Flexo Feature

August 2014

Flexo future

Barry Mansfield studies the latest developments in flexographic printing and the growth areas where it is expected to dominate in coming years

Flexographic printing suffered a reputation for poor quality output for years - but it's now at the front of the pack. The inks are used in printing of packaging materials such as paper bags, plastic bags, food packaging, catalogues and corrugated cardboard, and they are categorised in three classes: water based, solvent based and UV cured. The type selected typically depends on the printing surface, while the ink itself consists of solvents, resins and colorants. Pira International forecasts more than 2% growth per annum in the flexographic printing market to 2016.

North America is the biggest consumer of flexographic printing inks today due to increasing demand from the packaging industry. Government policies relating to packaging systems and solutions are driving the industry in this region. Asia Pacific falls just behind North America in total consumption of flexographic printing inks as a consequence of changing lifestyles and increasing disposable income in emerging economies like China and India. Europe is forecast to grow at higher rate with stronger demand for waterborne and bio-based inks in the digital printing industry.

It wasn't always so popular. Historians track the origins of Flexo - first known as aniline printing -back to 1890, and for fifty years the process was used extensively in food packaging. However, in the 1940s the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classified aniline dye inks as toxic and inappropriate for food, and printing sales suffered. A turning point came when the process was renamed in 1951. This coincided with the arrival of safer inks developed for its use. As a result, flexo was given the green light by the FDA.
Flexo's acceptance coincides with the growth of the pressure sensitive industry, and it has now firmly established itself as the industry's dominant process. Today, flexo printing has developed to be an effective alternative to offset and gravure techniques, which were traditionally recognised as the high quality methods. It is also the quickest-growing analogue printing process for use in label printing. According to Smithers Pira, global demand for flexo printed pressure sensitive labels will leap to 15.8 billion square metres in 2017.

Printed electronics is a fascinating growth area for flexography. While apparently only accounting for $3 million in sales in 2008, the printed electronics market is likely to surge to $40.2 billion by 2020, according to MarketsandMarkets. Even in sharing this new boom industry with other print processes, there are tremendous opportunities for Flexo here. Flexible packaging is another high quality, high growth field for the print process, while rotogravure is slowly falling from favour. In no other Flexo sector does the converted product have to perform like in the flexible packaging marketplace.

More specifically, it is essential that the package decorates, conveys, contains, preserves, protects and provides optimum functionality. As in the tag and label market, customer demand has seen the number of colours increased for Flexo printed flexible packaging, and line screen values are trending upwards with values of 133 lpi or higher. These enhancements, along with shorter run lengths and reduced cost, give flexography a strong advantage over rotogravure. On a global scale Flexo dominates the flexible packaging sector, with over 64% of the market share.

Innovate: fast and flexible, HD and bio-friendly solutions

While digital printing has arrived at a level of marketplace maturity, there is still a significant amount of innovation occurring in the sector, both from the perspective of technologies and the manner in which those technologies are utilised to meet existing and emerging client needs. Key players in this market include Sun Chemical Corp., Sakata Inx Corporation, T & K Toka Co. Ltd., Tokyo
A continued shift from publications to packaging and changing printing technologies is expected to propel the market. Changing consumer behaviour in developed nations is expected to boost the packaging industry, as shoppers like to read more detailed information about goods on the package itself. Flexo's adaptability, and the improved options for customisation that it provides, are also expected to guide the market. Unfortunately, solvents and resins are made from petroleum based raw materials; crude oil price volatility may thwart market development.

High quality UV curable flexographic inks and eco-friendly, bio-based inks could fill in here. This one uncertainty hasn't deterred Eric Hoendervangers, commercial director for Dutch press manufacturer MPS, who lauds flexo's efficiency as a one-pass inline process. Hoendervangers says flexo's position in label printing is partly down to its benefits in flexibility and colour opacity. But he points out that inline-converting is sometimes technically essential or "economically the only answer" and is difficult to separate in an offline process. That's another reason why flexo gives an advantage.

For Hoendervangers, flexo's superiority can be attributed to five key strengths. Firstly, it perfectly satisfies the five label production parameters: flexo prints high quality CMYK; it has outstanding, stable colour densities; it is simply combined in line with other desired converting technologies; it allows for the highest productivity and flexibility; and flexo presses are easy to operate and control. "These five parameters are ideal for label manufacturing and guarantee both customer satisfaction and converter profits," he says.

Lee Zerfass, digital business manager for Anderson & Vreeland, stresses that modern flexo is about much more than press technology. He warns that flexo will "continue to evolve, capitalising on the mechanical advances in the presses themselves." That means the process will become even more predictable and time efficient, slashing material waste and "coming up to colour" much more rapidly. Zerfass also expects more advances in plate materials, mounting tapes, sleeves, anilox rolls, doctor blades and curing. Quality, he says, is improving "on every touch point to the press itself."

Another recent addition is high-definition, or HD Flexo, from prepress equipment and software supplier Esko, which is working to further shut down the so-called 'quality gap' between with competitors like offset and gravure. HD Flexo is a new process for making improved digital flexo plates that offer a higher quality and can print more consistently than the regular digital flexo plates. Platemaking has enjoyed great progress by exposing plate material with flat top dots, either in the exposure processes or integrated
4000 to 5080 dpi greatly enhances type, drop shadows, highlight and shadow details. For line work, the look is sharper across the board, boosting nutritional panels and micro-printing. Aside from HD, Zerfass reckons further improvements in plate quality, image reproduction by dot shape or structure, ink transfer, and durability can be expected. He expects more use of CtP devices and high wattage lasers to ablate carbon masked plates. LEDs used in exposing and curing are cheap, power efficient and eco-friendly (with no hazardous mercury or ozone) and last for thousands of hours.

Hoendervangers notes some breakthrough innovations from the last five years that can cut the running cost per 1,000 labels, enabling flexo to compete with digital. In the meantime, the arrival of core new polymer materials, surface manipulation of the dots, and refinements in software and processing equipment, are all helping to increase the acceptance and transfer of inks to the substrate. State of the art engraving technologies give higher count lines, cell volumes and cell configurations, again transferring more ink to the plate.

European affair

Flexo is on the radar in fast-growing Eastern Europe. For example, Edale installed a compact FL-1 flexographic press at the Wroclaw base of Polish label manufacturer Etimarket in August. This printer's success has seen them having to expand into a larger factory. Andrey Mikula, Etimarket's owner and managing director, says the FL-1 press was needed to ensure "a solid foundation" for the firm's growth. The award-winning machine has a tiny footprint of just over two square metres, making it ideal for companies aiming for maximum productivity with minimal use of space.

The FL-1 can be run with UV or water based inks and is capable of printing on a range of substrates. It is available with an extensive set of options and the ability to upgrade at any time.
Bernhard Grob, Edale's export sales director, confirms that the Etimarket installation is the second Edale machine to be set up in Poland this summer, and he hopes to increase further Edale's presence in Eastern Europe by building its network and entering into new partnerships across the region.

ENDS