How likely is digital printing to achieve widespread use in the label industry?
Currently, the three major traditional mainstream printing methods-offset, gravure, and flexographic printing-are in a development bottleneck, and the market has proposed five new demands for the printing industry. (1) High production capacity is required. Influenced by labor costs, product prices, and the increasing demand from end users to shorten delivery times, high production capacity has become an important consideration for the printing industry. (2) High print quality is required. At present, the evaluation of print quality is no longer limited to the subjective impression of the evaluator, but is increasingly based on printing details and the related data reflected by those details. (3) The printing industry must be environmentally friendly, and commonly used consumables must also be eco-friendly. Around 2014, relevant national departments focused on the environmental impact of the printing industry and introduced corresponding management measures, which caused significant tension among many printing companies. At that time, most printing companies did not take targeted measures to address the environmental impact of inks or control the source of pollution, but instead attempted to cleanse their image by changing their company names. Today, in domestic printing companies, it is often difficult to discern from the company name alone whether they are still engaged in printing. (4) The printing industry needs to nurture successors and attract young talent. This issue is especially severe in the packaging printing sector. Strictly speaking, the printing industry does not belong to the manufacturing industry in the full sense and should be considered a production service industry according to the author's humble view. Therefore, the recruitment difficulties of the manufacturing industry should not originally cover the printing industry. However, in recent years, the industry has overemphasized end-of-pipe treatment of emissions, while relaxing efforts for source substitution. One consequence of this is the implicit assumption of a link between printing and pollution, which has stigmatized the industry. Even practitioners themselves accept that printing causes pollution, especially air pollution, which makes many young people avoid it. In this situation, how can the printing industry have successors? Moreover, the domestic printing market has shown an oversupply, and the profit margins of products in each sub-sector are almost completely transparent, making high gross margins rare, which in turn hardly attracts young professionals. (5) The profit margin of products needs to expand. The main factor determining product profit is the law of supply and demand. Moreover, there are several specific characteristics: first, print products made for others, if attached to high-priced goods, can generate relatively high profits; second, processing high-value substrate materials allows even selective customers to accept high prices, leading to higher profit margins, such as labels on laptops made of high-value polyimide film-though they are just small labels, the price is proportionally high; third, profit calculation outside the fixed mindset of product pricing-both buyers and sellers have a psychological price point. For instance, long and short orders differ: due to switching needs in printing production, the necessary waste in short orders far exceeds that of long orders, so pricing differs for short orders. Similarly, if the buyer considers average industry production loss rates and finished product yield for pricing, but the supplier achieves lower loss rates through superior printing management, the production savings naturally become extra profit margin for the supplier.Comparing the above five demands, we can re-examine the status of existing digital printing technologies in the label industry in terms of market needs.(1) Print production capacity is not high. Whether it is toner-based electrostatic printing, electronic ink printing, or theoretically instant-curing UV inkjet, production capacity is low and cannot be compared to traditional printing, which is widely acknowledged.(2) The print quality of digital printing varies with different imaging modes. Electronic ink electrostatic imaging has the highest quality; using amplitude-modulated halftone, the detail in dot reproduction even exceeds traditional printing. Toner-based electrostatic imaging shows dot detail finish similar to ink emulsification in offset due to excess water, resulting in slight roughness. Frequency-modulated inkjet printing is delicate but lacks texture.(3) Solvent emissions from electronic ink are subject to national environmental monitoring. Although thin ink layers result in low ink usage and low printing speed, and the emission per unit may be below local limits (e.g., Shanghai limit is 2kg/h), the concentration of emissions (per cubic meter of exhaust) still requires end-of-pipe treatment. Even if the digital printing machine has a built-in exhaust treatment unit, irritant odors in the production area remain.
(4) Digital printing is the most appealing in the printing industry to young people. The superior production environment and conditions can even, in some cases, outweigh the lure of higher salaries. Air-conditioned production facilities, the mix of blue-collar, gray-collar, and even white-collar workers, and the changes in the production environment create a strong imaginative appeal for young people, with effects that are hard to imagine.(5) Positioning for short-run production can greatly enhance product profit margins. This is fundamentally about the business positioning awareness of managers or owners, and it has a significant impact on expanding product profit potential. However, among enterprises currently equipped with digital printing machines, few managers truly understand this principle. A short-sighted pursuit of immediate gains often causes this important feature to be overlooked.To address these gaps, the author believes that it is inappropriate to either fully endorse or completely dismiss the current issues of digital printing. A rational analysis and the search for countermeasures are needed.(1) Digital printing companies can specialize in short-run printing. By leveraging the quick and flexible nature of digital printing, they can test new product markets and control the front-end label production process from designer conception to market-ready labels. This can open up new profit opportunities.(2) Adhere to the national environmental protection policies. Inkjet printing in the publishing and printing sector is encouraged. Carrying paper with good absorption properties aids drying, and regardless of whether the solvent content in the ink reaches 5% or 10%, it is supported by national policies. Currently, UV inks are still within the scope permitted by national environmental policies, and promoting the UV drying mode in inkjet printing at this stage is worthwhile. This approach benefits the environment, helps rehabilitate printing companies, and attracts young people who may have been deterred from the industry due to environmental concerns.(3) Industries that can attract young people have a future. Even if today's attraction leans more toward material incentives compared to 20 years ago, this is a necessary stage in industry development. Reducing labor intensity through automation is an inevitable path for all industries, and digital printing occupies a favorable position in printing automation that traditional printing branches cannot match.(4) Improving the quality of digital label printing should not be rushed; issues should be analyzed and resolved case by case.Thus, for digital printing to establish a foothold in the label industry and compete with traditional printing methods like offset, gravure, and flexography, the following three points must be addressed:(1) Do not compare production capacity with traditional printing. Instead, leverage digital printing's advantage of requiring no printing plates and specialize in short-run orders.(2) Do not compare costs with traditional printing. Take advantage of the industry's perception that digital printing is high-cost-large investment, expensive consumables, high operating costs-to effectively explore product profit potential.(3) Follow the principle of "picking your battles wisely." Do not panic when orders are low, indiscriminately seeking orders without regard for hierarchy, consequences, or cost. Focus on complementing traditional printing. Utilize the high-tech nature of digital printing to lead in printing automation and become a model for traditional printing gradually achieving automation.Overall, as long as the market positioning is correct, digital printing has a high likelihood of success in the label industry.