Love it or loathe it, sustainability – the ‘S word’ among some business owners has become a key driver of innovation in the digital inkjet and hybrid technology sector throughout the UK and Europe. For businesses involved in label and print production, embracing greener practices can enhance efficiency and reduce costs, as well as minimise the operation’s carbon footprint. With ‘net zero’ drives being felt in every sector, advances in technology are now making it easier than ever for businesses to reach their sustainability goals. Let’s look at the main sustainability trends shaping the label printing sector and how you can utilise them for your business.
Energy Efficient Curing With Led UV Systems
A significant portion of the energy consumed by a print operation comes not from the presses themselves, but from the curing process, where inks are dried and hardened onto a substrate. Traditional mercury vapour UV lamps were the industry standard for many years, but these are notoriously inefficient, generating substantial waste heat and consuming a great deal of power.
LED UV curing systems for printing offer businesses an eco-friendlier and energy-conscious alternative. These systems use light-emitting diodes that consume a fraction of the energy of their conventional counterparts, often reducing power usage by 50% or more. Also, because they operate at much lower temperatures, LEDs also avoid the need for complex cooling systems, further cutting down your energy costs. LED lamps are also mercury-free and have a much longer lifespan, reducing the complications of hazardous waste disposal and requiring less frequent replacements.
Eco-Friendly And Biodegradable Inks
The composition of the inks used in label printing has a big impact on a label’s overall environmental footprint. Many solvent-based inks release volatile organic compounds or VOCs into the air as they cure, which can be detrimental to the environment and human health. In response, the industry is now shifting towards greener and safer alternatives. The development of sustainable inks for label manufacturing is an important trend. High-quality water-based inks, for example, replace petrochemical solvents with water, significantly reducing VOC emissions. Another growth area are inks derived from renewable plant-based resources such as vegetable oils or soy, which are biodegradable and nontoxic. These alternative options also make the final printed products easier to recycle or compost.
Smart Production With Digital And Hybrid Technology
One of the cornerstones of sustainability is waste reduction. Every misprint and metre of discarded substrate adds to your operational costs and your environmental footprint. Modern digital inkjet and hybrid technology directly address this concern by streamlining the printing process at every stage. In environmental terms, one of the biggest benefits is the precise control offered over each job. With digital inkjet presses, excess inventory and unnecessary waste from overprinting are minimised, as it is more cost-effective to print exactly the quantity required for each order while still keeping your unit costs low. This lean approach – difficult to achieve in low volumes with flexographic printing – reduces surplus stock holdings and lowers the carbon footprint of your print operation. Hybrid systems, which blend digital and flexographic processes, further strengthen efficiency by handling complex jobs in a single pass, integrating variable data, custom finishes, and intricate printed details without multiple setups and changeovers. Streamlining your workload in this way consumes less energy and shortens your production cycles.
What Next?
If you’d like to find out more about sustainability and the impact the movement is having on print technology, feel free to contact one of the team at Focus Label today on 0115 824 5217, or click here to send us a message.
Image Source: Canva
