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title: A Single Hybrid Press vs. a Segmented Line: PrintCo360's Trade-Off
lang: en
source: https://mindsprt.dev/en/knowledge/research-brief-digital-hybrid-printing-capacity-expansion/
---

# A Single Hybrid Press vs. a Segmented Line: PrintCo360's Trade-Off

*Mai Strategy Lab · 12 min read · 2026-09-02*

> Label converters buy a digital press thinking they're buying capacity. What they actually buy is extra material handling and handoffs. Alabama-based PrintCo360 almost went down that road, but chose an inline hybrid platform instead. Here is a breakdown of their decision logic, and how small and mid-sized converters in Taiwan can apply it

**Quick answer:** Label converters buy a digital press thinking they're buying capacity. What they actually buy is extra material handling and handoffs

## Overview

You have a quote on your desk: 500 meters, six SKUs, two needing a spot color at foil positions, and the customer needs it in three days. Run it on flexo, and changeover times eat your margin. Print it on a roll-to-roll digital press, and you still have to haul the entire roll to another machine for diecutting, then haul it again for slitting. Neither path feels good.

That was the exact dilemma PrintCo360 founder Joey Hicks kept running into when evaluating his next digital press. In his words, why take a process you can do in a single pass on flexo and break it across multiple machines [1]? The converter, based in Rainsville, Alabama, was close to pulling the trigger on a standalone digital press. Instead, they opted for a Mark Andy Digital Series iQ, a UV inkjet hybrid platform that keeps printing and converting in a single pass [1].

This piece looks at whether paying extra for single-pass production is actually worth it.

## Why Buying Another Digital Press Often Fails to Deliver Real Capacity

Because you added print capacity, not delivery capacity. A label order is only delivered once printing, diecutting, slitting, and lamination are all done. If you only expand print capacity, the bottleneck simply shifts downstream. That was Hicks's conclusion on roll-to-roll standalone presses: moving printed rolls to another machine for converting just creates a self-inflicted bottleneck [1].

Segmented finishing costs you more than just time. It costs you registration. Flexo print quality is extremely sensitive to the balance between impression pressure, anilox rolls, photopolymer plates, and substrates, a core variable tested across flexo quality research for years [3][4]. The same logic applies to hybrid workflows. Once the digital engine prints the image, finding register again on a separate converting unit means tearing down an already calibrated alignment and building it back from scratch. Every setup burns scrap and eats time.

Here is my take, not a conclusion from the cited sources: when small and mid-sized shops evaluate digital gear, they should stop looking only at meters per hour. They need to calculate total touches from raw stock to finished, shippable rolls. Every touch you eliminate buys you another slot of scheduling flexibility.

## What Configuration Did PrintCo360 Actually Buy?

Their Digital Series iQ features a flexo station before and after the digital engine, plus inline diecutting [1]. With this setup, the digital engine handles variable data and short-run economics, while the two flexo stations take care of coatings and spot colors that digital struggles with, feeding straight into diecutting [1]. The roll never leaves the press.

A few reference points worth noting:

・PrintCo360 was founded in 2012, runs four Mark Andy presses, and added digital production about ten years ago [1].

・Roughly 40% of its orders come from outside its immediate local market, shipping across the United States and into Canada [1].

・Its fastest-growing segment right now is food and beverage, including craft beer and spices, where brands constantly roll out new flavors and label designs [1].

・Hicks saw average run lengths shrinking steadily while SKU counts kept climbing [1].

That fourth point is the root of the entire decision. Falling run sizes and rising SKU counts mean the same monthly output gets sliced into far more individual jobs, and each job carries changeover overhead. When your job count doubles, the material handling and reregistration costs of an offline process double right along with it, and raw print speed cannot help you. The real value of inline finishing is driving down the fixed cost per job, not just chasing print speed.

## Can Small and Mid-Sized Converters in Taiwan Apply This Logic Directly?

Partly, but you need to check two prerequisites first.

The first prerequisite is whether your order mix is actually fragmenting. PrintCo360 has 40% of its business coming from outside its home market and strong growth in food and beverage [1], which keeps a hybrid press running at high utilization. If your plant still depends on long runs from a handful of large accounts, an inline hybrid press turns into an expensive machine that spends most of its day doing work a flexo press could handle. In that scenario, putting capital toward faster plate changeovers on your existing flexo lines yields a much faster payback.

The second prerequisite is having the operators to run it. PrintCo360's production manager, Silas, started on slitting systems, grew into one of the shop's top press operators, and now manages production, estimating, and scheduling [1]. A hybrid press compresses printing and converting decisions onto a single operator. That person must understand digital color management, flexo impression adjustments, and diecutting registration all at once. In Taiwan, small and mid-sized shops often get the machinery in place without the talent to match. The hybrid press ends up running like a standalone digital unit, leaving both flexo stations sitting idle.

Before sending a job to press, you must qualify the substrate, control your color, and map out the converting path. A hybrid press only solves that last part. If you have not solved the first two, buying expensive hardware will not save you.

## What Specific Questions Should You Ask During Evaluation?

Count your touches before you talk about machine price. Here is the checklist I would bring into an internal meeting:

・Pull jobs from the last six months and calculate how many machines each job touches on average, along with the median wait time between steps. That is the hard ceiling on what inline production can save you.

・Clarify what the front and back flexo stations will actually do: coating, spot colors, or just sitting there as backup. If you will not use them, do not pay for them.

・Review your process for verifying substrate and ink compatibility. UV inkjet adhesion and durability across different label stocks require standardized test methods, and standard testing systems for paper and packaging offer a solid starting point for building in-house acceptance protocols [2].

・Document flexo operating parameters (impression pressure, anilox specs, plate materials) into transferable standard operating procedures instead of leaving them locked in a senior operator's head. The link between these variables and flexo print quality has clear empirical backing [3][4].

・Schedule a genuine dry run: take three of your nastiest past jobs and have the vendor run them on their demo press all the way to finished, shippable rolls, not just printed press sheets.

The points above assume a narrow-web label market with shrinking order sizes and growing SKU counts. If you produce wide-web flexible packaging, long runs of a single SKU, or highly variable finishing specs where the same client wants completely different embellishments on each job, offline equipment gives you far more configuration flexibility. In those cases, single-pass inline finishing actually limits line flexibility.

Machine selection comes down entirely to your order profile. Lay out the numbers, do the math, and the right press configuration becomes obvious.

## Key Takeaways

Adding digital printing capacity does not equal adding delivery capacity. The bottleneck simply moves to diecutting and slitting.

PrintCo360's Digital Series iQ configuration pairs a flexo station before and after the digital engine with inline diecutting, keeping coating and spot colors on-press [1].

The real driver behind the decision was declining run lengths and expanding SKU counts, not a lack of printing speed [1].

A hybrid press concentrates digital color, flexo variables, and die registration onto one operator. Without the right talent, the press cannot deliver.

The evaluation metric should shift from meters per hour to total touches from raw substrate to shippable rolls.

## Further Thoughts

For label manufacturers, capital investment in hybrid equipment is moving from buying speed to buying continuous workflow. Financial models must account for transfer delays, reregistration waste, and the hidden costs of scheduling friction, rather than simply comparing hourly machine rates. For designers, inline flexo stations make spot colors and specialty coatings affordable options on short runs, meaning design concepts no longer have to be watered down just to accommodate small volumes. For AI and SaaS, the opening lies at the hybrid press's weakest link: turning operator experience on flexo impression, anilox rolls, and plate specs into predictive recommendation models, and automating touch counts so quoting systems know which line an incoming job should run on right when the order lands. Three unresolved challenges remain. First, the industry lacks cross-plant benchmark data comparing the total cost of inline versus offline workflows, leaving most decisions reliant on anecdotal experience. Second, long-term durability testing for UV inkjet across varied label substrates still shows gaps between in-house testing and standardized test protocols [2]. Third, training operators for hybrid equipment takes far longer than lead times for machine delivery, leaving capital expenditure and workforce development out of sync for small and mid-sized converters in Taiwan.

## References

[1] [Digital Hybrid Capacity Expansion: PrintCo360's Decision to Install the Mark Andy Digital Series iQ](https://www.markandy.com/news/printco360-expands-digital-hybrid-capacity-with-mark-andy-digital-series-iq/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=printco360-expands-digital-hybrid-capacity-with-mark-andy-digital-series-iq)

[2] [ASTM International: ASTM Paper and Packaging Standards](https://store.astm.org/products-services/standards-and-publications/standards/paper-standards-and-packaging-standards.html). ASTM International

[3] [Journal of Graphic Engineering and Design: Paper on Flexographic Print Quality](https://jged.uns.ac.rs/index.php/jged/article/view/425). Journal of Graphic Engineering and Design

[4] [DiVA Portal / Karlstad University: Doctoral Thesis on the Relationship Between Flexographic Print Quality and Printing Parameters (PDF)](https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:5784/FULLTEXT01.pdf). DiVA Portal / Karlstad University

## FAQ

### What is the difference between a digital hybrid press and a standard digital press?

A digital hybrid press integrates the digital engine with flexo stations, diecutting, and other converting units in a single inline pass. Printed stock never has to move to another machine for converting. A standard roll-to-roll digital press handles print only, meaning downstream diecutting and slitting must be scheduled on separate equipment.

### Why did PrintCo360 skip a standalone digital press and buy a Mark Andy Digital Series iQ instead?

Founder Joey Hicks believed that splitting a process flexo could finish in one pass across multiple machines would create bottlenecks, so he chose an inline UV inkjet hybrid platform instead [1]. Their machine is configured with a flexo station before and after the digital engine, plus inline diecutting [1].

### When should a small or mid-sized label converter consider a hybrid press?

The advantages of a hybrid press are clearest when average run sizes keep dropping, SKU counts keep climbing, and jobs frequently call for spot colors or specialty coatings. If your volume still centers on long runs for a few key accounts, investing in faster changeovers on your existing flexo lines will deliver a faster return.

### What is the most underestimated cost of adopting a hybrid press?

Labor. A hybrid press demands that a single operator master digital color management, flexo impression and anilox variables, and die registration all at once. The training curve is usually much longer than the lead time for the press. If your workforce is not ready, the flexo stations will sit idle for a long time.

### What metric should converters use instead of printing speed when evaluating a hybrid press?

Use total touches from raw substrate to shippable rolls, meaning how many machines each job touches on average and how long it waits between stages. That number directly defines the upper limit of what inline production can save.


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