Brussels sprouts labels: Print21 magazine article

Label converters from around the world converged on Brussels last month for the latest Labelexpo show. Waiting for them were the suppliers, anxious to find out if the effects of the global downturn would put a freeze on investment plans and keep the wallets closed. Simon Enticknap was there, too, to gauge the mood and he filed this on-the-spot report.

Against a backdrop of economic turmoil worldwide (Australia excused) the Labelexpo Brussels exhibition reaffirmed its status as the top trade show for the label industry, attracting solid crowds and doing brisk business as label converters from around the world converged on the Belgian capital.

While they might not admit it, organisers were no doubt a tad nervous about the turn-out for the biennial show this time around, given what has happened to the world’s economy since the last time. They needn’t have worried though; while visitor numbers were down slightly, the overall feeling was positive. Exhibitors were rewarded with busy stands and a steady stream of customers across the four days as the industry shrugged off recent anxieties about investing and turned up eager to find out about what’s new.

About two dozen Australian and New Zealand companies sent representatives to the show and the general mood was that whatever qualms there might be about the strength of the economy, it is simply too risky to miss the Brussels show and wait another two years to see where the technology is going. Competition is especially intense in the label sector and everybody is looking for that certain something which will give them a competitive edge.

The concern for suppliers now is whether the surge of interest generated by a show such as Labelexpo is just a spike caused by the release of pent-up demand from converters who were biding their time until Brussels, or the start of a sustained recovery. Ferdinand Rüesch, the owner of press manufacturer Gallus, commented that many customers still seemed “afraid” to invest, preferring to hang onto their money and wait for more definite signs that the worst of the downturn is behind us. Only time will tell.

All the main press manufacturers came to the party with eye-catching innovations and new models. Mark Andy had the new Performance Series P7 UV flexo line which it claims will reduce waste by 50 per cent or more; in live demos, it was showing the setting up of a six colour job in about two minutes with 12 metres of material waste followed by a four minute job changeover – unbelievable stuff. Nilpeter staff were distinctive with their white blazers and bell ringing to signal a sale (apparently it was ‘dinged’ 21 times during the show), and attracted a lot of interest with the launch of its HoloPrint technology that prints inline holograms using a special polymer plate and UV varnish. It was shown running on a six-colour FA-Line UV flexo press which also included the Caslon digital UV inkjet module.

The star of the show though was undoubtedly the new Gallus ECS340 which attracted consistently good crowds at its demos, the curiosity of visitors no doubt piqued by the unique design concept of the press which uses a solid granite slab onto which the mechanical parts of the press are bolted. The granite base also gave the Gallus marketing people the opportunity to point out that this was a press that had been 15 million years in the making.

Digital spreads all over
While the traditional analogue processes continued to dominate the show with ever-faster make-readies and push-button automation, it should come as no great surprise that the dominant trend was the increasing presence of digital production equipment. The organisers had set aside a whole new hall to cater for digital exhibitors but even that was not enough to contain the technology as digital presses and vendors spilled out into the rest of the halls, appearing on numerous stands elsewhere. Vendors reported that there was greater appreciation, understanding and interest in the role that digital might play in label production, not just with standalone presses. A couple of years ago it was maybe a bit of a toe-in-the-water approach, let’s have a look but not take it too seriously, but now there are more machines, they are working in production environments (in some cases), and the technology is better understood.

The leader of the pack at the moment is undoubtedly HP, not least because it is already responsible for billions of ‘real’ labels being printed digitally by its Indigo machines worldwide and has the numbers to back up its dominant position. Snapping at its heels however are a host of hopeful contenders, predominantly inkjet-based, who are looking to grab a chunk of this market for themselves. The drupa show last year saw the proliferation of inkjet web production systems mounting a serious challenge to existing toner-based systems and even offset production – if not now, then certainly in the future. This time around it was the turn of labels to feel the first tremors of this seismic change. Inkjet has arrived and, like a bawling baby, is making a lot of noise in order to grab attention.

In many ways then, the debate has moved on from the question of whether or not digital has a role to play – many labellers now accept that it does – and the more critical issue now is what form it should take. Thus there is a lot of heat being generated about the relative merits of toner versus UV inkjet, click charges and ink costs, web speeds, substrates, to pre-coat or not pre-coat, uptime, downtime and break even points. There’s no question that the quality is there, that’s no longer an issue with digital, but there’s still much to be decided in terms of what will work best.

In some ways, this is simply a re-run of the digital debates that have raged in the commercial print sector (and continue to do so). Now the time has come for label producers to confront the same sorts of issues. Good luck with that.

White is the new black
The competing claims of the digital manufacturers can sometimes take the debate into interesting areas. For instance, the ability to print white ink has become de rigueur for digital label presses now, primarily as a background for clear labels. As a result, competing manufacturers make claims and counter-claims about the relative merits of their whites. How white is your white? As someone who has grown used to the constant comparisons between types of digital colour output, it is somewhat surreal now to be asked to consider the particular qualities of white as a colour. No doubt though that for some label producers this will be a critical issue.

Perhaps of more importance, however, is where digital fits into the overall production environment. Are combination presses, making digital just one element of the production process, superior to standalone digital presses which print only colour but don’t put the brakes on faster analogue lines? Is it better to go reel-to-reel and convert offline or add inline converting for a complete end-to-end solution? And what about variable data, so far (apart from bar codes) an almost untouched market for labels? There are pros and cons with all these options relating to cost, speed, productivity etc. It may well be that, given the multifarious nature of label production, there will never be a digital solution that gives every single user what they want. It was ever thus with labels.

All of which suggests that by the time the next Brussels show rolls around, the competition between the various technologies, the rival claims of manufacturers and the sheer mind-boggling variety of solutions on display will be even more intense. I can’t wait.