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Digital keeps marching on

Digital printing is well established in narrow-web labels. But whole new digital frontiers are opening in places like direct print on PET bottles and carton creasing/cutting.

CARTON CONVERTING. Cartons for Confectioneers Ltd. of the UK were produced on a Euclid system.
CARTON CONVERTING. Cartons for Confectioneers Ltd. of the UK were produced on a Euclid system.

From $6.6 billion in 2013 to $14.4 billion in 2018—that’s where packaging consultancy Smithers Pira sees the market for digitally printed packaging and labels going. They’re not alone in forecasting robust growth in this sector, which is why we thought the timing was right to take a look at recent developments in digital. Who’s doing what and what’s coming next?

The development that might be the most intriguing of all is digital creasing and cutting of folding cartons, even though it’s digital converting as opposed to digital printing. First shown at Drupa 2012, this innovative technology comes from Israel, birthplace of so many digital breakthroughs, and a company called Highcon. Highcon’s Euclid machine transforms cutting and creasing of cartons from an analog to a digital workflow, which greatly streamlines carton finishing. It also reduces the need for the highly skilled employees typically needed to make carton creasing and cutting dies, which involves the skilled hammering of steel rules into sheets of plywood.

The key here is DART: Digital Adhesive Rule Technology. Digital creasing data is uploaded from a DXF file to the Euclid system. Proprietary software translates the data and sends it to a special dispensing unit that contains an unnamed polymer. This polymer is released onto a PET jacket mounted on a hard metal upper cylinder. In essence, the dispensing unit extrudes onto the PET jacket the rules needed to make the carton creases. The pattern it extrudes is dictated by the digital data uploaded from the DXF file. As soon as the polymer rules are laid down, they’re hardened by exposure to UV light. Directly beneath the upper cylinder and its PET jacket is a lower cylinder that has a soft, silicone-like blanket mounted on it. All that remains is to send printed paperboard carton sheet through the two cylinders. As the upper cylinder with its UV-hardened rules presses into the soft surface of the lower cylinder, the carton stock in between is creased by the rules. Once the required number of sheets has been creased, the PET jacket is removed from the upper cylinder and a fresh one takes its place so that a completely different job can be downloaded.

As for cutting individual cartons from the sheet, it’s done within the Euclid system immediately after creasing. An array of high-powered CO2 lasers combine with scanners and advanced optics to perform whatever cutting design was spelled out digitally in the uploaded file.

The first converter in the U.S. to install a Euclid system is Anro, where commercial production is scheduled to begin later this year. But first out of the gate and already into commercial production with a Euclid system is Glossop Cartons in the UK. According to Glossop’s Brian Sidebottom, throughput is about 4 linear meters/sec, which of course is considerably slower than conventional carton creasing and cutting operations done with conventional metal rules mounted in wooden dies. But make-ready time on the Euclid is 30 minutes currently, and Glossop aims to whittle that down considerably closer to the 15 minutes that Highcon claims is a reachable target.

Customers with short-run requirements will be the target audience here. In an age when we as consumers are looking not for packages designed for the herd but rather for the one package that best fits our own individualized self-perception, there should be no shortage of brand owners who will find the Euclid technology attractive. It eliminates a seven-step process that is costly, involves multiple machines in multiple stages just to produce the die cut plate, and requires lengthy set-up time once the die cut plate arrives at the die cutting machine.

PET bottles
While Highcon used Drupa to unveil its Euclid concept, KHS went with Drinktec 2013 to introduce a digital printing technology that could be a real game changer. The KHS Innoprint system offers direct digital printing on PET bottles. Among the advantages this delivers are unheard-of flexibility, reduced or eliminated inventories of labels, and simplified logistics.

The standard Innoprint has five color carousels, each of which applies one color: white, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Within each color carousel, drops of ink in the stations are printed onto the untreated PET surface by high-speed print heads where they gradually form the required pixel. In the print heads, the ink flows continuously through piezo-active channels that can be activated by electrical pulses with a frequency of up to 50,000 Hz. By narrowing these channels, drops of varying fineness from 6 to 42 picoliters can be created. The result is very sharp printing outlines. A “pinning lamp” partially dries the applied ink by way of LED UV in each printing station so that the ink won’t run during subsequent ink applications. In the last carousel, an LED UV curing unit hardens the ink and causes it to adhere tightly to the PET surface.

Format changeovers are recipe-controlled. Bottles are handled by the neck and the print head is mobile, so no elaborate manual changeover of format parts is necessary. If the bottle type isn’t changed when a new image file is used, the transition in production is seamless and without interruption. The system is designed to print 36,000 PET bottles/hr. But its modular design lets a customer opt for lower output rates in the beginning and boost output by adding components later on.

According to KHS Head of Technology Management Peter Stelter, ink development was crucial.  Among the challenges was developing an ink with virtually no odor. Work on the inks began as long ago as 2008. He prefers not to identify the ink partner. He adds that a functioning machine was on display at Drinktec, a prototype and beta installation is due somewhere in Europe by September, and some time in 2015 the machine will be ready for the marketplace worldwide.

As this issue goes to press, Krones has announced a similar digital direct printing technology for empty plastic containers. Called Deco Type, it offers print heights of up to 200 mm using UV-cured inks.

Taking digital mainstream
Also now making its way into the marketplace after a headline-grabbing debut at Drupa 2012 are two digital presses from HP Indigo, the 20000 and the 30000. Both are wide enough to make digital printing more suitable for flexible packaging and folding cartons in the mainstream packaging material supply chain. The 20000 roll-to-roll press for flexible packaging has a 30-inch web width and 44-inch repeat length. The sheet-fed 30000 for folding cartons accepts a 29.5 x 20.9 inch sheet size. Both presses are aimed at meeting the growing need for shorter runs of packaging materials now that micro-segmentation, SKU proliferation, event-driven packaging campaigns, and packaging that targets niche demographics are increasingly becoming the norm. What makes these two presses significant is that the web or sheet width they offer is far greater than what has been previously available in digital presses for packaging materials. So “shorter” runs don’t have to be all that short after all.

Installations of both these presses began in 2013, and among the very first to purchase a 30000 was Heret Printing of Yavne, Israel. “The customer wants good quality and good price,” says Heret President Avi Noiman when asked why he was willing to be a pioneer in such a new technology. “This press will let us deliver that, especially for shorter runs.”

Worth noting is that Heret, whose business is primarily centered on marketers of personal care products, had no previous experience with digital printing. So why be a pioneer with a press that so dramatically changes the carton converting landscape?

“We felt that by entering into something completely new like this and being first, we’d have HP Indigo’s full attention,” says Noiman. “Not to mention the fact that we were able to negotiate a favorable price simply because it was so new. But more than anything we saw this press as a way to get away from wasted paper and wasted make-ready time.”

Another early adopter of the 30000 is Waukegan, IL-based Nosco. Pharma, natural health, and personal care are the markets Nosco serves. Unlike Heret, Nosco has been knee deep in digital printing for some time now. In fact, its new plant in Bristol, PA, where the 30000 has been installed, does nothing but digital printing for the markets it serves. According to Nosco VP Sales and Marketing Craig Curran, the press was scheduled to be running commercially April 14 of this year.

“We’ve been using digital printing for folding cartons on the HP Indigo 6600 since 2010,” says Curran. “But format size is limiting. You’re printing usually one-up and 13 inches wide. So it’s really not the best fit for cartons. That’s why we’ve been working with HP for the past four years in developing the 30000. We’ll be focused on short to medium runs in a variety of carton styles. The idea is to make such runs more affordable with faster cycle times because you’re not dealing with plate changes.”

Curran adds that a key driver behind Nosco’s interest in the 30000 is the fact that pharmaceutical manufacturers are seeing an increasing number of shorter runs. “There are no blockbuster drugs any more produced in long runs,” he says. “The trend is to niche drugs. On top of that, many of these products are distributed internationally and need multiple languages. The natural health market is similar. For every Vitamin C that is a big-volume mover, there are a dozen small-run niche products.”

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