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For corrugated packaging printers, the decision to print directly to the board versus a top sheet to be laminated to the board is one that often comes down to quality and cost.
Louis Salters, manufacturing manager for International Paper’s Tucker, Ga. facility, says directly printing on the board is inexpensive, and with jobs that do not require high graphic images, the quality can be strong. Flexographically printing on a top sheet, however, typically produces a better quality image than printing directly to the board.
“The drawback for any customer to this printing preference is that the cost for the work is more expensive,” he says in an email. “To achieve the highest quality print in flexography, printing on the uncorrugated substrate is the best route. Recent innovations like digital printing have begun to challenge that narrative, but I still strongly believe, given exposure to all three methods of printing, that printing on the top sheet gives the best quality image for the cost.”
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