Greg Hrinya, Editor07.13.20
The evolution of digital printing has given converters a vast arsenal to better meet short-run demands. But as digital presses and printers become more prevalent, substrate suppliers must keep pace. Even the most technologically-advanced press cannot effectively serve brands without the proper materials.
The surge of investments in digital printing technologies has undoubtedly elevated the demand for digital substrates. According to Paul Lender, business development manager, digital materials, Avery Dennison Label and Packaging Materials, the market for digitally-printed labels is growing by double digits. Additionally, this market is estimated to account for roughly 10% of the total volume of label production.
Digital printing is not limited to one technology. On the contrary, the concept of digital includes liquid toner, dry toner, water-based inkjet (dye and pigment), and UV inkjet.
“Digital printing continues to disrupt the packaging industry, and it is bringing new opportunities for customers,” says Kirit Naik, global director of digital printing technologies at UPM Raflatac. “The printers are getting faster speeds, becoming more environmentally friendly, feature enhanced capabilities and flexibility, are user-friendly, include standard substrate printing options, and overall are creating less waste. The gaps in each digital printer technology are getting narrower, as print-on-demand desktop printers are improving their capabilities and becoming industrial printers. Water-based inkjet printers are adding drying capabilities and becoming significantly faster speed industrial printers. Hybrid presses are becoming smaller compared to larger industrial digital and conventional combo solutions.”
One key driver for digital substrate demand is run lengths. While digital printing is perfectly suited for short runs, many converters are moving longer run jobs to their digital assets. As more jobs are printed digitally, demand will only increase.
“The market for digital substrates reflects the growth of digital and hybrid press installations, and how increased speeds and image quality – UV inkjet, for example – have made digital suitable for longer run jobs that in the past would have only been printed conventionally with flexo,” states Lender.
Sara Damante, product manager at Mactac, states that her company sees the greatest request for materials that work on all presses, regardless of technology. “The biggest desire for customers has been to have a standard flexo product that is capable of this print method, as these products are readily available and customers usually have some type of order or supply program. If the customer has a flexo press, it’s the same product for both presses,” she explains. “The initial desire is to have the digital press OEM test and qualify standard products. If unsuccessful, then it may require applying a topcoat or finding a facestock that is truly designed and capable of the print method.”
There are challenges across digital printing methods, though. “In most cases, products are not universal across all printing platforms,” explains Joel Ulrich, Roll Product marketing manager at Spinnaker Coating. “Each technology requires a little different topcoating for those particular types of ink sets.”
Water-based inkjet, for example, features more expensive facestocks because of topcoats and the ability to accept both dye and pigment-based inks equally well. Many products used in desktop roll-fed applications also require durability since there is no varnish or overlaminate to protect the image.
“Finding products that provide the end user with the appearance required can be somewhat of a challenge,” says Earl Curran, VP of business development at Acucote. “This is mostly centered around substrates requiring topcoatings applied outside our facility.”
“Most standard materials, with the exception of heat sensitive materials, are suitable for dry toner, while a special pre-applied or inline applied primer is required for liquid toner materials,” says Lender. “Many standard materials work well for UV inkjet, though sometimes special topcoated materials are needed to ensure optimal ink adhesion and image quality. Water-based inkjet requires highly engineered topcoats to ensure instant dry, lightfastness and water, chemical resistance.”
Certain technologies have technical challenges when trying to use conventional printing materials for digital printers. “If you have a flexo ink printable substrate – and you’d also like to print from a water-based inkjet printer – you will not have the drying capability built in the printer, so water coming from the inks needs to dry,” states Naik. “If there is no additional dryer, then the substrate supplier must design the compatible chemistry to absorb the water coming from the inks and maintain superior print performance.”
“Many of the toner fusion presses seem to be compatible with standard flexo products since the fuse temperatures seem to not be as excessive as they once were,” adds Damante. “The key becomes how well the toner anchors to the flexo printable surfaces and if the heat is still high enough that caution should be taken when running such adhesives as soft, high coat weight or rubber-based adhesives. Many of the UV inkjet presses are utilizing standard flexo products, but it can be hit or miss with the print quality and/or anchorage, so some of these presses are coming with inline priming units.”
HP Indigo, meanwhile, features an inline priming unit that has enabled customers to buy standard, non-primed materials for use by priming themselves, creating a larger range of available media.
Team effort
When developing digital substrates, it is critical for substrate suppliers to work in tandem with press manufacturers to ensure the materials are optimized for the different variables unique to each system.
“When an OEM is developing new printer technology, we are right there alongside them developing the best substrates,” states UPM Raflatac’s Naik. “That way, we can partner as the substrate supplier and provide our mutual customer the best solution. We need to have open communication on the changes, either in the inks or in the substrate chemistry, and qualify during the transition so our mutual customers have no worry for their businesses.”
According to Acucote’s Curran, the partnerships between press and substrate suppliers have been a positive for the industry. “The print system manufacturers have been quite receptive to new product offering qualifications,” he says. “This is a win-win for both the manufacturer and the media supplier.”
Especially when dealing with digital inkjet printing technology, a multitude of factors can impact print performance. The printhead, with the number of jets and print frequency, ink, with surface energy and viscosity, a substrate’s surface characteristics, and the software will all play a role.
“It’s not uncommon to get very different results depending on how these variables and settings are calibrated,” explains Avery Dennison’s Lender. “This is one of the reasons why we work directly with all the key OEMs to jointly test and qualify digital portfolios to help make it easier for customers to select the right materials for success. All materials in our digital portfolios have been evaluated for performance with the OEMs.”
Naik also recommends that OEMs assign time and resources for qualifying more materials in their demo rooms so customers do not have to invest their time to conduct trial and error. “Some OEMs are doing a great job with this and some are learning the value of partnership with substrate suppliers from the beginning,” he adds. “We emphasize to OEMs that this helps their chances of selling another printer to the same customer for a repeat order. Working with OEMs and substrate suppliers – from beginning to end – creates a win-win situation for everyone, including customers and their customers.”
Fruitful partnerships have also established better trust with converters. “Our partnerships with the various digital OEMs in the market are key,” states Spinnaker’s Ulrich. “Having the relationships to get our products tested early in the development process have been a big part of our success with the growth of our digital product lines. Our customers find great value in knowing that Spinnaker products have already been tested and approved on the various printers that they may be considering to purchase.”
“Good communication that goes both ways is critical,” adds Mactac’s Damante. “Understanding the needs our mutual customers have and sharing our expertise leads to better presses, media and applications.”
Trends
With digital printing continuing to grow, the demand for the requisite substrates is as well.
“Products under the dye category continue to grow at a rapid pace,” states Acucote’s Curran. “Inline primer stations and improved ink systems are keeping UV and HP product growth rather flat. Over the last six months, pigment print compatible products have shown exceptional growth over all other digital products.”
According to Mactac’s Damante, the company is seeing steady growth for digital materials, especially those that have been optimized for UV inkjet presses.
The proliferation of digital machines has necessitated enhanced R&D at the substrate supplier end. Smaller footprint printers for on-demand color in the direct thermal and thermal transfer markets are trending. Plus, larger and faster production presses will increasingly utilize additional capabilities such as inline priming, lamination, diecutting and more.
“With the addition of priming units on the larger machines, such as HP and some of the UV inkjet printers, the need for digitally topcoated substrates has been declining slightly for those technologies,” says Spinnaker’s Ulrich. “However, the demand for digitally printable products is still growing, particularly on the water-based inkjet side.”
Ulrich adds that the continued growth of the cannabis and craft beer/spirits markets is one of the driving forces behind digital’s proliferation. Increased SKUs at smaller quantities only make sense to print digitally, which will produce added product requests.
Mactac has also recognized the demand for more forgiving UV inkjet systems to print on a wider variety of media.
Curran adds that continued press enhancements will affect substrate providers going forward. “As more and more primer stations are installed, and the topcoatings used become more reliable, the requirements for specialized media will continue to decline or remain flat,” he notes. “Print systems requiring print ready media will continue to grow at the rate of that technology.”
Product development
Substrate suppliers have responded to the surge in demand with diverse portfolios. Many of the products have been tailored to work with specific press manufacturers and digital printing methods.
Acucote stocks a variety of paper, film and foil products that are compatible with dye, pigment, UV, HP and laser systems. Any of the facestocks utilized in Acucote’s inventory programs can also be combined with special performance adhesives or liners for unique product applications.
Avery Dennison offers film and paper materials, along with materials for the wine and spirits, durables, flexible packaging and tag stock materials. In addition, the company provides converters with a range of label materials for all key digital platforms, such as Xeikon’s dry toner, HP Indigo’s liquid toner, Domino and Durst’s UV inkjet technologies, and Colordyne and Epson’s water-based inkjet technologies, among others. “Recently, within our Water-based Ink Jet (WBIJ) portfolio, we’ve seen a lot of interest in our new Metallized PET WBIJ facestock,” says Avery Dennison’s Lender. Avery Dennison also boasts a digital print lab with full testing and printing capabilities for WBIJ. In addition, the company can test for BS5609 for new drum applications.
Mactac continues to expand its standard and specialty digital material offerings. The company has various standard flexo products that have been qualified in various production web-fed UV inkjet and toner fusion-based presses, as well as customers using Indigo presses with an inline priming unit. In addition, Mactac offers Indie Indigo products that are pre-primed for use on HP Indigo presses, as well as MACjet products designed for use in water-based inkjet sheet-fed and roll-fed desktop printers, and floor model production presses. MACcopy products have been developed for use in toner fusion sheet-fed and roll-fed desktop printers and floor model production presses.
Spinnaker Coating has been focusing on the growth of its Cascade product line for water-based inkjet printers. It recently introduced several removable adhesive options and also offers Endura Inkjet Durable Paper, which provides comparable durability and conformability to a film but at a more economical price point. This product has been BS5609 Part 2 and Part 3 approved for drum and barrel labeling.
“All of our digital products are offered on our Trimless program, which allows customers to order a single roll if that is all they need,” notes Spinnaker’s Ulrich.
UPM Raflatac offers products for all digital printing technologies, including small, medium and large printers. Customers can also access UPM Raflatac’s Printer Recommendation Tool, which can assess which of the company’s materials will work best on their printers.
The company recently launched the versatile 2.6 mil White BOPP UVI. “In general, semi-gloss substrates have the challenge of consistently maintaining their quality with UV inkjet printing, so we need to design special surface chemistry for semi-gloss paper for UV inkjet,” explains UPM Raflatac’s Naik. “UPM Raflatac has proudly designed the best premium gloss UVI paper products on the market.”
Acucote, a solutions-oriented, pressure sensitive adhesive coating manufacturer, has once again expanded its portfolio of pressure sensitive media for inkjet (UV, dye and pigment), laser/toner and HP print technologies.
A highlight of the digital portfolio is the range of durable labelstocks, including Kimdura Ultra film (for pigment printing) and Kimdura DualTech film (for pigment and laser/toner compatible printing). Both of these products are BS5609 Section 2 certified.
To obtain BS5609 certification, labels need to withstand a three-month salt water submersion test in the English Channel. BS5609-certified labels are proven to meet the most stringent tests for durability in the industry.
The digital portfolio also features six new additions to Acucote’s Waterjet line of dye and pigment compatible stocks, including 2 mil gloss clear polyester and 4 mil metalized polyester/polypropylene films.
New to Acucote’s line are the 10pt gloss and matte boardstock options for both dye and pigment printing. The portfolio expansion also includes Endura inkjet durable papers for pigment, dye and laser/toner print technologies.
The laser and toner compatible portion of the digital portfolio has been expanded with 13 new products: seven new film combinations featuring 2 mil clear, 2 mil metalized and 2.6 mil gloss white toner polypropylenes, 3.2 mil clear laser vinyl and 3.5 mil white laser vinyl. There are also six new paper combinations utilizing 60# laser semi-gloss, 57# laser high gloss and bright silver laser foil.
According to Melissa Harton, product manager, digital media, “Specifications for labelstocks are increasingly becoming more stringent in terms of temperature range, environmental resistance, stronger adhesives and better printability. Over the past years, we’ve seen a gradual shift from strictly laser to pigment-based print systems for outdoor and drum labeling. We’re pleased to expand our portfolio to meet the needs of the fast-growing durables sector, as well as support the variety of print methods constantly growing in today’s marketplace.”
Harton continues, “While our digital portfolio of stocked products, certified by leading OEMs, has continued to evolve, what truly differentiates Acucote is our renowned Application Development Team. This team specializes in custom orders – matching up the best facestock, adhesive and liner for the specific print technology and creating innovative and effective solutions to serve our customers’ most demanding digital requirements. And best of all, they will recommend solutions in days, not weeks.”
The surge of investments in digital printing technologies has undoubtedly elevated the demand for digital substrates. According to Paul Lender, business development manager, digital materials, Avery Dennison Label and Packaging Materials, the market for digitally-printed labels is growing by double digits. Additionally, this market is estimated to account for roughly 10% of the total volume of label production.
Digital printing is not limited to one technology. On the contrary, the concept of digital includes liquid toner, dry toner, water-based inkjet (dye and pigment), and UV inkjet.
“Digital printing continues to disrupt the packaging industry, and it is bringing new opportunities for customers,” says Kirit Naik, global director of digital printing technologies at UPM Raflatac. “The printers are getting faster speeds, becoming more environmentally friendly, feature enhanced capabilities and flexibility, are user-friendly, include standard substrate printing options, and overall are creating less waste. The gaps in each digital printer technology are getting narrower, as print-on-demand desktop printers are improving their capabilities and becoming industrial printers. Water-based inkjet printers are adding drying capabilities and becoming significantly faster speed industrial printers. Hybrid presses are becoming smaller compared to larger industrial digital and conventional combo solutions.”
One key driver for digital substrate demand is run lengths. While digital printing is perfectly suited for short runs, many converters are moving longer run jobs to their digital assets. As more jobs are printed digitally, demand will only increase.
“The market for digital substrates reflects the growth of digital and hybrid press installations, and how increased speeds and image quality – UV inkjet, for example – have made digital suitable for longer run jobs that in the past would have only been printed conventionally with flexo,” states Lender.
Sara Damante, product manager at Mactac, states that her company sees the greatest request for materials that work on all presses, regardless of technology. “The biggest desire for customers has been to have a standard flexo product that is capable of this print method, as these products are readily available and customers usually have some type of order or supply program. If the customer has a flexo press, it’s the same product for both presses,” she explains. “The initial desire is to have the digital press OEM test and qualify standard products. If unsuccessful, then it may require applying a topcoat or finding a facestock that is truly designed and capable of the print method.”
There are challenges across digital printing methods, though. “In most cases, products are not universal across all printing platforms,” explains Joel Ulrich, Roll Product marketing manager at Spinnaker Coating. “Each technology requires a little different topcoating for those particular types of ink sets.”
Water-based inkjet, for example, features more expensive facestocks because of topcoats and the ability to accept both dye and pigment-based inks equally well. Many products used in desktop roll-fed applications also require durability since there is no varnish or overlaminate to protect the image.
“Finding products that provide the end user with the appearance required can be somewhat of a challenge,” says Earl Curran, VP of business development at Acucote. “This is mostly centered around substrates requiring topcoatings applied outside our facility.”
“Most standard materials, with the exception of heat sensitive materials, are suitable for dry toner, while a special pre-applied or inline applied primer is required for liquid toner materials,” says Lender. “Many standard materials work well for UV inkjet, though sometimes special topcoated materials are needed to ensure optimal ink adhesion and image quality. Water-based inkjet requires highly engineered topcoats to ensure instant dry, lightfastness and water, chemical resistance.”
Certain technologies have technical challenges when trying to use conventional printing materials for digital printers. “If you have a flexo ink printable substrate – and you’d also like to print from a water-based inkjet printer – you will not have the drying capability built in the printer, so water coming from the inks needs to dry,” states Naik. “If there is no additional dryer, then the substrate supplier must design the compatible chemistry to absorb the water coming from the inks and maintain superior print performance.”
“Many of the toner fusion presses seem to be compatible with standard flexo products since the fuse temperatures seem to not be as excessive as they once were,” adds Damante. “The key becomes how well the toner anchors to the flexo printable surfaces and if the heat is still high enough that caution should be taken when running such adhesives as soft, high coat weight or rubber-based adhesives. Many of the UV inkjet presses are utilizing standard flexo products, but it can be hit or miss with the print quality and/or anchorage, so some of these presses are coming with inline priming units.”
HP Indigo, meanwhile, features an inline priming unit that has enabled customers to buy standard, non-primed materials for use by priming themselves, creating a larger range of available media.
Team effort
When developing digital substrates, it is critical for substrate suppliers to work in tandem with press manufacturers to ensure the materials are optimized for the different variables unique to each system.
“When an OEM is developing new printer technology, we are right there alongside them developing the best substrates,” states UPM Raflatac’s Naik. “That way, we can partner as the substrate supplier and provide our mutual customer the best solution. We need to have open communication on the changes, either in the inks or in the substrate chemistry, and qualify during the transition so our mutual customers have no worry for their businesses.”
According to Acucote’s Curran, the partnerships between press and substrate suppliers have been a positive for the industry. “The print system manufacturers have been quite receptive to new product offering qualifications,” he says. “This is a win-win for both the manufacturer and the media supplier.”
Especially when dealing with digital inkjet printing technology, a multitude of factors can impact print performance. The printhead, with the number of jets and print frequency, ink, with surface energy and viscosity, a substrate’s surface characteristics, and the software will all play a role.
“It’s not uncommon to get very different results depending on how these variables and settings are calibrated,” explains Avery Dennison’s Lender. “This is one of the reasons why we work directly with all the key OEMs to jointly test and qualify digital portfolios to help make it easier for customers to select the right materials for success. All materials in our digital portfolios have been evaluated for performance with the OEMs.”
Naik also recommends that OEMs assign time and resources for qualifying more materials in their demo rooms so customers do not have to invest their time to conduct trial and error. “Some OEMs are doing a great job with this and some are learning the value of partnership with substrate suppliers from the beginning,” he adds. “We emphasize to OEMs that this helps their chances of selling another printer to the same customer for a repeat order. Working with OEMs and substrate suppliers – from beginning to end – creates a win-win situation for everyone, including customers and their customers.”
Fruitful partnerships have also established better trust with converters. “Our partnerships with the various digital OEMs in the market are key,” states Spinnaker’s Ulrich. “Having the relationships to get our products tested early in the development process have been a big part of our success with the growth of our digital product lines. Our customers find great value in knowing that Spinnaker products have already been tested and approved on the various printers that they may be considering to purchase.”
“Good communication that goes both ways is critical,” adds Mactac’s Damante. “Understanding the needs our mutual customers have and sharing our expertise leads to better presses, media and applications.”
Trends
With digital printing continuing to grow, the demand for the requisite substrates is as well.
“Products under the dye category continue to grow at a rapid pace,” states Acucote’s Curran. “Inline primer stations and improved ink systems are keeping UV and HP product growth rather flat. Over the last six months, pigment print compatible products have shown exceptional growth over all other digital products.”
According to Mactac’s Damante, the company is seeing steady growth for digital materials, especially those that have been optimized for UV inkjet presses.
The proliferation of digital machines has necessitated enhanced R&D at the substrate supplier end. Smaller footprint printers for on-demand color in the direct thermal and thermal transfer markets are trending. Plus, larger and faster production presses will increasingly utilize additional capabilities such as inline priming, lamination, diecutting and more.
“With the addition of priming units on the larger machines, such as HP and some of the UV inkjet printers, the need for digitally topcoated substrates has been declining slightly for those technologies,” says Spinnaker’s Ulrich. “However, the demand for digitally printable products is still growing, particularly on the water-based inkjet side.”
Ulrich adds that the continued growth of the cannabis and craft beer/spirits markets is one of the driving forces behind digital’s proliferation. Increased SKUs at smaller quantities only make sense to print digitally, which will produce added product requests.
Mactac has also recognized the demand for more forgiving UV inkjet systems to print on a wider variety of media.
Curran adds that continued press enhancements will affect substrate providers going forward. “As more and more primer stations are installed, and the topcoatings used become more reliable, the requirements for specialized media will continue to decline or remain flat,” he notes. “Print systems requiring print ready media will continue to grow at the rate of that technology.”
Product development
Substrate suppliers have responded to the surge in demand with diverse portfolios. Many of the products have been tailored to work with specific press manufacturers and digital printing methods.
Acucote stocks a variety of paper, film and foil products that are compatible with dye, pigment, UV, HP and laser systems. Any of the facestocks utilized in Acucote’s inventory programs can also be combined with special performance adhesives or liners for unique product applications.
Avery Dennison offers film and paper materials, along with materials for the wine and spirits, durables, flexible packaging and tag stock materials. In addition, the company provides converters with a range of label materials for all key digital platforms, such as Xeikon’s dry toner, HP Indigo’s liquid toner, Domino and Durst’s UV inkjet technologies, and Colordyne and Epson’s water-based inkjet technologies, among others. “Recently, within our Water-based Ink Jet (WBIJ) portfolio, we’ve seen a lot of interest in our new Metallized PET WBIJ facestock,” says Avery Dennison’s Lender. Avery Dennison also boasts a digital print lab with full testing and printing capabilities for WBIJ. In addition, the company can test for BS5609 for new drum applications.
Mactac continues to expand its standard and specialty digital material offerings. The company has various standard flexo products that have been qualified in various production web-fed UV inkjet and toner fusion-based presses, as well as customers using Indigo presses with an inline priming unit. In addition, Mactac offers Indie Indigo products that are pre-primed for use on HP Indigo presses, as well as MACjet products designed for use in water-based inkjet sheet-fed and roll-fed desktop printers, and floor model production presses. MACcopy products have been developed for use in toner fusion sheet-fed and roll-fed desktop printers and floor model production presses.
Spinnaker Coating has been focusing on the growth of its Cascade product line for water-based inkjet printers. It recently introduced several removable adhesive options and also offers Endura Inkjet Durable Paper, which provides comparable durability and conformability to a film but at a more economical price point. This product has been BS5609 Part 2 and Part 3 approved for drum and barrel labeling.
“All of our digital products are offered on our Trimless program, which allows customers to order a single roll if that is all they need,” notes Spinnaker’s Ulrich.
UPM Raflatac offers products for all digital printing technologies, including small, medium and large printers. Customers can also access UPM Raflatac’s Printer Recommendation Tool, which can assess which of the company’s materials will work best on their printers.
The company recently launched the versatile 2.6 mil White BOPP UVI. “In general, semi-gloss substrates have the challenge of consistently maintaining their quality with UV inkjet printing, so we need to design special surface chemistry for semi-gloss paper for UV inkjet,” explains UPM Raflatac’s Naik. “UPM Raflatac has proudly designed the best premium gloss UVI paper products on the market.”
Acucote, a solutions-oriented, pressure sensitive adhesive coating manufacturer, has once again expanded its portfolio of pressure sensitive media for inkjet (UV, dye and pigment), laser/toner and HP print technologies.
A highlight of the digital portfolio is the range of durable labelstocks, including Kimdura Ultra film (for pigment printing) and Kimdura DualTech film (for pigment and laser/toner compatible printing). Both of these products are BS5609 Section 2 certified.
To obtain BS5609 certification, labels need to withstand a three-month salt water submersion test in the English Channel. BS5609-certified labels are proven to meet the most stringent tests for durability in the industry.
The digital portfolio also features six new additions to Acucote’s Waterjet line of dye and pigment compatible stocks, including 2 mil gloss clear polyester and 4 mil metalized polyester/polypropylene films.
New to Acucote’s line are the 10pt gloss and matte boardstock options for both dye and pigment printing. The portfolio expansion also includes Endura inkjet durable papers for pigment, dye and laser/toner print technologies.
The laser and toner compatible portion of the digital portfolio has been expanded with 13 new products: seven new film combinations featuring 2 mil clear, 2 mil metalized and 2.6 mil gloss white toner polypropylenes, 3.2 mil clear laser vinyl and 3.5 mil white laser vinyl. There are also six new paper combinations utilizing 60# laser semi-gloss, 57# laser high gloss and bright silver laser foil.
According to Melissa Harton, product manager, digital media, “Specifications for labelstocks are increasingly becoming more stringent in terms of temperature range, environmental resistance, stronger adhesives and better printability. Over the past years, we’ve seen a gradual shift from strictly laser to pigment-based print systems for outdoor and drum labeling. We’re pleased to expand our portfolio to meet the needs of the fast-growing durables sector, as well as support the variety of print methods constantly growing in today’s marketplace.”
Harton continues, “While our digital portfolio of stocked products, certified by leading OEMs, has continued to evolve, what truly differentiates Acucote is our renowned Application Development Team. This team specializes in custom orders – matching up the best facestock, adhesive and liner for the specific print technology and creating innovative and effective solutions to serve our customers’ most demanding digital requirements. And best of all, they will recommend solutions in days, not weeks.”
