In the 1960s and 1970s, there was the largest number of printing startups worldwide because offset duplicator presses and their equipments were less expensive than existing hot metal/letterpress devices. Today, there is a rise of digital-only print services.

For example, there was an increase in the number of print establishments in the New Zealand print industry from 254 in 2006 to 335 in 2007. The number of larger printing firms and mergers taking place is down. Industry revenue rose from $NZ1.1 billion to $NZ1.25 billion and this 9% increase included small firms. Digital printing also rose 44% among all users. Copy shops, quick printers, commercial printers, sign shops, and online print services are all enjoying an increase in revenue because they have a small number of employees and they are totally digital.

Small-to-medium businesses dominate the industry in the United States and Australia, with 85% of printing enterprises employing fewer than 20 people. Three quarters of print shops in Germany employ fewer than 10 staff and in Asia, approximately 95% of companies are classified as small businesses. Most of the skill sets of the traditional printing industry are now automated to a high degree. It takes less labor and less skill to produce a printed page than ever before.

Kodak experts will cover topics in this year’s Labelexpo Americas in Chicago such as the latest techniques and technologies that label converters can use to help brand owners draw attention to their products, decrease time to market, and ensure protection against counterfeiting during the Labelexpo Americas in Chicago.

Highlights from the session entitled, “Finding Direction in the Future of Label Converting,” include next steps in label materials, such as paper and film; future trends in label printing; a look at sustaining converting; and how the Green Printing Coalition relates to the label industry. It is believed that labels play a key role in product marketing and brand protection. This also includes techniques to create new opportunities for printers, converters, suppliers, and brand owners to more effectively meet customer needs for speed, color, flexibility, and security.

Another session will discuss how print providers are working with brand owners to fight counterfeiting and ensure consumers receive authentic products. It will offer specific examples of anti-counterfeiting technologies being integrated with various printing methods, including offset and digital. This new technology enables printers and converters to make it harder for counterfeiters to create cheap imitations of branded labels and packaging.

Sun Chemical has unveiled several new products and has developed lacquers that feel rough or smooth. They can be overprinted on to standard packs. The goal is to aid in stimulating the senses; a technique used Amcor Flexibles to produce Hovis crustless bread packs. The soft-touch lacquer allows the packaging to feel softer.

There are many effects and many ways that brands try to get their product noticed. Brands are becoming even more demanding. Challenges within the industry include the films that are being printed on. Coated products are considered expensive but the construction of film is important with a move to treated materials. Another costly expense is the investment in new equipment for packaging printers.

The dominant technology is flexo. The method involves printing on a web press using rubber or plastic plates with raised images. Gravure printing, on the other hand, involves the printing of an image that has been etched on the surface of a metal plate that is noted for its high quality at long runs. VMB is one of the big spenders on flexo technology. They are a part of the British Polythene Industries, a manufacturer of polythene films.

Reducing the weight of a pack without reducing its strength or branding lies in flexible plastic – in the form of films, shrink wrapping, and pouches. In an effort to capitalize on this format, brands are emblazoning logos, images and information across the flexible surfaces. Printing on to these substrates requires specialist knowledge.

A key factor is the stability of the substrate – whether it stretches or shrinks. Teleford-based plastic packaging specialist Sirane manufactures a range of packaging, including biodegradable and compostable products. Flexible plastics pose different challenges to printing on other substrates. Shrink sleeves are a challenge because they tend not to be stable before they are shrunk. As a result, the design has to be straightforward.

Packaging manufacture Linpac has an innovative approach to printing on this substrate. They claim to be the first company in Europe to print on flexible plastic using water-based inks. The ink provides adhesion to the film and the inks have no solvent emissions, there’s no solvent residue, and no solvent emissions when cutting the film. The selection of plastic films is so vast and the company must find the best ink for the job.

As HP reveal the new Indigo 7000 high-speed digital press the question is being asked, is faster better? HP believe it is when it comes to printing high-volumes of high quality four-colour pages. The HP Indigo 7000 press boast the butting-edge technology and feautures of the HP Indigo 5500 with the capability to produce up to 3.5 million four-colour A4 oages per month, or 5miliion one and two-colour pages per month. With true offset and photo quaity, customers with average monthly volumes in excess of 1million pages can significantly increase their breakeven point against offset.

It maximisises productivity with the three new print servers within the HP SmartStream family. Now press operators can concentrate on printing operations whilst the new PrintLink protocol separates the prepress tasks from printing.

It meets tighter deadline’s by maximising uptime with the HP Indigo Print Care toolset, which offers on-press and off-press diagnostics and troubleshooting tools and designed to facilitate continuous printing.