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| Papyrus |
Labels in today’s time
have become the face of a product and gained immense importance being the first
point of contact between the manufacturer of a product and its end user. It
maybe a piece of paper, film, cloth, metal or another sheet of material on
which information about the product is written, printed etched or embossed and
the label so created is affixed to the package or the product. At times,
information is printed or engraved directly on the product to perform as a
label. Systematic and conscious writing
started in the middle of the 4th millennium B.C. and with it started a demand
for improved writing materials. The first written words are found etched on
stone, later the Egyptians invented papyrus or parchment from which the name
paper is derived. Papyrus was an early nonwoven
fabric. Reeds 12 to 20 feet high and 3 inches in diameter were cut in thin
slices, laid side by side, and beaten with a mallet, after these were brushed
with a floor paste, fresh slices were placed at right angles and the beating
was repeated, the finished papyrus, was luminous brown. Before the
invention of paper in A.D. 105 by Tsai-lun, a minister of agriculture in the
court of Ho Ti, the Chinese wrote on silk and thin fibres of wood and grass. Woodblock printing,
which is a technique for printing text, images or patterns on paper, originated in China around 200 CE
(Common Era, a modern alternative for AD).
It is process by which blocks of wood are chiselled to create images that are
inked and pressed on to paper to transfer an image of text. The earliest use of
paper as packaging was in Egypt during 1035 when it was observed that
vegetables, spices and hardware were wrapped in paper while selling. In middle
of 15th century a German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg assembled the
first mechanical printing press that would apply ink on a block and press it on
paper or cloth to transfer the image. The earliest labels designed in Europe
were simply small pieces of parchment tied with a string to the neck of wine
bottles, even though the Egyptians had started using gum Arabic from Accacia
trees, or resins from trees for various decorative uses including pasting
labels on to products. By 1700, labels started being designed by engraving on
stone, ink applied on it and a roller was used to transfer the image on to
paper. By 1798 Lithography had been invented and labels started being made in
large quantities evolving further to be produced in colour with flat bed
printing. This was the initiation of what is today known as wet glue labels.
The wet glue labels have been used till the beginning of 20th
century after which other forms of label production surfaced. Various printing
technologies to print are employed, these include letterpress, offset, Rotogravure,
Flexo, Screen Printing, Digital printing, etc. This article does not intend to
dwell on the technology of these processes but on the changes that came about
in evolution and usage of diverse label technologies.
Wet Glue Labels
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| wet glue Label applicator |
For hundreds of years paper labels
printed with different printing process like lithography, letterpress, screen,
offset, etc. have been in use by affixing with a variety of adhesives. These
varied from floor pastes, to fish glues, gum Arabic, animal glue, etc. This was
majorly for manual labelling applications. With the development of starches and
dextrin-based adhesives, these started being extensively used for labelling. As
volumes started to grow steadily, need was felt for automatic high-speed wet
glue labelling where fast drying was a challenge. At this time, high solids
dextrin based quick drying adhesives were successfully developed. The automatic
label applicator industry developed and prospered. Till date many wet glue beer
and liquor labels are still applied with dextrin-based adhesives. These do have
a shortcoming of shifting on high speed applicators while packing when still
wet, shrinking or warping in presence of moisture or falling off when chilled.
Synthetic adhesives with over 50% solid content have also been developed to overcome
these issues but accurate placement and the labels shifting due to being packed
while still wet is not aesthetically approved in modern retail. These adhesives
still contain 50% water to dry. Also, the need for clean room production facilities
needed, has now made wet glue labels a deterrent.
Self-Adhesive
Labels:
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| R Stanton Avery |
A
story that led to a development of self-adhesive or pressure sensitive labels
given below, changed the way labels would be known eventually:
Living in a rented
chicken co-operative, a young American poverty-stricken man in his early 20s
worked as a night clerk to fund his education. He stopped school and went to
live for a year in China, where he gained experience working with a printing press.
He returned to USA after the year, graduated and desperately tried his hands at
various business options, he even sold smoked bananas! He then took on a
morning job at a flower shop and later in the day started to experiment on
various small things in a 100 square foot place nearby. He came up with the
idea of making self-sticking labels. With the printing press experience behind
him he saw the vision to start his new venture. With no money of his own, he
borrowed 100$ from his fiancée, Dorothy Durfee, who later became his wife, to
invest in his start-up business. Using a washing machine motor, parts of a
sewing machine and a saber saw, he developed the world’s first self-adhesive
label cutting machine. In 1935 he started his maiden venture Kum-Kleen Adhesive
Products Company which would be the mother enterprise of the world’s largest labelstocks
company Avery Dennison Corporation and this poor man was "Ray Stanton
Avery!".
This pioneering development made by
him, evolved over the years with need of labels to be made in roll form to
dispense automatically on faster packaging lines as PSA labels make an instant
bond on application and do not need drying time. Initially the label face used
was only paper, but the release liners needed to be developed further to
provide for easy release and dispensing. Over the ensuing years, silicone
coating and their chemistries were worked upon to reach perfection in
dispensing the labels on high speed packaging lines. Adhesive technology also
advanced to adhere to various substrates, withstand varied application or
service temperatures and diverse weather conditions. The face material also has
now a wider variety with many filmic and non-conventional face materials like
cork, fabric, and foil being used. The printing and converting over the years have
also undergone a sea change from simple flat bed printing to now advanced
flexographic printing in combination with multiple printing processes and
decoration processes like lamination, varnishing, cold foiling, hot foiling,
embossing etc. All these processes, inline in a single pass. The pressure
sensitive labels have evolved in different tangents to produce barcode labels,
RFID labels, Security labels, removable labels, etc.
Screen
printed labels and containers;
Though types of labels and not
printing technologies is the point of discussion in this article yet screen
printing gains importance as it evolved to be used as a stand-alone label on
products without any carrying substrates. For this reason, the origin of screen
printing is dwelled upon. The idea of screen printing originated from
stencilling used in Japan when designs were cut in banana leaves and ink was
pushed through the holes to transfer images to substrates. In the start of 20th
century when silk screen became available the screen printing evolved further.
Later as the process developed, Nylon or Polyester bolting cloth of different
mesh was used to make printing screens on wooden or Aluminium frames. As
chemical evolution took place Chromates like Potassium Bichromate were
dissolved in a PVA solution and coated on the screen, dried in dark and then
placing the negative or Positive of the design on the screen was exposed to UV
lights. Earlier the exposure was done in Sun light, but later high intensity
lamps were used. The screen was then washed so that the parts that were exposed
became insoluble and the rest of the design opened. Using a squeegee or a blade
the ink is pushed on to the substrate forming a perfect image. Later photo
sensitive films became available eliminating the need for the bichromate
chemicals. For more colours, multiple screens are used. Screen printing
directly on products eliminated the imperative use of paper as substrate as
machines were developed for printing directly on round containers. This enabled
360 degrees print visibility on the products. For short runs of paper labels
screen printing was also used. With increasing demand for attractive labels and
development of increased decoration capabilities available on flexo label presses
and alternate printing technologies, screen printing on containers lost the
market substantially in product labelling segment.
Wrap
around Labels
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| Wrap around labels |
Once the idea of 360 degrees print
visibility, people started to use offset printed paper labels to manually label
round bottles using starch-based adhesives. The size of the labels was kept
such that the label went all the way around the bottle. These labels worked
well on glass bottles but when it came to HDPE plastic bottles, being a low
energy surface, the adhesive would not anchor on and with time the labels tend
to fall off. This problem was initially over come by increasing the length of
the label such that there was an overlap after wrapping around of the label and
the bond was between paper to paper. Label printing evolved to be produced on
flexo presses with capabilities to decorate them in line both in paper and
films. With filmic labels being made available in roll form it enabled their
usage on automated packaging lines and label applicators for wrap around labels
as well. The label applicators for wrap around labels are fitted with hotmelt
adhesive dispensers to glue and form instant bonds at label ends in high speed
packaging lines. Wrap around labels are now being extensively used for beverage
bottle labelling.
Heat transfer labels
Heat transfer is a labelling
technology branded as Therimage, was developed in the 1960s by Dennison
manufacturing company based in Framingham USA, in which reverse printed labels
on film or paper are transferred off on to a container using heat and pressure.
These labels are printed by rotogravure printing process and transferred with
help of Therimage heat transfer applicators. Once applied, the labels are
permanently adhered to the container. Dennison Manufacturing begun in 1844 by
Aaron Dennison, a Boston jeweller, it grew into a large enterprise offering
from graphics and packaging, to variable imprinting and automotive, to home and
office products. In 1990 Dennison manufacturing was merged into Avery and the
new entity came to be known as Avery Dennison Corporation. The stationary and
graphic business became the stationery division of the new entity but the
Therimage division was sold to MCC (Multicolour Corporation) It is believed
that this division was not grown further as it was in contrary to the vision of
Stan Avery, the man who invented pressure sensitive labels. In recent time we
see this labelling technology being adopted by some companies as it does away
with the release liners and the label can be recycled along with the plastic
container. Pens and other small radius containers use this technology because a
decorated image is transferred without the problem of edge lifting as in
self-adhesive labels on tightly curved containers or products. The technology provides a seamless, aesthetic, “no-label”
look and offers 360 degrees print visibility.
Shrink
sleeves
Shrink sleeves surfaced many years ago
but they started being used as 360 degrees visible labels due to pioneering
development done by Fuji Seal of Japan in 1965. Shrink labels are printed on a
specially formulated film with unique characteristic, that shrinks on
application of heat to form and fit to the special shape and contours of the
product, container or a package. Each design is unique in creation as a special
software helps create the prepress to account for distortions and make the
label, legible, attractive and in symmetry with the shape of the package. Since
the printing is done on the reverse, it remains protected under the film. The
shrink sleeve market started to grow at a faster pace only in the 1980s. In USA
its growth from 75 million dollars in the year 2000 to 700 million dollars in
2014 is proof of this technology’s success. According to market report by
“marketsandmarkets” the global market size is projected to reach USD 13.20
Billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 5.5% from 2015 to 2020. The Asia-Pacific region
accounted for the largest share in terms of value, followed by Europe and North
America in 2014. In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region has progressed
significantly in the shrink sleeve & stretch sleeve labels market, which
primarily includes emerging economies such as India and China
In Mold Labels
Paper or film printed labels (mostly filmic) are
placed inside the moulds during the molding process. After placing the label,
molten plastic is injected into the mould. On cooling the label is fused with
the resin, takes the shape of the so molded container and becomes an integral
part of it. The labels referred to as IML can be printed and decorated by any
of the processes i.e. Offset, Flexo Gravure or digital. The end result is a
highly decorated container. These IML applied containers are used for Ice
cream, butter, paints, food packaging, etc. According to research firm
MarketsandMarkets,
the global in-mold label (IML) market is projected to grow from $2.58
Billion in 2015 to $3.23 Billion by 2020, at an estimated CAGR
of 4.54%. It is the fastest growing segment amongst the various label segments.
Digital
printed labels
The history of digital printing is
rather short. Xerox introduced photo copying in 1960 but it remained a document
managing equipment company for long. In 1977 Benny Landa known as father of
digital printing setup his company Indigo to produce faster photocopying
machines. He soon realised that the ink used in photocopying machines could be
used in printers. Developing the idea further he launched the world’s first
digital colour printer to make computer to print possible. Digital printing
captures images from a matrix of dots, called pixels in a process called digitising.
These digitised images are then used to control the deposition of ink, toner or
exposure to electromagnetic energy to reproduce the data. In 2001 Benny Landa’s
company Indigo was acquired by Hewlett Packard Company (HP). The digital
printing market according to Smithers Pira has been growing steadily ever since
to reach a figure of 120.9 billion US Dollars in 2012 and estimated to reach a
whopping 387 billion by 2024. Digital printing is broadly categorised in two
processes i.e. electrophotography or dry toner-based technology and Inkjet
printing using liquid inks. Also, as per Smithers Pira report,
Electrophotography is the major contributor to the digital market. However,
inkjet is the sector which is growing more rapidly. Inkjet is forecast to overtake
electrophotography after 2019 and by 2024 inkjet will account for 56% of the
value and 53% of the digital print volume. The digital printing technology will
spread to fields of labels and packaging. Cartons, rigid packaging, flexibles,
metal and corrugated are sectors that will largely take up digital production
method.
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| Helmut Schreiner |
Digital printing is now recognised the
most disruptive technology in the field of printing. According to Vandagraph
report about its impact on labels industry, “Digitally printed labels is a
market seen as already mainstream, although with plenty more scope for growth.
Narrow web inkjet presses are already used for labels and packaging options
including small folding cartons, flexible packaging, pouches and sachets,
form-fill-seal and blister packaging. European Label Industry Association Finat
has also revealed that European digital label press installations overtook
conventional press sales for the first time in 2017. Digital printing is
the future, with continuous growth it is already registering a faster CAGR than
other technologies in many geographical zones around the world. In 2013, the
author while interviewing Helmut Schreiner, former Chairman of Schreiner Group
had asked him about the new label technologies impacting PS labels, his reply
was, “All technologies will coexist. The customer today is very knowledgeable
and knows about the increasing number of options available. Labels are a
necessary decoration for any product, innovation is the need of the hour. For example,
one can design a label such that if you touch a label, it plays music.” He
added, “I am a fan of innovation. If everyone sells tomatoes, I would like to
sell peaches!” Adding a word of caution, “Printing directly on products is
dangerous, it reduces cost and could decrease the demand of labels”. He was
hinting at Digital printing directly on products.
Written
by Harveer Sahni Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited, New Delhi India April
2019
