Digital folding carton appears on the horizon

While digital label printing has established itself in the market over the last 10-15 years and digital flexible packaging printing has started to gain traction, the folding carton market is still taking its first steps into digital printing.

A number of factors have limited its appeal, including the traditionally larger format, the conservative nature of established sheet-fed offset printers, and the efficiency and knowhow of carton converters using conventional technology.

This is starting to change, with new market dynamics and successful applications helping to raise awareness of the potential of digital in the folding carton market.

Søren Maarssø, Tresu chief operating officer, sees the improvement in the quality of digital printing as a big factor, with it ‘now at a level that is very nice, even on thick
board.’

‘What we see in this marketplace is the quality being recognized and accepted by conservative offset printers,’ he continues.

Kama CEO Marcus Tralau reports similar, seeing color matching and color consistency improving. ‘It has only been a few years since digital has become competitive with conventional printing – but now it is, and it provides additional benefits. The most important is the accelerated go-to-market process and the short route from proof to product, because in digital the proof, per definition, represents the real production.

‘The make-ready and the changeover times are dramatically shorter than with all other systems. For some customers it is crucial that the machines are easy to operate. And don’t forget – only digital printing allows every sheet to be printed differently than the previous one.’