Inkjet printing for corrugated packaging brings new opportunities

With the advent of the digital age, "everything that can be digitized will be digitized, and printing is no exception." Benny, the father of digital printing? Landa's prediction more than a decade ago is gradually becoming a reality, and the printing and packaging industry is moving forward at an extraordinary speed under the influence of the digital wave. From the perspective of segmented fields, the exploration of digital printing in China's corrugated packaging industry is beginning to emerge, especially the application of inkjet printing in the corrugated packaging field, injecting new vitality into the industry. With the improvement of inkjet printing technology, corrugated packaging inkjet printing is also constantly accumulating energy and making great strides towards the goal of industrial production.

Inkjet printing brings new opportunities

In today's increasingly differentiated and diversified consumer demand, there is a growing demand for small batch, short delivery, personalized, and multi variety orders, which traditional corrugated packaging production methods are no longer able to meet. Inkjet printing does not require plate making, has high production efficiency, short cycle, and is completely unrestricted by quantity. It can truly achieve single sheet printing, undoubtedly bringing new development opportunities to the corrugated packaging industry.

Corrugated extension products

The concept of corrugated extension products was introduced from abroad in the 1990s and has developed into three forms: personalized paper furniture, scene decoration props, and pop display stands.

When corrugated extension products first entered the Chinese market, they sparked a wave of enthusiasm domestically. However, after market practice and refinement, the enthusiasm of corrugated packaging enterprises for corrugated extension products gradually decreased. With the maturity of inkjet printing technology and the improvement of supporting facilities, as well as the increasing demand for short and personalized corrugated extension products, corrugated packaging enterprises have become active again in this field in recent years. For example, Fuhua Printing Art, Fushan Paper Industry, Meiyingsen and others have introduced inkjet printing technology and related equipment, opening up new business areas and models.

It is worth mentioning that many of these companies did not originally have corrugated packaging printing business. For example, Fuhua Printing is a professional flexographic printing supplier. In 2014, it introduced the hpscitexfb700 industrial printing machine and launched the "Paper Play Space" project, producing scene decoration props such as vocational experience series and kindergarten overall scene series, as well as corrugated extension products such as pop display stands; Fushan Paper Industry is a corrugated cardboard production enterprise that introduced the hpscitexfb11000 industrial printing machine in 2016, officially entering the field of corrugated packaging inkjet printing.

In addition, as a leading enterprise in the corrugated packaging industry, Meiyingsen invested 500 million yuan to establish its wholly-owned subsidiary Xiaomeiji in May 2015, and set up its own furniture brand "Zhimei Home" with the aim of exploring the creative and healthy paper furniture market.

Corrugated e-commerce packaging

The vigorous development of the Internet has made online shopping the mainstream consumption mode in China. As the main form of e-commerce packaging, corrugated packaging is in increasing demand and shows certain characteristics in the e-commerce environment.

On the one hand, with the increasing number of personal self created brands and micro business brands, there is a growing demand for small batch, multi variety, and short delivery corrugated packaging orders. On the other hand, for marketing strategy considerations, merchants launch customized e-commerce packaging such as small batch themed packaging, limited edition packaging, promotional packaging, gift packaging, etc., as an important means of promoting products and enhancing brand influence.

Inkjet printing for corrugated packaging brings new opportunities

For these orders, using traditional printing methods is clearly uneconomical and delivery times are difficult to guarantee. Inkjet printing can meet these needs with the advantages of speed, efficiency, and relatively low cost.