cktail of Italian Technology has produced the first ever application of roll-fed, pre-glued shrinkable labels for tins and cans. Condensed milk from Friesland Campina on tables worldwide this year will have their traditional paper labels replaced by Italian labels applied by Italian machinery. All thanks to the agreement signed recently by Irplast, the Italian producer of labels and printed adhesive tapes, PE Labellers, a world leader in labelling machines headquartered in Mantova, and Friesland Campina, the Dutch multinational dairy company, which sees the three partners bringing to fruition a project to wrap over 300 million cans of condensed milk with shrinkable pre-glued wrap-around labels. The original need was identified by Friesland Campina who needed a safer and longer lasting solution to the stress paper labels were subjected to on the way from production to the final consumer, involving extreme temperature changes and long storage times."This agreement - declared Fausto Cosi, CEO of Empoli-based Irplast - fits perfectly with Irplast's determination to offer cost-effective solutions for evolving situations in the packaging market. Today, this new application not only offers a novel solution for can-labelling, but it sees Irplast offering other key advantages in terms of cost-saving along the customer's supply chain (eliminating costly returns of good product with defective labelling), improved recycling (easy removal of labels due to the absence of adhesive residue on the containers) and product security (greatly improved guarantees for electronic code readings on the labels up to the final point of sale). We are very proud of the faith that such a large player in the global dairy industry has placed in our proposal, composed entirely of in-house research and development and Italian technology. Our hope is that this breakthrough will have positive effects and lead to many other new applications using shrinkable pre-glued labels on a variety of containers."."To develop a complete solution like this - adds Luca de Bartolo, Operations Director at Irplast - we used all the extensive knowledge and experience of our company in the application of adhesives and glues, coupled with our long-standing relationship with P.E. LABELLERS. We are very satisfied to have been able to put together so successfully a big project like this which promises a significant and welcome boost for the fortunes of the companies involved in a time of economic difficulty, and it really does represent a big step forward in terms of the products and processes used for this very efficient labelling solution".
"Our experience and specialization in P.E. LABELLERS - comments Bruno Negri, founder-owner of P.E. LABELLERS - allowed us to effectively team-up with Irplast, a long-time and trusted partner of ours for wrap-around labels, and certainly speeded up the critical phase of testing and finalizing the package. Of fundamental importance is the international footprint and profile of our company which allows us to ensure continuous specialist technical support to Friesland Campina around the world as we install and support these labelling lines on a very tight schedule with big volumes at stake. 2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of P.E. Labellers and this kind of partnership fits perfectly with our company strategy to continuously identify new areas in the market where we can intervene, not just as an advanced technology supplier, but also as specialist consultants for putting together innovative solutions with new features".
Label Tape Shrink from Irplast is a shrinkable plastic label supplied in roll-fed format (in bobbins) already pre-glued and linerless (without silicon backing paper). Label Tape Shrink - its ideal for labelling systems for all kinds of beverages, edible liquids and oils, and liquid detergents where wrap-around labels can be used - by substituting traditional cut and stack paper and plastic labels, the whole process is significantly speeded up and in the process a number of typical problems linked to the difficulties of storage and handling of stacks of labels are avoided. Another big advantage of polypropylene labels compared to paper ones is the durability - as they are much less prone to deterioration in contact with humidity and temperature swings, the legibility of the legal and consumer information on each label is guaranteed. Label Tape Shrink is a pre-glued label, which means it eliminates completely the need to apply hot-melt or cold-seal glue during label application, delivering savings in energy and adhesive consumption, and a much cleaner work environment. Label Tape Shrink can be considered as a flexible and cost-effective alternative for tins and aluminium cans currently with direct printing on the containers, as it allows the mass production of standard products, which can then be personalized for each individual market during the successive stage of labelling : bigger single production batches and much easier and smaller personalized shipments to market.
ADHESLEEVE® is the most innovative labelling machine in the extensive catalogue of P.E. LABELLERS, and it is the only machine of its type on the market today which can apply pre-glued shrinkable labels in a roll-fed solution onto tins. Specially designed for the Campina project (pre-glued labelling and shrinking on the container), the Adhesleeve permits the customer to obtain a shrink-fit label on his containers with the same finish as a shrink-sleeve label. The high productivity of the machine design (45,000 pieces/h compared to a market standard of 20,000 pieces/h) guarantees an excellent yield for big volume production, eliminating the need for the purchase of other parallel packaging lines. The project is the first design worldwide for 70,000 tins per hour using only two ADHESLEEVE labelling machines. The versatility of Adhesleeve, thanks to the use of roll-fed labels instead of sleeves, delivers immediately savings of over 40% on label raw materials and an even greater reduction of the environmental footprint of the labels used.
