The selection and application of shrink sleeve label
The shrink sleeve label, well-adapted, can decorate packaging containers made of plastic, wood, paper, metal, glass, porcelain, etc and is widely used in the fields of beer industry, healthcare industry, daily chemical product industry, leisure food industry, stationery industry, etc.
In order to achieve the best effect, it is important to adjust the thermal shrinkage temperature of the sleeve label machine and choose the right label material and design. The following is going to show you the right way of the selection and application of shrink sleeve label.
Design points and selection principles
1、Label design
We should choose the design of the shrink sleeve label according to the thickness of the sleeve. When designing, we had better first make sure the horizontal and vertical shrinkage rate and the allowable deflection error after packaging and the allowable deflection error of the design after shrink so to make sure the design and words can be accurately restored.
2、Film thickness and shrinkage
Three factors should be paid much attention to the material which is used for the shrink sleeve label: environmental protection requirement, film thickness and shrinkage.
The film thickness is decided according to the label application fields and the cost factor. Of course, the price is not the decisive factor because every kind of film has its own features. The user and logo printing factory should make clear the film and the most suitable material technology. In addition, the indicators and other technologies required by the processing equipment will affect the thickness selection. Usually, the thickness of the film used for making the shrink sleeve label is 30～70μm，of which 40μｍ、50μｍ are widely used. In addition, the shrinkage of the film is required and the horizontal shrinkage should be higher than the vertical shrinkage. The horizontal shrinkage of the common material is 50%～52% and 60%～62%，in particular cases 90% should be achieved. The vertical shrinkage is 6%～8%. When making shrink sleeve labels, we should try to choose the material with small vertical shrinkage.
Shrink sleeve material
The main materials of shrink sleeve material are: PVC film, PET film, PETG film, OPS film. The performances are as follows:
1、PVC film
PVC film is the kind of film material which is widely used at present. With low cost and wide temperature shrinkage range, it has low requirement for the heat source and the main heat source of PVC film are hot air, infrared ray or the combination of the two.
2、OPS film
As the substitute of the PVC film, OPS film is getting widely used day by day. With good shrinkage and environmental protection, this product is in great demand. At present, we are still import the high quality OPS film which became a major constraining factor in its development.
3、PETG film
PETG film is environmental friendly and can be pre-adjust the shrinkage. But its large shrinkage limits it become widely used.
4、PET film
PET film is an internationally recognized environmental friendly heat shrinkable film material. Its indicators, physical performance, application scope and using method are very close to PVC heat shrink film. It is much cheaper than PETG film and is the most advanced one-way shrink film, of which the horizontal shrinkage is 70% and the vertical shrinkage is smaller than 3%, non-toxic, no pollution, it is the most ideal material to substitute PVC film.
In addition, heat shrinkage film pipe is the material for shrinkage sleeve label production. Compared with horizontal flat film, heat shrinkage sleeve label is much cheaper, but the surface printing is much hard to realize. At the same time, the picture of the heat shrink sleeve label can only be printed on the surface of the sleeve. In the process of transportation and storage, the picture is very easy to be worn.