A digital world

Carol Houghton reports from a BPIF labels seminar which compared competing digital technologies

BPIF Labels, the UK’s label association, held its Autumn Technical Seminar in November. ‘Digital label printing – current state of play’ reviewed the growth of digital label printing and the role of origination, design and color management.

After the seminar was opened by BPIF Labels’ John Bambery, Mike Fairley gave an overview of the digital label printing sector. ‘Of all new presses installed worldwide this year, 19 percent have been digital,’ said Fairley, who estimated one third of press sales at Labelexpo Europe were digital. He drew attention to a tweet sent by Spanish journalist Juan Diaz Diaz: ‘At #labelexpo 2009 digital competed with flexo. This year it’s all change; flexo is trying to compete with digital.’

Fairley said HP Indigo and Xeikon were the first to make industrial-scale digital printing possible at the same time as brands started looking for reduced run lengths and more product variations. Wine labels have been a strong digital growth segment, well suited to high value and short runs. Other successful applications have included food and beverage, cosmetics, health and beauty, as well as pharmaceutical – particularly nutritional supplements.

EskoArtwork’s software was described by Paul Bates, the company’s UK business manager, as ‘the glue between conventional and digital.’ Bates believes the two technologies will sit side by side for the next 10-15 years ‘before digital takes over.’

Bates said digital print requires a different mindset, and needs to be driven efficiently to get the best out of it. ‘Workflow is paramount. Presses need to be fed with the correct jobs and kept running all the time.’ Short runs and small orders create more prepress work, and the key is in automization, said Bates. ‘The printer has no time to get it wrong now.’ Mike Fairley added that outsourcing prepress is not an option: ‘the converter must be in control.’ Bates pointed out that an average of seven percent of uptime on digital presses is spent printing proofs. ‘Digital printers should be printing, not proofing.’ Bates looked at alternative on-line proofing methods, including 3D virtual representations of the label wrapped around the container.

Inkjet vs toner

Delegates heard presentations from representatives of the toner and inkjet technologies which are now competing in the digital labels market.

Paul Briggs of Xeikon, explained the dry toner process which allows Xeikon presses to print at 1200dpi. Recent developments have included a highly opaque white which can be printed in one pass with CMYK.  Briggs said dry toner has better light fastness than liquid toner and UV inkjet and explained that Xeikon toners are FDA complaint for food contact, have no odor, and no VOC emissions.

Steve Lakin of HP Indigo looked at liquid toner technology, where finely ground pigment particles are suspended in a liquid, simulating offset inks. The ‘one-shot’ print process, where colors are built up on the blanket before transferring the complete image to the substrate, provides perfect register, said Lakin. ‘It can produce the same look and feel as conventional offset and has the ability to print seven colors. Customers can mix their own spot colors onsite.’

In terms of new ink developments, HP Indigo recently launched an invisible red ink, now being used on a WS4000-series machine in the Indian pharmaceutical market to help fight counterfeiting.

Although it has the technology, Lakin explained HP has not used inkjet heads for its label presses because they can’t (yet) produce high enough quality. ‘And inkjet is a classic example of a print process that must be pristine to ensure it prints well.’

Domino’s Vlad Sljapic headed the argument for inkjet; ‘its reliability, simple design and construction brings scalability. Inkjet can be made wider and faster, has application versatility in and off-line, prints color and black and white and spot varnish and digital foiling.’ The non-contact system makes it possible to print on heat sensitive, textured and pre die cut materials, said Sljapic. ‘The number of colors is unrelated to speed and there is no practical imposition limit, so waste and cost can be minimized, especially on low ink coverage jobs.’

Sljapic sought to clear up some ‘misperceptions’ around inkjet. ‘Although inkjet can print on uncoated surfaces, coated substrates are recommended for the best print quality.’

Adrian Steele, Mercian Labels, said inkjet is restricted by a ‘lack of confidence’ in the industry. ‘It is still a niche market and the user needs technology to cover all markets to make it worth their while.’

Soren Ringbo, who manages Nilpeter’s digital press operations, believes a combination of UV inkjet and conventional print is the future: ‘Inkjet is simpler than the electrophotographic process, and scaleable. In addition, non-contact printing means the thickness of the substrate is not so critical and it is possible to print on rough surfaces.’ Neil Holiday, UPM Raflatac discussed material selection for each digital printing process. ‘What’s needed is the same range of label stock, good ink transfer and adhesion between ink and substrate.’

Finishing

Whether digital print should be finished on- or off-line has been an ongoing discussion. Delegates heard that some 78 percent of current digital installations have off-line systems. Finishing systems are overwhelmingly used for die cutting, and 78 percent varnish inline. Some key vendors, however, believe the future is in-line converting. Vlad Sljapic of Domino, for example, told delegates finishing in-line is a growing trend. Sljapic also believes that digital varnishing with inkjet has a good future.

ABG’s Mike Burton said in-line finishing reduces labor costs and has higher productivity, whereas off-line finishing can be maximized where multiple decorating processes are required. At Labelexpo the company showed both in-line and off-line variants of its Omega Digicon 2 digital label converters with semi-automatic turret rewinds.

Burton said laser technology has advanced rapidly, offering a non-stop finishing line with no downtime. Although laser has limitations with some substrates, it can cut most papers, and PET and PP if laminated/varnished. When questioned about the high cost, Burton explained; ‘You need to consider how much is spent a year on dies; in terms of time, money, logistics, transport and operator error. It can be used as a sales tool to win new business.’ A low cost ‘entry level’ system will be launched at Drupa using one rather than two lasers.

MIS

Andrew Mckerlie of LabelTraxx explained that a good MIS system is critical for an efficient digital label printing operation. ‘Can your MIS cope with three times the number of current orders? Because that is what happens with digital.’

His colleague Katie Nightingale gave a live demonstration of the system; showing how the customer logs in online, receives a quote through E-traxx, can choose tooling, laminate, main stock, finish, even labels per roll and can upload artwork. LabelTraxx accesses all this information to process the job and send to the automated prepress system.

Later, in the panel session chaired by Mike Fairley, a popular topic for discussion was the willingness of customers to adapt to online ordering, for which they have to take responsibility for the quality of digital artwork.

Converter experience

Trevor Smith from Amberley Labels told delegates about his company’s experience with digital printing since installing the UK’s first HP Indigo press, a WS4000, back in 2002-3. ‘The brand owner gets differentiation, order flexibility and a high quality digital solution with specific color matches, metallic material and cost effective proofing. The result is a consistent, high quality brand image, ability to order to requirement, increased sales and new customers.’

For Amberley Labels the future challenges include business automation, multi-layer requirements, finding cost effective ultra short runs and continuing to sell on added value, not price. In addition, Smith said, ‘there is a wider range of competing technologies. We are now competing in a digital environment instead of a conventional one.’

Xeikon press user Adrian Steele from Mercian Labels said digital print has rapidly become commoditized. ‘Make sure you’re prepared to invest four years and find niche markets as it is a very competitive world.’ Steele noted that variable data has yet to emerge as a significant application, and ‘same day delivery’ is also something of a myth. The company delivers 90 percent of jobs in five days. Looking at materials useage, Steele reported just over half is paper, 37 percent white PP and 12 percent clear. ‘Digital is a new culture, its requires annualized hours and there is wastage.’ Steele advised.

Quick facts

• Mike Fairley predicts that by next year one quarter of all new roll label presses installed worldwide will be digital, rising to 40 percent by 2020. The current figure is 15 percent.
• 57 percent of conventional jobs are under 25,000m run length and 71 percent under 50,000m. 65 percent of digital full color jobs are under 10,000m and 95 percent full color under 50,000m.
• Inkjet growth forecast is 30 percent from 2010 to 2014.

This article was published in L&L issue 6, 2011