Digital Printing on Cans

Improve print quality and change artwork instantly by digital printing on cans. The Revolution® high-speed digital cylinder printer is an all-digital, direct to object printer. The artwork (or graphics) for cans are generated through common graphic software such as Adobe Illustrator and applied directly to a can without the use of additional consumables, waste, and adhesives. The Revolution® offers full-color vibrant CMYK color in addition to a white and varnish (both standard on each machine). The Revolution® gives any manufacturer the flexibility to print exactly how many cans they need with the graphics they want in an instant.

The can market has a large niche in the craft brew industry. Labels are made for limited edition runs and new brews by the thousands of breweries appearing all over the world. The smaller, craft -brew businesses tend to only package in cans due to cost and packaging considerations. Labels are generally pre-made on a roll and adhered to the can in a fast-paced process. The challenge today for the can market is, however, purchasing labels from a third-party vendor that have a long turnaround time and require minimum label quantities. For example, if a limited run of 3,500 cans were set up the vendor may require a minimum of 5,000 labels and you are now stuck with an excess of labels that will never be used that you paid for.

Check out our video of the Revolution® digital printing on cans. You will notice that the machine offers a wide variety of features such as conveyorized loading and unloading, a dedicated print station for CMYK, White, and Varnish, as well as UV-LED curing. This high-speed digital cylinder printer can print about 600 cans per hour on average, all of which depend upon artwork size. Contact Inkcups today to set-up an exploratory call with our team to discuss sampling and production capabilities.

Further reading: Applications: Aluminum Can Printing Machine, Beverage Can Printing, The Benefits of Direct-to-Can Printing