Corrugated packaging and displays is a $33.1 billion a year industry, according to the Corrugated Packaging Alliance (CPA).

Yet, less than 1% of print jobs in the corrugated space are done digitally, according to Raimar Kuhnen-Burger, regional marketing manager, EFI Industrial Printing.

“Digital printing offers huge scope for new opportunities and a diversity of applications in the packaging sector,” said Jeroen Van Bauwel, director product management at Xeikon. “There is a high demand for products that can differentiate a brand.”

An advantage of digital printing is that it “allows shorter runs for a variety of different SKUs not possible with analog printing methods,” Kuhnen-Berger noted.

“Markets within the packaging sector are seeing high levels of R&D investment and a large percentage growth although the current penetration of digital is still quite small,” said Phil Jackman, global product manager, digital, Sun Chemical. “The digital value proposition continues to gain momentum as run lengths in many conventional print markets reduce.”

Epson is seeing an increase in demand for label and packaging digital printing, both from converters who supply the packaging to manufacturers, as well as from “print for use” customers who are bringing packaging production in-house, according to Victor Gomez, director, industrial labels, Epson America, Inc.

“E-commerce has transformed the industry from ‘protect’ to ‘promote’ in terms of the uses for outer shipping boxes,” said Eric Wiesner, GM, HP PageWide Industrial, HP Inc.

“This is a huge opportunity for brands to use digital printing for promotion, with activations around new services and releases.”

According to Jackman, the placement of industrial, high productivity machines in corrugated, folding carton and flexible packaging has marked the start of the digital revolution
in packaging.

Potential for growth in packaging

The corrugated sector is prime for growth, Wiesner said, “as corrugated boxes are typically what is used for shipping and is a versatile material for digital printing.”

Corrugated fiberboard or “combined board” has two main components: the liner and the medium, both of which are made from heavy paper called containerboard.

As the CPA notes, linerboard is the flat material, typically on the outer surfaces of the board but also on the inside for some structures, that adheres to the medium. Medium is the paper that is formed into arches or flutes on the single facer and glued between the liner board facings.

Additionally, corrugated is the single most recycled packaging material, according to the CPA’s website, corrugated.org.

“In the near term, we think label, corrugated and carton will continue to see strong growth in digital,” said Mike Barry, business development manager, packaging, FUJIFILM North America Corporation, Graphic Systems Division. “Flexible packaging is next on the horizon.”

“The short run, on-demand segment is growing for small to mid-size boutique verticals with product offerings,” Gomez said. “The converters that supply packaging have also seen a large increase in demand for short runs and faster turnarounds, which can be met by digital production.”

“Variable data, personalization and white ink offer opportunities for both boxes but also corrugated displays as you can create small volumes perfectly targeted towards a use case or seasonal promotion,” Kuhnen-Burger added.

Jackman forecasts solid continued growth in the labels and narrow web markets.

“We also expect to see many more boxes and cartons digitally printed, and we are now seeing some flexible packaging inroads being made,” he said. “UV applications will continue to grow (where applicable), but aqueous ink technology will continue to become increasingly more important.”

UV and water-based inkjet are what Siegwerk views as the two most promising technologies in the sector.

“UV inkjet fits with narrow web printing on relatively thick material such as labels and direct-to-shape,” said Matthieu Carni, director Business Unit Inkjet at Siegwerk. “UV inkjet offers, for example, the ability to directly print on 3D objects, which may generate new business opportunities.”

That would not only open up new avenues for brand differentiation, Carni noted, but help packaging producers save labeling materials, reduce waste and achieve overall leaner processes.

If the technical hurdles of water-based inkjet ink and non-absorbing substrates can be overcome, “it can unleash enormous potential for disruption of the flexible packaging market,”
he said.

Xeikon recently partnered with Kotkamills with the intention of providing the next generation of sustainable food packaging safely printed with Xeikon’s dry toner digital technology.

“There is a perfect match between our ‘food safe’ dry toner technology and the Kotkamills ISLA Duoboard Paper Cup stock characteristics – excellent printability, productivity and toner adhesion – tests proved excellent and consistent,” Van Bauwel said. “This is a game changer for paper cup converters and has the potential to create new or alternative business opportunities.”

Food packaging

Digital printing hasn’t replaced flexo printing as the preferred method when it comes to food packaging. But the former has made inroads as shorter run lengths can be printed digitally – and the process is even becoming more economical.

“Today, packaging must meet several requirements including providing shelf appeal, increased levels of communication on packages, be recyclable and sustainable, extend the shelf life, and be lightweight,” Jackman said.

Not only does it need to check those boxes, but ink manufacturers must also meet stringent regulatory mandates.

In general, Xeikon’s dry toner technology is FDA certified for food contact, Van Bauwel said. “But depending on specific application needs, we have a dedicated team of experts working with customers directly on this kind of project,” he added.

Epson recently announced that ink used in its SurePress digital inkjet label presses and ColorWorks on-demand color label printers are compliant with many Food Contact Materials EU regulations, as well as the Swiss Ordinance for food packaging printing inks.

The company’s facilities meet the internationally recognized Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) standards and US Food and Drug Administration cGMP, Gomez said.

“One of the main priorities for brand owners, converters and customers is compliance and the issue of migration,” Jackman said. “Once mainly concerned with conventional printing, low migration and compliance are also important factors in digital printing and if not handled correctly, could have potentially severe consequences, such as damage to a brand’s reputation and risks to consumer health.

“During the packaging design stage, particular attention is spent on ensuring the correct materials are used to protect the various food products, namely board, film, foil or plastic,” he continued. “The selection of inks and coatings are just as important.”

HP is currently the only printing company producing water-based inks that comply with these regulations for food packaging in corrugated boxes, Wiesner said.

“We generally don’t believe in ‘one [size] fits all’ solutions as packaging and label markets include diverse sub-segments, each one requiring different ink characteristics,” Carni said.

Therefore, Siegwerk only offers ink solutions customized for the users’ needs, he explained.

“For us, customization goes beyond classical color matching – it also covers optimization of adhesion, mechanical and chemical resistance as well as an assessment of migration risk,” Carni continued.

Sales

Over the past year, Epson’s inkjet ink business grew by double digits in North America and Latin America, per Gomez.

“The digital business of Sun Chemical, under the SunJet brand, grew strongly in the past year and widened its product and technology portfolio to meet the demands of existing and emerging markets,” Jackman said.

“We have seen continued growth in wide and super-wide formats in the graphics market,” he continued. “Narrow web and label opportunities have increased as digital press capabilities are being realized.

Imprinting and personalized print applications have grown in all geographies and we have seen the continuation of the development of commercial print and publication markets with aqueous ink technology.”
There are more than 15 EFI Nozomi C18000 printers in full production, according to Kuhnen-Burger.

“The Nozomi Ink business for both corrugated packaging and corrugated displays shows steady growth because the EFI Nozomi C18000 uses exclusively genuine EFI ink,” he said. “With the white ink option, the variety of opportunities even on brown boxes is growing and some Nozomi customers have already expanded from one-shift to two-shift operations to fulfill the market needs. This automatically results in a higher ink volume used for the spectacular prints our customers perform on the Nozomi.”

EFI has also seen some clients purchase a second or third Nozomi press, the regional marketing manager added.

Carni said Siegwerk had a successful 2018 and expects further success in 2019.

“By continuously investing in the expansion of our digital printing offering we were able to create a solid base for significant commercial success for our inkjet business,” he continued. “Especially, the acquisition of AGFA Graphics’ UV inkjet business for labels and packaging in 2018 has further boosted our business bringing it to the next level. In addition to our broad portfolio of established analog inks for printers, we now also have a strong footprint in digital printing offering UV and water-based inkjet ink solutions for narrow web and large width packaging to equipment manufacturers for both packaging and label applications.”

In 2018, HP’s PageWide Industrial division launched the PageWide C500 corrugated press.

“HP entered digital package printing several years ago, but since introducing the C500 in 2018, demand has continued to grow, with presses installed at seven converters,” Wiesner said. “Pre-print solutions, including the T1100 and T400S series presses for corrugated liners, also experienced growth in the past year. There are now five T400 series and six T1100 series presses installed for the corrugated market, with Rengo Co. Ltd in Japan being the most recent customer, commissioning a T1190 press.”

Customer preferences

Customers are looking for more cost-effective printing solutions, Wiesner said.

“This is driving the migration toward digital printing and use of digital package printing, with the advantages of printing shorter runs, streamlining jobs per day through versioning, inventory management to reduce SKU proliferation, and faster turnaround of completed jobs to meet the needs of e-commerce customers,” he added.

“Advantages such as quick turnarounds and the ability to update marketing materials on the fly are complemented by the savings from not having to keep inventories,” Gomez said. “Also, there is more pressure on packaging suppliers to fulfill customer demands for shorter runs and quick turnarounds.”

Digital helps with short-run production issues as it has low setup cost and can quickly switch from job to job, according to Barry.

“The ability to print on demand and provide operational flexibility are key drivers that enable short runs to become more economical for the printer or to extract more value from the print run by selling the advantages of its versioning capability or reduced lead time,” Jackman said.

“Customers, in general, are seeking for digital printing technologies that can complement their existing infrastructure and investments,” Kuhnen-Burger added.

Outlook

According to Xeikon’s Van Bauwel, the changing needs, values and behavior of consumers are changing the way in which businesses are producing products.

“As someone said many years ago, ‘Whatever can go digital, will,’” Epson’s Gomez said. “The next frontier for digital inkjet printing for packaging might be tackling the mid- and wide-web applications. Consumer trends will continue to support shorter runs and faster turnarounds, which can only bode well for the coming years.”

Fujifilm’s Barry forecasts continued improvement in inkjet and inkjet technology, which will allow for greater substrate versatility and food-safe inkjet production.

“The packaging market will continue to experience a decrease in run length as brands are opting for more versions and more frequent packaging design changes,” he said. “Digital will help with all of these challenges.”

Siegwerk’s Carni also foresees increasing demand for short runs, as well as regionalization, personalization and special finishing of packaging, “which will further drive the growth of digital printing technologies – including both electrophotography and UV inkjet solutions.

“The need for brand differentiation and lean production cycles will also further drive the digital trend in the future printing industry,” he continued. “Digital printing inks for labels will gain strong traction while digital inks for packaging will further progress going forward.

“We strongly believe that UV inkjet will become a mainstream printing technology for label applications,” Carni added. “We also expect some long-term opportunities for UV inkjet, especially in the direct-to-pack printing market where we are still in an early stage of the adoption curve. Water-based inkjet inks are naturally offering great opportunities for corrugated printing applications and we expect this technology to also become the technology of choice for digital printing of flexible packaging.”

Siegwerk anticipates the first developments of water-based inkjet inks for flexible packaging to be announced around drupa and Interpack in 2020, according to Carni.

“Brands and customers didn’t previously know the benefits of digital printing for corrugated packaging, but now they are seeing more digital printed boxes produced and are asking specifically for a digital printing strategy from each of the major corrugated PSPs,” HP’s Wiesner said. “This approach is very new, and we are seeing not only the migration to digital but incremental ways to use digital printing. This includes printing strategies to improve tracking of packages through mass serialization, versioning at the end of packaging fill lines, watermarks to combat counterfeiting, and other innovations that brands are starting to ask for and deploy in their packaging. This level of personalization can only be achieved through digital printing, and we expect to see strong growth in this use for corrugated in the next few years.”

“While much of digital today exists as a complement to analog methods, in coming years, we will see the market share of digital versus analog constantly growing as a replacement solution,” EFI’s Kuhnen-Burger added.