Tomorrow’s world

Innovation is alive and well in the package printing industry, as demonstrated by exhibitors at Packaging Innovations 2013. David Pittman reports

Throughout the package printing supply chain, suppliers are continuing to launch new products, as well as refine and develop existing technologies.

There are a number of new technologies that have been grabbing the headlines, particularly in the 12 months since Drupa 2012. At that show, Benny Landa made one of the biggest splashes when he unveiled Nanographic Printing, alongside other presses, both digital and conventional, and finishing and converting technologies.

In the post-press arena, Highcon’s Euclid digital cutting and creasing system for folding carton production is one of the technologies that has stood out as an innovative addition to the market, with the first two converters to invest in the technology to start running commercial applications in the near future.

The UK’s Glossop Cartons and Belgium’s Antilope were scheduled to have their Euclid’s installed and operating by the end of April, with Glossop exhibiting at Packaging Innovations 2013 to present this development to the market, supported by Highcon.

They were not alone in pushing cutting-edge products and processes at the show, with organizers claiming that some two-thirds of exhibitors at Packaging Innovations and its five co-located shows, Labelling Innovations, EcoPack, PackTech, Print Innovations and Contract Pack, used the event to launch new technologies, materials, design techniques, services and concepts.

Suppliers

This extended from material providers and pre-press suppliers, to finishing specialists. Digital imaging specialist FFEI launched RealPro Toolkit, a feature-rich suite of software tools designed to overcome challenges in the labeling and packaging pre-press cycles.

FFEI said RealPro Toolkit increases productivity, and standardizes document structure from design concept to production-ready files. RealPro Toolkit consists of more than a dozen modules designed to address specific pre-press workflow requirements, such as file editing and preparation, color management, trapping, and step and repeat tasks, which can be placed at the relevant point in the production cycle.

FFEI managing director Andy Cook said: ‘We’re looking to provide improvements in the pre-press process.

‘Printing is where errors become a reality, and this is where they become expensive, so we want to help eradicate them during origination and pre-press.

‘The modules are designed to be sold in complementary packages that are installed at the correct point, so taking redundant software out of the equation.’

Cook added that FFEI offers more than just software, with Caslon, developed in collaboration with Nilpeter, an inkjet print system to complete the digital production cycle.

‘We are taking a more holistic approach and not just offering software,’ said Cook. ‘With the Caslon we are able offer a whole system.’

Foil suppliers Kurz and Blockfoil both spoke about how this finishing technology can be a valuable addition to brand owners’ packaging.

Blockfoil used Packaging Innovations to promote the different effects that can be achieved with foiling, such as photographic, embossed and color-shift designs.

Photographic foiling is a process that Blockfoil already licenses out to the Bank of England for use on £50 notes, but is now promoting to the packaging industry.

Managing director Barry Corbett also highlighted transparent foils as a means to achieve a comparable look to spot UV, and said: ‘Foiling is about more than just blocking out parts of a design with a reflective material.

‘You can create interesting and unique effects with foils, but many are unsure of what can be achieved.’

Mark Ruffalls, sales manager for security at Kurz UK, agreed, and said: ‘Foiling is an important brand enhancement tool.

It can add real value, whether using embossing or transparent solutions.

‘We are developing different foil products, which can be combined to offer a valuable solution.

‘We are also able to bring some of the technologies from our high security offering into packaging to offer further brand enhancement.’

Ruffalls added that any system must be cost-effective, to both the brand owner and the converter. ‘The proof of concept can occur in the packaging manufacturing process, adding value at an early stage rather than retrospectively adding a label featuring foiling at a later stage.

‘For the converter, they must be able to integrate the process into their existing operations, otherwise it will be too big of a barrier to entry in terms of cost.’

Material supplier BillerudKorsnäs continues to push its FibreForm, a fiber-based material manufactured from 100 percent primary fibre. It is approved for contact with food and it can be coated with a wide range of films to protect against light, moisture, bacteria and other impurities.

It can be printed using numerous printing processes, including flexo and gravure, as well as embossed and formed to create visual effects not usually associated with fiber-based packaging.

This, a spokesperson for the company said, means it ‘ticks all the boxes’, both suiting consumer demand for more environmentally-friendly products and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

BASF also continues to make the most of a product promising enhanced sustainability, Ecovio.

Ecovio is a biodegradable plastic featuring the company’s compostable Ecoflex polymer and polyactic acid, which is derived from corn. Packaging applications for Ecovio include coated paper, shrink films, injection molded products and foam packaging.

Compostable packaging made using Ecovio was debuted last autumn, with 100 fans at a Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball match against the Boston Red Sox given peanuts in bags made from the biopolymer.

Printers and converters

Such innovations highlight the opportunities being brought to market and offered to printers and converters, and how, if the time and effort is invested in researching the potential, they can benefit.

Some converters were on hand at Packaging Innovations to present their latest investments in innovative processes and production, such as Glossop Cartons.

Global flexible packaging manufacturer Printpack spoke about 4SIGHT, a new gravure fixed color palette printing system that uses a reduced number of process colors compared to standard gravure, and includes the facility to add special colors to create a wide ranging color gamut. The color book offers designers and marketers many thousands of colors to choose from.

Printpack has also introduced high-resolution gravure (HRG) printing technology, developed in partnership with Keatings Gravure.

Printpack has launched HRG in response to the demand for especially advanced graphics. It can be used to print all material structures, including monoweb, duplex and triplex laminates.

When combined with Printpack’s fast-track service, HRG offers a speed to market equivalent to current flexo expectations.

Fellow flexible packaging supplier Tyler Packaging showed many of its packaging products at the show, including pet food packaging that accounts for around half of its work, while sales director Adam Kay spoke of the company’s investment in extra capacity in 2012.

Tyler has also introduced new pouch styles, including a hooded pouch and a “shaker” bag. Available in four stock colors, with other options available, the hooded pouch features a smaller sized hood coupled with a patented slider.

The shaker bag is a pouch featuring an inner perforated membrane and slider base to allow products to be easily dispersed, such as lawn seed.

Tenza Technologies and Ampac are also investing in flexible packaging. Tenza has recently launched a range of stand-up pouches into the UK, sourced from the Far East via a European import partner, that includes spouted, doyen, side gusset, shaped retort and flat-bottom styles. Tenza's stand-up pouches can be printed in up to 10 colors.

Tenza’s technical sales director Glenn Proctor said the company received a lot of interest and picked up multiple leads at Packaging Innovations.

Ampac has also introduced a new stand-up pouch design, featuring a pull tab that the company says allows those manufacturing non-carbonated beverages the chance to penetrate the growing market for drinks sold in flexible containers without violating existing patents.

The pull tab concept features a pouch fitted with a label, which when removed creates an opening for a straw. Both the pack and the tab can be printed, with customizable printing permitting brands to launch competitions based around the collection of the tabs.

Ampac has further introduced its Bio Flex pack, designed for dry products. The composition of the material makes it fully recyclable to the European standards EN 13342 and US ASTM D6400, with 90 percent of the material composted around 70 days after disposal.

Both the inks and adhesive used in the material are biodegradable, making the Bio Flex laminate unique according to Ampac, and allowing brand owners to create appealing packaging using its 10-color flexo capabilities.

Printers and converters in the carton market are innovating also. Take Firstan for example, which is one of the early adopters of Benny Landa’s new digital printing process, nanography. It signed a letter of intent for a sheet-fed Landa S10 press, its first major foray into the digital printing market, last year, and is set to be one of first sites to have a Landa Nanographic Printing press installed later this year.

Falconer Print and Packaging continues to make strides with its Diana X 115 folder gluer from Heidelberg.

Installed just over a year ago, the capability to produce in-line Braille, coupled with WH Leary detection and ejection systems, has allowed the company to reduce the cost of adding a legally required aspect of pharmaceutical packaging.

Falconer previously produced Braille on its die-cutting unit, but with high tooling costs has worked to turn all of its customers onto using the in-line process.

A spokesperson for the company added that the ability to read the Braille dot height, and confirm the validity of the dots embossed on the carton, are big benefits to the pharmaceutical market.

Carton converter Benson Group has launched a number of innovations of late to showcase its credentials, starting with a new-look website that is optimized to make the most of the growing amount of internet traffic originating from mobile phones and tablet computers.

The company also showcased the imagined “Benson Beauty” brand and its packaging, typical of the selection that many healthcare brands might need to produce, to show some of the print effects and post-press options that Medica Packaging, and Benson Group as a whole, offers. This included varnishes, foils and a gunmetal effect, as well as different window options and a seven-panel design.

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