Home : News & Events : News & Press Releases : Colour-on-demand - a case study

Source: Labels & Labeling Magazine Issue 4 Volume 25

A fascinating case study on the use of 'on-demand colour' was presented by Eric Bonten, director of leading European label printer GraphicALL Sytems bv.

GraphicALL has been using colour in secondary label application for five years, beginning with thermal transfer ribbons in spot-colour and progressing to 'full-colour' printing with the use of CMYK ribbons in a TEC thermal transfer printer.

'These solutions typically served secondary labelling such as box labels, product identification labels with the use of colour codes, but did not provide for high quality labels as the physical limiations of the thermal transfer process caused the printout to be rather coarse, and limited in the  number of colours achieved,' said Bonten. 'We had the feeling that if the quality was higher the success rate could be dramatically increased.'

GraphicALL found that there was a demand from customers for competitively priced, good quality full-colour labels which would include images - provided they coudl produce die-cut labels on the roll for further automatic label application. On-demand printing could cut down on preprinted labelstock and increase flexibility. For the converter, such a system would require fast printing speeds and an industrial-strength machine construction.

Bonten says he decided on VIPColor's VP2020 inkjet system which met all these goals. 'With the use of special label software, flexibilitly is maximised. Barcoding, serialisation and database merging are all possible at a fraction of the previous cost. The cost of the labels is fair, especially when you take into consideration the fact that the customer has no more stock, can increase his customers service and eliminates waiting time on his labels.'

Market sectors in which the company has been successful include food, pharmacy, print shops, label converting, retail supply and pet food.

'The one thing all these sectors have in common is the need for flexible colour labelling, on roll, in good quality,' says Bontent, who concluded with a case study to illustrate this point.

'We faced a challenge from a customer producing high quality, exclusive, meat-based snacks. In the past they used a product box with a fully pre-printed top side in full-colour with their company logo and a picture of the product. As time passed they increased the number of different products and subsequently increased the number of boxes with different pictures on. The cost of these boxes became too high and they contemplated going back to a pre-printed box in full-colour with just the logo and a label containing product information in black and white, printed by a thermal transfer printer.'

Black and white thermal printing was a widely accepted solution, but GraphicALL believed it would lead to a loss os exclusivity in the appearance of the product.

'With our new technology we suggested using blank boxes and printing large size, full-colour labels containing the company logo and product image. Therefore there is no need to additional date stamping and the company can print that in the same run. They even lowered the cost per box.'