How often can you say a technology from the 1960s remains competitive in nearly the same form today? One technology is liquid photopolymer for direct print corrugated applications in flexography. Over the past 50+ years, we have witnessed the introduction of digital platemaking and the continued evolution of water wash technology for sheet photopolymers. Each of these areas competes with liquid platemaking yet, despite these competitive pressures, liquid technology remains alive and well. While liquid continues to evolve through imaging innovations and enhanced processing equipment, it maintains its fundamental characteristics as well as its ecological and economic strengths. Along with the digital revolution, and the equally demanding sustainable revolution returned focus to liquid's unique capabilities. Working for MacDermid Graphics Solutions, I have the unique vantage point of innovating in multiple plate technologies such as analog and digital platemaking, as well as solvent...

To a consumer, product packaging may be a secondary consideration to the product inside the package. Companies devote countless hours designing a product, making sure it offers the absolute best value and experience to the customer. But let's take a second and think about the last time you bought a product from Apple, an iPhone, iPad, or Macbook, and you weren't impressed with the way it was presented in the packaging? Opening the box of a new iPhone is an experience in and of itself! Smart product companies know their packaging is more than a corrugated box, plastic bag, or folding carton. Product packaging is a powerful tool used to amplify a brand and build a connection with the consumer. Your packaging possesses a unique asset: it provides you with an opportunity to give your customers a guaranteed sensory experience, both sight, touch, and sometimes even smell. At the grocery store, a consumer can pass, on average, over 39,000 items while shopping. How does...

Today, all manufacturing industries face challenges that require changes from past business practices. Twenty, even ten, years ago the consumer was a passive actor who accepted market proposals. Now the end-user is an informed and sophisticated consumer who seeks differentiation, personalization. Today’s consumer has a clear understanding of the supply chain and the value it brings to key aspects of packaging, such as the environment and sustainability. Companies seek greater efficiencies and more productive use of resources. Because of this, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies must produce better packaging while controlling their manufacturing costs and minimizing time loss and materials. Flexo's Evolution The flexographic industry is no stranger to this “new” reality and strives to reduce response times and provide packaging with greater shelf impact at competitive prices. All this PLUS the trend towards shorter runs as CPGs require their brand identity be maintained rega...