Various dictionaries or even
Wikipedia describe label as a piece of paper, plastic or another substrate
affixed to a product giving information about it. The label has now attained a
broader perspective. It has become the bridge between the end user and the
producer. It can be embellished such that it becomes the sales enhancer,
reaching out and tempting the end users to lift it off the shelf. It also has
features that communicate with the cashiers in retail, the finance persons for
accounting, the logistics department, the purchase department to fix reorder
levels, facilitate ecommerce and much more. The label is also the guard for
consumers, providing information of authenticity to them as also aiding the
track and trace process to put a check on counterfeiting. Surely the label is a
very important and sensitive part of any
product, without it the products have no value, no recognition and no safety.
In earlier times it was just a piece of paper with a simple letter press
printing and affixed with the help of glue to the product. Printing
technologies have evolved and become advanced, moving into different tangents
providing a plethora of printing options ranging from the lithography in
earlier times to screen printing, offset printing, Rotogravure printing, flexo
graphic printing, several types of digital printing and so on. Similarly
diverse labeling technologies to affix the labels on to products have been
developed, moving away from the glue applied or wet glue labels mentioned
above.
The labeling technologies in use now include;
- Pressure Sensitive Labels or Self-adhesive labels
- Wet glue or glue applied labels
- Shrink Sleeves
- In-mold labels
- Heat transfer labels
- Direct printing on product labels
- Others
Market size: The total global label market
size has been estimated by various evaluators and market research companies to
be around 45 to 55 billion square meters and estimated to reach 65 to 70
billion square meters by 2025 growing at a CAGR of 4-5%. Asia Pacific remains
the region registering biggest growth. Pressure Sensitive Labels have emerged
as the most widely used segment of the labels at 50 to 60% of all the labels
used. This is followed by around 25-30% of Wet glue labels, less than 15% for Shrink
Sleeves and less than 4% of IML. The constant growth in the demand for labels
is fueled by the innovations in printing, converting and application
technologies some of which are driven by the need for environmental concerns
and sustainability imperatives.
Pressure Sensitive adhesive
labels: If we look back into history of label usage in India, until the mid-1960s
it was just the wet glue labels that were in use and registering continual
growth in the quantum of labels in use. All labels were applied by starch or
other natural gums-based adhesives. When automatic label applicators started
being used to label, due to warping and slow drying issues, high solids dextrin
based adhesive and synthetic resin adhesives started being used. With advent of
development pressure sensitive adhesive labels in the late 1960s as stickers in
sheet format the journey of these PSA labels began but it was not until the mid-1970s
that the stickers started being produced as labels in roll form to be dispensed
in high-speed label applicators in automated packaging lines. The ease of use, options
to also use other than paper substrates, better aesthetics and ongoing
developments in printing, converting and decorating technologies inline in a
single pass, brought rapid growth to PSA labels usage. The continual growth has
taken the market size of PSA labels way past the 50% mark of the quantity of
total usage of labels. At the onset of a new millennium there was talk of the
impact of the liner and label matrix waste going to landfills and at this time
alternative technologies started evolving. By the second decade the
environmental and sustainability became a necessity to implement and indulge in
alternative labelling technologies. Linerless labels has made some headway, but
it remains a PSA label technology that still has to evolve to reach
acceptability by end users.
Traditionally
this was the predominantly employed labelling technology but with the advent of
PSA labelling, it lost a lot of ground to it. Unlike PSA labels that are
applied by contact and pressure, in wet glue labels the glue is mechanically
applied before application and left to dry on the moving packaging belt before going
into final cartons. The need for clean room requirements and safety standards
implementation in production areas of pharma and food companies, made end-users
and brand owners of pharma and fmcg companies move away from wet glue labelling
which required the continuous cleaning of applicators and production shop
floors due to dripping adhesives attracting dust and bacteria. The growth in
wet glue even though positive but is being slower than that of other
technologies, it is losing the eventual market share. Presently when there is
growing awareness of liner and matrix waste going to landfills impacting the environment
adversely, wet glue labels application technology may undergo technical changes
towards ease of use, be sustainable, cost effective without the liner and
become a preferred technology. However, it is a little premature to expect a
substantial change in this labelling. Major users of wet glue labeling are
beer, liquor and wine producers.
Shrink Sleeves: These
labels are printed on a flexible shrink film that reduces in size on
application of heat and conforms tightly to the shape of the container or
product, creating a colorful label with 360-degree coverage. These though
originated in the mid-1930s as a cap seal for milk bottles, but it was between
1961 and 1980 due to pioneering work done by Fujiseal that the shrink sleeves
attained full size labels shape for commercial usage. In 1991 Mumbai
Headquartered, Paper Products Limited
which
is now Huhtamaki India Ltd.,
under license from Fuji Seal for shrink sleeves started manufacturing
these in India. Heat shrinkable specially formulated PVC has been the most used
polymer but now due to toxicity issues linked to PVC, usage of PE and PET have
increased. The global market size for shrink sleeves estimated by many market
research companies is more than 11 billion US Dollars growing at a CAGR 0f 6.5%,
but the author’s opinion is that in India it is growing at over 10%. Earlier
all the shrink sleeves were printed on rotogravure printing equipment which
means only very large print runs were needed because the cost of heavy and wide
rotogravure printing cylinders needed long setup times. All that has changed,
now shrink sleeves are also printed on Flexo and digital presses making very
short runs possible thereby providing an impetus to the demand of shrink sleeve
labeling.
In-Mold labels (IML):
Paper or film printed labels (mostly filmic) are placed inside the molds during
the blow or injection molding process. After placing the label, molten plastic
is injected or blown into the mold. On cooling the label is fused with the
resin, takes the shape of the so molded container and becomes an integral part
of it. This needs no affixing and no use of any applicators providing an
extreme ease of use for the end user of products like Lube oils, Paints, Ice
creams, Butter, Cooking oil, Food products, etc. These labels that debuted
sometime in the late 1970s can be printed by diverse printing methods but in
recent times there has been extensive use of flexographic printing for IML. The
IML segment is environment friendly and sustainable. As no adhesive or release
liner is in use. In fact, if the polymer of the label and the container is same
family, recyclability is possible leaving no adverse impact on the environment.
The growth of this segment in India again appears to be much in excess of the
global estimation of 5.5%. Many container manufacturing plastic molding
companies in India have started to produce their own in-mold labels in-house
for captive consumption and use robotics to place the labels in the molds
before the molding. Hyderabad head quartered Moldtek and Kapcones, Delhi are
some of the prominent IML containers and in-mold label manufacturers in India.
: Heat
transfer is a labelling technology originally branded as Therimage, was
developed in the 1960s by Dennison manufacturing Company USA, in which only the
reverse printed label
on film or paper
are transferred on to containers, using heat and pressure. Only the printed
image without any substrate is transferred. Dennison manufacturing Company was
later acquired by Avery International Corporation and the company was renamed
Avery Dennison. These labels are printed by rotogravure printing process and
transferred with help of Therimage heat transfer applicators. Evolution may
soon see adaption of this technology by flexo and digital label printers. Once
applied, the labels are permanently adhered to the container, they are
sustainable as the containers can be recycled without removing the labels. Pens
and other small radius containers use this technology because a decorated image
is transferred without the problem of edge lifting of label face 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. In the early days of the new Millennium, Dabur’s Chyawanprash
containers were printed with this technology, at that time licensed by Avery
Dennison who later sold the division to MCC (
Multi-Color
Corporation) the global producer of labels.
Direct printing labels on
product: This direct printing on products appears to soon become a
disruptive technology, when evolved and ready for widespread usage it would do
away with all substrates and adhesives while printing multicolor images
digitally and variably directly on the packages or products. There are multiple
technologies that can do the direct printing. Some of these that already exist
include screen printing which has been extensively used earlier on flat
surfaces and even on plastic containers but with development and need for highly
decorated labels the screen printing had to take a back seat. Pad printing that
uses a silicone pad to lift inked images from an etched plate and transfer them
to the products is also in use but being a slow and simple printing technology,
it’s use is limited to simple images. Contact printing using polymer type faces
on a roller printing on cartons was in use for long but the use of
monochrome inkjet printers did not let this
technology expand more. The most disruptive development that is being seen and
when fully developed to find extensive usage is multi-color digital printing
and embellishing directly on containers, packages and cartons. The shortcoming
at this time is the cost of consumables which with increasing volumes are
expected to recede. It will not be very long before we start seeing this
happening extensively doing away with face papers, release papers and adhesives
to a great extent.
Surely, despite these
technologies appearing to be disruptive yet one can safely express that all these
divergent technologies will still co-exist, and some may be complementary to
each other.
Written by Harveer Sahni
Chairman Weldon Celloplast Limited New Delhi. October 2021
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