Packaging influences our buying decisions. Especially food packaging must not only satisfy stringent requirements of product managers and marketing departments but also meet tough standards of health authorities. And of course, it must be environmentally acceptable.

More and more of us live urban lifestyles, shopping at the supermarket on the way home, often preferring convenience foods, eating on the go – and choosing products whose packaging speaks to us personally. The production and printing of packaging is booming – packaging differentiates and sells. New processes for new or raised requirements are in demand. Digital printing is poised to capture a much greater share of the packaging industry market than it already has. Its use will expand not just for limited print runs and individualized products but in mass production. It offers the consumer goods industry powerful solutions for handling current trends such as shorter production cycles and individualization.

When food packaging contains harmful substances, these can find their way into the food within. Food safety laws and standards to prevent this are becoming stricter by the year, presenting a growing challenge for packaging manufacturers – and for digital printing, where inks and processes need to be found that meet the demanding requirements. One such solution is the ebeam Inkjet Dryer, an ink curing system newly developed by the COMET Group. The ebeam curing allows the printing of individualized product packaging without harmful photoinitiators and regardless of lot size.

The ebeam Inkjet Dryer – the highly compact ebeam curing system – was presented at drupa 2016.

Another megatrend which packaging producers face today is the need of the consumer goods industry for packaging that adds value in a holistic and sustainable manner. Studies show that the critical element here is to minimize the amount of energy consumed during manufacturing. In this regard too, curing with the ebeam Inkjet Dryer offers critical advantages: In this new application, ebeam uses substantially less energy than the conventional heat curing.

With its major advantages, ebeam, the “blue” technology, thus also shows high potential in the packaging segment. Introduced in summer 2016 at drupa, the print media trade fair in Düsseldorf, the ebeam Inkjet Dryer attracted strong interest and generated important leads. The ebeam segment is following up on these contacts in its search for the needed partners in the areas of printing machines, ink and marketing. Stay tuned...