Everything You Wanted To Know About Custom Printed Labels

Custom Printed Labels are generally manufactured using plastics, paper, cloths or sometimes metals too. Summarized information about the product is printed on these labels. These labels can be attached by adhesives to the containers or directly printed on the containers.

Their Uses
Labels are widely used to print following information of products
Name of the product
Date of manufacturing
Batch and Id of the product
Address of the place where the product is manufactured
Date of Expiry
Warnings
International Bar Codes etc.

If the labels are printed digitally, they may also have RFID information. Here RFID means Radio Frequency Identification code.

Attaching the labels
The custom printed labels can be attached to the products or their containers in many different ways. Few of them are mentioned below.
Glue wet glue is applied to the labels and then they are pasted on the products.
Small plates are also manufactured as labels and they are attached to industrial Equipments.
Some labels are shrinkable. It means they are attached first and then heated so that they shrink and attach properly to the product.
For mattresses, clothes, industrial sacks etc. labels are sometimes sewn to the products.
A new type is called Pressure Sensitive Adhesive (PSAs). They can be attached simply by applying little pressure. They need not be heated.

What are The Labels made of? (Label Stocks)
Label Stocks are the carriers which have adhesive coating on one side and normally printed on other side. They can be made of clothes, variety of papers, foils or films.

The labels can be manufactured separately, or on a sheet or on a roll as per the requirement of the customer. Different properties are considered when making the custom printed labels. These properties include flexibility, strength, resistance to tear, transparency etc. If a label needs to shine against the product or container, it is made of foils to give it a shine or glitter. A very strong adhesive when applied to labels, make them impossible to tear down without damaging. Engraved labels are also used sometime because of their long durability.

The type of stock affects what kind of ink can be printed on them. Different techniques such as Corona treating or flame treating are used to make the plastics more receptive to the inks and adhesives. This is achieved when the surface tension reduces for them.

Generally Labels are pre-printed. Sometimes they can also be printed manually or automatically at the time of attaching them to the products. Labels are difficult to apply when attached one at a time. Hence a special equipment/machine called label dispenser is used for custom printed labels.
Nowadays, many label manufacturing companies have started considering environmental issues while making labels. That sure is a positive sign.