Digital printing is enjoying growth in many markets, including packaging. The use of inkjet printing, either in a hybrid model or as a replacement for short runs, is beginning to happen in the conventional sheetfed segment.

Niv Ishay, marketing manager, HP PageWide Industrial Corrugated said that the company’s corrugated printers are changing the industry, and are showing the way to new markets.

“HP corrugated presses reduce the cost of manufacturing corrugated boxes,” Ishay said. “Our PageWide customers gain new capabilities, new opportunities for success, with digital efficiencies that make it easier to print and sell more, while also reducing steps, time and costs versus traditional corrugated print production. They accelerate their productivity with HP PageWide presses which are a powerful, proven workhorses. With the offset-like quality that is already proven in the field they print short to long and very long runs, easily.”

One of the important questions is where the tipping point is for when the number of prints is profitable compared to other technologies. Ishay added that some of their HP PageWide C500 sheetfed customers are converting jobs of 20,000, 30,000 boxes and more, moving them from flexo and litho production.

“So digital corrugated packaging is definitely not just for short-runs or unique campaigns any longer,” Ishay noted. “The reason for that is when you take into account overall factory optimization and penalties on late deliveries, there are many cases where digital pro-duction is more profitable compared to traditional manufacturing processes. In addition, if you calculate into your profit, hidden costs, like for example the need to reprints due to obsolescence, the capability of printing exactly what you need when you need it, is adding up to your margin.”

Matthieu Carni, director Business Unit Inkjet at Siegwerk, reported that Siegwerk sees a growing penetration of inkjet in sheetfed.

“Shorter run lengths, need for flexibility and leaner total production processes favor digital printing,” said Carni.

“However, the break-even point between analog and inkjet in terms of print costs per square meter cannot be easily stated as this depends on a variety of influencing factors,” added Carni. “In general, efficiencies in inkjet are going up as the technology is evolving and at the same time costs in inkjet are going down. Advanced inkjet technologies (press and ink) and economies of scale and scope will move the break-even point slowly but steadily to a higher number of prints. We don’t expect a replacement of other technologies, but an extension of the current production capacities by digital printing. Hybrid concepts will be part of the picture going forward.”

“Although there is always going to be a place for traditional print, inkjet is becoming more viable on larger runs than it has been in the past,” Warren Catchpole – director, digital so-lutions for digital inkjet inks at Wikoff Color, said.

Oscar Granados, director of sales at LogoJET, said that he is definitely seeing growth in inkjet.

“Digital printing and specifically inkjet as a technology are replacing conventional printing processes,” Granados added.

Phil Jackman, global product manager, digital, Sun Chemical, observed that while inkjet is becoming more cost effective and more efficient as it matures, being challenged as a direct replacement print process for analog is not usually the best approach.

“Maximizing the potential of digital print from its many strengths usually creates a much stronger value proposition and often creates completely new market opportunities,” said Jackman. “For example, print on demand and particularly web-to-print applications, can truly maximize the value to customers (and thereby the revenue stream for the printers) by facilitating an automated and streamlined process. The placement of inkjet printing in the packaging chain can also be a disruptor versus conventional print with, for instance, printing direct to a container instead of applying a label, therefore replacing the whole cost of the label and the need for pre-printed stock.”