Digitization of Packaging

The drivers of sustainability, automation, and workflow as the world continues to digitize dominate most print and packaging operations. Recruiting and retaining skilled staff is increasingly difficult for many businesses as baby boomers retire, and the younger digital native generations demand a different approach to their working life.

Digital packaging offers many opportunities for printers looking to move into new sectors. I have included figures that show how the suppliers of digital print equipment for labels and packaging have developed since this technology map was first produced in 2019. There has been a steady stream of new entrants — from established analog print equipment suppliers — and new providers leveraging their digital print expertise.

Digital printing systems for packaging and labels in 2019 | Credit: Messe Düsseldorf North America & Smithers

On top of these, there are digital overprint systems and sophisticated bespoke integrations — some operating as a part of manufacturing and filling lines. While there has been consolidation in the supply side, it is striking that there have been few exits from the sector. A high number of players are now competing with the wide range of packaging applications that offer new capabilities and functionalities, with steadily increasing productivity and lower costs.

Well, the good news for us print techies is this diagram has gotten even more crowded. Today, quality, reliability, and productivity are no longer issues for inkjet and electrophotography packaging presses.

Digital printing systems for packaging and labels in 2023 | Credit: Messe Düsseldorf North America & Smithers

You will see this expansion at the 2024 trade shows such as PRINTING United Expo and drupa. At drupa, there will be sheetfed inkjet machines offering the equivalent of process color sheetfed litho at speeds of 11,000 B1 sheets per hour, while web presses offer speeds in excess of 400 meters per minute up to 2.8 meters wide. These are mainstream alternatives to litho, flexo, and gravure alternatives.

The printhead and press manufacturers are developing methods to eliminate inkjet artifacts, compensating for nozzle outs and deviations in real time that also extend the life of the heads and machine uptime. Inkjet will be the real winner, with faster machines being shown, particularly in flexible packaging. Ink technology is improving, with UV- and water-based inks being employed for specific applications. There will be more highly pigmented formulations helping reduce the inkfilm thickness while lowering the total cost of ownership further boosting the share of digital print.

These advances also apply to finishing. There are now single pass, highly automated systems to print and finish corrugated boxes, cartons, and flexibles in a single pass. The enabler is the combination of digital print with digital finishing. These will feature automated control systems that drive the press, measure, and check the print then track through finishing — including coating, laminating, cutting, creasing, folding, and gluing — together with a wide variety of embellishments. The digital front end controllers are becoming increasingly powerful — automating and driving the digital print unit, while at the same time measuring and controlling quality — and then set and drive the finishing technology. This approach helps replace the traditional skills of press minders and finishing journeymen operators — important as skilled labor resources become scarcer.

While new digital presses are the shiny and sexy headline grabbers, even more important is the enabling workflow software. The only way to make money from a digital press is to produce saleable output and powerful workflow. Key to this process is preparation of artwork files and a system that keeps the print queue well stocked. This can be a barrier for converters that do not have excellent prepress and data handling skills.

Many companies provide solutions that integrate with management information systems (MIS) to automate the administration needed to handle many short run jobs. Workflow will become increasingly collaborative, with new designs produced and approved, and then loaded into job queues for automated color management and imposition — with no manual involvement at the converter. The MIS is linked, ordering substrates and planning the production for printing and finishing. All with the aim to meet customers’ requirements and optimize capacity at the converter.

Digital workflow can be daunting for packaging converters used to handling just a few large jobs, but it is the way of the world. Solutions exist that simplify supply chains and can be key to a converter’s future success. The market leaders offer a broad variety of creative software. This year at drupa and the other printing and converting industry trade shows, these companies will show new methods to automate the repetitive processes involved with packaging design, approvals, and prepress — taking time and costs out of processes. Other players will offer specific solutions for integration and to optimize color management, imposition, and providing variable data capability.

All these packaging developments are ultimately driven by end customer expectations, or rather demands. In the increasingly connected world, these demands and expectations are changing, with more engagement and interaction to improve the consumer experience of the brand. Digital printing allows brands to make content decisions later in the supply chain and maintain relationships that are closer to the consumer thanks to packaging that offers additional valuable functions. These additional functions move packaging beyond the traditional containment and protection functions, with information and promotion.