Nonstop pallets turn to shorter printing operations to facilitate digital printing, mainly inkjet printing. Especially for e-commerce, with fewer prints and fast turnover, digital printing is more advantageous than analog printing. When this happens, it makes sense to invest in digital printing equipment – printing pallets, especially as the quality of these equipment continues to improve (in some cases comparable to offset printing) and the increase in throughput speed makes them more cost competitive for short and medium orders. The non-stop pallets are just the tip of a broader trend towards greater automation of printing presses in the post-pandemic era.
Even if inkjet machinery is most compatible with this method, the same trend is evident in analog printing. Oems continue to offer enhanced features such as automatic pallet engraving and conversion on flexo presses and offset presses that require nonstop paper change, steps that simultaneously reduce waste from preprinting, reflecting customer interest in green printing supplies, and demand for standard environmentally friendly packaging palettes. The range of water-based inks and coatings for all press types continues to increase, as do those formulated with fewer petroleum-derived ingredients, and there is a growing trend towards the use of plastic pallets.
In areas such as flexible packaging, printing line equipment is being optimized to handle coarser, less flat paper substrates, special printing pallets are being printed in place of wood pallets, paper pallets, and a new range of recyclable materials that are easier to recycle have been developed. These are positive takeaways that print industry leaders can communicate with their customers. Better automation of printing pallets can reduce the number of employees needed to maintain and operate the press, helping to address long-term staffing issues.
Many Oems now offer proprietary intelligent diagnostic tools capable of collecting data from multiple presses in a global network. Oems can use this data to better analyze failures and resolve them more quickly with online support subscriptions. In a variety of applications, investing in a web-based printing platform for subscription packaging pallets or other products can bring benefits to order turnover. These enable customers to design more printing pallets themselves online in a preset template, and these automatic pallets allow the press operator to feed the press with minimal operation time or interactive paper.
To do this, however, print businesses must have a strong online presence to connect with customers and emphasize communicating reliability, quality, and turnover. There is also a tendency to integrate smaller printing businesses into the network, so that no matter where the customer is located, the use of printing pallets can guarantee fast order fulfillment. Better automation means fewer employees will be needed, around 330,000 by 2028, although they will need more skilled technology to get the best results from the latest generation of printing pallet equipment.
Post time: Sep-12-2023