R.R. Donnelley & Sons (RRD) announced at PACK EXPO Las Vegas its expanded partnership with EFI, marking not only extended capabilities for RRD but also an extension of digital printing applications into corrugated packaging.
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At its packaging facility in Milwaukee, RRD has installed an EFI Nozomi C18000 Plus single-pass digital inkjet printer. Expected to be operational by this fall, the press enables the packaging and print powerhouse to reduce time-to-market by 25%, maximize color and design options, and prioritize sustainability on large-format runs of a variety of different sized substrates while delivering consistent print quality.
The new press supports RRD’s ability to provide high-quality results in retail signage and displays made from boards and corrugated to poly-based substrates.R.R. Donnelley
Sustainability drives a move forward
Sustainability has been a key driver for digital printing in general. “There’s a lot less waste when you’re printing what you need, where you need it, when you need it,” Hanulec says. “There’s a lot less waste when you’re printing very targeted, relevant messaging.”
According to RRD's 2023 (Un)Packaging Reality Report, the vast majority (90%) of packaging and label decision makers continue to agree that sustainability is a key consideration in packaging and label decisions. RRD is focused on supporting its clients’ sustainability efforts through reduced energy, emissions, and waste. Its installation of the Nozomi C18000 Plus press allows an overall reduction of carbon footprint due to sustainable UV LED inks, more reliable printing, less waste, and a 4X reduction in energy usage compared to other digital presses.
“Our technology leverages UV inks and UV LED curing, which uses about 25% less energy than any of the traditional curing technologies that exist out there,” Hanulec says. “Most other technologies leverage heat, and there’s a lot of energy required to make a heat source.”
There’s also very little water involved in the process of digitally printed corrugated packaging, Hanulec notes. “There’s zero water waste associated with our technology,” he says.
Corrugated packaging drivers
Though RRD will use the press for a variety of retail signage and displays, Hanulec emphasizes the company’s expanded application into corrugated packaging, driven by other market influences around e-commerce—namely, on-box advertising and Amazon’s SOIC (ships in own container) packaging guidelines.
“When you and I go home after this trip, most likely there’s going to be either an unopened Amazon box or an open box in the garage that you’re going to throw away and take to the dump. It’s a brown box with a black swoosh on it,” Hanulec comments. “That should be an extension of the brand or the contents that are inside that box, or it should be an advertising platform that could be 100 times bigger than Facebook and Google and everything combined, based on how many boxes are consumed.”
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On-box advertising is an emerging trend borne of e-commerce. SIOC is another. “People don’t want to have all this waste of a box inside a box inside a box,” Hanulec says, pointing to digital printing’s role in enabling SIOC-capable boxes that will reduce material consumption. “With the ships in own container, you buy something and it comes in that external box, and they’re beautifully decorated and branded and it looks wonderful.”
Expanded capabilities
This press also expedites new job setup (in as little as seven minutes), prints up to six colors, and runs continuously without having to pause printing to reload. The new addition supports RRD’s ability to provide high-quality results in retail signage and displays made from boards and corrugated to poly-based substrates.
“Our commitment to providing exceptional service to our clients includes investing in new technology that delivers value and exceeds expectations,” says Lisa Pruett, president of packaging and labels solutions at RRD. “As we continue to evaluate the evolving market, we’re leveraging innovation to expand our capabilities in the areas that matter most to our clients: increasing speed-to-market, providing sustainable printing solutions, and creating cost savings.”
By leveraging advanced print technology, the new press allows for inks that will not crack when bent or folded, a large range of media, and fast processes that are accurate and repeatable. The UV LED inks used in the Nozomi C18000 Plus press maximize color and design options available to RRD’s clients.
Several factors have enabled a move to price parity for this digital printing press, Hanulec says. “Any time you have change in just about anything, there has to be an economic argument. And the economics now dictate—with the speed of the printers, with the cost of all the technology, including the ink print heads, the ink—it now rivals the cost of the old way of doing it,” he says. “If you have economic parity and then you layer in those benefits of sustainability, e-commerce, print what you want when you want, where you want it, you’ve got a value driver to convert a market from analog to digital.”
