In February 2018, HP invited journalists to Israel to participate in its Media Day event. This year’s event focused on packaging, which is a very hot topic right now. Many industry vendors have introduced product lines that enable digital packaging options. Although the purchasers of this digital technology are often conventional packaging producers who are extending their options with digital, some of these solutions are purchased by packaging visionaries at greenfield sites. Regardless of their background, these purchasers all share a common goal: to enable digital packaging ahead of the coming tidal wave. Digitally printed packaging represents a very small portion of the overall packaging market at this time, but those who currently offer it are able to support short runs for product testing as well as final products.

HP used this year’s Media Day event to introduce its PageWide Industrial C500 cut-sheet corrugated inkjet printer, which expands the number of options for corrugated packages and the people who design them for brands. The C500’s approach lends itself to very short runs on different types of corrugated items, including microfluted products like wine boxes.

Figure 1: HP’s David Tomer with the C500 in the Caesarea Manufacturing Plant