The Digital Printing Market for Corrugated Paper is Growing, but Challenges Still Remain
Although digital printing on corrugated paper is growing, further growth still faces challenges.
Digital printing has made progress in a wide range of applications, and corrugated paper has proven to be promising. HP, EFI, Fujifilm and Canon are the leading manufacturers of printing machines and inks in the market. Producers are seeking opportunities to apply digital printing to the corrugated paper sector, such as signs, displays and packaging boxes.
Although digitalization has entered the market, the corrugated paper market as a whole still has significant potential, with an estimated value of 250 billion US dollars. The digital market share is very small, but if it can overcome the challenges and meet the requirements of customers, it can continue to grow rapidly.
Randy Paar, the marketing manager for graphics display and large-format solutions at Canon Solutions America, pointed out that corrugated paper is highly porous and often bends, making it difficult to maintain its flatness during printing.
"Recognizing this challenge, Canon developed a special version of the Arizona 6100 series, which implemented a powerful blower system. This system was capable of not only sucking in difficult-to-process corrugated cardboard, but even 3/4-inch warped plywood," said Paar. "No additional tape was needed. Compared to traditional vacuum tables, this helped increase the efficiency of the operators."
Adi Shorer, the product manager of HP's PWI corrugated products, pointed out that HP has witnessed the growth of its online business through e-commerce and online printing.
"Furthermore, as more and more people are enthusiastic about starting small businesses and more consumers are consciously shopping locally, small online brands have continued to grow even after the COVID crisis," Shorer added. "This further emphasizes the importance of production flexibility and application versatility, which is precisely why processors adopt new digital production technologies to serve diverse work baskets in the most effective way. The corrugated printing press and workflow of HP have been adjusted to be capable of producing jobs ranging from single copies to thousands. This provides the flexibility required for e-commerce operations. Additionally, by using HP PrintOS, we collaborate with web2print solutions such as boxitnow to provide an integrated platform for online package sales."
Evandro Matteucci, Vice President and General Manager of EFI Inkjet Packaging and Building Materials, noted that adding a new single-pass digital corrugated paper printer involves many factors, ranging from manufacturing and transportation to customer site preparation and facility construction.
Matteucci said: "With the pandemic, this has become even more challenging. " However, the demand still exists because the single-digit digitization has addressed many of the key needs of the processors, facilitating future profitability and growth.
"To address the potential challenges faced by new customers, EFI has been committed to becoming a strong consulting technology provider, helping processors transition to digital corrugated packaging production," Matteucci added. "Apart from equipment installation, EFI collaborates closely with customers through necessary technical adoption curves, offering a 12-week upgrade and training program, one-year warranty, and 24/7 remote and on-site service maintenance packages."
Jim Wegemer from INX International Ink Company stated that digital printing is striving to enhance its position in the corrugated paper market while facing numerous challenges.
"Many people still do not understand the advantages and disadvantages of digital printing," Wegemer said. "This could lead to images being perfectly suitable for flexographic or letterpress printing, but not for digital printing. It could also cause companies that produce digital prints to be unsure of how to best market digital printing."
Wegemer added: "In the past few years, the digital printing solutions for corrugated paper have seen significant development." "Some people, when considering digital technology as an option, still focus on its capabilities from two or three years ago rather than its true capabilities under the latest solutions today. People's understanding of digital solutions and digital capabilities is improving year by year. Therefore, digitization is enhancing its foothold and potential in the corrugated paper market."