Production of labels
The process of label production is divided into three stages: label design, printing and finishing touches. These stages must respond not only to the technical requirements, but above all to the quality ones set by the client. What should you consider when determining the right set of procedures for label printing and finishing touches? First of all, it is important to get information about the purpose of creating the label and where it will be placed. Product packaging, the expected life of the label / product or any legal requirements regarding the content or other features of the label are also important in implementation.
Label design
Label design, i.e. prepress is a stage that should be given special attention. Depending on the purpose of the label, different design guidelines will be given.
Regardless of the industry for which the label is dedicated, each label is subject to readability requirements, and increasingly also a high degree of personalization. Some labels, for example for food or cosmetics industry, are also expected to be visually attractive. Their aim is to attract the customer’s attention and influence his purchasing decision. In turn, in logistics or the automotive industry, this aspect goes to the background, and what counts is the high, repeatable quality of each batch, quality of information and the possibility of own personalization.
Label printing
Label printing depends primarily on the type of material that will be used to make the label. On the market we will find many raw materials used to create label substrate. Each of them has different properties and has its advantages and disadvantages, and it’s worth to get to know them first. The most commonly used material is paper. In addition to it, polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene, acrylic or vinyl are also used.
The choice of the best printing method also depends on the size of the order, additional functions to be fulfilled by the labels and personalization requirements. Currently used printing methods are flexographic technique, digital printing, offset, typographic, silkscreen, engraving and thermal transfer techniques. Digital and flexographic printing are preferred. The second one is based on fast-drying paints and is characterized by the speed of printing. The first one ideally suits the needs of personalizing labels. It gives the ability to print low volumes, in any pattern and color. What’s more, in this case label printing is immediate and is of high quality.
It is also worth to mention thermal transfer printing. It offers almost unlimited possibilities of entering variable data that occurs during personalization. These are, among others, barcodes or 2D codes, unique serial numbers, EAN codes etc.
Printing of self-adhesive labels usually takes place on machines specially made for this type of labels. Normal labels are produced on sheet or wounding on rolls.
Finishing touches
Finishing process is dotting the I’s in the production of the sticker. This stage allows you to adjust the size of the label to the given guidelines by means of a die and giving it the final, desired visual form. After printing, the labels can be further processed and refined. Depending on the needs and purpose of the label, the sticker can be enriched with various types of finishes. The most commonly used label refinement are varnishing, laminating, cold or hot stamping.
As you can see, making labels is a multi-stage process that requires knowledge and experience to provide customers with satisfactory solutions. Nevertheless, the current technology, materials and tools give the chance to create high-quality, eye catchingand functional labels.
