Acquiring a new skill can often be an exercise in futility. We are creatures of habit, and sometimes breaking the routine is easier said than done. Getting past the “We’ve always done it this way” mantra is a challenging endeavor, mainly because a considerable number of label companies have been built on tried-and-true practices.

In the past year, we have all been forced to learn new skills. Conducting press demonstrations through Zoom, attending virtual events, and resorting to email for even the most mundane tasks have become the norm. Hopefully, some of these tasks will go by the wayside and we return to “normal” life. Of course, some of them have proven to be quite valuable and will likely become ingrained in our day-to-day activities. We shouldn’t get in the way of progress.

My editorial, however, is not focused on the people in this industry, nor the tools in which we use to communicate. In fact, it is aimed at the technology – specifically flexography. Flexo presses have long accounted for the lion’s share of pressure sensitive label printing. Even with the increased adoption of digital printing, flexography figures to continue being a label printing force well into the future. More digital presses might be acquired in the short-term, but converters will print more labels flexographically.

This old dog has proven capable of learning new tricks. The modern-day flexo press is not that of your father’s generation. On the contrary, flexo presses have been engineered to meet the demands of the current workforce – and the upcoming one. Automated features, faster printing speeds and job changeovers, Industry 4.0 capability are but a few of the new bells and whistles on the latest presses. Data and analytics are not just reserved for sports.

The evolution of flexo presses does not in any way diminish the need for digital printing capabilities. When speaking with most suppliers and converters, there is a strong need – if not requirement – for both printing technologies. It might not make sense to run a job for one million labels digitally, just as it wouldn’t be economical to produce plates and go through the legwork for a 500-label order from a small, local winery. These technologies can be used in tandem. Then there’s the hybrid press, which offers the best of both worlds. Today, perhaps more than ever, label converters have a full arsenal of products at their disposal to meet the needs of a changing marketplace. We will discuss that more in our next issue, with a deep dive into e-commerce labels and contingency planning.

In this issue, we focus on the latest enhancements in the flexo press arena (turn to page 42 to learn more), which includes new developments in the world of anilox rolls (see page 52 for details).

This classic print method has proven it still has a few tricks up its sleeve.



Greg Hrinya, Editor
[email protected]