Labels and Shrink Sleeves: Taking a Look at Labels
Using digital printing, Labels West
produced four-color UV-printed labels for Bonne Chic LLC’s bath and body line. “The [digitally printed label] by Labels West is affordable and [can be] easily altered to accommodate any label changes,” says Bonne Chic’s Amanda Gregurich.
Innovation is happening in every sector of the labeling arena.
by Jennifer Kwok, Managing EditorInnovation is happening everywhere in the label industry. Whether in digital technology, shrink sleeves, or the pressure-sensitive market, new developments are expanding marketers’ options for the look, feel, and cost of their labels. Read on to find out the newest trends in this hot market.
The Digital Craze
Digital has become the new watchword in the label industry. Used for everything from printing to prototyping, digital technology enables label suppliers to provide greater services—often at a lower price. Many suppliers are now moving into the digital arena and expanding their digital offerings.
In July, Labels West, which specializes in pressure-sensitive labels, installed a new HP Indigo 4050 digital label press in its facility. The new press allows the firm to print larger digital runs. “Earlier versions of this press have been around in the market for a while,” says Lance Wilson, director of sales and marketing for Labels West. “However, they were being used mostly for prototypes and small runs. With this newest version, we’ve reached true production quantities.”
Digital printing offers many benefits. For one, it eliminates the cost of printing plates and reduces setup costs. Digital printing also accommodates smaller runs, since companies don’t have to maximize the cost-effectiveness of a printing plate by only doing large runs. In addition, because digital printing can create labels on demand, companies don’t have to keep large inventories of labels in stock.
Supplier Fort Dearborn is also seeing increased demand for digital printing. “We’ve been doing digital printing for more than 10 years, but it had been used for short runs or for prototyping,” says Gwen Chapdelaine, marketing director for Fort Dearborn. “Digital printing has now expanded into full print runs. We’ve purchased a few more HP-type presses. Our customers like digital because it’s all about speed to market.”
Wilson points to another benefit with digital printing—the ability to print variable lot codes and authentication features. One example is microtext, which is extremely small text that, for instance, credit card companies print on charge cards. Microtext is very difficult to duplicate because the text is so small. Wilson says that digital presses can print not only microtext, but also digital watermarks.
Digital printing can also surpass conventional printing when it comes to the types of substrates it accommodates. “With our Indigo press, you can print on various textured materials that you couldn’t necessarily print on using conventional flexographic printers,” says Wilson. “At the last HBA trade show, we printed some labels on linen and textured stocks.”
Wilson contines, “Some people are aware that the quality of digital has finally arrived. But there are still a great number of people who think, ‘No, our labels need to be at a higher quality than digital can do.’ In fact, when we showed samples at HBA of conventionally and digitally printed labels, people couldn’t tell which ones were digital.”
Digital Prototyping
If digital printing has eliminated a lot of the hassle involved with printing, digital prototyping has streamlined the proofing process. Many printers are enhancing their prototyping capabilities.
Prestige Label, whose digitally printed labels are pictured here, is working to improve its digital proofing systems. A new custom-designed proofing system was recently installed in the supplier’s facility.
Supplier Prestige Label, which specializes in digital printing, has taken digital proofing to the next level by installing a custom-designed digital proofing system this past October. “The system enables us to go from customer-supplied artwork to an e-mailable 3-D CAD image to a printed-and-applied prototype in as little as 24 hours,” says Elisha Tropper, president of Prestige Label.
Digital prototypes are especially valuable in the shrink-sleeve market, because marketers must watch carefully to see how a sleeve’s graphics will distort once the sleeve is shrunk onto a package. “If a bottle has a particularly unique shape, it’s almost impossible to guess how a sleeve’s original artwork will look once it’s shrunk,” says Tropper. “With our prototyping system, the 3-D CAD image digitally simulates the shrink effect of the artwork on a bottle. The 3-D image can also be viewed from any angle. Everyone who sees the demonstration of what our system can do for them can’t believe they’ve been doing it other ways all along. It takes so much of the guesswork out of package design.”
Tropper says he knows of no other supplier offering Prestige’s digital proofing system because the company built the system itself. “We combined different pieces of software and integrated them with our graphics department’s technology platform,” says Tropper.
Prestige has been accommodating full-scale digital production runs, even doubling the size of its operations in 2004 to meet demand. The addition of its prototyping system helps ensure the company can offer all-around digital services. “We didn’t want to be just another pressure-sensitive and shrink-label company,” says Tropper. “By combining this type of digital work flow—digital prototyping along with digital printing—it makes for a very comprehensive program.”
Shrink Sleeves: A Practical Presentation
Shrink sleeves are another growing trend in the label industry. “Shrink sleeves are the fastest-growing segment of the packaging industry,” says Dave Place, shrink specialist for label supplier MPI Labels. “It seems like every week, in virtually any store—whether it’s for beauty products, pharmaceuticals, or food and beverage—there are new shrink sleeves on the shelf.”
Marketers choose shrink sleeves for various reasons. Most like that it allows them to surround their containers—especially those with unique contours—with graphics. But there are other practical reasons for choosing shrink sleeves, such as their tamper-evident features and multiproduct packaging capabilities.
Instead of using cartons, direct-sales brand BeautiControl has switched to wrapping its compacts in tamper-evident shrink sleeves.
Rather than using secondary cartons, direct-sales brand BeautiContol has switched to using shrink sleeves to wrap its color cosmetic compacts. The shrink sleeves were more economical than cartons and helped provide tamper evidence.
“The shrink sleeves were more cost-effective than cartons, while allowing the labels to show through,” says Don Walden, BeautiControl’s director of package engineering. “They also provided the added assurance of tamper evidence.”
Denny Clovis, senior buyer for BeautiControl, adds, “The sleeve is easy for customers to tear off with the perforated strip.”
Howard Millstein, president of shrink-sleeve specialist Ameri-Seal, says that his company is working on providing marketers with more options for tamper-evident tear tabs for shrink sleeves. “Right now, we’re able to lay down a holographic strip on a sleeve that can be used for anticounterfeiting purposes,” he says. “It’s kind of like the tear tab you would find on the plastic wrap on a box of cigarettes.”
Decorative and functional: Lubriderm uses shrink sleeves to wrap a promotional product together with a retail-sized product.
Shrink sleeves are also ideal for packaging two or more products together for cross-merchandising. Lubriderm used a shrink sleeve to wrap a promotional 3.3-oz tube of its Skin Nourishing Moisturizing Lotion with Sea Kelp together with a 16-oz bottle of one of its existing lotions.
“The shrink sleeve makes a nicer presentation rather than using a chipboard boot to hold the products together and then wrapping it with a clear shrink wrap,” says Craig Krivda, whose design firm, Henschel-Steinau, designed the Lubriderm sleeves. “We tried all of those options, and the sleeve seems to actually get production costs to go down.”
New Shrink Materials
A lot of suppliers are working on developing new shrink films. “We’re looking to further bring costs down for our clients, and that’s why we’re looking at other materials,” says Ameri-Seal’s Millstein.
Ameri-Seal is working on improving the quality of oriented polystyrene (OPS) film in order to promote it as a cost-effective choice. Millstein says that for high-shrink applications, Ameri-Seal typically recommends PET film to customers because of its high-shrink characteristics. However, says Millstein, “PET can sometimes cost three times as much as PVC.” By contrast, he says, OPS is very cost-efficient—and it provides the same shrink characteristics as PET.
Ameri-Seal is upgrading its OPS film. “In the past, OPS has not been very stable because it tends to change shape and shrink during shipping, unless companies shipped it in refrigerated containers or on dry ice,” says Millstein. “But we’re working on some new formulations for OPS that are a lot more stable.”
Upgrades are also being made to other types of shrink materials. Supplier The Kennedy Group is developing a roll-fed film that can be wrapped around a container and then shrunk. (By comparison, standard shrink sleeves are individual sleeves that are placed over a container and then shrunk.)
According to John Pacific, director of sales and marketing for Kennedy’s label and packaging division, Kennedy’s material surpasses other roll-fed shrink labels in its higher-shrink factor. He says that Kennedy’s roll-fed labels shrink up to 40%, whereas regular roll-fed shrink labels only shrink up to 18%.
“This product competes with shrink sleeves,” says Pacific. Mary Roddy, market manager for Kennedy’s label and packaging division, adds, “When it comes to the total applied cost—including cost of material, application, and waste—there is a savings compared with shrink sleeves.”
The Look of Shrink Sleeves
Since part of what attracts marketers to shrink sleeves is that they offer all-over graphics, suppliers are working to ensure their decorating options are up to par.
Dave Klotter, marketing manager for packaging supplier Multi-Color Corp., says his company has new, patented, frosted shrink sleeves. “Our frosted shrink-sleeve technology can incorporate unique, bright metallic accents and see-through windows for premium shelf appeal,” he says. “It gives your container a premium, acid-etched look.”
For metallic-looking shrink sleeves, Ameri-Seal has been promoting metallic inks, which can be used to cover the entire shrink sleeve. “We’ve done some incredible work where the ink on the sleeve makes the container look like a metal can,” says Millstein.
Ameri-Seal recently created metallic-looking PVC shrink sleeves for Silk Elements’ Silken Child line. “What was unique was that we were asked to color match not a Pantone color, but specific color chips from an existing bottle. The metallic color was used over the entire sleeve,” says Millstein.
Perfecting Pressure-Sensitive Labels
Shrink sleeves may be growing in popularity, but pressure-sensitive labels are still in high demand. “The largest growing sector may probably be shrink-sleeve labeling, but the most popular type of label for beauty care is still pressure-sensitive,” says Multi-Color Corp.’s Klotter.
New materials are being developed for pressure-sensitive labels. Marketers concerned with environmental friendliness will want to be on the lookout for a new pressure-sensitive film being developed by Macaran Printed Products. Macaran’s president, Nick Van Alstine, says that the company will soon introduce a film technology that’s not only environmentally friendly, but that also offers a cost savings over traditional films. Since the product is still in development, Van Alstine declined to give more-specific details.
Decorating techniques for pressure-sensitive labels are also improving. Suppliers are working with a lot of different printing techniques and decorating effects. Van Alstine says Macaran is working with varnishes to create different effects. “People are using varnishes to add dimension to their labels,” he says. “Typically, an overprint varnish was used to give a label resistance to scuffing and chemicals. But now, we’ve found that we can combine a matte and a spot varnish to highlight certain parts of a label. We’ve also added pearlescent features to varnishes.”
Another printing trend Van Alstine cites is cold-foil stamping. “More people are looking at using cold-foil stamping in combination with rotary screen printing, which is far less expensive than hot stamping,” he says. “The typical hot-stamping tool costs about $3000– $5000 per tool, whereas with cold-foil stamping, you’re actually using a printing plate, so you might be talking about $100 per tool. There are still some limitations with cold foil—sometimes you can’t get a really clean, crisp edge to graphics. But our techniques are improving, and we’ve already used it successfully on a couple of projects.”
Expanding Options for Extended-Text Labels
As regulations for labeling products become more stringent, more suppliers may find themselves turning to extended-text labels to get more text on their packages without sacrificing the look of their packages.
Supplier WS Packaging–Ampersand Label specializes in extended-text labels. Its newest development is called the Flexwrap label. It is designed to provide a no-label look. “The label combines clear film and opaque white film,” says Paulette Carnes, MultiVision product manager for WS Packaging–Ampersand Label. Skin care company Murad was the first to use the Flexwrap.
Carnes says that extended-text labels are also a good option for companies that need to attach a lot of regulatory or ingredient information to very small packages, such as mascara, eyeliner, nail polish, and lipstick containers. Aveda recently decided to use WS Packaging–Ampersand Label’s FlexVision extended-text label for a small bottle containing a new hair care product called Pure Potion, which is scheduled to launch soon.
Cost-Efficiency
It’s no secret that cutting costs is a primary concern for the packaging industry. To pass cost savings down to marketers, label printers are getting some help from machinery manufacturers.
Labeling Systems, which provides pressure-sensitive labelers, has updated its equipment so that everything is programmable logic controller–driven. “The benefit is that customers can now buy replacement electronics right off the shelf, without having to come to us for proprietary parts,” says Jim Roe, Labeling Systems’ vice president of sales and marketing. The company continues to design custom machinery when requested, but most of its business is now in standard machinery.