Labelling Blog

Throughout the last several years, Exacto, Inc. has experienced rapid growth that has been placing strains on their labeling and packaging processes. The Sharon, Wisconsin-based manufacturer of agrochemical adjuvants for wholesale and private label markets was founded in 1981. Exacto focuses on engineering solutions designed to optimize the conditions in which chemicals, water and soils come together to create bountiful croplands and landscapes. “Until four years ago, everything was printed off-site and we’d look at a minimum turnaround time of seven to 10 days before we’d get our order back,” said Tom Martin, project manager, Exacto. “And every time the customer made a label change, we would have to pay for new plates and set-up charges.” By this time, Exacto was consuming thousands of labels per day, and to improve efficiency and offer their customers faster turnaround times and more freedom from a marketing and design standpoint, they shifted gears and brought printing in-hous

Neil Kozarsky, CEO and President of Technical Help in Engineering and Marketing (T.H.E.M.), a leading provider of single-serve flexible packaging solutions, recently announced that the company has been appointed the exclusive North American commercialization partner by Earthinks ® . Earthinks ( www.earthinks.co.uk )  is a manufacturer of environmentally friendly printing inks and coatings for flexographic and screen printing on a wide variety of substrates used throughout the food industry. “We are very pleased to represent a company that offers the most natural printing inks currently available in the world,” Kozarsky commented. “We anticipate that many of our supply chain partners and consumer brand customers will be equally impressed with the unique combination of environmental-friendliness, performance, and competitive pricing that the Earthinks product line represents. It is truly a winning formula, and a perfect complement to our initiatives in the area of single-serve flexible

Sidel, the world’s leading provider of PET solutions for liquid packaging, has supported PepsiCo in Ukraine to save 42% energy in its beverage production and PET bottling processes. This was achieved by upgrading two of its blowers to the energy-efficient ecoven supplied by Sidel’s dedicated line improvement team, part of the company’s Sidel Services™ business unit. This reduced both costs and resource use, with a significant reduction in the consumption of electricity and compressed air, contributing to PepsiCo’s commitment to a strong and determined sustainability programme. New blowers assist in large scale production From two plants located in the Mykolayiv region of Ukraine, PepsiCo produces almost half a billion packs of juice products annually, with a daily capacity of three million units. One of the Mykolayiv plants features two Sidel Combi 16 blow moulding machines and the new upgrade saw the original ovens replaced with the new Sidel ecovens. The line improvement progra

Avery Dennison, a global leader in labeling and packaging materials, worked closely with Mineral Fusion, to introduce its newest line of cosmetics using DirectLink™ near field communication (NFC) technology to provide product information to consumers in a compelling, interactive way. Mineral Fusion introduced its 2015 Cosmetic Collection by incorporating Avery Dennison’s DirectLink labels into its point-of-service (POS) displays. With the swipe of a smartphone, consumers can engage with the POS displays to load dynamic video content about the products. “As the leading natural cosmetic company, it’s important for us to maintain our leadership position by advancing technologically — not just through our products, but through the way we engage consumers with our products,” says Tim Schaeffer, senior vice president of marketing at Mineral Fusion. “We’re always looking for innovative ways to deepen our connection with consumers and educate them about our cosmetics. It’s highly difficu

Schreiner LogiData presents its new, extremely small RFID-UHF label for metal substrates: ((rfid))-DistaFerr Mini. The innovative product enables the reliable communication of even the smallest components and objects. This is especially important in asset management, for product labeling and as part of smart factory concepts. The label has a reading range of up to one meter, thus offering ten times better performance than standard HF solutions. Measuring just 10 mm x 50 mm x 1.7 mm, Schreiner LogiData's new ((rfid))-DistaFerr label is currently the smallest UHF RFID label version offered for RFID on-metal applications by Schreiner Group's Competence Center. The label is only half as wide as the ((rfid))-DistaFerr SL label (22.5 mm x 52 mm x 1.7 mm), which also adheres to metal. "At present, there isn’t a smaller UHF-RFID label for on-metal applications anywhere else in the world," explains Frank Linti, Business Development Manager RFID at Schreiner LogiData. Th

Fast-paced change in the label production market prompted the creation of the new FINAT European Label Forum, which attracted more than 300 participants from Europe and beyond. Replacing the long-established annual FINAT congress and held in Amsterdam from 11-13 June, the FINAT European Label Forum represented all stages of the complex label value chain and placed a strong emphasis on business concerns – particularly running a profitable business in today’s economic environment. It covered a variety of disciplines, from branding and marketing to innovation, technology, manufacturing, and corporate affairs. “The definition and role of labels has changed dramatically in recent years with the advent of new product decoration technologies, from sleeves and in-mould labels to printed electronics,” explains Jules Lejeune, Managing Director of FINAT. “With a customer base of brand owners and retailers that is increasingly international, and a world of consumers who are social and onl

Crown Labels Ltd has been manufacturing plain and printed labels for nearly 30 years and have always taken pride in delivering customers a great service at a competitive price. With this in mind they are always looking for new innovative ways to improve the quality, service, and price on which they have built such a strong reputation. In 2013, Managing Director and founder Paul Board went to LabelExpo Europe looking for the latest press technology and to see what direction the industry was taking, and where Crown Labels would look to fit in that future. The FB-3 press being demonstrated on the Nilpeter stand caught his attention immediately. “We were looking for a machine that would deliver outstanding quality for our growing customer base along with efficiency and reliability,” says Paul Board. “The press with its servo technology allows for incredible print accuracy over all sorts of substrates from labels to unsupported films and moves our company into the next generation

X-Rite Incorporated, the world leader in colour management, measurement and communication technologies, today announces that its technical support team has successfully completed the first Opaltone Recertification project in Russia in one of the country’s biggest flexo houses. The recertification project for Gotek (Zeleznogorsk) was organized by one of its partners, ColorLab Ltd (Moscow, Russia). Opaltone is a patented imaging technology that digitally mixes CMY+RGB process inks, and optionally, black, eliminating the need for special inks and facilitating fixed colour palette printing. Modern packaging design is shifting toward the use of more graphics for increased selling power. Meanwhile, major retailers are seeking lower supply chain costs.  Opaltone 7-colour process printing addresses both trends; it is a cost saving alternative to spot color printing and it can be more accurately controlled utilizing integrated color measurement solutions from X-Rite. A number of X-Rite ins

As a follow-up to the fully packed Expanded Gamut Seminar last year, Nilpeter will be hosting an Open House event on Thursday 12 November 2015. The full-day event will take place in Nilpeter’s completely renovated, 20,000-sqft, state-of-the-art Technology Center in Cincinnati. Attendees will get the opportunity to attend the live demonstrations, “Bases Loaded”, showcasing three of the most advanced and sophisticated narrow-web platform presses available in the printing and converting market: The FB-3300S, the FB-3, and the FA-4*. The FB-3300S will run a multiple-web, extended-content label (ECL). On the FB-3, Nilpeter will be running two Expanded Gamut (7-colour process) jobs, demonstrating a changeover and the recall features of the press. The FA-4* will run value-added wine and spirits labels with hot foil and embossing.   The FA-4* in Nilpeter’s completely renovated Technology Center will run wine and spirits labels

With more presentations than ever before, GlassPrint returns to Düsseldorf, Germany on 25-26 November 2015 as Europe’s only dedicated event for the decoration of glass. GlassPrint 2015 is the sixth in the series and follows the highly successful 2013 conferenceAn expanded programme will see industry experts present the latest solutions for flat and hollow glass decoration, including: Two days of technical presentations covering digital, screen and pad processes that offer the latest advanced technologies for decorating all types of glass. Keynote presentations by industry figureheads and representatives of Europe’s leading glass associations. The full conference programme can be found at www.glassprint.org where online registration is also available. Registration includes access to all technical and keynote presentations, networking lunch and dinner and entry into the accompanying tabletop exhibition of leading technology suppliers. Space is limited due to the hotel venu