In Mould Label

In Mould Label is a brand new form of label packaging that differs from traditional labels. In-mold labels have been popular for many years in some countries in Europe. After two years of waiting and seeing in the domestic market, the in-mold label has finally begun to receive larger-scale applications, attracting more and more attention from industry insiders and end-users.
Process Principle In-mold labeling is to embed a printed label into a container during the blow or injection process to integrate the label and container. The basic process of in-mold labeling during blow molding or injection molding is to stack pre-printed in-mold labels (pre-labels and back labels) in a single sheet format and place them on the two labels of the in-mold labeling machine. Inside the box. With the opening of the bottle mold, the robot picks up the front and back labels. The printed side of the label faces inward, the solid adhesive faces outwards and is placed on both sides of the mold. The vacuum holes on the mold hold the label firmly in the mold. When the plastic container's raw material is heated and hangs in a hose-like manner, the labelled mold quickly closes and the air blows into the hose so that it is close to the mold wall. At this time, the temperature in the entire mold is still relatively high. The embryonic container's label solid adhesive begins to melt and binds to the plastic container. When the mold is opened again, the plastic container is molded and the label and container are integrated.
Basic features 1. Compared with traditional labels There are three main forms of traditional labels: heat-shrinkable labels, direct screen-printed labels, and adhesive labels (mainly self-adhesive labels). The direct screen printing label method is to print the pattern and text on the container by screen printing. The overall effect is good, and the pattern and text have texture. However, the quality of direct screen printing is not ideal, and it is difficult to reflect fine patterns and small texts. At the same time, if the color is more, the price of direct screen printing is more expensive; the use of heat shrink film (mainly PVC film) as Labels are less expensive than stickers and direct screen-printed labels, but heat-shrinkable labels are easily damaged, the overall image is not very good, and it is not conducive to environmental protection; adhesive labels (mainly self-adhesive labels) are printed Sophisticated, able to present the label with a finer layer, but its cost is more expensive than the shrink film label.
The emergence of in-mold labels harmonized the advantages and disadvantages of the above three traditional labeling methods to some extent. The in-mold label can achieve both the printing quality of the sticker and the overall effect of direct screen printing.
Considering the cost of labels, the direct screen-printed labels cost more than four colors, which is the most expensive of the three traditional labeling methods. From the point of view of the cost of the label material, the in-mold label of the same type of surface material is compared with the self-adhesive label, and the label material in the mold does not require the backing paper, so the cost of the label material has a certain drop space. At the same time, if in-mold labels are used, it is no longer necessary to add labeling equipment or labelling workers like heat-shrinkable labels and adhesive labels (adhesive labels), which can save the cost. However, due to the need for special die-cutting equipment in the process of in-mold label printing, and the complicated printing process, the cost of printing the in-mold labels may be higher than that of conventional labels.
From an aesthetic point of view, the form of the in-mold label is novel, especially for the daily chemical products with the label as the main external packaging; secondly, the close integration of the in-mold label with the container has the overall effect of direct screen printing, and Perfectly embodies fine patterns and fine text like stickers. Third, in-mold labels are less likely to be damaged or fall off than adhesive labels and heat-shrink labels due to their incorporation into containers.
Improving the anti-counterfeit ability of products from the perspective of anti-counterfeiting is one of the main reasons why many manufacturers use in-mold labels. The use of in-mold labels has increased the cost of counterfeiting to a certain extent: the use of in-mold labels requires special molds, and the cost of mold manufacturing Higher, a set of molds of several hundred thousand dollars; at the same time in-mold label printing process is more difficult than traditional labels, and there are not many manufacturers that can use in-mold labeling.
Considering the environmental protection point of view, there are many types of materials used to make in-mold labels. Common plastic containers have matching in-mold label materials with the same composition. At the same time, since labels are combined with containers, the recycling rate of containers is higher.
2. Some limitations of in-mold labels Traditional labels are generally glued to the surface of the container, so they have some flexibility. In-mold labeling is the integration of labels and containers. When the sales of the product are not as good as expected, if labels are used, only some labels will be wasted, no containers will be wasted, and a new batch of labels can be reprinted. Affixed to the unused bottle. If you are not satisfied with the bottle body, you can just change the bottle body and the label can continue to be used. In this case, if the in-mold label is used, it is likely to cause double waste of the bottle body and the label.
The foregoing mentions that in-mold labels have a certain anti-counterfeiting effect, because the use of in-mold labels requires special expensive molds, requires special containers for blow molding or injection molding equipment, and increases counterfeiters' counterfeit costs, and thus to some extent The anti-counterfeiting effect is played, but at the same time, the unit production cost of the container is also increased. Containers made by blow molding process If the use of in-mold labels is required, the curvature of the container must be taken into account. If the curvature of the container is too large, such as a round bottle, it is difficult to vent during the in-mold labeling process. Then the in-mold label should not be used. In addition, the volume of the blow-molded container is too large, and it is not suitable to use an in-mold label.
Based on the above points, the in-mold label has its own characteristics compared with the traditional label, but it also has certain limitations. Users should use in-mold labeling on a mature product with a considerable amount of volume, and the package volume of the product should not be large and the bottle body curvature should be small. Such a product has good stability and a large quantity. If an in-mold label is used, the other advantages of the in-mold label can be fully reflected while saving a great deal of cost.