Consumables: Improving performance and reducing costs

An excerpt from AP July 2020 – by Ball & Doggett graphics division general manager Sam Varughese 

Australia is a mature print market and the demand trend for print consumables would be very similar to other mature markets such as in Europe or America. The demand for consumables continue to grow in some of the developing markets.

At Ball and Doggett, we offer a comprehensive range of consumables for the offset print industry that includes offset inks – conventional, UV and HUV-LED, varnishes, aqueous coatings, wash cloth rolls, offset printing blankets, coating plates, calibrated packing papers, anti-setoff spray powders, a full range of pressroom chemicals such as fountain solutions, press washes, plate cleaners, anti-marking films and jackets, and colour control equipment.

We also offer a range of specialised products for the corrugated packaging industry, such as anvil covers and accessories, and specialty chemicals for corrugated board manufacturing.

Every printer in the country would have to use these products without which they would not be able to produce a printed product. However, there is a general decline in demand for these consumables in certain segments of the market, in keeping with the decline for print. But there are other segments where we do see stable, and in some cases, increased demand for many of the consumables we offer.

Customers are generally constantly looking at ways to improve performance and reduce costs. We are constantly looking for new technologies, and products that have better performance characteristics, and are environmentally safe so that we can offer a better and safer outcome for our customers.

All the consumables we distribute are from global technology leaders. The opportunity for us is to guide our customers towards using products that we believe provide the best price performance ratio with minimum impact to the environment and the person using the product.

As customers look for improved efficiencies, they are also looking to suppliers to offer a complete system rather than just a product. As a supplier, we are constantly looking at how best we match up the different products that are suitable for a customer’s specific application so as to enable the customer to get the best results.

Every printer’s needs and requirements differ, and what is critical is to identify products that best meet their requirement.

Businesses within the consumables space should work closely with suppliers to develop revolutionary products that enable printers to offer their customers something that is different and unique. Have products in your range that could help customers get longer life from their machine parts and therefore, reduce their costs.

Over the years, the print industry has constantly evolved and moved from use of generic consumables to products that are designed for specific applications. This has led to consistent results, a safer environment for the worker, and improved ability to recycle printed matter. We will see the continuous pursuit of cleaner and greener consumables in the near future.

As part of this, we have also noticed a trend of the move away from mineral oil-based inks and consumables to products that are environmentally friendly, low VOC, and recyclable.

Almost all of the inks we supply are eco-friendly, low VOC products made from renewable raw materials. This is an ongoing programme and our ink supplier has developed a wide range of products that has now been approved according to “cradle to cradle” standards.  

As more and more print requirements move towards packaging, recyclability and sustainability will become an essential part of the specifications, in that all consumables used in packaging is food safe and compatible for direct or indirect contact.

It is also critical that all the ingredients used in the consumables to produce a printed product do not cause harm to the environment and can be easily recycled.

Going by current trends, it is quite likely that the demand for consumables in the commercial print and newspaper segments would continue to shrink over the next five years but we believe this would be compensated for by the increase in demand in the packaging segment.

With the increase in demand for packaging, we would envisage a surge in demand for consumables that are safer to use, compatible for food packaging, and recyclable post-use. Consumables that provide special effects on packaging would continue to be a growth area.

The digital version of the magazine is available here.

 

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