventories are significantly reduced, brand owners and designers are now free to explore new products, materials, and manufacturing technologies that do not require as high an investment as mass-produced products. Fueled by the Internet, these products generate demand for a range of applications that were previously unavailable to consumers and businesses.

Compounded with the operational benefits, these market-driven opportunities can spell profitable growth for companies of all sizes.

The industry landscape The printing technology spans a broad range of industries including graphic communication, packaging, decorative, and functional printing. A common element to all of these industry segments is the need to precisely deposit a range of materials such as ink binders and functional materials.

These are deposited on a variety of surfaces from sheets of paper to 3D printed objects. Core technologies

typically migrate to adjacent markets; for example, a technology that was initially adopted by one segment will find its way into a related segment and will later be modified based on the new segment’s specific needs. Although the digital revolution has taken several paths, the most prominent to date has been in the graphic communications market. Digital print-on-demand is now well-established in this area, with over 1 billion A4 impressions produced annually. The use of digital technology is now migrating and growing in industrial segments such as packaging, decorative, and functional printing.

To better understand the key trends that are impacting the various industries, we compiled a short description and some examples to illuminate the solutions that are available in these industry segments.

Packaging Packaging is a massive industry, and InfoTrends’ industry assessments estimate that it accounted for over $400 billion in related revenues on a global basis in 2014. Applications span from simple marked corrugated brown boxes to award-winning labels for premium products. Over the past few years, digital color technology has established a critical base of electrophotographic and inkjet solutions. These accounted for about 1 billion square meters in 2014 and are projected to reach 2 billion square meters in 2019, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23%. Thanks to a new generation of inkjet presses, this market is now reaching folding cartons, flexible packaging, direct-toshape, and corrugated printing. These systems go beyond proofing into fully

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42 integrated production lines. Solutions that are targeted toward corrugated liner manufacturing or sheet fed printing of corrugated boxes/displays are now available from key industry suppliers with print speeds exceeding 200 meters per minute.

Direct-to-shape is another example of an emerging category where graphic arts, technologies, and industry-specific suppliers have come together to meet the demand for customized printing like never before. Examples include a major brand that is now offering digitally printed beer bottles that are fully customized and linked to an augmented reality campaign. This isn’t a completely new concept, except that it is now being done on an industrial scale by a mainstream manufacturer.

firing process, resulting in a costeffective product that rivalled the permanency of natural stone. At the same time, however, using rotary print cylinders has its drawbacks—pattern repeats are limited and require costly changeovers. Because digital printing has dramatically improved time-tomarket, enabled design changes, and reduced make-ready, it now captures the majority of tile manufacturing in Europe and is gaining a rapidlygrowing share in China. Moreover, digital technology offers dimensional printing in later firings to add texture in addition to the decorative layer.

billion square meters in 2014—and 800 million of this volume was digital.

Although most of these fabrics are produced using silk screens or rotary presses, the use of digital printers is rapidly increasing. This unique industry has been creating dazzling designs since wood-carved blocks were used to stamp fabrics. Great strides have been made since that time, and the prevailing technology for high-volume fabric manufacturing is now rotary screen printing. Now that specialty inks can be used with a wide range of manmade and natural fibers, it is possible to create cost-effective finished products with bright colors and bold designs.

The ever-increasing need for improved

Textiles Textile printing is a far-reaching industry with a deep-rooted heritage in countries like Italy, Turkey, India, Japan, Korea, and China. Based on InfoTrends’ Digital Textile Forecast, printed fabrics accounted for over 35

operational efficiency and the desire to provide consumers with cutting-edge designs was a key driver in the market’s evolution. Since the early 1990s, inkjet technology vendors have attempted to make inkjet a suitable solution for fabric manufacturers. The past few years have seen a rapid growth in inkjet printing on fabric for organizations of all sizes.

InfoTrends’ Digital Textile Forecast projects that digital textile fabric printing will demonstrate a CAGR of over 30%, surpassing 3.2 billion square meters by 2019. This rapid growth can be attributed to a reduction in make-ready, cost reductions in environmentally-friendly production, and the democratization of designs that enable brand owners to reach markets quickly and effectively.

Decorative printing Decorative printing is a vast market segment with a number of applications that are taking advantage of digital printing capabilities. The digital print volume in this segment is large and growing rapidly. Although many applications exist in this segment, this article will focus on ceramics, textiles, laminates & wood, wallcoverings, and glass, which are leading the digital transition.

Ceramics The market for ceramic tile is huge, with over 12 billion square meters of tile manufactured worldwide in 2014 based on an InfoTile report. This industry segment traditionally used rotary presses to deposit decorative ceramic inks onto tiles ahead of the

Laminates & wood Within the construction and furniture industries, woodworking products have been making use of printed decorative papers and laminates for

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43 40th Anniversary

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44 Wallcoverings have made great strides since that time, and they are now readily available to everyday residences and commercial buildings. Technologies such as surface printing, offset, flexography, and gravure printing have been widely used to produce standard wallpapers, with volumes estimated at 52 million square meters annually in 2014 based on InfoTrends’ Profiting from Digital Printing in the Décor Marketplace.

decades. With a wide range of designs that mimic natural wood grains, stone, and graphic patterns, laminates are a cost-effective substitute for natural materials. In some cases, laminates are actually preferred because they are more durable. Typically produced using gravure presses, decorative papers are converted to laminates using a range of processes. This industry produced over 300 million digital square meters in 2014, based on InfoTrends’ document entitled Profiting from Digital Printing in the Décor Marketplace. The pressure to develop short-run or custom laminates is driving an increased demand for midrange as well as industrial products that rival the printing volumes of traditional gravure presses.

Many leading providers of laminates and décor paper (e.g., Schattdecor, WilsonArt, and Formica) are now offering custom laminates based on end-users’ demands for increased levels of design freedom and customization.

These trends follow many years of successful production of laminate flooring as well as a range of decorative trims for the construction industry.

Emerging on the heels of laminate solutions are a range of direct printing solutions produced on a variety of

wood products such as Medium Fiber Board (MDF), plywood, and natural wood. These do not require lamination and are used for adding a decorative surface to residential and commercial applications.

Wallcoverings Wallcoverings have been in existence since the ancient Chinese decorated their palace walls. More recently, King Louis XI of France ordered wallpaper for his royal dwellings in 1481. Creator Jean Bourdichon painted 50 rolls of paper with angels on a blue background because King Louis found it necessary to move frequently from castle to castle.

Digital wide format printing solutions ushered in generations of innovative graphic communication solutions for the plethora of industries that have been migrating to the wallcovering segment.

Advancements in digital printing inks (e.g., latex and flexible UV inks) now enable printing on standard industry media that complies with health and safety codes. Applications such as murals and graphically rich wallpaper rolls are becoming increasingly common and are now available from a number of suppliers.

Glass Decorative glass has been adorning cathedrals, palaces, and a range of public and private buildings for millennia.

Applications span from leaded stained glass to screen-printed glass panes, and these items have been used to reinforce branding, promote artistic expression, or create simple signage. According to the Global Flat Glass Industry Trend, Forecast, and Opportunity Analysis

by Lucintel, the flat glass market is expected to surpass $66 billion by 2019 and is starting to adopt digital printing as a means of expanding its reach. With the development of inkjet printheads

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46 that are capable of printing ceramic inks onto glass, a number of industries are using digital printing technology to produce long-life decorated glass that is suitable for architectural and industrial uses.

Functional printing Another type of industrial printing is where the printed surface is deposited with material or ink to enable some functionality. These applications take advantage of piezoelectric or continuous drop devices to enable deposition of a variety of materials. Applications include membrane switches, printed electronics, 3D printing, and a range of new innovations in small particle sizes (e.g., nano-particulates) that are expanding into pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. This section will highlight some of the developments that enable membrane switch printing, printed electronics, and 3D printing.

While there are a number of other very compelling deposition technologies, these are typically limited to specialty industry forums in the life sciences industry.

Membrane switches The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) defines a membrane switch as "a momentary switch device in which at least one contact is on, or made of, a flexible substrate." These flexible substrates are typically printed on PET (Polyethylene terephthalate), which is used as a base carrier. They are very common within home appliances, medical devices, games, smartphones, and toys.

Printing technologies are regularly used in the production of the graphic overlays as well as the some of the circuitry where conductive inks are used. Advancements in digital UV printing technology—including flexible inks and Light Emitting Diode (LED) curing—are expanding the range of membrane switch applications and carrier materials to include flexible substrates that can be cured with less energy and heat. In certain highervolume applications, curing using EB (Electron Beam) technology enables deposition and curing on sensitive materials. In all of these cases, shortrun of customized print can take the place of screen or flexographic printing technology.

3D printing The 3D printing industry is a vast space with many different technologies, applications, materials, prices, and solutions. Current 3D print technologies include binder jetting, digital light processing, electron beam melting, fused filament fabrication, material jetting, selective deposition lamination, selective laser sintering, and stereolithography. All of these technologies have their pros and cons, and it is likely that this list will grow even longer over time as more vendors make their own contributions to this space. The market is delineated along three product categories: production, professional, and personal. Typical applications created on 3D printers include prototypes, molds & dyes, and end-use products. These applications are being used by almost all industries to create a variety of products from nano-sized research products to airplane parts. This segment is evolving rapidly, and hardly a day passes when we don’t hear about a new innovation that enables another compelling application. The attraction in 3D printing is its additive nature—waste is limited, time-to-market is shortened, and custom designs are possible.

Printed electronics Printed electronics rely on traditional printing technologies to create electrical devices on various substrates. Electrical

circuits have been printed using screen printing, flexography, gravure, and offset lithography for many years, and inkjet printing has been an option for quite some time too. During this process, electrically functional inks are deposited on the substrate to create active or passive devices, such as thin film transistors or resistors. Printed electronics are expected to be used in

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applications such as flexible displays, smart labels, decorative/animated posters, and active clothing.

One example where digital technology is emerging as an alternative to more complex and costly implementation is the creation of OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display components.

Digital display printing is at the forefront of innovation, but digital deposition of functional materials has been in development since the early 1990s and can now be found in applications including Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags, smart textiles, and many more printed electronics. At the same time, however, conventional printing technologies such as flexography and photolithography are still in use in high-volume manufacturing of printed electronics. This provides numerous opportunities for growth in this industry for a range of specialty print providers.

Executive summary Industrial printing has been performed using traditional printing technologies for decades, and the product value far exceeds the direct value of printing as a standalone activity. Although it is estimated that printing may account for about 25% to 30% of value, this share varies widely by market segment.

The growth in all segments is driven by consumer consumption and demand for durable and non-durable products from packaging, textiles, and the housing market. The main drivers of

growth or decline in these segments are thus highly dependent on the global economy and local consumer spending patterns.

This strong base of productivity and demand and a growing desire for mass-customization creates a fertile ground for innovative digital printing technologies. Inkjet printing is the dominant enabler of this transition.

Following several decades of technological developments in jetting and materials science, we are now seeing a resurgence of technologies that

enable deposition onto applications including packaging, ceramics, textiles, 3D objects, and electronic components.

During the drupa 2016 event in Dusseldorf, Germany, the world will converge to explore and observe new technological innovations in print and material deposition. Many of these will certainly take aim at industrial and functional printing solutions.

Author: Ron Gilboa Ron Gilboa is a Director of InfoTrends’ Production & Industrial Printing Advisory Service and has been involved in digital imaging and printing since 1980. Ron’s skills and experience span a range of print industry graphics communications segments, including commercial printing, publishing & transaction, sign & display graphics, and industrial segments such as packaging, decorative, and functional printing. T hese segments are rich with applications that are now digitally enabled.

Ron is an expert in translating these trends into actionable market strategies, as well as go-to-market plans based on primary industry research & forecasts. He is a regular contributor of editorial content and industry events in emerging print segments.

Ron has an extensive technological background in workflow processes, digital imaging and printing with a focus on a range of inkjet printing and related technologies. InfoTrends advises a range of companies in the digital printing and imaging arena (e.g., core technology suppliers, material & media suppliers and integrated workflow suppliers) on how to best succeed in their digital strategies.

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Yet another success for FESPA China FESPA China 2015, which took place from 21- 23 October in partnership with CSGIA at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, Shanghai proved to be yet another success for FESPA, with 9,447 unique visitors attending over the three day period. Visitor data showed that nearly 50% of those who attended were the main decision-maker for their business, demonstrating the high calibre of attendee that the event attracts.

With 357 exhibitors, this year’s event was 14% bigger than the inaugural FESPA China 2013 in Shanghai, with new products and technology across digital, screen and textile wide format printing on show. 10% of attendees returned on multiple days, with significant interest shown by overseas visitors as well as Chinese PSPs. 12% of visitors came from outside mainland China, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey, Korea, India, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia among others, with 81 countries in total represented.

The post show survey highlighted that 54% of respondents in the region are involved in textile printing. This was backed up by the level of interest shown in the ‘Opportunity and New Dream’ forum and textile-focused conference sessions which took place on 22 October in both Chinese and English. Visitors attended session to hear from businesses such as Ningbo Shenzhou Knitting Co. Ltd, Southtec Fine Chemical and Watts Polyurethane.

Highlighting opportunities for expansion and diversification as key to business success is high on FESPA’s

agenda, and Ole Solskin, World Wrap Masters Judge held popular demonstrations on the potential of vehicle wrap as a lucrative new opportunity for PSPs in this region.

In addition, the T-shirt screen printing workshops run by President of Taublieb Consulting and screen print guru, Charlie Taublieb brought in large numbers of visitors wanting to learn the latest techniques and screen print their own T-shirt designs.

Roz McGuinness, FESPA Divisional Director comments: “FESPA China 2015 was our third event in China and second in Shanghai and was once again a vibrant, buzzing exhibition showcasing the latest technologies and solutions, and providing an excellent business platform for local and international companies. The feedback we’ve had so far from exhibitors and visitors alike has been extremely positive, particularly the many opportunities for knowledge sharing. We always endeavour to meet the requirements of today’s printers and inspire them with opportunities for growth and diversification, and are delighted that we have achieved this once again.”

FESPA China 2015 show highlights are available for viewing here. For more information on FESPA, visit www. fespa.com.

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Goss appoints Alles International as agent in South Korea Goss International has recently appointed Alles International as its agent for South Korea with a view to gaining advantage from the company's established presence in the market as well as its expertise across a broad range of print disciplines.

Alles International will be responsible for the sales, installation, parts and servicing of Goss' web offset systems and ancillaries for commercial printing, newspaper publishing and packaging print production.

According to managing director Mr. BS Park, the addition of the Goss brand to the Alles International portfolio is a great win for the company. "Goss has an excellent range of well-established products for this market, offering choice and flexibility in all key areas.

Being able to offer a wide variety of technologies purposely designed for 4x1 newspaper production is a real strength, for example. It will help create an open dialogue and exchange of ideas with customers about possibilities for both immediate requirements and future aspirations."

In addition to those tried and tested press models with longstanding reputation in the market - such as the Goss Uniliner, M-600 and Sunday press systems - Park says he and his colleagues are especially eager to start exploring the opportunities of Goss solutions for packaging and label producers in Korea.

"South Korea continues to see steady growth in packaging and is predicted to rank solidly among the world top 10 packaging producers across almost all packaging sectors over the next five years," he explains.

"The versatility of the Vpak platform across film and board applications and its easy integration with other packaging processes and technologies offers great potential as developments

unfold. What's more, here as in many other countries, we're seeing a clear trend towards more package versions or SKUs, which makes us optimistic that the timing is right to introduce Vpak technology to this market."

Based in Seoul, Alles International was founded in 2012 and promotes itself as a total solutions specialist for print service providers in Korea.

The company has carefully selected its manufacturing partners and equipment suppliers over time, according to Park. With a client portfolio that includes Fuji Xerox, x-rite, technotrans, Heidelberg and Agfa, Alles International currently represents leading manufacturers in prepress, digital, sheetfed and web

presses, quality control systems and consumables, as well as suppliers to the used press market.

"We have already been impressed by the professionalism and business vision of our new colleagues Alles International," states Tim Mercy, managing director of Goss Asia Pacific. "Their stated mission is to deliver the best total solution for every customer, encompassing the highest quality, most professional service and the best individual products for each stage in their print production chain.

We can supply the latter and we feel very confident that our end customers will be in safe hands regarding the rest."

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Grand opening for KBA (Taiwan) Company Limited Koenig & Bauer (KBA) opened a new sales and service company in the capital of Taiwan, Taipei, in mid-July. Over 100 print experts, including representatives from the Taiwan Printing & Machinery and Material Industry Associations as well as the Printing Technology Research Institute were also invited to celebrate the grand opening of KBA (Taiwan) Company Limited. Additionally, longstanding KBA customer Joy Printing opened its press room doors enabling the visitors to see a medium-format Rapida live.

Press demo of a seven-colour Rapida 105 with coater and UV kit

KBA group’s broad product portfolio which ranges from sheetfed offset, digital, web offset and flexo printing to metal decorating and digital coding technology.

Dietmar Heyduck, sales director at KBA-Sheetfed Solutions, welcomed the guests in fluent Mandarin and presented the latest developments within the KBA group. 2015 is an important year for KBA as the positive effects of the restructuring programme Fit@All which is almost complete are increasingly becoming apparent. Last year the KBA group as the world’s second-largest press manufacturer generated a pre-tax profit (EBT) with sales of €1.1bn, this is expected to substantially increase in 2015. KBA’s positive image in the Chinese market was reinforced with the considerable success achieved at Print China in April in Dongguan, China. Dietmar Heyduck: “Our customer base in Asia

has changed and grown significantly. At the same time competition is tougher.

The Taiwan market is extremely important for KBA and has grown considerably.”

Akio Pong is the managing director of KBA’s new subsidiary. He has 30 years of experience in the printing industry and offers customers extremely qualified advice on how they can differentiate themselves in the market and operate profitably.

Akio Pong, Andreas Friedrich, general manager Web Sales & Service in China, and Sam Sun, business development director at KBA-Metronic Shanghai, gave an in-depth overview of the

Longstanding partnership with Joy Printing Dietmar Heyduck thanked Chen Yong Long, managing director of Joy Printing, for the business partnership spanning decades. For over 20 years the company has produced printed packaging for brand-name articles on KBA presses worldwide. Its customers are active in the cosmetics, electronic, biotechnology and entertainment industries. Chen Yong Long explained that the history of his company has been tied strongly with KBA since it was founded. He has purchased over ten KBA Rapidas during this time.

The visiting printing experts were shown two printing jobs on a Rapida 105 with seven printing units, coater and UV kit at Joy Printing. Huang Hung-Ju, sales manager at KBA Taiwan, presented the press, explained the technical processes behind job changing and print production, and gave an overview of the outstanding solutions for washing (CleanTronic), plate changing and drying (VariDry drying systems).

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Touch the future Applications that can create growth Executive Summary Welcome to the Executive Summary of the 2nd ‘drupa Global Insights’ report ‘Touch the future – Applications that can create growth’.

It is the second of a series of reports that study strategic shifts in the international print and media sector at both global and regional level and follows the publication in October 2014 of ‘The Impact of the Internet on Print – The Digital Flood’.

Published in parallel are the ‘drupa Global Trends’ reports, annual publications that track key economic and market developments in the global print industry over the period leading to drupa 2016 and beyond – the last of which was published in February 2014.

Messe Düsseldorf, in its role as drupa organizer, appointed two independent consulting and market research companies - Printfuture (UK) and Wissler & Partner (Switzerland) to conduct these two report series.

In spring 2015 we asked the printing

company members of our drupa expert panel to participate in a survey on the implementation of fresh print applications. A total of 741 senior decision makers answered the extensive questionnaire with a good cross -section across markets and regions. Of particular interest were the 170 participants who took the trouble to offer personal experience of implementing applications in their own companies. Our grateful thanks go to the respondents for taking the time to participate in this survey.

Our objective in this report is to identify how digital technology is both changing the demand for print but also allowing fresh print applications to create growth opportunities. However with the help of the drupa expert panel we demonstrate that a good print application will only ful ll its potential for turnover growth and pro tability if it is well planned, integrated and marketed.

Demand for print has dropped in recent years, in part because of the recession, in part because of the impact of digital communications. Despite this there are strong reasons to be con dent about the future of the global printing industry, but only if the industry adapts its products and services to the changing demands of consumers.

This report highlights strategic shifts in global demographics, economics and consumer lifestyles that will fundamentally change the demand for print. At the same time, technological development is both reducing the demand for conventional print and creating fresh opportunities for digital print. Suppliers and printers the world

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central role in those communications, by using the very technologies that are driving the external underlying change.

This report is about how to grasp those opportunities successfully.

over must review how their speci c markets are evolving and make clear print application investment decisions based on their ndings.

Drupa 2016 will be an ideal opportunity to promote and/or purchase those print applications that will ensure a pro table future for printers. However the survey has demonstrated decisively that choosing the right print application is not enough. You must rst plan, then effectively implement, integrate and market your application if good pro ts are to be made.

The bigger picture For the next 30 years at least, the world’s population will continue to grow, albeit almost exclusively amongst developing nations. Literacy and living standards will improve amongst the developing nations, so the demand for print will continue to grow in line with the greater population. At the same time the inexorable rise in trade will, ignoring the setbacks caused by recessions, also create greater demand for print.

Against that must be set the impact of digital communications with the unstoppable rises in both Internet access and use of mobile technology.

Print advertising, which pays for much of print, is falling rapidly amongst developed nations, but consumer expenditure on print is falling much more slowly. Audiences are fragmenting as advertisers and publishers play catch-up with the shift to niche marketing and 1-1 relationships compared with their traditional mass-market approach.

There are seismic shifts in the way that consumers expect brands and governments to communicate with them. Multi-channel applications are emerging that can ensure print plays a

The impact of new print applications In spring 2015 the 2nd drupa Global Trends report based on a sample of 810 printers from around the world, stated that 50% of printers reported declining conventional print volumes and 48% reported declining lead times.

At the same time, 38% of commercial printers reported that more than 25% of turnover was from digital print, whilst the equivalent figure was 25% for publishing printers, just 11% for packaging printers but 59% for functional printers.

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58 add value to the product lifecycle. Work flow automation is probably the most important IT investment a company can make, yet few printers will put this high on their shopping lists. The success of different printing sectors and their applications will depend on the integration of printed products with web and mobile communication platforms that are underpinned by data services and automated work flows. 1 Making print applications succeed 741 printers from around the world participated in the survey conducted for this report. We examined 4 markets – commercial, publishing, packaging and functional with a total of 26 different applications. On average the panel had implemented 2.8 applications, clear evidence of the need to diversify their range of services.

When the Trends panel was asked about their investment intentions, 51% stated they would go for new print technology, 48% for finishing and 41% for prepress/work flow/MIS. It will be to research and clarify those decisions that most of them will attend drupa 2016.

Yet for many, the best route to improved and sustainable performance will be by investing, not in simple replacement equipment (essential though that may be), but in integrated print applications that offer fresh products or services to meet evolving customer demands.

All printers and suppliers must understand that at its heart print is another form of manufacturing and that manufacturing is undergoing fast and fundamental changes driven by digital technology. Being digital requires a re-examination of your entire way of doing business and understanding where new value can be created, which could be from new automated and integrated production, new markets, new products or new customers.

Whilst in volume terms analogue print will continue to dominate for many years, (and therefore replacement capacity will be of keen interest at drupa 2016); it will be digital print combined with work flow automation that increases reliability and product quality, and makes it easier to create flexible production processes that can

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59 We have heard of many success stories and included a few of these in the report, but many respondents were honest and reported failures or least major setbacks on the road to implementation. Such disappointments are not surprising when you hear of the casual manner in which many applications were implemented, with little advance planning, modest integration and only basic conventional marketing applied. We asked what were the key challenges faced and the panel told us it was poor market pricing and a lack of effective sales staff. Those were standard explanations masking the uncomfortable truth, as evident by the more detailed examination of how the panel tackled planning, integration and marketing.

However what is striking is regardless of how efficiently printers implemented new applications, some applications offered a quicker payback on average than others and the differences were not explained by the size of the

original investment. For example short-run batch book production had on average over double the payback period than that of on-demand book production. Similarly business stationery applications had over double the payback period of multichannel marketing applications and digitally printed corrugated applications had a payback four times longer than that for digitally printed flexibles.

At the heart of the survey were a series of detailed questions on how the panel had implemented their chosen application, in terms of planning, operational integration and marketing.

We separated their scores into two groups – those scoring poorly (‘poor’) and those scoring well (‘good’) and compared the level of investment made, the additional annual revenue and the additional annual pro t achieved. At

touch the future Inspiring ideas for success drupa is the must-attend event in 2016: Starting point of highly promising visions. Focus of future technologies.

Meeting point of ideas that electrify the markets.

Innovative business models and best-practice examples will show the growth potential of the future: print, packaging production, green printing, functional printing, multichannel and 3D printing.

The programme “drupa future visions” is a look far ahead.

Be part of it!

daily news, trends, innovations blog.drupa.com

May 31 – June 10, 2016 Düsseldorf/Germany www.drupa.com Share

Messe Düsseldorf GmbH P.O. Box 10 10 06 _ 40001 Düsseldorf _ Germany Tel. + 49 (0)2 11/45 60-01 _ Fax + 49 (0)2 11/45 60-6 68

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application level, market level and total sample level, the picture was absolutely clear – those that carry out detailed planning, integrate applications effectively, and market well, will spend more but get better net results. On average across all three parameters (planning, integration and marketing) those adopting good management practices invested an additional $70,235 but gained an additional $175,623 of annual turnover and enjoyed an additional $63,330 of annual profit. 2 1. Infographic 1 Source Global WebIndex quoted by We Are Social January 2015. McKinsey & Company Global Media report 2014.

2. Infographic 2 Source drupa expert panel survey Spring 2015.

What is more the result is statistically significant to a high degree (p<0.0001 for the full sample3). That is not to say the results were the same for all applications and markets, simply that the overwhelming majority supported that hypothesis. One example of these variations was in the packaging market where the gains were less overall and in some cases were in reverse i.e. those who spent more on integration got a poorer net profit. We believe this is clear evidence that making new applications take off in the packaging market is more challenging for structural reasons than in other markets. The question is whether those that have tried to date will reap the benefit of experience

as the new applications finally get significant market traction. Drupa 2016 will be a key milestone on the transition to digital packaging formats.

What is undeniable is that there is overwhelming evidence that those tackling print applications more professionally in terms of planning, integration and marketing are on average investing more but getting proportionately more back by way of additional revenue and pro t.

Suppliers and printers must make clear investment decisions on print applications that they intend to offer/ purchase, and then implement them with effective planning, operational integration and marketing, if they are to be rewarded with good growth and profitability.

Demand for print per head will decline over time amongst the largely static

population in developed countries, but in developing countries the underlying growth in both population and prosperity will ensure that absolute print volumes will grow for years to come.

However the demand for print will be pinned back worldwide by the growth of digital communications and mobile in particular. The same technologies that are doing this are also creating fresh opportunities for emerging print applications to offer new and innovative growth opportunities. Print is still a manufacturing industry at its heart and to be successful in manufacturing in the digital age requires a radical fresh outlook at the entire way that products and services are developed, promoted, produced and delivered.

3. p<0.0001 means the probability of this occurring is less than 1 in a 1000 ie a very signi cant result.

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Flint Group announces the creation of a new Digital Printing Solutions division and the acquisition of Xeikon Flint Group has today announced the acquisition of Xeikon*, a leading digital solutions provider to the packaging and commercial printing markets. Headquartered in Eede in the Netherlands, with operations in Lier, Ieper and Heultje (Belgium), Xeikon, designs, develops and delivers high-end digital colour presses and consumables for the global commercial, document, label and packaging market segments, distributing its solutions through a worldwide sales and service network.

Xeikon’s pioneering products and services will be the foundation of a newly created division to be called Flint Group Digital Printing Solutions. This new division of Flint Group will further broaden the group’s conventional and digital printing solutions, offering a unique proposition of equipment, consumables and services across its global markets.

“This acquisition represents an excellent opportunity for Flint Group, propelling the organisation further into the digital solutions market, where we will continue to deliver on our long term strategy of driving growth through product innovation, focus on developing markets and portfolio expansion,” says Antoine Fady, CEO Flint Group. “Xeikon have a proven history of delivering exceptional value through highquality, high-productivity, innovative and sustainable solutions for their customers, which fits seamlessly with our own long-term vision for our business.”

Mr. Fady continues; “I am also delighted to welcome the customers

and employees of Xeikon to Flint Group and look forward to supporting them and building on their continued success.”

Wim Maes, CEO of Xeikon, who will become President of Flint Group’s Digital Printing Solutions division, reporting to Antoine Fady, says; “We are very pleased to be joining Flint Group’s global organisation and excited by the opportunities this acquisition presents to accelerate business growth. Xeikon has shown that dedication to the digital label, folding carton, commercial and document printing market segments has paid off in terms of market share, customer satisfaction and financial contribution. This next chapter in our more than 20-year existence opens

many opportunities for Xeikon as a company, as well as for our customers, employees, partners and stakeholders.”

Mr. Maes continues ; “Flint Group has developed strong relationships with many leading global organisations within the graphic arts and packaging markets. Our shared goal of delivering exceptional value, unparalleled service, consistent quality and continuous innovation is only enhanced by Flint Group’s reputation, knowledge, infrastructure and support.”

The transaction remains subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by the competition authorities, and should be completed by end of 2015.

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Sustainability and the PACKAGING Industry Economic concerns, technological threat and uncertain futures have contributed to a crisis of confidence in print. Throw in rapidly changing market expectations and media choices, and you have an industry that’s been on the back foot for several years. But a reversal is underway. Print is reinventing itself to be more vibrant than ever, an energetic force in a multichannel communications world.

Years of turmoil have forced printers to refine their systems, minimise waste and maximise process automation and efficiency.

Streamlined process management and being based on a renewable resource make print a highly sustainable, as well as effective, medium. Rising environmental awareness is encouraging environmentally smart media buyers to refocus on print.

Difficult Dynamics The forces shaping today’s print industry and its sustainability are complex and often confusing for printers and their customers. Factors include electronic media, technological innovation, crossmedia business models, environmental regulations, global economics and an increasingly mobile and interactive media audience.

InMobi, developers of mobile advertising platforms, estimate that consumers spend an astonishing 37 per cent of their media time with mobile.

By Laurel Brunner Global brands are exploiting this. Mark Fellows of McCann, a global ad agency, has worked with IKEA to print special graphics rather than QR codes in IKEA catalogues, so that “extended content (is) triggered by page scans of special symbols”. These smartphone scans link to IKEA’s websites for additional home decor ideas and upselling.

But complex new media options, digital technology implementations and green expectations can breed market uncertainty. For many printers investment decisions in such a climate can be risky so they are cautiously exploring new ways of doing business, embracing digital tools to support changing customer needs. Successful printers are reshaping their businesses to help clients leverage channels and align commercial and environmental goals.

Everybody’s Concern Short term novelty responses to overhyped environmental awareness are not enough to make a difference.

Sustainability is a global and essentially

economic concern, requiring enormous resources to solve.

“Environmental solutions are essentially economic, so it’s a shared problem,” Stephen Fitzgerald, Cofounder Affirmative Investment Management.

Affermative Investment Management is the world’s first dedicated green bond management company.

The cohort of organisations tackling climate change and reducing environmental impact is growing.

From the UNFCCC and ISO to the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership in the US, plus scores of smaller local environmental projects, awareness is rising that environmental management is everyone’s responsibility and the planet’s necessity.

Print Everywhere and Anywhere Environmental sustainability is not easily solved but the printing industry can make a difference.

It’s sustainable not just because it uses renewable resources. The collapse of traditional print markets forced widespread consolidation and reinvention.

Printers automated and streamlined processes, cutting waste and excess emissions. In all sectors and geographies, survival dictated lean and efficient production based on automation and standardisation.

Industry standards such as the ISO 12647 series emerged to support process control and data driven production, resulting in less waste. Automated, standardised production manages colour quality and ink consumption across substrates and for digital output. Thanks to technology, standards and the printer’s skill, media buyers can trust that colours will be accurate in every iteration, from building wraps and banners to product labels and packaging. And such efficiency minimises emissions and waste, improving environmental sustainability as well as commercial.

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“Responsible packaging protects the product, extends its shelf life, ensures that the product is safe for the consumer to use,” Ken MacKenzie, Managing Director Amcor.

The European Organisation for Packaging and the Environment says that “packaging needs to be able to fulfil its enabling role in a circular economy by optimising resource use, minimising waste and extending the value in a product and the economy.”

Printers are investing with sustainability in mind.

“Sustainability is a key part of our strategic criteria when selecting technology suppliers to build our business on, and working with partners such as Xeikon in particular has enabled us to invest in a platform confident that sustainability is key to both their philosophy and ours,” Dr. Adrian Steele, Managing Director Mercian Labels.

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66 Social and Governance) component to what we do.”

Control of emissions to air, water and land, and chemical regulations impact all industries including print. The US is tightening green laws in many states and at federal level is targeting energy generators. In China strict environmental legislation is under development, but inconsistency plagues global legislation. Fitzgerald explains, “this is not a driver in Australia, but in Germany and Scandinavia it is”.

Markets are also inconsistent. Dr Steele says “sustainability is of varied interest to our client base: some regard it as an important part of their supplier selection and audit process, some just aren't interested.” He adds that “the market hasn’t driven us to adopt any particular environmental management system, and so we actively manage our awareness of legislation through online resources.” their environmental and sustainability messages. Speed drives Fast Moving Consumer Goods packaging and label production. SmileyColor, a US packaging production consulting group, say that every day’s delay getting product to shelf costs a brand $100,000, so process efficiency and control are vital. The balance between the economics of achieving high turnover, and managed environmental impact and waste control is delicate.

What Goes Around Despite the scale and complexity of achieving this subtle balance, the packaging industry is responding. An ambitious example is the Carlsberg Circular Community (CCC). Among other activities, this collection of Carlsberg and global suppliers is developing packaging materials optimised for recycling and reuse. The Green Fibre Bottle, biodegradable and biobased, is being developed currently and will consist primarily of sustainably sourced wood fibre.

“By using partnerships strategically, we can obtain much bigger scale and scope of our sustainability activities, and we are excited every time a potential partner approaches us about joining the community. Together we can make real lasting impact,” Simon Boas Hoffmeyer, Sustainability Director, Carlsberg Group.

The Green Fiber Bottle could also represent an opportunity for innovative packaging printers: “We do not currently have any print-related partners in the CCC, however, we are by no means rejecting the inclusion of such partners.”

Money and the Law Investment into sustainable alternatives is of growing concern for governments and investors, as well as media buyers. Stephen Fitzgerald is also a member of the board managing Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, set up to ensure full funding of Federal government pension liabilities. He says “governments need to believe that there are things we should be doing to protect the environment (because) it’s a shared problem, but it’s about taking responsibility and actually doing something that makes a difference.”

This is tricky but the lights are coming on. According to McKinsey, a consultancy, sustainability is a permanent management fixture for 70% of CEOs. Freddie Woolfe, Associate Director Corporate Engagement for Hermes Investment Management wants “companies to make strong commitments to tackle deforestation, eliminating unsustainable forestry practices from their supply chains.”

Fitzgerald says “our mandate is return, but there is an ESG (Environmental,

To various degrees in different geographies, regulations restrict the composition of substrates, inks and press consumables, and govern waste management. In the UK companies handling packaging weighing over 50 tonnes per year are required to recover and recycle packaging waste. There and elsewhere printers who use ink chemistries with high Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) must comply with rules of varying stricture to protect health and safety, and avoid pollution.

Ink manufacturers must comply with diverse chemical regulations, especially for packaging inks for perishable goods. Low migration inks are critical, but recipes must not compromise the material on which they are printed or the package contents.

Standard Practice ISO 17098 Report on substances and materials which may impede recycling is one of many useful tools. Standards such as ISO 14001 (Environmental management systems) and ISO 16759 (Calculating the carbon footprint of print) help printers to support customers’ public environmental commitments, which can be ambitious.

Kingfisher, a multi-retail sector conglomerate, wants “100% responsibly sourced timber and paper in all our operations by 2020”, according to Jamie Lawrence, Senior Sustainability

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68 supply chains, requiring motivation and resource. Managing print’s environmental impact demands commitment to commercial, practical and sustainability goals, and their clear articulation.

Advisor. Kingfisher wants compliance with environmental legislation such as the US Lacey Act, the European Union Timber Regulation and Restrictions on Hazardous Substances II, plus other rules as they emerge.

But nothing changes if customers aren’t on board with sustainability objectives.

Brand owners can drive reduced dependence on primary materials, leading to innovation in label substrates and print processes. But the market and economics drive sustainability in print so the biggest challenge for print’s sustainability is the relationship between commercial, practical and sustainability priorities.

This dynamic influences all aspects of, and links within, print media

How printers balance these interests is subjective. They must be able to produce products within a cohesive environmental framework and be profitable. Development of sustainability policies and production models is a massive challenge for print media supply chains. But it’s one all players in print media supply chains can embrace Environmental Standards are High Priority - drupa 2016 The Messe Dusseldorf has always set the highest standards for the infrastructure of the Exhibition Centre. We operate the latest energy efficient air-conditioning systems and have ISO50001 certification.

As a leading host of over twenty international trade fairs we work with a multitude of partners and service providers who comply with our high standards and guarantee an optimum interplay of all energy critical processes and energy savings through renewable

sources. Furthermore, we actively support exhibitors in the design and planning of their stands to effectively help them reduce their carbon footprint on-site. For all of our trade fairs and drupa in particular, we regard climate protection and resource-saving operations as an integral part of our corporate philosophy and management responsibility.

Executive summary Environmental sustainability is a global concern. The development of sustainability policies and production models is a huge challenge for all industries, including print. The printing industry has been accidentally improving its environmental impact for many years, in response to changing customer expectations. Cutting waste and streamlining production processes in a savagely competitive market has been the route to survival for many printing companies. As a result print is reinvented and well-placed to respond to new opportunities, actively balancing economic and sustainability imperatives.

Author: Laurel Brunner Laurel has been in the graphic arts industry for over 30 years. She

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started out as an accountant for a printing company in London but got bored and went travelling. She got caught up in the Desktop Publishing revolution working in California for the Seybold organisation, where she was instrumental in the development of the Seybold conferences. Over the years she has worked exclusively in the prepress and publishing industries, with a particular specialisation in digital prepress, digital production and digital printing. She is managing director Digital Dots, which provides international consulting and educational services.

Laurel works with several ISO working groups and is the convenor of ISOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Working Group 11. This group develops

standards relating to the environmental impact of graphics technology, including print media. ISO 16759 for quantifying and calculating the carbon footprint of print media, published in July 2013, provides a framework for carbon calculators for the carbon footprint of print media products.

Laurel provides private consulting and editorial services to a wide cross section of publishers, manufacturers and industry associations. Her work regularly appears in publications and on websites around the world. Laurel is a regular speaker at industry events in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

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