The year 2023 is shaping up to be a period of conversion to LED curing for label and narrow web packaging printers, says the Flint Group, a leading global print consumables manufacturer.
The company notes a drive towards LED curing over traditional UV methods and believes that while the adoption of LED has been slow and steady, market conditions, the cost of energy, and the evolving regulatory landscape are indicating an uptick in the rate of adoption – particularly in Europe.
Niklas Olsson, global director, Product & Commercial Excellence, Narrow Web at Flint Group, explains: “Just a few years ago, the industry believed that LED curing could never match the quality or performance of UV curing and required significant investment. However, right here and right now, the case for LED curing has never been stronger, so it’s no surprise that we’ve seen businesses of every size making the transition.
“As brands and retailers seek sustainable supply chain partners to support their ESG objectives, achieving more sustainable printing is front and center for packaging and label printers worldwide. When we talk about LED curing, we talk about reduced downtime driving enhanced productivity, and the much lower energy use offered in comparison to UV curing – believed to be between 50-80% depending on light dissipation – is becoming an extremely attractive cost and sustainability benefit too.
“With today’s business environment and the cumulative benefits of LED, we’re clearly looking at the tipping point of real market-wide change. This is likely to intensify with global sustainability legislation limiting the use of mercury, which looks set to make UV lamps harder to acquire and dispose of. With LED curing offering lower cost in use, rapid speed, and high quality, it’s time to move the curing conversation forwards, and 2023 could be the year this happens on a broad scale.”
To support customers in this transition, Flint Group designed its EkoCure range of inks with Dual Cure technology. These inks provide superb performance with both
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
– Naresh Khanna
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