Digitalisation in packaging and labels: A transformative Spanish summit
FuturePrint TECH: Packaging and Labels attendees
On February 28th and 29th, the FuturePrint community convened in Valencia, Spain for two days of insightful sessions and discussions among leaders in digital printing and packaging. It wasn’t just the sunshine, blue skies, and beautiful marina views that were responsible for the palpable energy of the event, but the opportunity to come together in one of Europe’s leading hubs for inkjet innovation at a transformative moment for digitalisation in packaging and labels.
What do we mean by a transformative moment? As many of the expert speakers describe, digital inkjet’s applications and adoption in the packaging and labels sector is on the rise. At the event, EFI’s Evandro Matteucci describes corrugated as a ‘blue ocean’ opportunity for inkjet, with less than 1% of the market converted into digital; Javier Quesada of Kento Digital Printing puts this figure at around 0.3% of total digitally printed corrugated production. Evolution in consumer behaviour coupled with inkjet’s unique ability to meet those demands in a way that traditional technology can’t perfectly positions the technology for accelerated growth. The FuturePrint TECH speakers outline the challenges and the barriers, but also the solutions, the opportunities, and future possibilities.
The inkjet packaging landscape
On the first day of the event, Sean Smyth, consultant at Smithers, delivered an overview of trends and developments in inkjet for packaging and labels, noting that digital suppliers to packaging and labels continue to grow: “There are more and more solutions suppliers,” says Sean. “Occasionally you see somebody leave, but they're replaced by another five coming in, using inkjet to print everything that you can possibly think about in the packaging space: rigids including glass, metal, and plastics; flexible packaging; cartons; corrugate, any number of things.”
On the reduction of average run lengths and increasing short to medium length runs, Sean cites research that predicts a shift of 22.3% to 24.8% to 2027, equating to more than 15 million more jobs in Europe and North America and potentially 25-40 million globally. “How do you do this in a traditional analogue plant?” says Sean. “The answer is you don't, because they just can't handle that.”
Robert Stabler, Managing Director of Koenig & Bauer Durst, also points to declining run lengths and notes some factors responsible for driving this industry transformation; the proliferation of SKUs, increasing forecasting unpredictability, need for velocity through plants, and greater regionalisation, among other contributors. Robert outlines the impact on production of these packaging trends, and how digital is primed to benefit the evolution of the packaging landscape in his presentation, ‘Economics and Brand Stories around Digital Print and Packaging’.
In his presentation ‘Navigating in an Ever-Changing Environment – Solutions for the Narrow Web Industry’, Dario Urbinati of Gallus details their customers’ pain points. Dario explains: “Pain point number one: human resources generation shift, demographic trends. Pain point number two: input factors like energy/substrate/capital costs. Sustainability was pain point three, which was very surprising as during the pandemic nobody cared about sustainability. Number four, industry consolidation.”
Detailing the industry consolidation, Dario explains that 20 years ago, the four largest printing companies in narrow web (Gallus’ main focus) had a market share of 4%, whereas today, that number is closer to 16% - a rapid consolidation. Dario’s presentation drills into these demographic issues, exploring population growth, generational consumption patterns, shift towards digital preferences among younger generations, and declining birth rates, an examines the implications and potential solutions, such as increased automation and technological innovation.
Addressing the inkjet challenges in packaging
Alongside broad analysis of digital technology in the packaging and labels market, expert speakers at FuturePrint TECH addressed the technical challenges of inkjet for packaging applications. Dr Madhu Kaushik of Vera Inkjet says: “Everyone loves corrugated boxes. But as a water-based chemist, I do not like corrugated boxes – I hate them! Why? It's highly porous, nothing stays on top, especially water. I'm a water-based ink formulator, but my UV and solvent ink counterparts would agree they hate it too, right? It's not a nice substrate to put ink onto.”
In her talk, Madhu outlines the primer developed by Vera Inkjet to solve the problems associated with inkjet printing on corrugated substrates, and the testing that the product has undergone. Martin Schreiber of Actega also highlights the absorption and adhesion challenges of inkjet for packaging, and showcases in his presentation the differences in print quality with and without primer, noting the impact on adhesion and appearance.
Peter Brown of 42 Technology discusses solvent versus water-based ink solutions. While solvent dries quickly, they can be harmful. Aqueous inks don’t have those issues, but Peter references the ‘elephant in the room’ – they take a very long time to dry. In his presentation Peter notes that as the industry shifts more toward aqueous inks, suitable drying solutions are more crucial than ever, taking the audience through the various solutions.
Simon Daplyn of Sun Chemical outlines some of the key packaging trends that align with the capabilities of inkjet printing technology, and describes corrugated as one of the more exciting industries that the company is involved with. However, this comes with challenges to overcome, as Simon explains: “There are a number of challenges we need to unlock to really see digital penetrate the market more and realise its full potential.” He notes that while in conventional corrugated plants you’ll see flexo lines, litho/litho lamination lines for the variation of work, digital has to do it all. From an ink compatibility perspective, the component variability between presses can also pose an obstacle. Simon paints a promising picture of inkjet’s future in corrugated packaging, providing stakeholders prioritise collaboration and learn to adapt to the complexities and nuances of the market.
Addressing the leading challenges was unsurprisingly a common theme among FuturePrint TECH speakers; Jochen Christiaens of ImageXpert highlights the complexity of inkjet processes and the need for expert support and partners, while Christophe Imbert of Lubrizol breaks down some of the key challenges with water-based inks in high-speed presses including maintaining print quality, durability, colour fastness, ink stability, and colour vividness when compared with UV inks.
Trends and opportunities
While there are challenges, there are even more chances to drive success with digitalisation. Advertising on boxes not only allows brands and retailers to be creative with digital technology, but also, as Sean says, “it enables them to change their concept of packaging from a cost into a potential revenue generator.” Sean also highlights inkjet trends outside of boxes and takes a closer look at printing short runs direct to cans, overcoming ‘minimum order quantity’ issues in this area.
Variable data capabilities allow businesses to use customisation and personalisation to foster deeper connections with consumers. Robert Stabler, Koenig & Bauer Durst, discusses the added value applications that are highly appealing to brand partners: “Mass customisation or versioning of different brands, with no minimal incremental costs. Numbering, sequential barcoding, and track and trace as standard.” He also talks about the ability to print on plain brown boards, reducing the need for coated media.
When it comes to looking to the future, it’s not just a shift in technology that is key to successful digitalisation. Kristi Duvall of The BoxMaker discusses the importance of adapting to change when it comes to capitalising on the opportunities presented by digital printing. Kristi details The BoxMaker’s continued growth in inkjet packaging, in the food and beverage sector especially, not just because of the adoption of digital technology but also a shift in selling strategy and target customer base.
Sustainability continues to be a key driver for digital packaging, with end consumers more environmentally savvy than ever and more regulatory requirements coming in to force. Lizzie Bentley of IST Intech highlights the sustainable benefits of UV LED drying technology, most notably reduced power consumption and the elimination of toxic mercury lamps. Rob Karsten of Excelitas similarly extols the virtues of LED technology, noting that a transition to LED can reduce CO2 emissions and alleviate energy demands. EFI’s Evandro references studies that show significant reductions in global warming potential when brands switch from traditional analogue printing to digital printing for corrugated packaging.
Edgar Llop of People&Technology spoke about the urgency of addressing climate change in his presentation, which covered printhead cleaning in the context of the sustainability in inkjet. “There are only two sides to the climate emergency – either you ignore it, or you take action,” says Edgar. Positively, Edgar notes that emissions of pollutants like nitrous oxide, methane, and CO2 have been rising since the 90s, but recent efforts show a downward trend. His presentation goes on to detail the environmental and cost benefits of effective and optimised printhead cleaning.
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With more than 30 speakers over two days, it’s a challenge to distil all the insightful and edifying presentations into a single article. Many more speakers than those referenced here offered in-depth knowledge and details of their innovations in inkjet for packaging and labels. Fortunately, every session on the agenda is available on replay here.
Join us in Valencia on April 2nd and 3rd 2025 for the next FuturePrint TECH: Packaging and Labels. Digital printing technology is ready - are you?
