Agfa has identified short-run and fast-turnaround folding carton work as a key application for its SpeedSet Orca 1060 digital press.
3The SpeedSet Orca 1060 is a single-pass, water-based B1 inkjet press that operates at up to 11,000 sheets per hour with the substrate range and offset-grade quality to capture the full breadth of short-run folding carton work.
The company said brand owners are managing more product variations as a result of increasing SKU numbers, seasonal ranges, promotional campaigns, e-commerce formats and regulatory requirements in sectors including food and pharmaceuticals.
Agfa identified four applications where digital printing could offer an advantage: short runs and frequent reorders; multiple artwork and language versions; time-sensitive production; and on-demand printing.
The print equipment giant said digital production can make these jobs more commercially viable by removing printing plates and reducing set-up time and material waste. It can also support variable data, coding and serialisation within the production process.
An Agfa spokesperson said: “The opportunity is not to digitise everything. It is to identify the short-run, high-mix, fast-turnaround work already moving through the business and give it a press built to produce it profitably.”
The company also identified on-demand production as an opportunity for brands to order cartons closer to actual demand, reducing excess stock when products, artwork or regulatory information change.
The spokesperson said: “None of this is an argument for abandoning offset. The long-run demands still belong to conventional production, and the smartest converters are running a hybrid operation. Each job is routed to the press best suited to produce it.”