In the previous issue, the American Greeting Card Company was introduced as an example to introduce the application of digitalization in the field of printing. However, as an emerging technology, greeting cards are just one of many applications.
Cards, labels and other fields are just one of the applications of digitalization. In addition, packaging is also a newly opened market. For example, in Boutwell Owens, Mass., their CEO thinks that they differ from other companies in that they are constantly looking for the possibility to use new technologies for production. “In the past, our designers were told that there are a lot of designs that we can’t do, and today, these restrictions are gone.” For example, the design of this complex candy box in the picture below.
They also developed new business areas through digital processes. Now they offer packaging for golf balls, which are small in size and need to be designed to be sold as souvenirs according to the requirements of different national clubs. They also produce pharmaceutical packaging, which is typically used in countries with small populations or test products. They found that the average amount of such products is about 2,000 sheets, but if the patterns are particularly complicated and the traditional processes cannot be met, they will also use digital processes to produce larger quantities of products (around 10,000).
In addition to the short version, the ability to handle complex patterns is one of the advantages of digitalization. Taking Gafs Kartong AB, founded in 1947, as an example, they used the digital process to produce products as complex as the one below.
Now, after the customer confirms the design, we can produce the product in 5 minutes, no need for die cutting board, and even each pattern can be different, which makes the product’s competitiveness on the shelf greatly enhanced.”
