New Technology Hits the Folding-Carton Arena

Innovation within the folding-carton market is helping to deliver opportunity for print providers.

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“There are opportunities for organizations that can identify a problem and solve the problem in a unique affordable way, and help CPGs sell more stuff, says Ben Markens, president, Paperboard Packaging Council.

Broadly speaking, brand owners demand innovation and value creation – via increasingly sophisticated decorative coatings and special visual and tactile effects – to make their packaging stand off the shelf and grab the consumer’s attention. At the same time, they need to ensure compliance with sustainable production processes and the use of materials that are safe for consumers’ health, and also in terms of waste disposal, notes Federico D’Annunzio, strategic products and marketing director – Business Unit Flexible Materials, Bobst Firenze.

Obsolescence, SKU proliferation, demand for faster turnarounds, shorter lead times, revision control, local and regional promotions, and the need for brilliant graphics are all in play for brands, retailers, and their supply chain partners, including print shops.

All of this falls within the framework of ensuring the high quality and consistency of packaging worldwide for brand owners, as well as a cost-effective, profitable production workflow for packaging manufacturers, irrespective of job lengths.

Dusseldorf 2016 and beyond

To meet these demands, notes Markens: “At drupa 2016 in Dusseldorf, there were a host of short-run solutions in the folding-carton arena, including digital, conventional, and hybrid solutions that married conventional with digital.”

Digital devices for folding-carton production continue to improve, answering the need for short-run production and just-in time delivery, as well as customized packaging and regionalized product launches. While digital is still not “knockout technology,” says Markens, improvements and new developments are ongoing. New offerings included the Landa S10 Nanographic Printing Press and the Heidelberg Primefire.

Also announced at drupa: KBA-Sheetfed’s partnership with Xerox Corporation to develop a digital 41-inch sheetfed press, the KBA VariJET 106 Powered by XEROX, for folding-carton printing. The press, with a planned market launch this year, integrates Xerox Impika inkjet technology into the KBA Rapida 106 press platform, reports Chris Tavis, KBA North America director of technology.

Digital flexo also got into the act, with Bobst’s announcement of its mid-web inline digital UV flexo press, which combines the advantages of webfed carton printing and converting all in one pass.

In addition, Heidelberg unveiled new enhancements to its Speedmaster, to deliver the offset answer to short-run production, with extreme automation to speed up make-ready.

Also in the mix are new offerings to workflow, design, estimating, planning, prepress, postpress, and converting, as well as advanced consumables, from inks, coatings, and paper to plates.

Leading up to 2018, projects Smithers Pira, three key technologies will impact the folding-carton market:

• retail-ready packs (mainly in microflute);
• anti-counterfeit systems; and
• barrier coating technologies.

The overall folding-carton market remains steady in North America at $10 billion. However, “experts say that the folding-carton market will see solid growth next year,” says Travis. “Why? Because every product needs a box. But it has to be a box that protects the product and grabs the consumer’s eye to purchase the product. Companies are investing more money in their folding-carton boxes to gain market share. We’re seeing our folding-carton customers use more hot foil stamping and registered embossing.”

Digital printed packaging has been predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of roughly 16 percent between 2015 and 2020, notes Travis. “Within that, digitally printed folding cartons will see a CAGR of 40 percent.”

The mainstreaming of digital printing

In the offset realm, the challenge to meeting the needs of the folding carton’s market demand for short run, less inventory, and the ability to change products more often, has been efficient makeready and lowering manufacturing costs, says Clarence Penge, Heidelberg VP sheetfed product management. If customization or variability isn’t required, offset is still a more cost-efficient process than digital, except for extremely short runs, he notes.

“Our new technology, the Intellistart2 operating system, available on the Speedmaster, automates makeready to reduce the number of steps to full production. This technology, which we debuted at drupa, is the same type of platform that we put in our digital inkjet, Primefire 106,” Penge says.

Heidelberg’s Primefire 106, an inkjet press developed with Fujifilm, can handle carton board up to 0.8mm thick, and uses food-safe inks. It comprises paper preconditioning, a 7-color inkjet unit with Samba printheads, and a coater.

In addition to short runs and personalization, “digital print allows for cost-effective, very short runs of folding cartons to smaller local businesses who may order them from a “web to carton” print manufacturer,” says Dan Maurer, VP digital, Heidelberg. “Anti-counterfeiting is another opportunity where digital print can play a role in folding-carton packaging, by applying variable data to the carton or using hybrid printing methods that are difficult for counterfeiters to replicate.”

Heidelberg, in partnership with Masterwork Machinery Co., also presented postpress options at drupa 2016 for the folding-carton market. The MK Duopress 106 FCSB allows up to five processes in one machine (foiling, embossing, cutting/creasing, stripping, blanking), reports Joerg Daehnhardt, Heidelberg’s VP postpress. Also for high-end cartons, the partners showed the Diana Eye offline inspection system, which can not only check print quality on standard cartons, but also embossing depths, foiling and hologram register, metallized carton etc.

The key challenge for digital press vendors is to offer the economics to make it profitable without compromising on quality, productivity, and format.

“Landa’s solution offers unmatched low cost-per-sheet that derives from a combination of the Landa NanoInk, Nanography process, and the productivity of our Nanographic Printing presses,” says Nachum Korman, VP and general manager, North America,Landa Digital Printing.

Landa NanoInk images efficiently absorb light and are laminated onto the substrate without penetrating it. That enables Landa NanoInk images to be roughly 500nm thick. And because the images are thinner, it takes less material to produce – which means lower cost, the company reports.

The Nanography process is environmentally friendly, using water rather than solvents, without requiring expensive special papers or special coatings. “As an indirect process, the printed polymeric images are formed on a special blanket, before transfer to the substrate,” explains Korman, “for high-quality, high-coverage applications with fantastically vibrant colors on any substrate, whether low-grade or high-grade paper, board and even plastic.”

The Landa S10 prints large format, B1 sheets (41 in. / 1,050 mm) at offset speeds, up to 13,000 sph. Using this offset format size also lets print producers leverage the existing infrastructure in use for their offset presses.

Digital printing is now becoming mainstream in the folding carton market, says James Gargus, business develop manager, Folding Carton, Labels and Packaging, HP Inc.

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Prior to drupa 2012, digital print offerings for folding cartons were either too small in format size, too low quality, offered too few substrate options, or were just too slow in production to be much more than a good sampling and/or prototyping solution, says Gargus.

“The introduction of the 2x29.5-inch HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press at drupa 2012 offered print service providers and converters a mainstream solution for the folding-carton market,” he says.

“To me, the most exciting innovation on the horizon is the ability of the HP Indigo 30000 to successfully print on synthetic substrates like APET, PETG, PVC, Styrene, and others in mainstream production,” says Gargus. “There are several sites around the U.S. that are already producing work on some of these substrates and more on the way.”

There are two primary opportunities that brands and retailers are pursuing with new HP digital printing technology for folding cartons, Gargus notes: supply chain disruption, given its ability to print smaller quantities and eliminate inventory; and consumer engagement, allowing brands and retailers the ability to grab consumers’ attention with more relevant and localized packaging.

The KBA VariJET 106 Powered by Xerox will print 4,500 29.5 x 41.7-inch sheets per hour. Its modular concept enables the combination of digital inkjet printing with optional in-line capabilities such as coating, cold foil application, rotary die-cutting, creasing, and perforating.

Also offering inline capabilities is Bobst’s inline web-fed Digital Flexo printing press, a part of its digital automation technology. The inline web-fed configuration offers a wide range of graphic options to add value to folding carton; a production line can easily be configured to add multiple processes – such as hot foil, cold foil, silk screen, gravure, offset, and inkjet.

The Digital Flexo technology, which is part of the BOBST Digital Automation program, integrates and manages multiple printing heads and processes to achieve the fastest set-ups and multi-process quality consistency, says D’Annunzio. “Press time can reach 95 percent thanks to automatic on-the-fly changeovers at the touch of button, and the fact that there is no need to stop the press to change the ink for color matching due to the use of the extended color gamut technology developed in cooperation with the REVO Team partners.”

Color, color and more color

The majority of digital presses geared toward packaging are well suited for extended gamut printing with multi-channel fixed inksets, says Larry Moore, Esko vice president – partner programs, North America.

“With Equinox, Esko has the ideal workflow and work set for these color controls and prepress requirements -- as well as the digital front ends for these presses,” he notes. “The real beauty is that by using these Esko workflows, the only difference is the output choice. If the customer is preparing a regional product launch, they can print with extended gamut on their digital press and, if the product is successful, expand to an analog press, using the same prepress principles and extended gamut tools output to the traditional press. This promises the same consistent results for color quality when using the ‘heavy iron.’”

The use of HD plate technology is also growing, the better to create a high quality, differentiated package. By partnering with Sun Chemical SunGraphics, corrugated printers will have access to high-definition plate technology utilizing Esko HD software for image quality of up to 4000 ppi. Combining HD quality with flat-top dot plate technology increases capabilities by offering an expanded tonal range and wider color gamut.

Esko ArtiosCAD answers the trend towards maximizing shelf space, minimizing carbon footprint, and expandability.

The software lets designers accurately design a package and carton structure around the product, said Moore. Another objective is to efficiently plan pallets to reduce shipping costs and ensure that retailers are capable of handling them. “This can be done with Esko CAPE software, which can work together with ArtiosCAD to redesign a package to ensure the most efficient use of space,” Moore says. “Once the product is secure, users can use Esko Studio, Esko DeskPack, and Adobe Illustrator to create the graphics around the structure and send all of the stake holders 3D views of the virtual package, even before a hard sample is made.”

Demand for standout graphics is also driving increasing interest in specialty inks and coatings (metallic, color shifting) that cater to the senses. Sun Chemical’s wide range of coatings include a variety of options for satin, matte, and gloss printing, in addition to its SunInspire sensory coatings line that offers special effects.

“Highly transparent SunCure Aspire UV sheetfed inks, coupled with SunInspire coatings help to deliver amazing graphic results,” says Jim Bishop, field product manager, UV, EB & Conventional Packaging Inks, Sun Chemical. The customer’s product packaging is able to visually stand out on store shelves through high luster metallic, fluorescent, glitter, pearlescent, and iridescent finishes. SunInspire tactile coatings, ranging from coarse and gritty to soft and smooth, appeal to the sense of touch; meanwhile, other coatings in the line can create an interactive experience with color shifting, reticulating, and other aromatic coatings.

Inks and coatings such as highly reflective silvers and pearlescents for flexo and offset offer more opportunity to provide enhanced packaging for more premium products, notes Charles Hicks, WestRock director, design services. “Uncoated paperboard offers a smoother finish for print and coating effects, and is appealing to customers looking for more natural look and feel. Intriguing shapes and even formed packaging seems to be more in the mix than previous years. Packaging using recyclable substrates and coatings to replace less environmentally friendly materials are under consideration more and more.”

Mixed materials (rigid plastics and films), smart technologies (blippar and t-ink), and new paperboard substrates like WestRock’s FoldKraft are helping to differentiate new products, says Hicks.

Sun Chemical’s SunVisto water-based inks portfolio for paper and paperboard applications is formulated to match GCMI X color standards, says Bishop:“SunVisto water-based inks are PH stable with excellent coverage and mileage.  The low-VOC inks meet the requirements of the Coalition of Northeastern Governors (CONEG) and provide consistent viscosity with excellent press stability to meet the print needs used on a wide range of substrates, including: corrugated boxes, bags, folding carton, giftwrap, and more. Also, he notes, all of Sun Chemical’s folding carton inks now offered for folding-carton sensitive packaging applications meet global compliance standards.

Across the folding-carton spectrum, from prepress to printing and postpress, vendors are helping print providers answer the current challenges within the folding-carton arena.

“An important factor of converters’ future profitability lies with having the kind of equipment that is ready and able to handle all the new applications, substrates, and consumables, always in the most cost-effective way, so as to provide the user with the competitive advantage needed to stay ahead in the market,” D’Annunzio says.