Mark Andy recently invited top speakers from leading technology manufacturers to its headquarters in Chesterfield, MO, USA, for a two-day symposium that looked at the trends in the label market and how technology is responding to changing requirements. 

Welcoming delegates to the company’s manufacturing facility, Steve Schulte, VP of sales, said Mark Andy has a responsibility to respond quickly to trends and show printers and converters how they can improve production efficiency and company profitability. “The key is embracing the latest technology that has been developed through extensive R&D based on user feedback, as this event’s program will show,” he said.

Schulte went on to highlight significant changes in the market that all converters are confronting. These include lack of skilled workers, supply chain issues post Covid, material shortages, plastic taxes, rising costs, shorter run lengths and more SKUs. The latter two are being addressed by the growth of digital printing, and in Mark Andy’s case, three digital/flexo hybrids, each targeted at a different sector of the market. 

Other notable trends include the increasing use of linerless labels, RFID tagging, and a growing need for more accurate data capture. “The path to success was investment in the latest automated servo flexo presses and digital hybrids, coupled with accurate data to ensure production efficiency, and outside the company, the need to keep a close eye on emerging market opportunities,” commented Schulte.

The first guest speaker was Linnea Keen, president of TLMI, who gave a snapshot of the latest sales figures from its members, which show a general increase, especially in the medium/mid-range but with a marked backlog of two to three weeks across all sectors, with lead times from both suppliers and customers being highest in the small to mid-range. Labor costs, unsurprisingly, showed an all-round increase. Highlighting comments from a cross section of TLMI members, she said, “The feeling is that the market remains tough but stable, and with raw material supplies easing, there is a general feeling of optimism for the future, but probably not for 2023.”

Looking at the label market overall, company acquisitions have dropped significantly from four successive high years spanning 2019 to 2022, which reflects the soft market conditions, and an unprecedented drop of 33% in shipments from European label makers is the direct result of destocking following the pandemic. “On the consumer side, there has been a major switch from ‘premium’ to ‘value’ that has had a knock-on effect – similarly downsizing of packaging units is having an effect,” said Keen. 

The PS label market is stable, however, with growth coming from shrink sleeves and the proliferation SKUs.

Kevin McKell, VP of sales and marketing at Vetaphone, then gave an outline explanation of surface treatment and its vital role in ensuring high quality print. As the inventors of the corona process, he said, “Vetaphone has more experience of working with a diverse range of substrates than any other manufacturer and we have a unique Test Lab facility in Denmark that allows manufacturers and converters to trial new products prior to incurring the costs of commercial production.”

Highlighting that not all substrates behave the same, nor even two rolls of the same substrate, he stressed the need to test each roll prior to production to check its Dyne level and consequently the amount of corona treatment required. Both under- and over-treatment cause issues with downstream processing and are unnecessary with Vetaphone’s highly controllable iCorona generators. With Dyne levels decaying over time, storage time and conditions play an important part in substrate performance, so testing prior to use will indicate any need for boost treatment. “If you understand the process, you are in a better position to ensure top quality end products,” he concluded.

Continuing with the theme of ink performance on substrates, Tom Hammer, head of Technical marketing at Siegwerk EIC, said that the growth of LED-UV technology was shining a light on the key criteria of energy costs, sustainability, quality, productivity, and a reduced footprint in today’s industry. With current trends of more SKUs, higher shelf appeal and global color management, combined with the growth of digital print in this sector, ink manufacturers are constantly being challenged, with low migration an ongoing subject for debate.

On the theme of sustainability and production efficiency, Amir Dekel, VP of sales at UV curing manufacturer GEW, took a holistic view of the global energy situation, which shows that of the 7.9 billion people on our planet, three billion use no electricity at all, and 1.5 billion consume less than a third of each US citizen. “If the world is to meet the terms of the Paris Agreement of 2015, which calls for Net Zero carbon by 2050, much has to change,” he said. 

The problem is how to meet the growing demand for electricity without increasing the carbon footprint, and at present, renewable sources are not up to the job, citing the US as currently providing only 17% by renewables. “The issue is not just providing the amount required – meeting fluctuating demand is one of the biggest challenges especially at peak times,” he explained.

If power generation is a major issue for the world, looked at from the consumer side there is much that can be done and quickly to reduce electricity consumption, and in the printing industry this includes the use of LED/UV curing.

Returning to the theme of labeling trends, Doug Bourque, and Gary Stegall of Avery Dennison Smartrac spoke extensively about the growing demand for RFID technology in the narrow web sector. Essentially a materials supplier, with $6.9 billion of its total $9 billion annual turnover coming from this sector, the company also has a $2.5 billion and growing business in solutions such as RFID, branded tags and embellishments, data management and pricing and productivity solutions.

Describing RFID as a major development of what a barcode offered, they explained that an RFID inlay included a chip, and antenna and a carrier (label), whereas an RFID tag is a finished ticket or label encasing the chip and antenna. What RFID offers is readability without line of sight up to several meters distance, one-to-many communication, and extended info that is unique per product. Typical applications are in the beauty product sector along with food, general retail and logistics in a market that is predicted to grow from around $12 billion in 2018 to $17 billion by 2029.

Attention then refocused on Mark Andy with Gretchen Tobol, product manager of flexo presses, who introduced sMArt link, the company’s own software development designed to increase productivity on narrow web presses by 15-20%. “Borne from the need to gather accurate data from the production floor, sMArt link automatically collects the info, monitors, and analyzes real-time operations to allow ‘smart’ management of the resources available,” she said. This includes waste reduction and time and energy savings, all of which make a difference to the bottom line.

Designed to operate on Mark Andy flexo and digital presses but capable or working with a stable of mixed brands, sMArt link can be accessed through a cloud-based platform for anywhere, anytime use.  Data collected across digital and flexo presses includes footage (and good footage), waste, hours run, set up time, printing time, job details, substrate, copy count, utilization, maintenance, performance, ink consumption, actual speed (and anticipated speed), and web break with cause.  “Mark Andy’s sMArt link ‘Improvement Calculator’ indicates that savings of 10% could yield up to $172,000 per month, or over $2m per year, based on a 17” press running at 300ft/min on double-day shift five days per week – that’s some ROI!” she commented.

Wrapping up the presentations, Dave Telken, VP of Mark Andy Print Products (MAPP), explained how this division of the company has become a major contributor in the 10 years since opening, with over 30,000 consumable items needed to run a successful print business.  “With a daily cycle count that gives a 98% inventory accuracy, MAPP is able to complete 100% daily completion of stock items, which amounts to around 300 picked, packed, and shipped orders, including 90 rolls of mounting tape cut to requirement,” he told delegates.