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With a shared commitment to advancing sustainable packaging solutions, KYMC, a leading flexo printing machine manufacturer, and Toyo Ink Co., Ltd., an artience group company and a prominent provider of ink and coating solutions, are poised to make a significant impact at drupa 2024. Embracing innovation, Toyo Ink has developed a range of functional inks and coatings tailored specifically for sustainable packaging applications. Complementing this initiative, KYMC has engineered printing machines capable of simultaneously printing and coating with these functional inks and coatings. Together, the two firms are gearing up to showcase their collaborative efforts in sustainable packaging solutions at the drupa 2024 exhibition.

An upgrade to an ergonomic press design can turn into a more efficient production process. This is critical in a fast-paced world of printing and converting, where productivity and flexibility make all the difference. A digital kanban system for monitoring and managing the operation can contribute greatly to an ergonomics process. To be able to centrally monitor the real-time production status at the different press locations prevents unnecessary waste caused by walking back and forth around the machine. Walking back and forth to obtain status info at the different stations can be prevented.  As a result, an improved ergonomic friendliness for the operator and at the same time reduced unnecessary time spent on gathering data.

Keeping it fresh, containing the grease, controlling gas exchange, and preventing light penetration and aromas leaking are the main functional aspects of coating in food packaging. From an aesthetic perspective, coating helps the food to look as attractive as possible to the consumer. With the growing demand for convenient food due to the busy urban lifestyle, the need for preserving the food and marketing it to the consumers is also growing. According to Vantage Market Research, the food coating market is valued at USD 3.3 billion in 2022. It is projected that the food coating market will reach a value of USD 4.99 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 6.12% between 2023 and 2030.  So how does coating work, and what are the mainstream coatings on today’s market?

Drupa is the largest printing equipment tradeshow that is hosted every four years by Messe Dusseldorf in Dusseldorf, Germany. At Drupa 2024 innovative equipment and top-class knowledge will be presented. This is where printers and converters will discover the future of print technologies and graphic communication. Different printing technologies including flexographic press, digital press, rotogravure press, and many coating and lamination machines demonstrated for different industry applications.

At Drupa 2024, one of the key highlights will include circular economy and sustainability. Where the more recyclable mono-material packaging and water-based inks will be shown. At the same time, more efficient hybrid equipment such as flexographic press + coating and lamination machines will prove its value in reducing waste and reducing change over time. This is where equipment manufacturers will present their energy-efficient solutions.  KYMC is an experienced hybrid equipment manufacturer, delivering hybrid flexographic presses to industries such as the fast-food industries and other food packaging industries. KYMC presses are also suitable for water-based ink printing as different efficient drying systems can be installed on the presses including NIR drying, Infrared, UV-LED, and hot air.

RFID tags play an important role when it comes to tracking and obtaining information about a product. That’s why global brands like UNIQLO, Decathlon, and Zara have fully adopted the RFID tag into the price tag system for their products. As ESG factors become increasingly important for companies in the marketplace, companies are looking for greener ways to produce RFID tags. The need for green tags is on the rise. There are mainly two places in the RFID production process that we can alter to make it greener.  One area is to alter the selection of substrate that the aluminum antenna sits on, and the other area is to alter the way how the antenna (RFID dry inlay) is manufactured.

As brands try their best effort to catch the attention of consumers, different packaging designs are created to achieve this goal. In turn, it is the printers’ and converters’ (coating and lamination) challenge to turn these different designs into down-to-earth packaging products. Surface-reverse printing is one of the ways to catch the consumer's eye. In the following article, we will discuss the two typical industrial processes related to surface-reverse printing/coating.

OEE stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness. It is a measurement of productivity. OEE can be broken down into three different factors which are Availability, Performance, and Quality. 

For those that are not familiar with the nonstop web splicing. In general, there are two types of nonstop web splicing, which are lap splicing and butt splicing. Lap splicing is about joining two web rolls together. To join an end of a web roll and a beginning of a web roll together by laying one roll over the other with a tape. In this case, an overlapping region will be created to join the two rolls. On the other hand, butt splicing joins the two web rolls together without an overlapping region, which makes it much harder to perform. Butt splicing is used in applications where the thickness generated by the overlapping region during web joining is not acceptable.

This article is a commentary on the paper cup industry in terms of its role in the circular economy. To provide a comprehensive discussion about the paper cup industry through four different topics. First, looking into the different ways to make the paper cup more environmentally friendly on the market. Then diving into the industry status quo on the efforts placed into making the paper cup more environmentally friendly and its effectiveness. Then jumping into the paper cup market potential in terms of government policies and regulations, market volume, and market value. Last, ending with my personal perspective on how the paper cup industry will play out in the circular economy.

Have you ever wondered how’s everyone doing under the pandemic? Where do you stand when compared to others? According to Smithers’ latest industry report. The anticipated impact of COVID-19 is an increase in both the print value and print volume of the packaging & labels industry by more than 10% from 2020-2025. Is this really the case? Let’s see what our customers have to say...

KYMC has reached out to our global client base to see how they are doing. The below responses were provided by Huhtamaki from UAE, Verix from Australia, Detpak from South Africa, Longpak from South Africa, and Alpha Plastomers from India.