A Productivity Study of Digital Printing in the Packaging Industry

SUMMARY In this study, the suitability of digital printing is evaluated in short runs in packaging industry. The image quality of digital printing is high enough to be used in packaging. The advantages of digital printing and modern converting processes include e.g. the possibilities of using variable data, on-demand manufacturing and cost-effectiveness within short print runs. The limitations may include a smaller colour gamut compared to traditional presses, format size, productivity and lower printing speed. In addition, the variety of substrates for use is smaller than in traditional printing. The productivity of the world's first integrated digital printing line designed for short runs was tested by simulating various packaging runs in production. For further analysis, an MS Excel calculation tool was developed. In the calculations, the productivity of a digital packaging line was compared with that of a standard packaging line based on an offline offset printing technique. The cost advantages to be achieved by digital printing techniques in short runs are discussed in two scenarios. The scenarios address the subjects' break-even point and inline production process. The results of the study show that it is possible to achieve significant cost savings using the inline digital printing and converting systems when compared with traditional offline manufacturing systems in short runs. However, as there are numerous variables included to the production process, it is impossible to present any exact numbers for the break-even point. In this study, the break-even point calculated is estimated to be in the range of 4000–8000 packages, depending on the package and sheet sizes. The greatest difference in price per package occurs when the runs are below 2000 packages. Based on the calculations, the inline process itself can decrease the payback time for the machine line as much as 20–35%. One significant factor to be mindful of is that when digital printing is used in the short runs, it often releases machine time from the traditional presses. This part of the analysis has not been included in this study, but using the calculation tool, it is easy to simulate different scenarios and perform further analyses on the systems. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.