Page 28 - Print 21 Magazine Jan-Feb 2019

Digital Packaging
Digital unpacked
Press giant Heidelberg invited select members of the international trade press to its PackagingDays in Germany, where it expounded its digitisation of the packaging print production process concept. Print21 editor Wayne Robinson was there for ANZ.
Packaging printing offers a whole lot less volatility than commercial printing – you can’t eat your cornflakes from the internet – so
it is naturally an area that many commercial printers are looking to; after all, their commercial presses can print on both paper and board.
Projections for packaging print growth are all positive, and they may increase even further as the world increasingly recoils from plastics.
The world’s biggest press manufacturer, Heidelberg, sees packaging as a great opportunity
for printers, and has just held its PackagingDays event at its main factory in Wiesloch to share with the global print community what it sees as pathways to profit.
“While the packaging sector is growing in emerging markets, we are seeing consolidation and productivity increases in industrialised
countries,” explained Stephan
Plenz, member of the Management Board responsible for Heidelberg equipment. “The packaging market is of great interest to us. We
meet its needs with appropriate press and postpress products and also with our Prinect Postpress Packaging print shop workflow.”
At the event Plenz told Print21 that “digitisation of process is key to achieving optimum productivity in packaging”. Plenz is not referring to digital printing – although that can be included, and there was plenty on the Primefire during PackagingDays – but to the digitisation of the workflow.
Plenz says there are three
options for printers looking to
enter packaging to make money: through differentiation, operational excellence, or new business ideas. The second, operational excellence,
is where the digitisation of process comes in. Plenz says, “It is the
smart print shop workflow that communicates, one data stream. Our new Push to Stop process means we only interrupt if necessary, otherwise
it is all go. The new navigated, or autonomous, printing means no wastage and make-ready times always less than five minutes.”
Plenz says Heidelberg is ideally positioned to take printers into the digitisation of the production process, as it manufactures the hardware – press, die cutters
and folder gluers – as well as the software, Prinect workflow. Its new subscription model is essentially Heidelberg managing the press
to achieve optimum results for
the printer. Plenz expects around
a fifth to a quarter of Heidelberg printers around the globe to opt for subscription in the years to come.
The Heidelberg PackagingDays comprised a whole series of seminars, workshops and educational sessions, along with machine demonstrations across the range of Heidelberg offset and digital print solutions and its folding carton and folder/gluers from partner
MK Masterworks, all under the Smart Printing banner. Among the jobs Heidelberg was printing were sheets with inline embellishing including foiling and embossing.
Plenz says, “The printshop today can benefit from full digitisation, whether the output is to an offset plate through CTP or a digital press like Primefire. It is important that today’s printer automates and digitises the workflow as much as possible, to achieve the highest operational efficiencies.”
PackagingDays
Heidelberg presented several
new solutions for folding carton production at the PackagingDays.
The event was aimed at folding carton producers that require optimum quality and reliability for short to medium runs. The new Promatrix 106 CS die cutter and the new Diana Smart 55 and Diana Smart 80 folding carton gluing machines being showcased by Heidelberg are designed for this target group.
The Promatrix 106 CS, which operated in conjunction with the new Speedmaster CD 102 at the PackagingDays, performs die cutting and embossing at a speed of 8,000 sheets per hour. It is intended for manufacturers of folding cartons
in short to medium runs, and also
“It is important that today’s printer automates and digitises the workflow as much as possible, to achieve the highest operational efficiencies.” – Stefan Plenz
for commercial print shops that occasionally produce packaging. Thanks to the die cutter’s short make-ready times, users benefit from high productivity and excellent cost- efficiency. It can handle a wide range of materials – from 90 all the way up to 2,000 grams per square metre – and also processes corrugated board up to four millimetres (0.16 inches) thick.
More than 5,000 folding carton gluing machines from the Diana family have already been installed across the globe. Two new additions – the Diana Smart 55 and Diana Smart 80 – are now joining the Diana X 80 and Diana X 115 in
the product portfolio. The figures forming part of the product name refer to the maximum carton width in centimetres. The Diana Smart 80, which is primarily of interest to folding carton manufacturers that
28 Print21 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019