Labels: a new leaf

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The booklet labels market is experiencing something of a resurgence right now. It’s hardly surprising: FMCG manufacturers are expected to cram ever more on-pack information on to their products.

“We’ve seen increased demand for booklet labels for a variety of reasons,” explains Chris Powell, technical sales and marketing manager at label specialist Norprint. “You can fit lots of information in a small space, from product instructions to promotions or competitions and multiple languages. The information can be presented in an aesthetically pleasing way, which helps the product sell, and you can save money by using booklet labels. For example, if multi-language labelling is required, you can combine various languages on one label with peel-off or fold-out layers.”

The rise in interest stems from a wide range of markets. Two recent Norprint projects were for a brewer that wanted to apply booklet labels to boxes of beer for an on-pack promotion and for a paint and coatings company that needed a multi-language, multi-layer system for its industrial chemical containers.

Other suppliers, such as Sessions Label Solutions, have supplied booklet labels for applications as diverse as cigarette packs and toilet rolls.

Quick affix
Booklet labels can be applied to packs manually, but it’s far quicker, and in the long run cheaper, to buy a machine applicator. “This can replace manual application and be as fast as 100m per minute,” says Powell.

In principle, booklet label applicators are the same as conventional self-adhesive label applicators. The only design difference tends to be the size of the outside face web-rollers, according to Malcolm Little, director of Advanced Dynamics. “As far as our machine is concerned, booklet labels are just very thick labels,” he says. “To enable the machine to cope with them, the only adaptation we have to make is to the outside rollers.”

The thickness of booklet labels might present a problem for curved containers, such as bottles and tins. However, Gary Hall, sales and marketing director at Sessions Label Solutions, insists this isn’t the case. “Wherever you can apply a label, you can apply a booklet label,” he says. “As long as you use an aggressive adhesive, the booklet label will stick, even to a curved container.”

There is a limit to how thick booklet labels can be, and Little estimates the maximum thickness is about 5mm. “Any thicker and you wouldn’t be able to put them on a roll,” he explains.

Big possibilities
Size doesn’t matter when applying booklet labels. “The only restriction in that respect is that the booklet label has to fit within the frame of the machine,” says Little. “We can go to 245mm but you would never make a booklet label that big. The biggest we’ve ever done was about 150mm.”

In terms of performance, booklet labellers are comparable to conventional self-adhesive labellers – speeds are as fast as the production line allows and placement accuracy is usually within plus or minus 0.5mm.

Changeover times are also similar to self-adhesive label applicators. “With our machines, if you were to go from a 10mm² flat label to a 60mm² booklet label, and the machine already had the larger diameter outside rollers, you would simply have to change the labels and adjust the dispense-timer setting. This would only take a couple of minutes,” says Little.

As booklet labelling gains popularity, booklet label applicators are likely to evolve and advance. Already, Norprint has developed an in-line system capable of printing the booklet labels and applying them as they move along the line. No doubt other equipment manufacturers are working on their own innovations to make sure the booklet label sector continues to flourish.

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EQUIPMENT ROUND-UP
• The 040 M high-speed wrap-around label applicator from Herma (pictured) is said to offer high levels of product security to the food, pharmaceutical and healthcare markets. Products are tracked throughout the system using a shift register, with optional print and code monitoring controls.
• Advanced Dynamics has increased the maximum speed of its Eurokett Ultra mid-range label applicator from 50ppm to 80ppm.
• Herbert launched a modular label applicator range at this year’s Total show. The firm claims the Sigma range is more versatile and ‘future-proof’ than other applicators.
• Atwell Self-Adhesive Labellers launched a range of environmentally-friendly ‘linerless’ print and apply systems at easyFairs Packtech 2010 in February.
• Logopak is targeting food and drink manufacturers with a print and apply labeller which applies bar codes to three sides of a pallet. The 920PFR was developed for side-load pallet-handling trucks, on which pallets need an extra bar code to be scanned easily.

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