Aniflo, the game changer technology to restore profitability.
The Digital or Flexo dilemma
Many studies have been published explaining the benefits of each technology for narrow web printing. We fully agree with their results that conclude to similar figures: Digital printing is more efficient than flexo on short run, and the break-even point is roughly between 1200 m and 3000 m.
By avoiding the cost of plates, digital printing technology, such as dry toner, liquid toner or inkjet, are reducing the fixed costs per job, making them suitable for short run. Many assumptions have to be taken into account to do the maths properly: Investment costs, number of jobs per shift/day/year, labour costs, substrate costs, ink costs and volume, tooling costs, waste, make ready time, production speed… All press manufacturers are synthetising it with the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) that includes all these costs, allowing the comparison between the different printing technology.
Same approach, same assumptions, same figures, but not the same conclusion!
The financial model we are using is computing market prices and costs evocated above, precising them for each technology. Our results shows that break-even point between digital and flexo is roughly at 1400m. Of course, the more flexo plates you need, the higher the break-even point will be. Every job is different, every market is different, but figures are figures, and our conclusion won’t change even if this break-even would be at 1000 or 3000 m, so we have kept conservative assumptions.
In fact, the big picture has to be observed not on one job, but on all jobs. Every converter is facing various run length, depending on size of labels, quantity, different SKU’s. And the same job can be printed once for very small quantity, sometimes for larger quantities.
Let’s say that the jobs you are printing are like this chart (similar to real production jobs from various countries on our machines): 25% of the jobs below 400 m, 7% above 8 000 m. The average run length here is 2500m (compared to recent publication by FINAT). If you look at figures differently, the same distribution is telling you that 2% of the labels in quantity are printed on short run below 400 m, and 29% on long run above 8 000 m.
And guess what, converters are not selling linear meters, but labels!
What if these publications were considering Aniflo technology?
If you can get the best of the different technologies like flexo productivity with high production speed and low consumables costs, and digital flexibility with very low waste and make ready time, then, you would be able to reduce the break-even point compared to digital on short run length (300-500m), and you will still be competitive against flexo on longer run (8 000-12 000 m). This is where Aniflo helps you.
Aniflo is an inking system, combining offset quality, flexo productivity and digital flexibility. It features an offset unit, with cheap offset plates and a simple anilox delivery system that brings a uniform ink amount across the web. With the lowest operational costs, Aniflo is the most economical choice for short, medium (and even long) runs on any commonly used substrate – filmic, paper, carton… Because it is intermittent and inking consistency is stable, fewer consumables are needed. Make ready time is dramatically reduced, making Aniflo very efficient even for very short run. The high-definition capability and superior stability means Aniflo can print in Extended Gamut Printing, like digital machine, without the inconvenience of high ink costs, click charges or planned obsolescence.
Now, let’s apply this technology and its performance on all your jobs:
Aniflo is the most cost-efficient technology for 73% of the jobs, and 72% of the output (quantity of labels printed).
Jobs above 10000m are not displayed in the charts but taken into account in figures.
Restore profitability with Aniflo!
By getting the most cost-efficient technology for your jobs, you are saving money and restoring your margins. To have an idea of the global savings, we can take the example of a converter already equipped with both flexo and digital solution.
By printing the jobs on Aniflo that are suitable for this technology (a conservative approach would be 400 m to 8 000 m), this converter would lower it TCO by 33%.
No surprise then that new Aniflo owners decide on average to invest in the second Aniflo press only one year and 9 months after the installation of their first Aniflo machine, and thus printing 69% of their jobs with in range 400 to 8000m, based on their real production data!
At Codimag, we are convinced that Aniflo will meet the jobs you have to print, and all the new markets that converters can conquer. Furthermore, with offset quality, versatility, and ability to print on any substrate!
Average break-even point between flexo and digital 1,707 linear meters in FINAT Radar 2017-07
Average run length by technology, FINAT Radar 2017-07 – 4600 m for conventional, 800 m for digital. The figures displayed in FINAT RADAR 2019 – 11 shows an increase in run length on conventional press, due to jobs moving to digital: 8177 m for conventional, 911m for digital, but no figures were giving the global average run length.