The momentum behind digital label printing has hit new strides and digital is becoming a staple of the global packaging and label printing industry. With anticipated market forecasts of digitally printed packaging and labels to grow by an unheard of 182% by 2014*, reports indicate nearly 250 new digital package and label printing machines are being installed annually. As digital continues to take an assertive hold, the need for high-tech finishing for digital print is also riding this wave. With more than 35 digital printing suppliers now competing for their piece of the digital printing pie, there still only remains a few leading finishing solutions that are equipped to design and deliver the converting needs of this industry.

In-line and off-line finishing technologies both share the finishing portion of the digital print workflow, however a whopping 79.5% represent converters using an off-line solution, where workflow, production speeds and a bigger variety of configurations can be managed more effectively and efficiently.

In any event, finishing for digital print is increasing at a high rate, mostly in order to meet the increasing and expanding demand for application decorations and treatments necessary to deliver a complete printed label or package. In the early years, finishing included only die cutting, basic inspection and rewinding for final label delivery. Today, the applications have expanded beyond that, and the industry is seeing growth in several converting areas.