If you need further proof digital and other short-run printing technologies will be a mainstay of package converting in the future, look no further than this recent EDSF (The Electronic Document Systems Foundation) study. In Trends and innovations in packaging, including links to JDF-compliant hardware and software applications, researchers at Toronto's Ryerson University looked at government regulations forcing package printers to provide faster turnaround and more efficient use of data.

Ryerson researchers contend the Canadian and US governments will continue to have labeling laws requiring certain types of necessary information (nutritional data and ingredients/components lists); federal regulations will continue to require package printers to create additional versions of packaging to provide information in certain, required languages; and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) most likely will continue to follow the steps of the European Union in terms of adopting new packaging laws. The study also notes the government's history of requiring drastic packaging requirements in a time span inconvenient for packaging designers and printers.

The production requirements of these governmental dictates and the potentially margin-widening benefits from digital printing's real-time scheduling and workflow automation capabilities makes this emerging technology one to watch.

Sun Chemical (www.fastjet.com) and Inca Digital (www.incadigital.com) are developing FastJet, an inkjet printer that images fully variable content onto corrugated sheets sized up to 1.2 x 1.7 meters (at right). Designed to compete with multi-color flexographic press speeds, FastJet alpha and beta configurations have reached reported top speeds of 300 fpm. The current configuration uses 20 printhead modules, mounted in a fixed array that covers the full sheet width; each module has 24 heads; and each head has 128 ink nozzles.

FastJet's promise of high productivity compelled UK-based CRP Print and Packaging, Ltd., to become a FastJet beta site. “We've been waiting for the last few years to see what digital's going to be about—not putting our pounds into the digital market until we know where it's going” says CRP operations director Tom Lindop. “We were concerned about the quality and the speed of the machines, and also the commercial realities of the machine. We waited to look at payback on them [digital packaging presses], and I think we were pretty right.

“A lot of digital machines went away the last few years; a lot of these companies caught cold,” says Lindop. “The only reason we decided to try the water now is a FastJet machine is good quality and extremely fast, and we believe can compete in the commercial world. To be quite clear: The FastJet still is a development machine. But if it's successful and works, the FastJet is about five years ahead of any of its rivals in the marketplace.”

At presstime, CRP's beta installation was too new to evaluate. Based on the company's short history testing the beta machine (two weeks), Lindop clearly is enthused and conjectures FastJet's beta configuration might be able to stretch past the press' top speed record to a new high of 400 fpm.

Ontario-based Montebello Packaging, which has facilities throughout the US and Canada, has won several industry awards for the aluminum tubes and cans, aluminum marker barrels, laminate tubes, foil and all-plastic tubes it manufactures for pharmaceutical, personal-care, cosmetics, household, industrial and food products. Part of its success comes from M-Deco®, the company's patented digital packaging-printing process that allows it to quickly produce short-runs of tubes decorated with photo-quality graphics.

The company recently upgraded its digital printing with an HP Indigo ws4500 (www.hp.com) (at right) to take advantage of Hewlett-Packard's newest photo-imaging technology. This is the second HP Indigo press purchase for Montebello. “We're very happy with the printer [HP Indigo ws2000] that we had,” says Montebello packaging marketing and sales coordinator Meghann Bennett.

Last year, Montebello took home the Food Tube of the Year award from The Tube Council for a silver aluminum tube that features a brilliant red tomato as part of its decoration. Remarking on digital printability that allows packaging printers to print more realistic images on small quantity orders, Bennett says: “We're getting more into the food market, and we've had a couple of people that actually want a picture of a real tomato on a tube. We wouldn't be able to offer that with offset technology.”

In one of Montebello's primary markets—pharmaceuticals—the company has used short-run digital printing to secure jobs before its competitors can deliver traditional package-printing work. According to Bennett, the reason why Montebello can deliver so much pharmaceutical business is that it can use digital printing to quickly produce packages for stability testing. In her experience, once pharmaceutical companies have completed the stability testing using Montebello's packaging, the customer often will reward all the business, including the long-run, traditional decorating work, to Montebello.

With continuing globalization, packagers simply cannot expect local companies to stick with local converters for their needs. Jeff O'Reilly, HP strategic accounts manager, suggests digital printing can be a valuable tool to capture business in niche packaging specialties that have become worldwide markets. “A long-run [traditionally printed] job is going to take five to six weeks,” says O'Reilly. “In that time, I can run a short, digital job to maximize the downtime before the print process moves to long-run gravure.”

With its ability to produce salable packaging quickly, digital packaging printing's benefits go beyond the fully variable nature of the output. With some manufacturers reporting operational costs crossovers from traditional to digital package decorating as low as 2,000 units, converters also can increase revenue flow to secure more business from smaller clients.