News & Events

Label Market in Printing Continues to Grow and Change

Its funny when you start to take notice of something and then realize the thing you never thought much of is everywhere.  Buy a red car and you start seeing red cars everywhere, cut your hair and now everyone seems to have the same one, research the label printing industry and realize they are on nearly everything!
Labeling things is a art as old as time – well maybe not that old but it has been at least 400 years since the first recoded print labels were produced.  They were time consuming, printed on hand made paper with a wooden hand press.  The industrial revolution in the 19th century really brought labels to the forefront with all the new products being mass produced: standard-sized glass bottles and bottle filling lines, the first canning factories, the rapid growth of pharmacy products, labels on boxes, labels on luggage, labels on cigar boxes and bands, matchbox labels.

Today, self-adhesive labels make up around 40% of label usage, fuelled by a whole host of technology and press innovations over the last thirty years that have enabled labels to be printed faster, on wider webs, using rotary and wrap-around tooling, servo-drive presses, and press controls that include web inspection, register control, colour management, and much more.

Since the mid-2000s, digital printing has also begun to evolve quite rapidly, initially with electrophotographic liquid and dry toner technologies and, most recently, with new generations of UV and water-based inkjet.
 
In the pipeline for launch in 2014 is the newly developed Landa nanographic printing process, an offset inkjet process that has already created significant market interest amongst label, folding carton and flexible packaging printers.
 

All these new ideas, technologies and discussions on future innovations are going to be highlighted at Labelexpo Europe is in Brussels this year in September and Labelexpo America’s is in Chicago 2014 in September.  Both expo’s are huge events highlighting the latest and greatest technology, innovation and sourcing for new suppliers and machinery.

One thing most consistent in life is change, and you have to be aware and ready for it!

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