Businesses that heavily rely on corrugated boxes or bags as secondary packaging, including e-commerce sellers, retailers and manufacturing companies, have been actively seeking alternatives to standard adhesive shipping labels. Printed adhesive labels are primarily used for variable data such as address, tracking codes, product identification and instructions for use. Labels can also include logos, brand messaging and other promotional elements as well.
However, labels have significant disadvantages including being an enormous source of environmental waste. Large volumes of paper, films, adhesives, printing plates, solvents and chemicals are typically left over as byproducts of the label production process. Most adhesive labels are not recyclable and can contaminate the box or bag such that it is no longer recyclable. Plus, there is an added cost associated with label stock and printing.
To mitigate these environmental impacts, shippers and e-commerce retailers are increasingly exploring alternative solutions that are more sustainable and eco-friendlier. This includes eliminating the need for a traditional adhesive label by printing directly on secondary packaging using high-speed inkjet systems.
The technology, which is already utilized in the mail manufacturing industry to produce personalized mass mailings in extremely high volumes, eliminates the primary barrier to direct printing – namely the ability to print in full color, with variable information, at the extremely high speeds required.
A Blank Canvas for Promotion
Secondary packaging plays a significant role in marketing and branding strategies. In addition to safeguarding primary packaging, it provides a golden opportunity for companies to showcase their brand identity, logos, slogans and promotional messages, thus attracting the attention of potential customers. By carefully considering the secondary packaging design and shipping methods, ecommerce retailers and shippers can differentiate themselves from their competitors and increase the likelihood of customers choosing their products.
This applies, of course, to the traditional adhesive labels used on corrugated boxes and bags.
However, given the volume of packages shipped, there is an industry-wide mandate to reduce the environmental impact along the entire chain. As sustainability becomes more critical, corporate leaders like Amazon are looking for ways to significantly improve their mail and packaging efficiency while reducing their environmental footprint. This includes moving to electric delivery vehicles, decreasing single-use plastic and moving to 100% recyclable paper and cardboard packaging.
According to the Nov 8, 2021 article posted on Packaging World’s web site, “Amazon Invests in Fit-to-Size Box Making Equipment Company,” by Anne Marie Mohan, Amazon is investing in CMC Machinery, a company with technology that makes custom-sized boxes that eliminate the need for single-use plastic packaging. CMC specializes in the construction of customized packaging solutions that basically builds a customized box based on the size and type of item to reduce the amount of air (unused space) in the pre-made boxes.
“Amazon expects that the technology could reduce the cubic volume for each box by 24% on average and reduce the use of approximately 1 billion plastic air pillows by the end of 2022,” according to the article.
The equipment, called the CartonWrap 1000, can pack boxes much faster than a human packer, processing up to 700 orders an hour. In addition to helping Amazon get its packages ready faster, CMC was able to significantly reduce the number of brown boxes used in packaging orders, resulting in a reduction of approximately 70% to 80%.
This concept spurred MCS Inc., a company that designs, manufactures, sells and supports high-speed industrial inkjet imaging systems for the mail manufacturing industry, to conduct tests on packaging equipment at its facility to explore the idea of incorporating advertising messaging in process color directly on the packaging.
In the high-stakes world of mass mail manufacturing, the cost of printing errors can be significant. Not only is the mail manufactured at extremely high speeds, but the range of high-value personalization features used to increase response rates makes matching variable printed materials, envelopes and attached cards without errors increasingly important. After all, the internal contents of an addressed envelope may contain sensitive financial or health information and should not get into the wrong hands.
A leading supplier of high-speed mail manufacturing equipment since 1989, MCS’ inkjet and tracking products are designed and manufactured in the USA. With thousands of systems installed in the mailing and marketing industries across North America and the world, MCS equipment has been used for many mission-critical mailings including two U.S. Censuses and many vote by mail elections.
“We are already getting quite a few inquiries from logistics and fulfillment companies asking about images that can be printed directly on boxes and bags.” said David Loos of MCS.
Direct Printing of Corrugated
Corrugated board is produced by combining various papers together in the form of paper layers. These layers are called liners and fluting (the fluting being formed to create a specific profile). The liners can be pre-printed with standard messaging before it is glued to the medium. This is a cost-effective method for high-volume production.
After the corrugated board is converted to boxes, “High-speed, direct to packaging inkjet printers could then be used in defined locations on the box to deliver customized promotional messages such as a special offer, or an announcement about a new store opening in a region,” explained Loos.
Direct package printing is eco-friendlier, eliminating the need for labels and reducing waste.MCS Inc.
Direct Printing of Custom Bags
Loos says that MCS was approached last year for a solution that would print trackable variable barcodes directly on shipping bags. Many larger bag suppliers invest in high tech manufacturing equipment to offer cutting-edge bag solutions, including modern bag designs in many shapes, variations and types of substrates. The bags are used by ecommerce sites for shipping and online retailers that offer home delivery services.
For high-speed printing, roll-feed flexographic printers are utilized. The paper rolls are then cut into sheets at approximately the same speed. The concern was whether direct-to-bag printing systems could keep up. The average inkjet printer operates at a speed of 105 to 500 feet per minute. However, MCS has printers that can reach speeds of up to 1,000 feet per minute.
“We print on a wide web at very high speeds and there are very few [direct print inkjet] machines that can run at a thousand feet per minute and print the high-quality tracking codes at that speed,” said Loos.
Although the bag is printed on a flexographic printer, space is available on the press to add an inkjet printer for direct printing of tracking codes and “just about anything else you can think of,” according to Loos.
“Instead of a label going on that affects the cost and affects the recyclability of the product, we can now digitally print that unique code directly on the bag using the MCS printer,” said Loos. “We can print anything the customer wants, including notifications about store openings in their area, special offers, links to sales or other sites or other promotional messages.”
The equipment used is one of the fastest inkjet printers in the industry, the MCS Hayabusa Inkjet, that delivers print widths from 4.25 to 34 inches. MCS offers other direct-to-packaging alternatives at different speeds and price points. This includes inkjets that can apply process color and monochrome printing horizontally or vertically. The inkjet printer comes with MCS’ Raptor software, which manages the custom messaging and variable data seamlessly with any printing solution required.
According to Loos, the speed of the printing and the elimination of the need for a label are the primary benefits of such systems.
“Label applicators are not nearly fast enough to keep up with a flexographic printer. One printer may serve six or seven bag machines and that would require six or seven label applicators,” said Loos. “With direct printing, no applicators are required. This approach also reduces the costs of the bags.”
Loos believes that direct printing to bags or boxes will have many applications in the future now that the primary barrier – speed – is no longer an issue.
“I think there is a very good potential to offer printing directly packaging, not just for QR or barcodes, but for promotional statements, said Loos. “The ecommerce retailer or home delivery service can really choose exactly how they want to use it.”