While businesses have been working towards sustainable practices for years, the recent emphasis on eco-friendly initiatives has moved it to the top of the consumer agenda. Global COVID-19 lockdowns have had a demonstrable effect on improving our environment — in northern India, the Himalayas were visible in the distance for the first time in a generation. And during the first nine weeks of the UK lockdown, nitrogen dioxide along London’s roads decreased by an average of 31% compared with the pre-lockdown period.
As a result, sustainable practices — particularly when it comes to the creation of packaging — has emerged as a top priority for consumers around the globe. From FMCG giants to retail outlets, brands and businesses are doubling down on new, eco-friendly packaging solutions.
And consumers are really pushing the agenda. They’ve all realised just how damaging current production processes are and come together to create an unprecedented drive for sustainability. We’re regularly seeing climate change protests, brand and business pledges to sustainability and innovation in the packaging sector. The reality is that consumers today now expect sustainable delivery options, biodegradable bags (just look at supermarkets providing “Bags for Life”) and ultimately far less plastic.
According to Trivium Packaging’s 2021 Global Buying Green Report, for nearly 7 in 10 consumers (67%) the products they buy must be in recyclable packaging.
Similarly, a 2020 study conducted by Shorr Packaging found that nearly two-thirds of shoppers (58%) who have made changes to their purchasing behaviours during the pandemic are now paying more attention to packaging. Furthermore, many are happy to pay extra for it.
Also, when you think about how purchase behaviour has changed (more and more of us are buying goods online rather than in-store), it makes perfect sense that consumers are willing to pay more for sturdy, eco-friendly packaging. No one wants their goods to arrive damaged or for the packaging to be harmful to the planet. The challenge, brands and businesses face, however, is creating eco-friendly packaging that is also robust. More care needs to be taken and sustainable alternatives need to be assessed to see if they can provide the strength, rigidity and reliability of their non eco-friendly cousins. As a result, the process is harder and with current technologies, slightly more expensive.
But while sustainable packaging has taken centre stage, what about printing? As a core part of the packaging process, particularly when it comes to the labelling of products, brands and businesses need to devote more time and attention to refining the process. There’s also the fact that the personalisation of packaging through print provides a competitive advantage for brands and businesses worldwide.
Take a look at Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” campaign, for example. While printing common names onto their cans was a rather “broad stroke” of personalisation, it was nonetheless a resounding success. Coke-drinkers worldwide flocked to social media to take pictures of cans with their names on them. It’s that sense of ownership that builds more potent and memorable connections with brands and businesses.
It’s a small step, but one that’s in the right direction for the potency of flexo and digital print.
It’s not just about the packaging
The fight for more sustainable practices has to happen at every level of an operation. As well as using more sustainable, eco-friendly materials, brands and businesses also have to think about their printing processes and the final product. After all, the quality of print on packaging can make or break a brand or business.
For example, in the food market, workers need to print on non-porous substrates smoothly. At the same time, prints need to be of high quality — with any colours, labels or information aligned properly. The smallest case of misregistration can cause an unappealing print, leading to wasted materials, delays and unhappy customers.
All of this can be detrimental in today’s consumer-driven market, and many brands and businesses don’t have the technology to print efficiently on these new, eco-friendly materials.
What can be done?
In most industries, flexographic printing is the go-to as it can be used on several substrates, including paper, card, polymers, textiles and even metal film.
That said, flexographic printing is nothing new. It’s been around for a while and though improvements to the process are relatively recent, such as more precise print plates, the introduction of computer controls and 3D systems for printing, there’s more that brands and businesses can do.
It’s here where our innovative, first-of-its-kind solution comes into play: tesa® Twinlock flexographic printing technology.
What is tesa® Twinlock?
tesa Twinlock® is a reusable, self-adhesive compressible flexo plate mounting sleeve. It’s a consistent, sustainable, cost-effective and high-quality solution for flexographic printing.
How does it work?
The basis of this technology begins with the selection of a base sleeve or cylinder from the customer’s preferred supplier. We then add a polyurethane (PU) foam layer to the top of the base sleeve. This layer is coated with a unique polymer that remains permanently tacky. So, when proper cleaning and handling procedures are observed, tesa® Twinlock can be used repeatedly.
The result? No need for adhesive tapes for your flexographic print or plate mounting.
Just how sustainable is it?
tesa® Twinlock is designed to be reusable and help printers achieve sustainability targets (as well as reduce costs and time) while ensuring consistent, high-quality print results.
To meet specific requirements, we offer four product varieties with three different hardness levels: soft, medium and hard foam. These structures allow complete flexibility for the customer (which is increasingly important given the focus on sustainable packaging and printing).
So, what are the benefits?
High-quality prints
Our adhesive flexo plate mounting sleeves provide exceptional print quality. Even after long press times, the sleeves continue to produce accurate and reliable results. This comes down to our open cell foam structure (which absorbs bouncing effects to improve print quality) and diameter tolerances (we use laser technology to measure sleeves to ensure they meet your requirements).
Efficient processes
The reusability of the self-adhesive flexo plate mounting sleeve is its main advantage. Provided it’s used and cleaned properly, our tesa® Twinlock sleeves can run endlessly.
This allows printers to:
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Spend significantly less on running their flexographic printing operations
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Reduce carbon emissions
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Generate fast ROI thanks to reusability
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Get a more accurate understanding of how much a print production run will cost.
Future-proofed operations
While tesa® Twinlock provides sustainability benefits in the form of reduced energy consumption and lower carbon footprints, it also provides sustainability in the form of future-proofing. With this technology in place, print departments can meet the ever-changing expectations of consumers and at scale.
If you’re still sceptical about the benefits of our tesa® Twinlock flexographic printing technology, let’s look at one of our clients, Christiansen Print. By implementing tesa® Twinlock, they were able to increase the speed of a print job from 200m/min to a maximum speed of 500 m/min. They were also able to reduce the bouncing in the press due to the compressibility of the 1.5mm thick layer of PU foam. Several further tests were done with a repeat length of 2000 mm (one of the longest the company uses) and for each test phase, tesa® Twinlock delivered positive results.
When it comes to printing, the speed of most jobs was increased by 20-30% — all while maintaining a consistent and high-quality print over a long production time.
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Sustainability happens at every level of your operation
At tesa®, we strive to be a forward-thinking and innovative solutions partner that can help clients prepare for — and succeed in — an uncertain future.
The fact is that sustainability happens at every level of operation. It’s not just about using eco-friendly and reusable materials, but also creating business processes and incorporating technologies that can be sustained well into the future.
From a print perspective, this could be using mounting plates to deliver around-the-clock flexography with consistent, high-quality finishes and minimal to no waste, or process tape solutions to ensure optimal prints and efficient processes in flexible packaging printing.
The question is, how can you future-proof your business beyond flexographic printing for packaging and plate mounted technologies? Across the globe, brands and businesses are going to have to adapt to meet the needs and expectations of today’s consumers — and much of achieving that starts with understanding what trends are defining the marketplace.
In our free ebook: Future-proof your print business, we take a look at the state of print and print innovation in 2021, from the prepress evolution and hybrid printing processes to sustainability and maximising print ROI.
Interested? Download your free copy by clicking the button below.
