Polytype: When Direct-to-Shape Meets AI, Automation & Personalization

This article was inspired by a recent podcast interview with Florian Fässler, Head of R&D Digital Technologies, Polytype

For much of the past two decades, digital printing has been measured against analogue. Questions centred on speed, quality, productivity and cost, with digital often needing to justify itself as an alternative production process. Florian Fässler, Head of R&D Digital Technologies at Polytype, believes that debate is rapidly becoming obsolete.

Today, direct-to-shape digital printing is evolving into something far more significant than a replacement for conventional decoration. It is becoming a manufacturing platform in its own right, enabling levels of flexibility, connectivity and automation that traditional processes simply cannot achieve.

Having spent more than fifteen years developing industrial digital printing technologies across Polytype's portfolio, Fässler has witnessed this transformation first-hand. What excites him most is not simply faster printheads or higher resolution, but the convergence of digital manufacturing with automation, artificial intelligence and connected production.

The technology itself has matured dramatically.

FuturePrint Podcast #350

Click on the image to listen to the full discussion with Florian.

One of the most important advances has been the industry's ability to print reliably onto increasingly complex three-dimensional objects. Greater throw distances between printheads and substrates, combined with advances in waveform optimisation and a much deeper understanding of airflow dynamics within high-speed production systems, have significantly improved industrial robustness.

Printing onto curved containers is fundamentally different from printing onto flat materials. Air turbulence, moving products and complex geometries all influence print quality. Solving these engineering challenges has enabled Polytype to achieve industrial reliability while extending digital printing to a far broader range of applications.

That reliability is now opening entirely new markets.

While Polytype remains synonymous with direct-to-shape packaging, particularly tubes, cups and bottles, the company's technology is increasingly finding opportunities across beverage cans, cosmetics and even automotive applications through its growing OEM activities. Fässler describes these OEM partnerships as something of a Formula One programme—an environment where demanding industrial applications accelerate innovation that ultimately benefits the wider product portfolio.

Perhaps the most important change, however, is occurring in customer expectations.

Manufacturers are no longer simply looking for high-quality decoration. Increasingly they require shorter production runs, rapid product launches and the ability to produce personalised products economically at industrial volumes. Polytype's systems are now capable of producing more than one hundred individually customised products every minute, demonstrating that mass customisation is no longer a niche capability but an industrial reality.

This flexibility is becoming increasingly valuable as packaging markets fragment. Smaller brands, direct-to-consumer businesses and digitally native companies require manufacturing systems capable of responding in days—or sometimes hours—rather than weeks.

For these businesses, digital is not merely an alternative production technology. It is the business model itself.

Interestingly, Fässler observes that some of the fastest-growing customers entering the market are digital-first companies with no analogue legacy. Without existing production infrastructure or established manufacturing habits, these organisations adopt entirely different operating models built around responsiveness, automation and customer personalisation.

This represents a subtle but important shift in market dynamics. Rather than digital replacing analogue, entirely new businesses are emerging that simply begin with digital from day one.

Connectivity represents another major evolution.

Polytype has long advocated printing directly onto products rather than applying labels, eliminating carrier materials while simplifying recycling and reducing waste. Today, however, direct-to-shape printing also allows every product to become an individual source of data.

Variable QR codes, serialisation and unique identifiers can be incorporated seamlessly into production without secondary processes. Whether supporting authentication, consumer engagement, loyalty programmes or product traceability, every individual item can carry its own digital identity.

Fässler cites examples where reusable beverage cups are printed with unique QR codes that activate promotional offers immediately upon purchase before automatically expiring after a defined period. The application illustrates how decoration, data and customer engagement are increasingly merging into a single manufacturing process.

Artificial intelligence promises to accelerate this transformation still further.

While AI is often associated with image generation, Fässler sees its greatest value emerging inside manufacturing itself. AI-generated artwork lowers barriers for personalised production, allowing consumers to create unique designs through web-to-print platforms with little technical expertise.

Within production environments, AI also offers opportunities to simplify machine operation, support operator training and dramatically improve troubleshooting. By combining existing technical documentation with AI assistants, operators can access highly contextual technical support almost instantly.

Even more significant is AI's ability to process the vast quantities of machine data generated during production. Technologies such as acoustic nozzle monitoring have existed conceptually for decades, yet only recent advances in computing power make them commercially practical. By interpreting sensor data in real time, AI enables predictive maintenance, higher machine uptime and improved production reliability.

Looking further ahead, Fässler anticipates AI reshaping supply chains themselves. Autonomous purchasing systems capable of negotiating production capacity, delivery schedules and procurement decisions could increasingly interact directly with digitally connected manufacturing equipment. In such an environment, digital production becomes inherently more competitive because manufacturing capacity itself becomes visible, measurable and instantly available.

Sustainability also benefits from this digital transformation, although perhaps not always in the ways commonly discussed.

While ink chemistry and substrate selection remain important, Fässler believes some of the greatest environmental gains come through production efficiency. Manufacturing only what is required, eliminating obsolete inventory and reducing production waste all contribute to lower environmental impact.

He also foresees a gradual decentralisation of manufacturing. Rather than transporting empty containers long distances before filling, digitally connected regional production cells could manufacture packaging much closer to the point of consumption. This distributed manufacturing model reduces transport, improves responsiveness and creates greater resilience across supply chains.

Throughout the discussion one message emerges consistently: digital printing is no longer simply about replacing analogue.

Instead, it is becoming the digital operating system around which future manufacturing will increasingly be organised.

Looking towards 2035, Fässler expects more autonomous production, further advances in digital metallisation, improved 2D-to-3D image mapping and increasing automation across entire manufacturing ecosystems.

Significantly, he does not identify one single barrier preventing wider adoption. Rather, progress will continue through steady technological improvement, growing customer confidence and continued collaboration across the inkjet ecosystem.

For Polytype, the future of direct-to-shape printing lies not simply in printing more products digitally, but in redefining how products are manufactured, connected and delivered altogether.