Specialised Labels

Specialised labels by their nature, are very bespoke. With our experience, we can work through the options that you might need including in your specialised labels. There are several key features of the label that can be special when compared to normal generic labels:

• Specialised materials
• Specialised adhesives
• Specialised inks
• Specialised printing methods
• Specialised cutting

What Goes Into Our Specialised Labels?

Materials

We can make labels on a range of materials. The common types of material are paper or plastic based. There are, however, many other materials that can be used. Drinks labels may be made using a range of paper materials. Commonly, wine labels might use a cartridge paper type material. This may be slightly metallic or have some other embellishment.

Materials used for ‘over-labelling’ might use a blackout backing in them to prevent any visibility behind the label. This is apparent for imported foods where labelling may need replacing in order to meet food labelling regulations. Failure to use the correct material may lead to consumers being able to read ‘through’ the label.

Destructible material is another specialised label option that is quite common. Ideal for security applications where the label should not be tampered with or if the label is tampered with, it is evident that there has been tampering.

Void material is another example of tamper evident labels. Void material normally leaves a silver or coloured ‘witness’ if the label has been removed. This allows users to know whether the label has been removed. Void material labels are a combination of material and glue systems that achieve this.

Adhesives

As mentioned above, special adhesives can be used to create void labels. The adhesive is of different strengths and printed with text on the backing of the label. This means some of the label can be removed whilst other parts cannot. The effect is to leave material stuck the receiving object with the chosen writing on it such as “VOID”.

The five main types of adhesive are removable, permanent, freezer grade, wet-pack or tyre adhesive. Removable, permanent and Freezer grade adhesive is just progressively stronger solutions of PVA glue. PVA glue is fully bio-degradable.

Wet-pack adhesive use other bonding chemicals and this is not generally biodegradable but is food safe. Finally, tyre adhesive uses biological gums and strong solvents. The solvents are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and not good for the environment, despite the gum itself being biodegradable.

Inks

There are a range of inks we can source for specialised labels. These include thermochromatic – inks that change under certain temperatures. These are used to ‘witness’ the environment a product might have been exposed to such as a threshold temperature.

Other specialised inks include UV inks that can luminesce under different UV light frequencies. These are known to the public as UV-A, UV-B and UV-C. Most frequently you will have seen this nomenclature on a bottle of sun-tan lotion! Using UV inks, it is possible to print any shape or text ‘invisibly’ which is useful for the authenticity of products and brand protection.

Other specialised labels inks include so-called taggant inks. These are chemical markers that can be printed onto labels to provide a unique chemical fingerprint. The inks are very expensive but in terms of security, taggant markers can make your product entirely secure.

Specialised Printing Methods

Security features can be added to your label using a range of techniques and inks as explained above. We can also provide a range of printing techniques to make labels virtually un-reproducible. These printing methods can include:

• Microtext – Microtext can be printed in the background of a label using a pale pantone so as to make the print imperceptible without the use of a loupe or magnification. The print resolutions we can achieve are very small. This means that to the casual eye, a label may just appear to be a solid colour but to the professional, the labels can be verified as genuine.
• Micro errors – Micro errors can be included in the design of a labels. These will normally be imperceptible to the human eye but on closer inspection, can be identified and used to validate the provenance of a label. Micro errors can be incorporated into micro print too to make it virtually impossible to duplicate a fake version of the label without having to go to extreme lengths!
• Guilloché – A guilloché is an ornamental pattern formed of two or more curved bands that interlace to repeat a circular design. These are commonly found on certificates and currency. They can only be created if the specifications of the tooling is known and are very difficult to re-create for forgers
• Specialised Cutting Methods
  We can incorporate a number of specialised cutting methods in your label design. This can include orphan labels – label material left behind after use. It may include security cuts that make it impossible to remove the labels without them tearing. Multiple part labels, perforations through the liner and label or just the face material.

Specialised cutting can be completed on our digital machinery with inline laser die cutting. This allows us to try virtually any shape cut on your label. The digital laser slows down with more complexity on the label so very complex label cuts may need preparing on a rotary die cutting station if the complexity exceeds laser capability.