Digital Printing on White Packaging Substrates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inkjet printing on brown corrugated boards requires high opacity and white inks, which leads to issues like sedimentation, complex printing processes, and higher costs due to the need for additional print stations and maintenance, while also affecting recyclability and ink stability.
Innovation Solution
Using a packaging material with a substantially white side, such as corrugated cardboard with a white side, to reduce or eliminate the need for high opacity and white inks by modifying print data to avoid printing white areas and using CMYK inks for a packaging look, allowing for sharper images and improved recyclability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If high opacity and white inks are used for printing on brown corrugated board, then vibrant colours and white images can be achieved, but ink sedimentation occurs due to density differences between ink carrier and pigment
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the background substrate parameter from brown to white, which fundamentally alters the printing requirements. This parameter change eliminates the need for high opacity inks and white inks, thereby preventing sedimentation issues while maintaining image quality through standard transparent process colour inks.
2Manufacturing precision
If white inks are used to achieve white areas in the image, then white images and text can be printed on brown corrugated board, but additional print stations are required increasing process complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and removes the white ink requirement from the printing process by changing the substrate color to white. This eliminates the need for white ink print stations and their associated complex maintenance systems, while still achieving white image areas through the substrate itself.
3Manufacturing precision
If multiple print stations are used for white and high opacity inks, then complete images can be printed on brown corrugated board, but maintenance requirements and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
By changing the substrate parameter from brown to white, the invention simplifies the printing process to use only standard transparent process colour inks. This reduces the number of print stations needed, lowers maintenance requirements, and decreases overall manufacturing complexity while maintaining complete image capability.
4Manufacturing precision
If UV curable white inks are used, then white areas can be printed with good opacity, but UV light may be blocked by colour inks on top resulting in poor curing and ink instability
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes the need for UV curable white inks entirely by using a white substrate. This eliminates the curing issues caused by UV light blocking and the associated ink instability problems, while still achieving the desired white area opacity through the substrate itself.
Data Source
AI summary
A digital printing process for printing an image (I) including a white area (W) and/or a coloured area (C) on a packaging material includes selecting a packaging material with a substantially white side, and preparing print data to be sent to a printing means taking into account that the side of the packaging material is substantially white. The print data represents one or more first image areas (A1) representing the image (I), and one or more second image areas (A2) representing a packaging look (L), to be printed on the substantially white side of the packaging material, outside the one or more first image areas (A1) where the image (I) is to be located. The method further includes printing by the printing means on the substantially white side of the packaging material using the print data.