Note: Transcriptions were completed via AI, and have not been closely edited. Errors may persist.
Anne Marie Mohan, Packaging World:
Hi, I am Annmarie Mohan, senior editor of Packaging World Magazine. I'm here with Packaging World Chief editor Matt Reynolds. We're here to discuss the coding and marking innovations report that came out of last year's Pack Expo in Chicago, and we wanted to talk about what we expect might carry over or even demonstrate growing momentum this year in Las Vegas to be ready for this year's PACK EXPO, be sure to download the Coding and Marking Innovations Report and all of our various innovation reports at packworld.com. So welcome, Matt. Looking back at PACK EXPO from last year, what are some of the trends that you saw in the coding and marking space?
Matt Reynolds, Packaging World:
Well, there was a lot, but I think the biggest trend that was already making an impact last year on the entire coding and marking arena was this 2D barcode revolution. You might call it Sunrise 2027. That's what the standardizing body GS one calls it. So the 2D barcode is what we would call a QR code they call a 2D barcode. You'd call it a data matrix. All kind of accomplish the same thing, but what used to be a single barcode, a one dimensional barcode on the back of products called a gtin. Essentially all it would do is make your product go beep at the checkout line, and that would be scanned in and it would know all of the information that was necessary to make the purchase. The 2D barcode is intended to pack a lot more information in both for the supply chain, for the retailer who's actually selling the product for the brand owner who might be able to include experiential or giveaways or prizes or sort of a connection to the consumer.
Not to mention a lot of supply chain capabilities in that product. Batch date codes, all sorts of things can be embedded in these 2D barcodes. But to really unlock the 2D barcodes full potential, the thing is you're going to need to bring in variable printing data. So it's going to have to be super crisp resolution, and it's going to have to be printed onto products at faster and faster speeds than have ever been done before. So some slower products, those might be able to get parody to print variable data, 2D codes onto labels onto the products themselves onto corrugated for secondary packaging. But when you think about individual Coca-Cola line speeds, the technology just isn't there yet to print variable data, especially in that detail, that resolution at products at 1200 a minute or whatever crazy speeds that Coca-Cola and Anheuser-Busch are pushing out. So the technology isn't there yet, and it becomes a bottleneck for super high speed applications.
But the technology is getting there, and every Pack expo, we see some progress in this arena. The Sunrise 2027 moniker comes from the idea that every scanner, at least 90% I believe, of scanners at grocery and supermarket, Walmart, and so on, checkout Sam's Club, you name it, are going to be able to read those 2D barcodes alongside existing GT tins. So brand owners are really ramping up to be able to print that variable data and you get the most they can out of the 2D barcodes alongside existing GT tins because those aren't necessarily going away just yet. So they're looking to their solutions providers from the coding and marking arenas to be able to come up with solutions both at speed at resolutions, sometimes to throw at a distance, all at a small footprint, all at a turnkey cost friendly. So last year already, I mean, we saw significant increases in variable data at faster speeds.
One in particular, foremost Fuji, who's actually a flow wrapper manufacturer, but they partnered with Markham Mage to demonstrate integration with a QR based traceable printer that would print directly onto flow wrapper film at a good speed. Now it's not at speed yet, but it's getting there. It's that Moore's Law where what was really expensive and not quite great technology is becoming less expensive and the technology is going up. So that's what I expect to see going forward in this year to see even more improvement there. Domino is another company that you can't talk about 2D barcodes in Sunrise 2027 without Domino. Last year they were demonstrating CO2 laser printers, so not inkjet, but laser printers, and they print super high res on 2D products just about anything that's other than metal. So PET, any plastic really glass, ceramic, whatever you can come up with the CO2 laser is going to be able to print on except for aluminum.
That's fiber laser. There's other technologies that can do that. But the important thing about CO2 and laser printing is it applies to this entire topic, is the resolution in very small spaces. So you may have created your own QR codes. The more information that a QR code or a 2D barcode or a data matrix, depending on how you frame it, the more information than that code contains, the more pixelated it has to be or the larger it has to be to contain that pixelation. So the visual becomes denser. So you have these toggle switches. You can either make the QR code or the 2D barcode larger, and then you don't need quite as much resolution, but then that eats into marketing space on label or on pack, and the marketing folks never like that. Or you can make it smaller and more dense, but you can't be so small and so dense so that the scanner at checkout or various other scanners can't read it much less your iPhone scanner or your Android scanner where the customer actually interacts with the product.
Anne Marie Mohan, Packaging World:
That's really fascinating, and considering that 2027 is the deadline, so to speak, even if it's not a requirement, I would expect we would be seeing more of that over the next couple of years. And these companies certainly have made good progress with creating technologies to enable CPGs to meet these requirements. So how about another trend? I think you saw some technology around color and digital printing.
Matt Reynolds, Packaging World:
Yeah, so one of the limitations or historical limitations of print, especially the black printing, is first of all with corrugated, especially because it's a material that sucks in any kind of liquid, any kind of viscous liquid, like a inkjet, you could have resolution issues. Also, when it comes to color, it just never really pop. The substrates themselves, lent themselves to kind of saturating and sucking that color into the substrate, but we're seeing a lot of advancements there such that the label, which was the really high quality, high impact, high resolution, a way to display images to display variable data and so on, might not be so necessary anymore because companies like GSI, for instance, has their colorized and no label printing systems that allows the company to print black and white barcodes black and white. White is important because it's really hard to print white in such a way that can be visually recognized by humans and also scanners and stuff onto craft corrugated, and it does it in a single pass at high speed.
So I'm going to be excited to see what they have. Colorized is their other technology that's just really high res, high color printing, and the idea of being able to do that on corrugated on secondary packaging eliminates labels altogether. In some cases, on the decoration side, this is not really color, but it includes inks. There's a collaboration between Cayman Czar print heads and mbu inks. They actually do a layer by layer deposition or a depositing of extremely high viscosity inks, which were always hard to layer because print heads would get gunked up. It was very difficult to digitally print this material, these inks, high viscosity inks onto any material. But this technology has it down, so you're basically getting an embossing effect with ink material. Now, this isn't going to be for every bottle of Budweiser, but it would be great for high-end cosmetics and spirits and also custom projects. So there's a lot going on in color and just making the package pop, both in terms of color and in resolution to the extent that you could even eliminate labels in some circumstances.
Anne Marie Mohan, Packaging World:
So we've talked about two very large trends, the 2D barcode and digital printing and color printing. One trend that seems to encompass everything for years has been sustainability, and we usually see a lot more of that around materials, but does that apply to coating and marking technology?
Matt Reynolds, Packaging World:
Yeah, I think it applies everywhere. It's just one of these omnipresent trends that impacts everything. Bus grow is a coating and marking OEM that has a print head that again uses the low waste, environmentally friendly ink formulas. So the machines themselves are becoming more efficient or eliminating waste. The inks are water-based or more environmentally friendly. That's low hanging fruit, but it's really important, and to be able to do that at scale is really making an impact from what brands can claim from an sustainability standpoint. Also, there's something called a liner list label. So Fox Four's Thermal Transfer Printer is a machine that uses no pneumatics or no air inputs, and the big thing is the liner list label material. So there's no liner waste used to have to peel a label, a pressure sensitive label off of the back of a liner, and that web would be thrown away essentially, that wasn't recyclable. So liner list labels are huge. They eliminate plastic backing, and that's just a massive trend that we're seeing more and more.
Anne Marie Mohan, Packaging World:
So we've covered quite a bit so far. Were there any other major trends you saw last year on the show floor?
Matt Reynolds, Packaging World:
Sure. Even though the biggest splashiest trend is this Sunrise 2027, all the trends that existed prior to that even being a glint in our eye are still applicable. So small footprint given limited space, still extremely important. Intuitive controls are important given scarcity of labor trends like late stage customization, personalization, all apply to coding and marking. I'm looking forward to seeing all of it at PAC Expo in Las Vegas.
Anne Marie Mohan, Packaging World:
Yes, it sounds like we're going to see a lot of these trends continuing into this September show. So once again, you can view the innovation report on coding and marking along with more than 20 other innovation reports that we diligently put together last year after covering a range of packaging innovations at PAC Expo International. You can find [email protected]. And don't forget to register for PAC Expo Las Vegas, which is taking place in Las Vegas, obviously in late September, where we'll be gathering information on the trends we see there for next year's innovation reports.
Thank you for listening to Through the Line Packaging and Processing. You can listen to more episodes on all streaming platforms. Be sure to visit [email protected]. Prof food world.com and healthcare packaging.com for more packaging and processing news. This podcast was edited by Brie Guns.
