Page 14 - Print21 Magazine May-June 2021

Labels & Flexibles
Revolution
in flexo
Hybrid and digital flexo print systems are offering new opportunities for flexible packaging production, with developments coming thick and fast.
The digital wave that has been lapping at the shores of flexo is becoming a tsunami, threatening to sweep all before it. The
ability to produce work on demand, in versions, with no set-up, and at high quality, is seeing brands and marketers specify digital. True digital cannot yet compete at the longer run lengths, but even here
it is making its mark, with hybrid systems – essentially a standard flexo press with a digital unit attached inline – becoming a must- have for flexo shops.
And with inkjet digital printing capable of running at 120 metres a minute these days, having digital inline may not mean too much of
a reduction in throughput. Hybrid digital presses may have both or either of digital printing and digital embellishing. You don’t have to run digital inline of course, as it can run as a separate production step after the flexo printing, but one pass is by definition a key advantage.
Virtually all the major flexo press manufacturers now offer hybrid versions, including leading names such as Bobst, Gallus, Mark Andy, Nilpeter and Omet. For pure digital printers for flexible materials, there is no shortage of top notch systems available, with Bobst, Gallus, HP Indigo, Kodak Uteco, Miyakoshi, Screen and Xeikon among those manufacturing and installing digital presses for flexibles.
Hybrid presses are used for security barcoding, variable data, personalised labels and general short-run printing applications. The advantage and ability to switch to only analogue production is
a major advantage to maximise production capacity.
A hybrid analogue digital flexo press necessarily gives far more options to the printer to take to market, and those options are what marketing managers of brands are
14 Print21 MAY/JUNE 2021
Flexibles: opportunities in hybrid and digital
asking for – versioning, personalising, short-run, security, track and trace.
A hybrid press offers a lot of bang for the buck, seriously broadening the potential application base.
And hybrid press owners are
not limited, they are now able to produce a wider range of applications such as folding cartons, flexible packaging applications or even tube laminates, which can all be printed, embellished, and die-cut roll-to-roll in a single pass.
Let’s now look at productivity. In today's market, this means delivering the right volume at the right time for the right costs.
The Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 are touted as the key to success in the digital era, and so they are, but they cost
money and of course it has to have
a ROI. So, how does Industry 4.0 increase profitability? By being more flexible, resources are saved not only in administration, but in quality control and production step approvals – all the key steps are visible in a digitalised environment. Imagine you receive data from
your material supplier and it tells you exactly what you can process and at what metre of the reel
there is a splice or any parameter out of tolerance. While you know this already from the reports you get from your suppliers, you can load these data directly into your machines to get the most out of the material to help your operators to process the full setup automatically, to save time, material and costs.