Shrink Sleeves

Shrink Sleeves (Speaking specifically about HP printing)

Shrink-sleeves are the fastest-growing segment in the labels market, and the ability of the HP Indigo press ws4050 to be able to print shrink-sleeves as well as conventional labels, flexible packaging and cartons, means that the press truly represents a revolution in package printing and converting.

Reverse printing is often used in shrink-sleeve printing to prevent marring and scuffing during transit. This is a technique that is easily accomplished with HP Indigo technology. It also facilitates the ‘no label’ look that is currently in vogue.

The beverage industry is the major consumer of shrink-sleeve labels and this sector is possibly the most demanding in terms of adherence to corporate identity, brand colors and print quality. HP Indigo digital printing technology readily meets these expectations and enables just-in-time deliveries and stockless supply chains, as well as rapid production.

The use of shrink-sleeves is expected to continue to expand as it eliminates the problems of printing on irregularly shaped containers and widely diverse substrates. Shrink-sleeves can increasingly be found in use on healthcare products or as part of tamper-evident security features.

The ability for a packaging printer and converter to be able to offer shrink-sleeve production using the same press as his customers’ other products are printed on gives him powerful leverage to develop new business and help his customer to expand, too.

Labels – Shrink Sleeve

As you can discover below, we offer our clients one of the widest complements of label printing and packaging decoration in North America. Shrink sleeve label production is increasingly becoming a focus and we have recently introduced Digitally printed shrink sleeve labels to several of our clients.

Shrink sleeve is a label technology in which labels are wrapped around, and shrunk tightly to conform to various shape and size containers. The “sleeves”, or labels often span the containers full 360 degrees, form top-to-bottom. This entire area provides marketers an enormous canvas in which to display powerful point-of-sale graphics and content.

Shrink sleeve technology optimizes printable label area with virtual 360-degree graphics, while accommodating extreme container contour. This flexibility is applicable to virtually any shape or size container on PVC, PET, PETG, or OPS film. UV flexographic (8 and 10-color), Rotogravure, and Digial are technologies that can be used to print shrink sleeves.

Shrink sleeve provides excellent scuff resistance, easily detected evidence of tampering and consumer-convenient multi-pack presentation. Shrink sleeve labels shrink to the container by either manual application or heat tunnels, depending on the product, and distribution requirements.

Shrink Sleeve Features
• 360 degree graphics
• Bright metallic and pearlescent effects
• Scuff resistance by reverse printing
• Contour fit
• Multi-pack presentation
Hiding of undesirable product conditions

Shrink Sleeve Label Distortion
(Dave Woods, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo)
‘...As a shrink-sleeve label shrinks around a bottle, all of the graphics on the label become distorted in proportion with the bottle’s dimensions. To compensate, all label graphics must be predistorted during process to ensure that the final label appears as the designer intended it.’

‘Manual Distortion of images
Image distortion is the most challenging aspect of designing a shrink-sleeve label. If distortion is not accounted for during design and prepress, then the graphics on the label will appear incorrectly. To correct this problem, label designers must determine the amount of image shrinkage that will take place when the label is shrunk around the bottle and then compensate by predistorting the images in the opposite direction during the prepress stage.
For example, say an image shrinks by five percent in a certain area, to compensate the designer expands this area of the original image by five percent, thus, when the label shrinks, the image will return to its original and intended size rather than appearing too small.’

‘Shrinkage side effect - Inconsistent colour.
Shrink-sleeve labels are also the cause of another design and prepress problem. When a label is shrunk around a bottle, the halftone dots shrink proportionally as well. In areas on the bottle where only minor shrinkage occurs, the halftone is unaffected. However, if the bottle has a smaller neck where there is a large amount of shrinkage, the dots will shrink and clump together, thus creating a super-saturated area of colour that is noticeably darker than the other areas of the bottle. (Kronemann, 2003)

If image distortion is being done manually, then the designer can desaturate those areas that will shrink the most by applying a gradient over these areas on the computer. (Kronemann, 2003)’