Why choose digital offset printing (and Sirane) for your next print job? There’s lots of reasons…

SIRANE can offer digital offset printing on our HP Indigo 200k press – which was installed in April 2023. Sirane was the first company in the UK, and one of only three in the world, to get the BETA version of this state-of-the-art digital offset press.

So what difference can digital offset printing make to our customers?

Digital offset printing offers many benefits to the customers: short lead times; short print runs; multiple SKUs; stunning print quality, and personalisation/unique designs.

Digital offset printing is also the most sustainable printing solution there is.

First things first, what is digital offset printing? This is not digital printing in the same way that a digital printer sat on someone’s desk would print.

Offset requires plates that are used to transfer an image onto a rubber blanket and that are rolled onto a sheeting of paper. It is called offset because the ink is not transferred directly to the paper. With traditional digital printing, there are no plates involved and the ink or toner is distributed directly to the paper – digital offset uses blanket transfer and means the image quality is stunning.

In short, digital offset printing offers all the advantages of digital printing with all the advantages of offset printing, giving the customer the best of both worlds.

Digital offset printing offers many advantages to the customer.

Printing digitally, the MOQ is 1. While we don’t expect many customers to want just 1 pouch – let’s be honest, it would be an expensive pouch – it is possible, and it does mean we can offer low MOQs on printed pouches, flow-wrap film and more. Whether it’s for a trial product launch, a seasonal variation, or just a low-volume product, the MOQs can start much lower than they do for traditional Flexo printing.

With digital offset printing, it is also easy to run multiple SKUs as part of the print run. You can dictate exactly how many you want of each design, and there are no plate costs. Because there’s no plates it’s easy to make changes to designs for future print runs.

This opens up plenty of opportunities for creative brands and marketing teams. Whether it is localised versions, cause-driven promotions, event-driven promotions or you just want to test-the-market, digital offset offers something different.

And that’s not even taking HP Smart Stream Designer into account…

Using HP’s Smart Stream Designer technology, it’s possible to create unique designs for every pouch/impression, offer personalised packaging (including names) and more. The only limit is your creativity… HP Mosaic and HP Collage (used with Smart Stream Designer) make it easy to create thousands, if not millions, of unique designs.

Think of some of the memorable marketing campaigns of recent years, things like Coca-Cola with their names on the cans, Nutella who did something similar, or the Diet-Coke campaign where every can was different – these all used HP Smart Stream Designer.

Digital offset printing removes weeks from the process…it’s possible to go from submitting a design to receiving your pouch order in days rather than weeks. Short lead times also mean crises in the supply chain can easily be averted.

It allows customers to totally change their ordering patterns. Why order 1 million pouches and have to store them for six months, if you can simply order 100,000 a month? You’re less likely to end up with redundant stocks, if you need to make designs changes there’s no hassle, and if you get your numbers wrong, we can just print a few more… digital offset printing truly has many advantages.

It can also offer labour-savings – especially for customers currently applying labels to plain pouches, as well as potential cost savings (one digital offset printing pouch may well prove cheaper than one plain pouch, one label, and the cost of someone applying that label, as well as the obvious fact that it looks more professional).

For many small to medium size manufacturers, digital offset printing offers a way into the professional-looking printed pouch without the minimum order requirements.

Of course, all this is nothing if the print quality is not good enough. But this is gravure-matching colour quality based on the HP Indigo Liquid Electro Photography (LEP) and One-Shot Colour technologies, and the press offers the widest available range of ElectroInks. Furthermore, Spot Master means stunning print quality is guaranteed. Spot Master means you will get the colour you want – and the same colour – every time you print. No more issues with colours not printing the same.

The new, series 5, HP Indigo 200K digital press, prints up to 56 m/min (183 fpm) and increases productivity – it showcases a 30% increase in speed and 45% boost in productivity compared to the HP Indigo 25K, and even more compared with previous incarnations. Of course the speed and efficiency of the press is something for us, and not the customer to worry about – but it does add an extra bonus for the customer, as an efficient press is more cost efficient, with savings for everyone.

Sirane’s digital offset printing can be used for stand-up pouches, flat-pouches, pillow-packs (centre-seal pouches), quad-seal packs, insulated bags, twisted-handle paper-bags, 2 or 3-side-seal pouches, flow-wrap film and many more packaging formats.

We offer digital offset printing on standard plastics (PET, BOPP, BE, BOPA),?recyclable plastics (LDPE)?and our?heat-sealable recyclable paper-based pouches/films. It’s possible to print on a wide range of additional substrates – please just ask the question.

It’s also possible to print board up to 400 micron in thickness.

As with everything Sirane does, sustainability is at the heart of everything.

Digital offset printing doesn’t require plates – which is an environmental-friendly saving in itself. It also requires less energy, less maintenance, and significantly less ink waste, as well as eliminating the use of many hazardous chemicals.

In addition, it reduces the amount of waste materials from set-up, and can also reduce waste for customers who end up with redundant stock due to over-ordering.

And of course, we also have our eco-friendly water-based printing presses for traditional Flexo printing work - so if digital is not for you for whatever reason, we'd still love to hear from you.

MARK LINGARD, MARKETING MANAGER