PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2017

LABELLING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 04/17 www.petpla.net 34 Trends in labelling and equipment technology Breakthrough in direct printing? The beer bottle or the soft drink container is on the shelf and waiting for its buyer. In addition to the price and type of container or the sales package, the label is the only selection criterion. It serves to produce a direct sales approach at the point of sale and cre- ates the recognition effect of a brand. Modular machines and self-adhesive labels “Marketing departments in the bev- erage world want maximum flexibility,” Stefan Richter, Head of Inspection and Labelling Technology at Krones AG, stated. “Bottle design is advertising, and that is highly individual. Consum- ers like to rely on the first appearance of a product when they make pur- chases, and manufacturers can sup- port this with the appropriate design. As a producer of labelling machines, we experience first-hand that the quan- tity of ordered module equipment is increasing steadily year on year.” With module machines bottlers can keep all options open. Different labelling units of almost any kind can be docked, regardless of whether for cold glue, hot glue or self-adhesive labels. As a result, beverage manufacturers remain flexible in their choice of designs even years after a large investment decision. The trend in labelling plastic contain- ers is toward increasingly thinner foil in the PET segment. Another interest- ing development is represented by pre-glued sleeve labels. Special self- adhesive labels offer many customisa- tion options. The self-adhesive label is removed in the bottle washer, and then the container can be refilled and labelled anew. Individual solutions thanks to direct printing This trend is also in line with direct printing. It can be applied almost any- where and provides highly customised solutions. It is all a matter of chemistry between ink and container material. “The print quality of direct printing is get- ting better all the time, and the speed is increasingly faster,” according to Richter. In addition to the general trend to reduce packaging material and toward increased sustainability, the market is also changing in the area of label- ling and design technology. “The trend toward individual bottle design is con- tinuing and will grow even more,” Prof. Matthias Niemeyer, CEO of KHS AG, stated and emphasised direct printing Labelling and equipment technology can sometimes be the cause of tension between marketing experts, design- ers, paper and foil manufacturers as well as technicians in bottling plants. Their individual demands are not always congruent, but they must be brought together if the desired result is to be achieved. If one element is lacking, the others cannot succeed, and vice versa. The reason is that a label is the “brand ambassador” at the point of sales. The digital Krones DecoType ink-jet system applies ink in a direct-print method onto the bottle. This enables the realisation of structures which could not be processed before. The UV inks directly printed onto each individual bottle have a good opacity and brilliance and are set on the containers within a few milliseconds.