FINAT Establishes Digital Label Printability Task Force
THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS—Oct. 20, 2010—FINAT, the international association for self-adhesive label industry, announces it has been undertaking preliminary initiatives for standardization of testing methods for digital printing upon request of the industry.
In the past 15 years, there has been a continuing growth of digital printing technologies with now over 30 digital label press suppliers in the market, representing some 40 different models. With more than 1,300 digital label presses already installed, digital label printing is now regarded as a mainstream label printing technology. It is accepted by thousands of end-user customers in all kinds of applications and in a wide range of run lengths.
Over many years, printability testing equipment, procedures and standards for conventional printing by offset, letterpress, flexo or gravure have become widely used and/or accepted by the paper and board, printing, converting and print end-user sectors. However, most of the standard printability tests and procedures have yet to be fully tried, modified or utilized—or new tests developed—for the digital printing of labels and packaging. So, although the digital market matured significantly over the past decade, there remains a major leap to being taken.