It always fascinates me how customers push the limits of technology beyond what the manufacturer imagined, creating new and innovative opportunities. Mike Schliesmann, Senior Vice President at Wisconsin-based Great Northern Corporation, a corrugated converter with 1,500 employees that produces corrugated packaging, folding cartons, and in-store displays, recently shared one of these stories with me. I spoke with Mike at drupa 2016, where he was looking for disruptive digital technology for packaging, including both digital direct-to-corrugated and digital preprint of topliners.

In July of 2017, Schliesmann installed an HP PageWide T400S inkjet press, although not exactly for the applications originally envisioned by HP, whose market focus was on printing topliner for corrugated. HP positions the press as having the ability to print on a broad range of standard uncoated and coated corrugated liners, ranging from 60 to 350 gsm, enabling reduced substrate costs by printing directly onto thinner, reduced grade or recycled liners for corrugated boxes. It has an expected print capacity of up to four million square meters per month.

At Great Northern, though, it has been put to a different use. Schliesmann stated, “We saw a gap between folding carton and corrugated, and we developed a way to fill that gap. In the normal world, if a 24-point box is not strong enough, customers turn to E-flute or corrugated, and these cartons are often stronger than they need. We have been able to offer the look of a folding carton with the strength needed for their application, a very unique solution. We don’t see this as a displacement for corrugated; rather, it fills an existing gap between folding carton and corrugated. We’ve been doing this for about 10 years using offset presses. Now with the T400S, we are able to produce these special cartons in shorter runs, many versions, less start-up and run waste, and faster changeovers. Adding digital just gives us more flexibility, in combination with our offset presses.”