Stora Enso, a leading supplier of high quality packaging boards and solutions, wants to show how board material can be used in an innovative way for packages of luxury products. The company was, for instance, the initiator in a recently completed design contest “Recreate Packaging 2012”, arranged for design students at selected universities and art academies around the world. The company also expects digital printing of cosmetics packages to make a breakthrough.

According to Stora Enso, this “rethink” attitude about cosmetics packaging “is a realistic opportunity, as is shown by the overall high quality of entries in the Recreate Packaging 2012 contest,” organised in partnership with the International Design Business Management programme (IDBM) of Aalto University of Helsinki. The purpose of the contest was precisely to challenge packaging conventions and increase the use of renewable materials in cosmetics packaging applications.

Digital printing of packages, which is coming to cosmetics packaging, is another source of innovation according to Stora Enso. The company is one of the pioneers in digital printing of packages and started research in this field already in the mid-1990s with special focus on the substrate compatibility in digital printing.

Besides substrate related expertise Stora Enso has developed various application-driven digital solutions.

“In 2012, the company launched the second version of Stora Enso Gallop, a digital production line of packages with a Xerox iGen4 printing unit. With the new Gallop, already installed at a few customers, digitally printed package blanks will enter new segments, among them cosmetics packaging,” says Sari Häkli, Sales Manager of
Stora Enso Digital Solutions.

Stora Enso also announced that it is bringing a new digital package printing solution to the consumer paperboard packaging market with HP. This will be based on new B2 size coater, Stora Enso Lakka, and the new HP Indigo 30000 digital press, allowing accurate reproduction of most of the Pantone gamut and official brand colours.

“HP Indigo presses also print on metallised boards, which is crucial for packages of premium products, such as luxury beverages and perfumes,” adds the company in a release.

First beta units of the Stora Enso Lakka coater with the HP Indigo 30000 are expected to be shipped by summer 2013.