Digital
printing has been steadily growing and holds a lot of promise for the future. While color digital
printing has been a boon for color digital labels, folding cartons, and
flexible packaging, corrugated packaging hasn't been as receptive, with only
specialist converters available and low usage.
All
of that is changing though. Suppliers such as Hewlett Packard are emerging with
solutions for short-run digital printing of corrugated products, including
secondary packs and displays. These digital printers address the concerns of
designers and marketers by providing a new generation of solutions that can
retain the quality of traditional analog printing – image quality and color
being the primary concerns. While analog printing will likely continue to be the
standard in the near future, digital printing is edging closer to wider
acceptance, due to some distinct advantages.
The advantages of digital printing for
corrugated packaging are much the same as digital’s advantages for any type of
printing, although this opens up a new segment. These advantages include:
·
Ability to print low-count print runs with improved cost efficiency – a
digital run can print off anywhere from 1 to thousands, with little waste or
warm-up cost.
·
Prototyping ability for targeting specific markets.
·
Improved turn-around times for low-count runs.
·
Freeing up analog presses for printing long runs, allowing faster turn
time on those as well.
·
The ability to print variable imagery
·
Easy transition between sheet sizes
Digital
is truly a great innovation for the future of printing, though it is unlikely to
replace analog printing outright – we see them as complimentary technologies,
and expect them to work together as such as digital gains more traction.
Here
at Stamar Packaging, we love to see the innovation and evolution of
technology that allows us to provide better response times, with better
pricing, to keep our customers pleased. We look forward to the continued
emergence of digital printing for corrugated packaging, with the idea that this
will one day become an even bigger part of our current business
