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Can gravure leverage digital-print technology?
Although gravure's high speed limits the ability to run digital-print in-line, there are still opportunities for gravure label and packaging printers to apply the high-tech process' flexibility. So said two speakers at today's opening session of the PLGA Global's 11th Operational Conference in Miami.
Sean Skelly, marketing director for EFI, Jetrion industrial inkjet systems, and Jeffrey O'Reilly, national sales manager for HP Indigo, covered how the competing technologies of inkjet and toner digital printing can work with gravure to help converters capture more marketshare and offer new packaging looks to the marketplace.
Skelly detailed his "Convergence Model" of digital print with other print methods. Don't look for instant results, he advises, "because any complex change is a process, not an event," and "the timing and rate of convergence is essentially unknowable." Converters need to compare gravure with digital's quality, cost, speed, print width, color gamut, substrate applications, post-print durability and specialty inks (in terms of food contact), Skelly says.
But what converters are likely to find for the foreseeable future appears to digital's use being primarily limited to mono-color hybrid presses for adding VIP, UPCs, lot codes, etc. to already gravure-printed webs. There are some systems available, however, with faster continuous-inkjet stations on gravure presses, and certainly on offline finishing equipment using fast-curing UV inks.
Focusing on the label market, O'Reilly covered the competitive map for print processes and where digital fits in. Over the past five years or so, digital's quality and run-length economics have moved farther and farther up the scale, he says, to now offer good- to premium-quality printing in medium-length jobs. As these factors continue to improve, digital will approach UV-flexo, offset and, ultimately, gravure. But that time is not yet here.
What's most important for converters to remember, O'Reilly says, is what they're really in business for. You don't sell digital or gravure (or whatever type of) printing. You sell labels and packaging to help your customers market their brands.
PS: I told you it would be sunny in Miami. It also might have had 40 deg F. wind chills this morning, but that's still a lot better than Chicago's 10 deg. F. without the wind.
Can gravure leverage digital-print technology?
February 28, 2008
Although gravure's high speed limits the ability to run digital-print in-line, there are still opportunities for gravure label and packaging printers to apply the high-tech process' flexibility. So said two speakers at today's opening session of the PLGA Global's 11th Operational Conference in Miami.Sean Skelly, marketing director for EFI, Jetrion industrial inkjet systems, and Jeffrey O'Reilly, national sales manager for HP Indigo, covered how the competing technologies of inkjet and toner digital printing can work with gravure to help converters capture more marketshare and offer new packaging looks to the marketplace.
Skelly detailed his "Convergence Model" of digital print with other print methods. Don't look for instant results, he advises, "because any complex change is a process, not an event," and "the timing and rate of convergence is essentially unknowable." Converters need to compare gravure with digital's quality, cost, speed, print width, color gamut, substrate applications, post-print durability and specialty inks (in terms of food contact), Skelly says.
But what converters are likely to find for the foreseeable future appears to digital's use being primarily limited to mono-color hybrid presses for adding VIP, UPCs, lot codes, etc. to already gravure-printed webs. There are some systems available, however, with faster continuous-inkjet stations on gravure presses, and certainly on offline finishing equipment using fast-curing UV inks.
Focusing on the label market, O'Reilly covered the competitive map for print processes and where digital fits in. Over the past five years or so, digital's quality and run-length economics have moved farther and farther up the scale, he says, to now offer good- to premium-quality printing in medium-length jobs. As these factors continue to improve, digital will approach UV-flexo, offset and, ultimately, gravure. But that time is not yet here.
What's most important for converters to remember, O'Reilly says, is what they're really in business for. You don't sell digital or gravure (or whatever type of) printing. You sell labels and packaging to help your customers market their brands.
PS: I told you it would be sunny in Miami. It also might have had 40 deg F. wind chills this morning, but that's still a lot better than Chicago's 10 deg. F. without the wind.
Posted by Mark Spaulding on February 28, 2008 | Comments (0)
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