There are a number of reasons for adding Narrow-Web Digital to your Flexo/Indigo shop. Best Practices: Digital Strategies, published by packagePRINTING, explains that the benefits are well known: increased speed, lower cost, and variable data capabilities. However, the article also explains the differing reasons that printers and converters add digital. The main reasons that packagePRINTING focused on were increasing demand for short runs, and printing flexibility.
The Afinia Label DLP-2000 Mini Digital Label Press
Increasing Demand for Short Runs
Our take: If you’re a flexo user, you know that flexo just doesn’t make sense for short runs. Using a digital label press (like our DLP-2000) will save you money, which you can see in our blog about Flexo/Indigo Industry Trends. By using equipment like the DLP-2000 Mini Digital Label Press, you can save about $20,000 on short runs of less than 10,000 labels, which opens to the door for short-run jobs for current clients, and even adding new, smaller companies to your clientele.
Flexibility
Our take: We’re with packagePRINTING 100%. We realize that people crave variety. That’s why flexibility is a necessity in almost – if not all – markets. You can easily adjust labels for seasonal products or special promotions. The article nails this point by sharing an example used by Hammer Packaging’s VP, Louis Iovoli: the Share-a-Coke marketing campaign.
The Afinia Label L801 Color Label Printer
Fast and Inexpensive Proofs
Let’s say you have a large customer that wants to see proofs of all of their label jobs. If you are 100% confident that the proof will turn into a large label order, you make the plates, run the proof, and send it to your customer. Pretty expensive, and a good bet. What if the job is smaller, or it’s for a potential customer? That’s where the L801 Color Label Printer and Wasatch RIP comes in. We have a number of customers who have created color profiles that match their flexo presses so they can print proofs on their L801, send them to their customer for changes/approvals, and run them on their larger press.
Can You Tell the Difference Between Digital and Flexo?
PackagePRINTING also make a good point: in a side-by-side comparison, digital and flexo are hard to tell apart. When Steinhauser Inc. showed their customer’s creative team bottles that had the same labels (some printed on flexo, others on digital), about half of the team members correctly guessed which was which… a percentage that you’d assume may occur due to simple probability.
The Moral of the Story
If you’re currently printing flexo and you want to expand your services, or maybe even pick up new customers, take a look into digital printing. You can start by checking out our DLP-2000 Mini Digital Label Press.
