Noel Ward

Infinite Packaging, the merger of MEI Labels of Tulsa, OK and TVC Labels in Dallas, leverages the capabilities of both firms and helps set them apart from many other converters.

Most package printers and converters are specialists, honing finely tuned skills to meet and exceed the demands of brand owners who expect perfection. But there are a few companies that see opportunity in offering a more complete range of packaging and converting services and building deep relationships with brand owners and customers.

Graymills, the company you probably associate with inking systems, pumps and parts washers is about to be featured on NBC’s “How It’s Made” TV program on Thursday, June 11.

My guess is you do the same thing I do when cruising the aisles of your local supermarket. You look at packages: study how a label was made, examine the diecut on a creative folding carton, look for new ways a flexible package can be resealed.

when it comes to pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals, the bar for end-to-end accuracy and quality is set a bit higher.

Just off Route 2 along the northern edge of Massachusetts are the past, present, and future of folding carton production. At Boutwell Owens, a folding carton printer and converter in the old New England mill town of Fitchburg, two massive Mitsubishi offset presses and some flatbed steel-rule diecutting machines of assorted vintages do much of the heavy lifting, while an HP Indigo 30000 and a new Highcon Euclid II digital cutting system take on a growing stream of short-run, fast-turn, prototyping and customized work.

It was—gasp—22 years ago when the first Indigo and Xeikon presses were rolled out at IPEX in Birmingham, England. The hype du jour was that digital printing was going to grow rapidly and dominate the commercial printing market. But it did not and has not.

From labels to folding cartons, four companies find that digital presses reshape the way they do business.

The passionate printologists at TLF Graphics up their game with digital technology.

While flexible packaging has been traditionally entrusted to conventional processes like flexography and rotogravure, the increased popularity of the format, its versatility and a need to run more jobs faster is fueling the need to print more flexible packaging jobs digitally.