Digital Printing in Industrial Packaging Applications: Current Status and a Road Map for Success

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the progress in the application of ink jet printing technology to industrial package printing. With the phenomenal success of the ink jet printing technology in the SOHO environment, there is an intense interest among both ink jet printing system manufacturers and the packaging industry in using this technology for packaging applications. In the past, there have been some applications of ink jet technology in packaging, especially for low resolution and low speed applications like case coding, bar coding and the like, with continuous ink jet being the main technology of choice. Currently, the DOD technology has matured to the extent that it is becoming the preferred technology for high quality and high resolution printing systems. We believe that ink jet technology, through recent advances, has reached a stage where it could be used to develop printing systems for applications in package printing. These applications can span the range from printing just variable information to full package printing. We will give details about the packaging application from the end user's perspective and address issues such as resolution, speed, and reliability, etc. Also considered are issues like environment, user interface, manufacturing integration, and acceptance on the factory floor, which are all key elements for the successful implementation of the technology. We will detail our experience over the past couple of years as an end user trying to incorporate this technology and the lessons learned in the process.