Digital Printing Technology

Digital Printing on Packaging: An Industry’s Revolution

First emerged in 1993, the digital printing technology for packaging aims to address specific markets’ niche’s interests and needs for low-cost, high-flexibility short-runs printing.

Constantly evolving and adapting to the specificities of each different market, this new technique offers a practical packaging printing alternative that would allow bypassing the high tooling costs when small series are needed.

Indeed, this digital process eliminates the make-readies, films and plates’ tools as it directly transfers the pres-press Data to the Base (substrate) material; thus allowing great flexibility, control and speed over the production process.

Favored printing Technology for brands seeking reduced lead-times for Variable Data Printing (VDP) short runs, as no heavy tooling configuration is required to get the Machine printer started.

Two mains technologies are derived from the Digital printing:

 

 The Digital Offset, the pioneer technology

 

 The Digital Ink-Jet Printing, which makes it possible to print on all types of materials and thickness, as well as allowing a greater personalization on large single runs’ volume.

The main advantage that this Technology gives is the drastically simplified printing process, from 10 steps for traditional offset printing to only one, as it requires almost no pre-tooling. Advantageous for multi-reference packaging printing, the digital printing technology ensures high speed and excellent final print quality to meet your brand’s and products’ expectations.

A versatile multi-application Printing Technology

Digital printing on packaging ensures great versatility thanks to the different printable media it allows. Mainly used for labels (the most common application), this technique is also commonly used when Printing Shrink Sleeves, cardboard boxes, bags or blister bottoms and, when prioritizing small and medium series as well as product prototypes.

Digital printing is particularly competitive when 20 different models need to be printed at 500 copies each. The same is true for folding cartons, where it is possible to customize series of 50 cartons for 5,000 different customers.

Digital printing makes it possible to quickly create packaging prototypes that does not yet exist (within 24 to 48 hours), in order to validate their future production in industrial series (evaluate their Industrial and Technical Feasibility), to obtain an authorization to market the product, or simply for an advertising launch campaign.

Printing alternative favored for the creation of customized packaging for specific events (sport events, concerts, company parties, etc..) and small or medium series.

The possibilities of creation offered by this new alternative of printing are infinite, and would allow in the future, why not, the possibility of obtaining a products’ prototype by Internet thanks to the hexachromy* of colors.

Industry Pioneer of the Innovative Digital Printing Solution

As an innovative Industry Leader, Sleever has since 2002, been investigating how to add and integrate these digital printing technologies to complement its Packaging Solutions and Shrink Sleeve Labels’ Printing offerings.

In fact, in collaboration with Digital Packaging, a specialist in digital technology for printing pre-series and prototype packaging, Sleever developed a partnership based on Hewlett Packard technology, in order to create an Indigo Digital Press that could adapt to the technical constraints of the Shrink Sleeve Labels.

This was the birth of our innovative solution, the DIGISLEEVE®, the first Shrink Sleeve Label to be printed digitally.

Our group is committed to the continuous improvement of our processes, while ensuring a wide range of evolving alternatives adapted to nowadays’ and tomorrow’s trends and markets’ needs.

*Hexachromy consists of adding green and orange to the four primary colors to obtain 90% of Pantone tones.