Industrial Printing Meets Packaging

A common theme throughout this week’s show is that of “blurred lines,” of traditionally “siloed” portions of the printing industry starting to overlap. Thanks to digital imaging technologies, businesses in one silo have the ability to serve current or new customers whose needs were at one time only served by companies in another silo. Many examples of these blurred lines appear throughout these Expo Daily issues, but one is the intersection of packaging and industrial printing.

Digital on-container printing — also called by a number of variations, including direct-to-container — is starting to come of age. The analog and digital technologies developed by Inkcups (Booth 3001), such as the Helix digital UV printer, are targeted more toward the promotional products industry, although the ability to print on bottles falls into this direct-to-container category. While the complete displacement of the printed label is not likely for the foreseeable future, direct-to-container technologies do give labels a run for their money.

One new technology was launched recently by Yupo (Booth 3723) and it straddles the line between direct-to-container and labeling. Called Sculpt, it is package decoration technology designed for in-mold labeling for blowmolded packaging. Say you have a plastic bottle of Brand X shampoo. The name of the company — Brand X — can be embossed in the plastic and using Sculpt, apply an in-mold label directly on just the embossed text, highlighting and enhancing the name of Brand X.

Patented by Yupo and in development for two years, Sculpt ensures that the in-mold label lines up with the embossed image on the package, regardless of the height of the embossed pattern. Sculpt works on debossed patterns as well. There are no adhesives or release liners. The company cites such other advantages as a unique combination of visual and tactile packaging effects, as well as seamless labels that impart anti-counterfeiting benefits. Yupo is still finessing the technology and getting high-profile consumer products companies on board.

Yupo has been a player in the synthetic paper market, and has been expanding its substrate offerings. The company is also showing its YUPO Octopus and YUPOJelly Synthetic Substrates designed for window clings. Both feature micro-suction technology that allows a cling to be applied to any flat, smooth surface. Yupo is also showing its YUPOilluminate, a synthetic paper substrate specially designed for UV inkjet and latex wide-format printing. It gives users the ability to print wide-format graphics and is 100-percent waterproof, making it well-suited for outdoor applications. It is also chemical-, tear- and UV-resistant.

Yupo’s synthetic paper grades are Category 5 recyclable products and are manufactured with no toxins or heavy metals.