Insight: Gravure

Converting Today: What is the state of the rotogravure market in 2014? Where do you feel the growth opportunities lie?

James Siever: In the segment flexible packaging, which is the most relevant packaging material for foodstuffs and confectionery of the large brand owners, gravure has a market share of about 50% in Europe vs. flexography which has the other 50%. In Asia gravure has about 80% of the market, whereas in North America gravure has only a share of 20% compared with flexography, which is clearly the market leader. The growth opportunities are in the emerging markets such as China, India - where there are about 500 packaging gravure printers - and other South Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The manufacturers of packaging gravure presses have produced and delivered in the last three or four years record high numbers of presses, mainly to these markets mentioned above.

CT: Innovation - what product or launch do you feel will be most successful and why this year, which trend do you feel will be best addressed by your members this year, what do you think of when asked to discuss innovation?

JS: Generally I would point out that the gravure industry has done a lot over the last years to increase the efficiency and speed of cylinder preparation and job changeover at the press. This has shown success, as the print form preparation in gravure is now competitive with flexography of similar quality". Siever goes on to give examples of members' innovation from ERA's recent Packaging and Decorative Gravure Conference, which took place in Novara, Italy, on 5-6 November 2013.

Some examples of innovation from this conference: ICR Ioannou of Greece has developed an innovative cylinder concept that eases the logistics of the gravure workflow. As aluminum is significantly lighter than steel - the traditional material for gravure cylinders - the weight of the standard cylinder for packaging gravure with a web width of 1.20m is reduced to below 20kg, allowing shipment to the
customers by conventional parcel services.

Also innovating in lightweight cylinders is Saueressig. Even though its m-Roll cylinder is steel based, substantial weight reduction is achieved by the foam filling. Therefore, cheap and fast shipping with regular parcel services, as well as fast intercontinental transport is possible.

Cerutti Packaging Equipment highlights its new 98X presses, which were developed from the successful 980 series. According to Arturo Bergamaschino, job change time is reduced through the system's higher flexibility and efficiency, allowing end users to increase print runs without sacrificing quality.

Another trend, to minimise waste, is addressed by the Bobst MW range of presses. According to Thomas Reckert, short runs can be produced profitably by reducing job changeover waste - as the press is operated from ground level , no gallery is needed, allowing further cost reduction without loss of quality.

End-users who want to secure reliable quality and reduce variability would be interested in the "efficiency accelerator" fromWindmöller & Hölscher. This provides higher utilisation through shorter set-ups with fast data in-put. Wherever possible, operator choices are replaced by fixed values or automation, reducing delays by human error and increasing print cycles.

Accurate and consistent brand colours that maintain the brand identity of a product with consumers can be achieved with Esko Graphics. New developments enable colour control, such as the red of Coca-Cola or Milka's lilac, by spectral measurement and communication. As variability in artwork selection continues to grow as a core consumer trend, accurate brand communications will continue to be one of the leading tools for end-users.

Since customer needs have increased, decorative printers have to consider new technical solutions to meet the demand for smaller volumes and fast design changes: a volume range of up to half a tonne could therefore be covered by digital. Interprint has been working on bringing digital short run solutions to the market.

In addition, BauschLinnemann says the world of decorative design development reflects the trends for decorative furniture and flooring. The company clarifies the difference between fashion and trends: whereas 'fashion' only has a short season, a 'trend' lasts for five to thirty years. In high-end markets such as cosmetics, the fashion might last 18-24 months, but the manufacturing cycle itself takes 18 months.

Hence, deciding which trend to support will continue to be one of the areas where the most innovation will be taking place.

The conclusion of the ERA Conference covered health and safety matters. Dr Osvaldo Bosetti of Goglio reported on the SafEmTech project, and the possible impact of adhesives on the safety of food packaging. The EU is supporting this project, which is being carried out by Goglio in co-operation with the University of Zaragoza in Spain. Research shows that EvOH (ethyl vinyl alcohol polymers) can be used as an effective functional barrier to protect against migration of non-intentionally added substances (NIAS).

CT: What regulatory developments do you feel are important and are being addressed by your members in 2014?

JS: There are two current developments in the field of legislation which are of relevance for our industry: as a consequence of the EU directive, REACH (regulation, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals), the use of chromium trioxide - irreplaceable for the chrome plating of the cylinders - must be authorised from 2017. ERA as the technical organisation of the gravure industry is
playing an active role in the authorisation process to ensure that chromium trioxide can be further used beyond 2017.

The other EU directive of importance is mthe new tobacco packaging directive, which obliges the cigarette industry to print health
warnings (including pictures showing a cancerous lung) on 65% of the package surface. The majority of cigarette packages are in gravure, and the new legislation will require new designs and more printing cylinders per job. By contrast Australia demands totally plain cigarette packages, which offer less work for the printers.

CT: How is gravure seen by customers, and what steps are you taking to better understand end-users?

JS: Concerning gravure's image among the brand-owners: their perception of gravure is positive as far as quality and consistency is concerned. To find out in more detail the needs of our customers ERA has commissioned a study from GfK on the demands of the brand owners on the printers of their packages. This study will be available not before mid-2014, but we will be able to provide results when available. Generally, the brand owners insist on shorter lead times and sustainability.

There is also a tendency to change designs more frequently, and to order shorter runs. This, of course is a challenge for the suppliers such as the printers, as it requires higher flexibility and efficiency in the production process.

In an earlier study, GfK has discovered that 8 of 10 brand-owners prefer gravure as the print process for their packages.

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