In my last article we looked at the growing opportunities for High Graphic corrugated production. It is a compelling story, and while the ending hasn’t yet been written, we can expect a lot of jockeying for capturing the production as well as the production equipment sales going forward. 

There are “two primary” corrugated print manufacturing processes for high graphics (three or more colors): a multi-process method of printing on a top sheet (liner) which is then laminated to the corrugated material sometimes called “preprint,” or alternatively a single process method of printing directly on the corrugated material, sometimes called “direct print” or “post-print.” As an aside, these methods can and are used for display printing as well. With the introduction of digital printing technology, primarily production inkjet, there has been a migration of both of these processes from analog print composed primarily of flexo and offset, although gravure preprint is still used for higher volume quality production. As is the case for most packaging, quality, cost and time to market are the trifecta of primary requirements.

In the past, we looked at some of the innovative technologies Bobst has been applying to reinvent flexo. In this article we will look at the recent award-winning Bobst THQ (Très Haute Qualité) FlexoCloud technology focused on corrugated post-print production. While it was previewed in 2017 to a select few, it was released late 2018 and will be a focus at drupa, in time to compete head to head with some of the digital post-print offerings. Historically, flexo printing had the overall cost advantage over both gravure and offset but couldn’t quite step up to the quality of either. Bobst has been working on changing that for years. With THQ they seem to have come pretty close to hitting the trifecta for corrugated post-print. Printing directly on corrugated, with its uneven and spongy surface is not a walk in the park. Think about pressure crushing the board as it prints. Bobst has been able to limit the pressure needed to image flexo directly on corrugated board and still achieve smooth print results.