Steve Katz, Editor12.23.14
Label converters, their suppliers and also brand owners recently gathered at Flint Group’s facility in Sweden to define the trends and innovations shaping the future of the narrow web industry. The event was titled, “What’s Next for Narrow Web?” and featured presentations from suppliers, including UPM Raflatac, Nilpeter, Phoseon and GEW. The seminar portion of the program was followed by a tour of Flint Group’s nearby Trelleborg European headquarters, where a Nilpeter hybrid press has been installed to test productivity-enhancing UV-LED curable flexo and screen inks.
Flint Group CEO Antoine Fady opened the conference by identifying three “mega trends” affecting the label and packaging markets. Notably, he said, the middle class in emerging markets has more disposable income, and has expanded globally by two billion dollars over the last decade. In addition, Fady said, the power of the Internet is raising consumer awareness about environmental and health issues, resulting in a growing expectation that packaging should be sustainable, in terms of both environmental impact and business ethics.
Brand equity
Fady explained why innovation is critical to the success of the packaging industry. He said, “We are all governed by brands. Brand equity is the decision maker at the end of the process, and that has a massive impact in what we do. That means we, as suppliers, cannot make any compromises on what we do in terms of assuring the health and safety of our customers. The delicate reputation of the brand is in our hands and we must do all we can to safeguard it.”
Innovation, Fady stressed, is the key to thriving in tomorrow’s narrow web market, which is guided around five themes:
The ROI of Innovation
Tapio Kolunsarka, VP for UPM Raflatac, explained how the industry should be deploying innovative resources in order to achieve the best return-on-investment.
“The self-adhesive label market has doubled its market share in the last 20 years thanks to incremental innovations,” Kolunska said. “These innovations in ink, machine, substrate and service manufacturers have been focused on expanding applications, improving efficiency and reducing cost of ownership. The ability to run faster is central to future growth and, provided improvements are continuous, annual increments of only 1% are needed to deliver significant results over time.”
According to Kolunsarka, the key to production growth lies in leaner workflows, thinner substrates and technology investments. Kolunsarka stated that he expects material waste reductions of between 30 and 50% from existing presses, and intense focus in reducing film liner and facestock thicknesses in the next decade.
Nilpeter’s UV-LED curing research
Jakob Landberg, sales director for Danish press manufacturer Nilpeter, unveiled the company’s new hybrid, offset-flexo press, which is dedicated to research and development at Flint Group’s testing facilities in Trelleborg.
Using open platforms for easy exchange of processes at each head, the press configuration comprises three flexo, two offset, one UV-rotary screen, plus two cold foil units. With open architecture, conventional UV and UV-LED lamps on all print heads, and UV-inert gas on two, the press, Landberg said, will be instrumental in advancing performance in terms of curing time, emissions and migration levels. Also, additional hot air drying on the press enables testing of aqueous inks.
Landberg pointed out that a major change he’s observed is the emergence of both digital toner and, more recently, UV-inkjet technologies. “Digital is challenging the hegemony of analog technologies, particularly for higher-end applications. Even though digital accounts for between just 7 and 11% of global converted output by area, it accounts for over 14% by value,” he said.
“Converters considering future investments should consider the respective strengths of digital and analog processes. Digital’s strength generally lies in customized, offline printing in runs that are sufficiently short for the absence of plate costs and lower labor costs to compensate for higher costs of ink. Digital relies on analog converting processes – laser diecutting is a notable exception - to ensure a finished product. Analog print’s strengths are the high quality achievable, amplified when performing longer runs and product life cycles,” Landberg explained.
Advances in analog changeover times, according to Landberg, have pushed its break-even point with digital back down to approximately 500 web meters. “However, when digital printing presses that make single-pass printing and converting viable become available, the digital process is likely to compete for longer runs. Regardless, there will always be a need for long flexo and offset runs,” he said. “Inevitably, therefore, the question for tomorrow’s printer is to what extent digital complements the conventional workflow – being adept at being able to harmoniously manage both will be a must.”
In an era of substrate diversity, a key to flexo and offset competitiveness lies in more sophisticated combination converting presses that allow fast changeover between pressure sensitive labels, flexible packaging, shrink sleeves and in-mold labels. Landberg explained that by applying the Single Minute Exchange of Die philosophy pioneered by Toyota, Nilpeter has reduced material waste per job from hundreds of meters to less than 30 meters since the turn of the century. He said, “Tool exchange is measured in seconds, and the challenge now is to empower real-life converters to achieve changeovers in a few minutes, as is possible on an eight-color press in showroom situations.”
Productivity Improvements through UV-LED curing
Tom Hammer, product manager, narrow web North America at Flint Group, introduced the concept of UV-LED curing (Ultra Violet Light Emitting Diode). The main differences between UV-LED and mercury curing methods are the wavelengths emitted from the lamps. A standard lamp has a broad spectra of wavelengths that spread through UV-C, UV-B, UV-A, visible light and infrared. “A UV-LED lamp, however, has a narrow wavelength, peaking at around 395nm,” Hammer explained. “The inks must be formulated so the reactivity and cure results are similar but with the high intensity LED output.”
According to Hammer, the process has significant advantages over mercury lamps as a means of curing UV inks. The most striking benefit of UV-LED lamps is its life, he said, noting that UV-LED lamps can be shut off, and offer up to 20,000 hours of on-time, without degrading. “Because UV-LED lamps make minimal infrared emissions, heat is eliminated, making it possible to run shrink films without chillers, thus facilitating entry into a growing market economically. Also, an operator can safely investigate the press without the risk of being burned. And, energy consumption is typically 50% lower than that of conventional curing.”
Lightweight and compact without moving parts, the UV-LED system offers easy cleaning and avoids ozone or mercury emissions, and its light is not harmful to the eye.
Robert Karsten, of UV-LED lamp technology supplier Phoseon, provided more insight into the technology’s performance. “LED allows you to print on more heat sensitive thinner substrates,” he said. “It offers compact moveable light sources, accurate intensity and no degradation curve: you get the same consistency throughout the life of the lamp. You would have to change a mercury lamp every 200 hours for the same consistency. And given that LED lamps can be switched off during downtime, 20,000 hours of LED lamp life represents about up to ten years’ press-operating time.”
Flint Group recently launched the EkoCure ink range, a product specially formulated to work with a range of UV-LED light sources. With the largest UV-LED ink portfolio worldwide, Flint Group offers a full line of flexo and rotary screen inks, as well as a range of gloss, matte and thermal transfer flexo coatings and shrink whites. Hammer stressed that, following the roll-out of Flint’s EkoCure range, printers can make the switch to LED for virtually all flexo and screen narrow-web situations. “Everything that we do today with our ink on conventional mercury systems can be done on LED,” he explained. “We have modeled our LED products after our current products because we want this transition to be seamless, without changing color matches or tooling. When taking the run speeds, reduced downtime, lower energy and maintenance costs and improved press design into consideration, UV-LED curing offers a significant return on investment.”
Now that several narrow web press makers are actively installing and promoting UV-LED systems globally, Hammer expects to see the technology to make significant market penetration. Mark Andy, for instance, sold significant numbers of presses equipped for LED-UV flexo curing in the month following Labelexpo Americas 2014. Flint Ink’s Minnesota facility is validating performance of lamps from technology suppliers Phoseon, IST, Air Motion Systems and Heraeus. Validation has been achieved on speeds of up to 500fpm, however a California based label converter is achieving 750fpm, Hammer said.
Converter experiences
Presentations and panel Q&A sessions from two US-based narrow web label converters showed that transitioning from conventional to UV-LED curing can be seamless, delivering significant productivity and cost benefits.
Constantia Flexibles, located in Mason, OH, USA, although at an early stage in the transition phase to UV-LED, is already experiencing clear productivity gains. The plant has seven 10-color presses, featuring UV-flexo, cold foil and rotary screen all in combination on presses built by the Constantia Group.
“For us, the initial investment into LED started with a challenge,” explained Bob Feldman, plant manager at Constantia Flexibles’ Mason operation. “White screen ink curing was the limiting factor when it came to speed. We wanted Flint to help drive our costs down and the biggest obstacle was run speed.
“Flint came with an uptime solution program aligned to our Lean 6-Sigma improvement program. Their global color match system was the industry’s best, and that took us to the next step. We issued the challenge, to test the limits of our press. We hosted a one-week Kaizen event, with Phoseon and Flint, aimed at optimizing the curing of heavy white-ink laydown at high speed. It was the first trial of UV-LED ink on our presses. A 12-member team and one press were dedicated that week to performing 48 different trials with six inks, two curing systems and two workflows in two press conditions. Performance indicators were cure, opacity, ink mileage, web temperature, laydown and appearance. After the week, we were able to develop a conventionally cured ink that matched our challenge, and raise our speed by 10%.”
“We learned a lot about LED that week. What really excited us – and persuaded us to extend trials to UV-flexo and UV-varnishes – was the speed improvement. With LED curing, we were able to increase our speeds by 50% of our baseline, and that was just the initial result. Operating temperature was 15°F [8.3°C] lower than was necessary with mercury-cured equivalents. There were no cure issues and no discernible differences with opacity or ink mileage.”
With Flint and Phoseon again as partners, Constantia Flexibles performed three follow-up LED trials, validating the Kaizen exercise results, so beverage brand owners would accept the ink for line application trials. The web temperature and power consumption were key factors in determining the spec requirements for LED curing systems, Feldman said.
In Mason, Constantia has multiple generations of its proprietary press models, so multiple ink reformulations, and several bracket and web-path redesigns on the presses were needed to accommodate the new ink technology. Unexpectedly, Constantia saw a 4% improvement on white-screen opacity compared to our baseline, while run speeds increased by 65%. The UV-LED ink system uses only 25% of the power that a conventional mercury system uses. The system’s simplicity, and the fact it dispenses with the need for chill drums, also means Feldman’s press builders have more flexibility in machine design.
Strategic decision-making
Guillaume Clement, vice president, global narrow web for Flint Group emphasized that the need for this particular event was driven by the need for guidance on how to react to fast-changing market dynamics: “Brand owners are setting higher standards, demanding packaging that delivers more effective shelf impact, cost reductions and improved safety,” he said. “Furthermore, regulatory changes are part of our daily business: low migration is a perfect example.
“The fast pace of technological, regulatory and economic changes, combined with the increasing power of brand equity, present significant opportunities and challenges to the narrow-web industry. By bringing converters, brand-owners and suppliers at several stages of the workflow together, the event provided a catalyst for sharing market expertise and perspectives. Judging by the positive attendee feedback, we are confident this event is providing the insight necessary for sound strategic decision-making, and the basis for a stronger industry.”
Of the 120 label industry professionals attending the event, 60 were from converting companies, and according to Niklas Olsson, Flint Group’s global brand manager, feedback from attendees was very positive.
Plans are in the works for future, similar events in 2015 to take place in both the US and Europe.
Flint Group CEO Antoine Fady opened the conference by identifying three “mega trends” affecting the label and packaging markets. Notably, he said, the middle class in emerging markets has more disposable income, and has expanded globally by two billion dollars over the last decade. In addition, Fady said, the power of the Internet is raising consumer awareness about environmental and health issues, resulting in a growing expectation that packaging should be sustainable, in terms of both environmental impact and business ethics.
Brand equity
Fady explained why innovation is critical to the success of the packaging industry. He said, “We are all governed by brands. Brand equity is the decision maker at the end of the process, and that has a massive impact in what we do. That means we, as suppliers, cannot make any compromises on what we do in terms of assuring the health and safety of our customers. The delicate reputation of the brand is in our hands and we must do all we can to safeguard it.”
Innovation, Fady stressed, is the key to thriving in tomorrow’s narrow web market, which is guided around five themes:
- Cost and productivity improvements, enabling brand owners to respond faster with less working capital, higher quality and less defects.
- Sustainability providing an opportunity for the industry to raise consciousness of packaging’s vital role in reducing food waste and providing consumers with better information.
- Food safety – a zero-compromise issue: no risks can be taken that jeopardize the brand or the customer’s health.
- ‘Technology push’ – developing new technologies that create a market need, where none previously existed. Launching UV-LED inks is one example of the latter.
The ROI of Innovation
Tapio Kolunsarka, VP for UPM Raflatac, explained how the industry should be deploying innovative resources in order to achieve the best return-on-investment.
“The self-adhesive label market has doubled its market share in the last 20 years thanks to incremental innovations,” Kolunska said. “These innovations in ink, machine, substrate and service manufacturers have been focused on expanding applications, improving efficiency and reducing cost of ownership. The ability to run faster is central to future growth and, provided improvements are continuous, annual increments of only 1% are needed to deliver significant results over time.”
According to Kolunsarka, the key to production growth lies in leaner workflows, thinner substrates and technology investments. Kolunsarka stated that he expects material waste reductions of between 30 and 50% from existing presses, and intense focus in reducing film liner and facestock thicknesses in the next decade.
Nilpeter’s UV-LED curing research
Jakob Landberg, sales director for Danish press manufacturer Nilpeter, unveiled the company’s new hybrid, offset-flexo press, which is dedicated to research and development at Flint Group’s testing facilities in Trelleborg.
Using open platforms for easy exchange of processes at each head, the press configuration comprises three flexo, two offset, one UV-rotary screen, plus two cold foil units. With open architecture, conventional UV and UV-LED lamps on all print heads, and UV-inert gas on two, the press, Landberg said, will be instrumental in advancing performance in terms of curing time, emissions and migration levels. Also, additional hot air drying on the press enables testing of aqueous inks.
Landberg pointed out that a major change he’s observed is the emergence of both digital toner and, more recently, UV-inkjet technologies. “Digital is challenging the hegemony of analog technologies, particularly for higher-end applications. Even though digital accounts for between just 7 and 11% of global converted output by area, it accounts for over 14% by value,” he said.
“Converters considering future investments should consider the respective strengths of digital and analog processes. Digital’s strength generally lies in customized, offline printing in runs that are sufficiently short for the absence of plate costs and lower labor costs to compensate for higher costs of ink. Digital relies on analog converting processes – laser diecutting is a notable exception - to ensure a finished product. Analog print’s strengths are the high quality achievable, amplified when performing longer runs and product life cycles,” Landberg explained.
Advances in analog changeover times, according to Landberg, have pushed its break-even point with digital back down to approximately 500 web meters. “However, when digital printing presses that make single-pass printing and converting viable become available, the digital process is likely to compete for longer runs. Regardless, there will always be a need for long flexo and offset runs,” he said. “Inevitably, therefore, the question for tomorrow’s printer is to what extent digital complements the conventional workflow – being adept at being able to harmoniously manage both will be a must.”
In an era of substrate diversity, a key to flexo and offset competitiveness lies in more sophisticated combination converting presses that allow fast changeover between pressure sensitive labels, flexible packaging, shrink sleeves and in-mold labels. Landberg explained that by applying the Single Minute Exchange of Die philosophy pioneered by Toyota, Nilpeter has reduced material waste per job from hundreds of meters to less than 30 meters since the turn of the century. He said, “Tool exchange is measured in seconds, and the challenge now is to empower real-life converters to achieve changeovers in a few minutes, as is possible on an eight-color press in showroom situations.”
Productivity Improvements through UV-LED curing
Tom Hammer, product manager, narrow web North America at Flint Group, introduced the concept of UV-LED curing (Ultra Violet Light Emitting Diode). The main differences between UV-LED and mercury curing methods are the wavelengths emitted from the lamps. A standard lamp has a broad spectra of wavelengths that spread through UV-C, UV-B, UV-A, visible light and infrared. “A UV-LED lamp, however, has a narrow wavelength, peaking at around 395nm,” Hammer explained. “The inks must be formulated so the reactivity and cure results are similar but with the high intensity LED output.”
According to Hammer, the process has significant advantages over mercury lamps as a means of curing UV inks. The most striking benefit of UV-LED lamps is its life, he said, noting that UV-LED lamps can be shut off, and offer up to 20,000 hours of on-time, without degrading. “Because UV-LED lamps make minimal infrared emissions, heat is eliminated, making it possible to run shrink films without chillers, thus facilitating entry into a growing market economically. Also, an operator can safely investigate the press without the risk of being burned. And, energy consumption is typically 50% lower than that of conventional curing.”
Lightweight and compact without moving parts, the UV-LED system offers easy cleaning and avoids ozone or mercury emissions, and its light is not harmful to the eye.
Robert Karsten, of UV-LED lamp technology supplier Phoseon, provided more insight into the technology’s performance. “LED allows you to print on more heat sensitive thinner substrates,” he said. “It offers compact moveable light sources, accurate intensity and no degradation curve: you get the same consistency throughout the life of the lamp. You would have to change a mercury lamp every 200 hours for the same consistency. And given that LED lamps can be switched off during downtime, 20,000 hours of LED lamp life represents about up to ten years’ press-operating time.”
Flint Group recently launched the EkoCure ink range, a product specially formulated to work with a range of UV-LED light sources. With the largest UV-LED ink portfolio worldwide, Flint Group offers a full line of flexo and rotary screen inks, as well as a range of gloss, matte and thermal transfer flexo coatings and shrink whites. Hammer stressed that, following the roll-out of Flint’s EkoCure range, printers can make the switch to LED for virtually all flexo and screen narrow-web situations. “Everything that we do today with our ink on conventional mercury systems can be done on LED,” he explained. “We have modeled our LED products after our current products because we want this transition to be seamless, without changing color matches or tooling. When taking the run speeds, reduced downtime, lower energy and maintenance costs and improved press design into consideration, UV-LED curing offers a significant return on investment.”
Now that several narrow web press makers are actively installing and promoting UV-LED systems globally, Hammer expects to see the technology to make significant market penetration. Mark Andy, for instance, sold significant numbers of presses equipped for LED-UV flexo curing in the month following Labelexpo Americas 2014. Flint Ink’s Minnesota facility is validating performance of lamps from technology suppliers Phoseon, IST, Air Motion Systems and Heraeus. Validation has been achieved on speeds of up to 500fpm, however a California based label converter is achieving 750fpm, Hammer said.
Converter experiences
Presentations and panel Q&A sessions from two US-based narrow web label converters showed that transitioning from conventional to UV-LED curing can be seamless, delivering significant productivity and cost benefits.
Constantia Flexibles, located in Mason, OH, USA, although at an early stage in the transition phase to UV-LED, is already experiencing clear productivity gains. The plant has seven 10-color presses, featuring UV-flexo, cold foil and rotary screen all in combination on presses built by the Constantia Group.
“For us, the initial investment into LED started with a challenge,” explained Bob Feldman, plant manager at Constantia Flexibles’ Mason operation. “White screen ink curing was the limiting factor when it came to speed. We wanted Flint to help drive our costs down and the biggest obstacle was run speed.
“Flint came with an uptime solution program aligned to our Lean 6-Sigma improvement program. Their global color match system was the industry’s best, and that took us to the next step. We issued the challenge, to test the limits of our press. We hosted a one-week Kaizen event, with Phoseon and Flint, aimed at optimizing the curing of heavy white-ink laydown at high speed. It was the first trial of UV-LED ink on our presses. A 12-member team and one press were dedicated that week to performing 48 different trials with six inks, two curing systems and two workflows in two press conditions. Performance indicators were cure, opacity, ink mileage, web temperature, laydown and appearance. After the week, we were able to develop a conventionally cured ink that matched our challenge, and raise our speed by 10%.”
“We learned a lot about LED that week. What really excited us – and persuaded us to extend trials to UV-flexo and UV-varnishes – was the speed improvement. With LED curing, we were able to increase our speeds by 50% of our baseline, and that was just the initial result. Operating temperature was 15°F [8.3°C] lower than was necessary with mercury-cured equivalents. There were no cure issues and no discernible differences with opacity or ink mileage.”
With Flint and Phoseon again as partners, Constantia Flexibles performed three follow-up LED trials, validating the Kaizen exercise results, so beverage brand owners would accept the ink for line application trials. The web temperature and power consumption were key factors in determining the spec requirements for LED curing systems, Feldman said.
In Mason, Constantia has multiple generations of its proprietary press models, so multiple ink reformulations, and several bracket and web-path redesigns on the presses were needed to accommodate the new ink technology. Unexpectedly, Constantia saw a 4% improvement on white-screen opacity compared to our baseline, while run speeds increased by 65%. The UV-LED ink system uses only 25% of the power that a conventional mercury system uses. The system’s simplicity, and the fact it dispenses with the need for chill drums, also means Feldman’s press builders have more flexibility in machine design.
Strategic decision-making
Guillaume Clement, vice president, global narrow web for Flint Group emphasized that the need for this particular event was driven by the need for guidance on how to react to fast-changing market dynamics: “Brand owners are setting higher standards, demanding packaging that delivers more effective shelf impact, cost reductions and improved safety,” he said. “Furthermore, regulatory changes are part of our daily business: low migration is a perfect example.
“The fast pace of technological, regulatory and economic changes, combined with the increasing power of brand equity, present significant opportunities and challenges to the narrow-web industry. By bringing converters, brand-owners and suppliers at several stages of the workflow together, the event provided a catalyst for sharing market expertise and perspectives. Judging by the positive attendee feedback, we are confident this event is providing the insight necessary for sound strategic decision-making, and the basis for a stronger industry.”
Of the 120 label industry professionals attending the event, 60 were from converting companies, and according to Niklas Olsson, Flint Group’s global brand manager, feedback from attendees was very positive.
Plans are in the works for future, similar events in 2015 to take place in both the US and Europe.