How should self-adhesive labeling machines respond to the requirements of environmentally friendly packaging trends?

How should self-adhesive labeling machines respond to the requirements of environmentally friendly packaging trends?

The extreme weather phenomena in recent years have aroused people's strong demands for environmental protection and low carbon products. As a "big consumer" of plastics, the liquid packaging industry has long been aware of the trend of environmentally friendly packaging, and has redesigned more environmentally friendly packaging solutions starting from the plastic bottles to bottle labels used in packaging. In terms of labels, some tea brands have proposed two innovative solutions, which have put forward higher technical requirements for self-adhesive labeling machines. The two solutions are:

1. Making the label thinner. Yuanqi Forest took this approach and spent several months and energy in exchange for labels that were 5 μm thinner. Although it can't be felt, it can save 11% of raw materials with less steam is used when using hot steam sleeve labels, thereby saving a certain amount of energy.

2. Making the label smaller. This is the method adopted by the tea brand Suntory: the label that originally covered the entire bottle was replaced by a small label affixed to the shoulder of the bottle, saving a lot of label materials, and printing beverage ingredients on the small label in accordance with food packaging requirements, specifications and other information. As for how to retain brand recognition, Suntory ingeniously replaced it with a Lucky Cat embossed on the bottle, which is simple but still recognizable.

Thinner and smaller labels also mean higher-standard self-adhesive labeling machines

However, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Thinner and smaller labels pose considerable technical challenges to the packaging process, or to be precise, to the self-adhesive labeling machine. Specifically in:

1. Positioning accuracy.

Traditional labels generally surround the entire bottle, which don't require exactly precise positioning. However, once a smaller label is used, it needs to be accurately positioned on a certain part of the bottle, and the self-adhesive labeling machine needs to have a higher standard positioning mechanism to reduce the rate of missed and wrong labeling.

2. Operation intensity

The thinner the label, the easier it is to break, which requires a  gentler operation of self-adhesive labeling machine to prevent the waste of label materials as well as avoid the construction delay caused by stopping the machine to adjust broken labels.

3. Heterogeneous containers

As mentioned above, after some beverage manufacturers adopt smaller labels, in order to improve recognition, they will add unique designs to the bottle shape, upgrading it from traditional round bottles to more unique special-shaped bottles. And this is where the new generation of self-adhesive labeling machines will differ from traditional round bottle labeling machines: the self-adhesive labeling machine can accurately identify special-shaped containers and paste the label at a preset position.

Guangzhou TECH-LONG disc-type rotary self-adhesive labeling machine helps efficient production

The rotary self-adhesive labeling machine developed with great concentration by Guangzhou TECH-LONG can effectively solve the above problems.

In terms of labeling accuracy and operation strength, TECH-LONG's self-adhesive labeling machine uses servo motors to control the container rotation and label transmission. It can label anywhere on the container, with high positioning and operation accuracy, which is conducive to accurate labeling and prevent label damage. This further avoids wasted time and cost caused by downtime for inspections and relabeling.

Labeling of odd-shaped containers is naturally a piece of cake. TECH-LONG's self-adhesive labeling machine is suitable for various common special-shaped containers such as round, square, oval and so on. Not only that, the device is also suitable for bottles of different materials. Whether it is plastic, glass, metal or any other surface, the label can be firmly adhered to it.

In addition,  TECH-LONG's disc-type rotary self-adhesive labeling machine has the following advantages:

•  Adopt full servo station design to reduce system vibration and noise.
•  A modular layout allows for flexibility in the number of labeling stations, allowing for adjustments based on production needs as well as meet the needs of labeling multiple labels.
•  Can be combined to achieve combined labeling requirements such as hot melt adhesive and self-adhesive adhesive, and supports label coding and detection.
• The labeling station is equipped with a static elimination system, which not only improves the accuracy of label delivery and labeling, but also ensures the cleanliness of bottles and labels.

Summarize

The implementation of environmentally friendly packaging is not only a general trend, but also an opportunity for packaging manufacturers to show their creativity and show their talent, TECH-LONG continues to optimize and update iterative solutions, striving to enable liquid production and packaging manufacturers to flexibly respond to the changing market demands!