R.R. Donnelley & Sons (RRD) introduced at PACK EXPO Las Vegas its expanded partnership with EFI, marking not solely prolonged capabilities for RRD but in addition an extension of digital printing functions into corrugated packaging.
At its packaging facility in Milwaukee, RRD has put in an EFI Nozomi C18000 Plus single-pass digital inkjet printer. Anticipated to be operational by this fall, the press allows the packaging and print powerhouse to cut back time-to-market by 25%, maximize shade and design choices, and prioritize sustainability on large-format runs of quite a lot of totally different sized substrates whereas delivering constant print high quality.
The brand new press helps RRD’s means to offer high-quality leads to retail signage and shows constructed from boards and corrugated to poly-based substrates.R.R. Donnelley
Sustainability drives a transfer ahead
Sustainability has been a key driver for digital printing in normal. “There’s rather a lot much less waste whenever you’re printing what you want, the place you want it, whenever you want it,” Hanulec says. “There’s rather a lot much less waste when you’re printing very focused, related messaging.”
In response to RRD’s 2023 (Un)Packaging Actuality Report, the overwhelming majority (90%) of packaging and label determination makers proceed to agree that sustainability is a key consideration in packaging and label choices. RRD is targeted on supporting its shoppers’ sustainability efforts by means of decreased power, emissions, and waste. Its set up of the Nozomi C18000 Plus press permits an total discount of carbon footprint attributable to sustainable UV LED inks, extra dependable printing, much less waste, and a 4X discount in power utilization in contrast to different digital presses.
“Our expertise leverages UV inks and UV LED curing, which makes use of about 25% much less power than any of the normal curing applied sciences that exist on the market,” Hanulec says. “Most different applied sciences leverage warmth, and there’s lots of power required to make a warmth supply.”
There’s additionally little or no water concerned within the means of digitally printed corrugated packaging, Hanulec notes. “There’s zero water waste related to our expertise,” he says.
Corrugated packaging drivers
Although RRD will use the press for quite a lot of retail signage and shows, Hanulec emphasizes the corporate’s expanded utility into corrugated packaging, pushed by different market influences round e-commerce—particularly, on-box promoting and Amazon’s SOIC (ships in personal container) packaging pointers.
“Whenever you and I am going dwelling after this journey, more than likely there’s going to be both an unopened Amazon field or an open field within the storage that you simply’re going to throw away and take to the dump. It’s a brown field with a black swoosh on it,” Hanulec feedback. “That ought to be an extension of the model or the contents which can be inside that field, or it ought to be an promoting platform that may very well be 100 instances greater than Fb and Google and all the things mixed, primarily based on what number of packing containers are consumed.”
On-box promoting is an rising pattern borne of e-commerce. SIOC is one other. “Individuals don’t wish to have all this waste of a field inside a field inside a field,” Hanulec says, pointing to digital printing’s position in enabling SIOC-capable packing containers that can scale back materials consumption. “With the ships in personal container, you purchase one thing and it is available in that exterior field, and so they’re fantastically embellished and branded and it appears to be like fantastic.”
Expanded capabilities
This press additionally expedites new job setup (in as little as seven minutes), prints as much as six colours, and runs constantly with out having to pause printing to reload. The brand new addition helps RRD’s means to offer high-quality leads to retail signage and shows constructed from boards and corrugated to poly-based substrates.
“Our dedication to offering distinctive service to our shoppers consists of investing in new expertise that delivers worth and exceeds expectations,” says Lisa Pruett, president of packaging and labels options at RRD. “As we proceed to judge the evolving market, we’re leveraging innovation to develop our capabilities within the areas that matter most to our shoppers: growing speed-to-market, offering sustainable printing options, and creating price financial savings.”
By leveraging superior print expertise, the brand new press permits for inks that won’t crack when bent or folded, a wide range of media, and quick processes which can be correct and repeatable. The UV LED inks utilized in the Nozomi C18000 Plus press maximize shade and design choices accessible to RRD’s shoppers.
A number of components have enabled a transfer to cost parity for this digital printing press, Hanulec says. “Any time you have got change in nearly something, there must be an financial argument. And the economics now dictate—with the velocity of the printers, with the price of all of the expertise, together with the ink print heads, the ink—it now rivals the price of the outdated method of doing it,” he says. “When you have financial parity and then you definitely layer in these advantages of sustainability, e-commerce, print what you need whenever you need, the place you need it, you’ve received a worth driver to transform a market from analog to digital.”