Higher brand demands and how printers can respond with modern flexo

Brands are laying a challenge at the door of packaging printers: deliver packaging with the same on-shelf appearance and improved sustainability – while driving more value from the print process.

At first glance, competing requests that are difficult to deliver on. For Steve Smith, re-thinking the foundations of flexo give printers the potential they need to be more efficient, without compromising on quality – delivering packaging with optimal shelf impact. They also need to be able to print brand designs on more sustainable packaging, often a difficult ask because of how these more textured substrates behave on press.

Q. What challenges are printers facing as a result of the priorities brands now have?

Brands should not have to compromise on quality and they want to get better value from their print process while addressing sustainability. Part of the challenge comes with the higher costs of sustainable substrates too.

The focus now is often on how much value brands can get and what sustainability gains they achieve – not only through printing, but through their other manufacturing processes – their whole supply chain.

If printers can’t find efficiencies in their process, meeting these higher demands and priorities reduces margins and puts downward pressure on profitability.

Q. How has the shift from traditional to modern flexo changed what flexo printers can achieve?

Traditionally, flexo was always a whole collection of variables for a printer to juggle. The reference we often make in modern flexo to foundations is based on a paradigm shift from what people used to be doing in traditional flexo. The whole idea is to reduce or eliminate traditional variables and, instead, control each of those foundations, from plates to inks to anilox. Color management is a key foundational piece too.

Without control over the foundations of the print process, major inefficiencies can occur. For example, using heavier aniloxes to get the right color results on press can mean money down the drain; recently a company used 380 kilos more ink during the course of a run as a result of using heavier aniloxes to achieve the right ink laydown.

It needs to be a process where you’re not changing the inks, anilox or selecting multiple tape options – that collection of traditional flexo variables – to find tactical efficiencies in one area or get results.

When comparing different print processes, our industry also relies too much on technical perspectives – viewing packaging through a magnifying glass. Consumers don’t look at packaging that way – they just want to have packaging that looks the same on the supermarket shelf. And brands want to make sure the consumer’s perception of their brand is right.

With FLEXEL NX Plates we can provide print consistency that has the shelf impact that brands want and consumers see.

“It’s building something that is totally repeatable so it can become a modern manufacturing process, not the art form of traditional flexo.”

Q. How does a modern flexo approach enable printers to address brands demands for better value print?

When we work with printers, we show them the kind of savings that are possible, identifying the biggest pain points and helping them realize the full set of possibilities that we can work towards, as well as what we can do to support the printer to achieve that. All of this is ingrained in our approach towards modern flexo.

Previously, flexo was a cheaper alternative to other print processes with compromises on shelf impact. That’s no longer the case.

For brands, their shareholder responsibility means they are under considerable pressure to show that they’re optimizing their supply chain to stay competitive. They may be facing more competition and the rises in the costs of living are also putting their margins under pressure.

Making the foundations of the print process stable and repeatable creates efficiencies and improves press utilization. Take make-ready time – if it takes over an hour to set up a press with multiple variables that’s non-chargeable time.

Printers can see the impact of that through their average press speed. Printing for an hour at 400 meters a minute, with an hour make ready, makes average press speed 200 meters a minute. There’s a big opportunity to cut that make-ready, increasing the true average press speed.

“If the printers are prepared to share the savings generated, then it’s a pretty compelling story for the brand, because they can instantly see the efficiencies gained, as well as improved sustainability.”

Q. How does ECG and co-printing help printers meet the brand’s needs for better value, more sustainable print?

We talk about modern flexo as a paradigm shift, and for me, ECG (expanded color gamut) printing with co-printing is where the benefits of that shift become clear.

With co-printing, printers can incorporate multiple – usually two or three – designs on one plate. This relies on moving away from spot color use to ECG printing. The predictability and precise ink laydown achieved with FLEXCEL NX Plates – combined with controls across the foundations of the print process – allows printers to confidently print in this way, saving both time and resources by running only one plate at a time.

Modern flexo is premised on the fact that the proof is an accurate representation of the expected results on press. You can replicate what is on the proof with an extreme level of accuracy. That unlocks co-printing because it eliminates the need to adjust color on press.

With increased SKU variety, there’s often packaging that’s the same size packet, the same substrate and only the image changes. So, on one plate we have one flavor repeated, then next to it the next flavor repeated and the next – so we could have three packs on one plate. It’s highly efficient: setup time is reduced dramatically, changeovers are eliminated – cutting downtime and waste – as well as a reduction in the total number of plates needed.

There’s a paradigm shift here too: co-printing needs the brand to have full confidence in the proof to sign off at that stage, not on press.

All of these benefits add up to significant sustainability gains, with much more efficient use of substrate material, plates and press time, as well as less waste.

Printers need to have the conversation with brands about the opportunities of modern flexo. But if the printers are prepared to share the savings generated, then it’s a pretty compelling story for the brand, because they can instantly see the efficiencies gained, as well as improved sustainability.