There has been a revolution in package printing over the last 10 years, and Craig Curran of
Nosco has enthusiastically supported the transformation.
“Nosco is the digital leader in Healthcare Packaging, printing over 8000 different SKU’s and more than 400 million labels and cartons since 2004,” said Craig Curran, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “Nosco has worked with HP Indigo to beta-test and commercialize the WS6000 label machine, white ink for clear labels, and variable data printing for serialized bar codes. In addition, Nosco serves on the Board of Directors of DSCOOP, the leading community for Digital Printing, as well as Hilpac, the HP Advisory Board for digital packaging printing.”
“Two events will continue Nosco’s leadership position in Digital Printing,” he continued. “First, Nosco opened a fully digital On_Demand Solutions Center in October 2013, bringing digital labels and cartons to the Northeast (Bristol, PA) in order to reduce cycle time and costs for healthcare firms. Secondly, Nosco is the first in North America to install the new HP Indigo 30000 technology for the production of digital cartons. Nosco is committed to Digital Printing for the healthcare industry and intends to be the leader in this space for years to come.”
Digital Printing cuts costs, reduces cycle time and minimizes process variation. At the same time, it offers the opportunity to significantly reduce or eliminate inventory and cost-effectively limits waste generated during startup or due to obsolescence.
Digital Printing eliminates printing plates and reduces make-ready, streamlining the printing process by reducing 13+ steps to 3. Those 3 steps are:
- Create prepress files
- Finish (varnish, die-cut, add security and serialization features and inspect)
This streamlined process means fewer opportunities for error, defects and waste. In fact, Digital Printing produces 99%+ defect free with no smudging or out of registration issues. The reduction in the number of steps also cuts costs and significantly compresses lead time. Although relatively new for pharmaceutical packaging, Digital Printing is well established, with more than 1,080 Series II and Series III L&P digital packaging machines installed worldwide. According to industry data, the volume of labels printed on HP Indigo presses has grown 20% per year from 2001 through 2012.
High-resolution 812- to 1200-dot-per-inch print quality delivers crisp graphics, 4-color process and vignettes, one- and two-dimensional bar codes and smaller type fonts (down to 1 point). Furthermore, since the process is digital, every label and folding carton is the same with minimal print variation within the run and consistent reproducibility from run to run. Conversely, the Digital Printing process facilitates the addition of variable information like sequential or random bar codes, which can make every label or carton in a run unique.
The procurement supervisor for a healthcare supplier, labeling everything from small glass vials to 20-liter cube containers, reports that the company’s label runs, which used to take 20-25 days using traditional printing methods, are now ready in 5-10 days. That’s an on-demand solution!
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