Chris Faust

Narrow-web label converters looking to expand into flexible packaging may want to consider press retrofitting as a first step—but there are tradeoffs. Imagine this: your first car is a '92 Ford Mustang, two-door with an obnoxious red interior. While it met your initial driving needs, you are ready for something better—a little extra power, a CD player, and maybe a sun roof. While right now purchasing a new car would be a real stretch, you know you can get some, but not all, of what you want by upgrading what you have. Converters running narrow-web presses designed for pressure-sensitive labels are facing a similar

Digital printing is in its early stages of adoption in package printing, but it promises to add real value to any converter's capabilities. packagePRINTING POSED A series of questions to experts from companies that are actively involved in different aspects of digital printing. The following are their responses. pP: What are the main strengths that digital printing has to offer package printers? Chris Faust, director of business development, Chromas/Aquaflex: The main strength is variability—this can be in the form of barcodes, numbers, and languages. Don Bence, VP, labels and packaging, Xeikon America, Inc.: • Low cost proofing on actual substrates; • Very short runs

The integration of digital print into conventional press formats sets the road to the future in comfortable surroundings. by Jessica Millward, Associate Editor AS YET, DIGITAL print isn't installed in an overwhelming number of packaging plants. Suppliers realize, however, that the nature of the market will require the integration of digital techniques in the not-too-distant future, and are preparing accordingly. "The converter is being forced by their customers to advance print capabilities to match market demands," observes Chris Faust, digital sales manager, Chromas Technologies. He identifies the common reason for investing in digital print capability as the pressure to deliver packaging on-demand, with new

Quick-change can happen on-line, off-line, or perhaps even somewhere in between. By Susan Friedman Clark Kent may have consistently favored an "off-line" retreat into a telephone booth for his legendary Superman "changeover," but quick-change makeready systems for today's presses are a little more fickle. A supplier's idea of the fastest, most cost-effective job-changeover set-up can range from a completely self-contained system that never leaves the press, to a completely removable system, to one that can move a job off-line, but not away from the immediate printing area. Here's a look at several design rationales. The inside story Propheteer's standard approach to quick-change—an open print

One-time, from-the-ground-up press designs aren't package printers' only route to acquiring a unique'specialized' printing and converting system. By Susan Friedman It's a doozy of an order, a real profit-booster—hundreds of thousands of impressions and multiple reruns during the next few years, but nothing currently on the pressroom floor can print and convert it the way the customer has specified. Is this a signal to recruit a supplier to build a one-of-a-kind specialty press? Not always. Chris Faust, marketing manager, Comco International, says specialty press purchases are indeed often motivated by the end-user's need to put a value-added, printed product on the shelf that draws

Will offset-loyal folding carton printers buy into flexo's quality gains and process efficiencies? By Susan Friedman A $4 billion dollar carrot could be dangling in front of folding carton printers interested in pursuing flexo, according to The Future of Flexo Printing for Packaging and Specialty Markets 1996, released by Graphic Arts Marketing Information Service (GAMIS). All but 20 percent of the $5 billion folding carton printing market could potentially be done flexo, the report states, with the exception being high-end packages for cosmetics and other industries. Flexo is more likely, however, to jump from 20 percent to 40 percent penetration within five years, mostly