Xeikon and its Aura Partners will present how the digital production of folding cartons can transform the business of packaging printers and converters at the Xeikon Café on Packaging Innovations, taking place May 20-22 in Antwerp, Belgium. Attendees of the event will have the opportunity to see Xeikon’s label and packaging application suites in action and learn more about innovations in digital production. One of the suites highlighted will be the Folding Carton Suite.

In a market still dominated by offset printing, shorter runs and more different versions means more frequent make-readies of presses and converting equipment, which adds to the cost and does not improve turnaround times. Xeikon is emphasizing how digital printing technology has the capability to make the folding carton supply chain more efficient and cost-effective. Because set-up and make-ready costs are minimal, small runs can be produced cost-effectively. Moreover, every print can be different, last-minute changes are no problem and updates can be made in short turnaround times. Xeikon touts that its digital printing technology has several advantages when it comes to meeting the market’s requirements in terms of format flexibility, cost, print quality, color accuracy and consistency, lightfastness, food safety and brand protection. The Xeikon 3000 Series presses were specifically developed for label and packaging applications, making it ideally suited for folding carton printing.

Filip Weymans, Xeikon’s director of segment marketing, Labels & Packaging, explains: “For brand owners pursuing customer intimacy, folding carton has more going for it than its cost. The perceived value of a quality full-color carton box is just so much higher than that of any other type of packaging. Folding carton is therefore ideal to grow and nurture that all-important customer loyalty.”

Because there is more to folding carton production than the printing, Xeikon offers the Folding Carton Suite. At the core of this suite is a Xeikon 3000 Series press, standard equipped with the four process colors CMYK and orange or Durable Clear toner, and complemented with four supporting components: (1) software, (2) print media, (3) consumables and (4) pre-and post-printing equipment. It is the result of a close collaboration between Xeikon and its Aura Partners.