FDBusiness.com

Dow Europe and PetroplastVinora AG have introduced the Visique stretch sleeve label, which addresses the needs of brand owners who label highly contoured bottles and containers.

Karin Katzer, marketing manager, labels, films and adhesives at Dow Performance Packaging, commented: ‘This novel high performance stretch sleeve solution is the fruit of our knowhow in designing innovative and distinct polyethylene resins and PetroplastVinora’s exceptional process experience and capabilities for blown film extrusion, printing and sleeve manufacturing.’

Visique integrates a five to seven layer blown extrusion film, achieved without loss of machinability. Dow says trials have demonstrated ‘exceptional processability’, enabling the films to retain their stiffness while staying soft and offering a snug fit around the containers.

The Visique stretch sleeve label uses Dow’s Elite AT (Advanced Technology) enhanced polyethylene resin. This allows the film to expand up to 55-60 percent for easier handling, while elastic recovery of around 95 percent means the film shrinks back into the recesses of the container for a tight fit without sagging, says Dow.

The film is claimed to be easy to process and there is no need for a heat tunnel, reducing manufacturing cost and decreasing energy consumption. The film offers good holding strength to facilitate wrapping.

Dow says it will be possible to produce thinner blown films while maintaining both their toughness and stiffness with a high resistance to impact and tear.

‘This state of the art technology helps to answer the call from the marketplace for thinner films that maintain their mechanical properties and optical appeal,’ said Kurt Brunner, technology leader sustainable packaging, Dow Europe.

Initially developed for the beverage market, the high gloss Visique stretch sleeve label can be adapted for a wide range of applications. ‘Stretch sleeve labels are a strongly growing market segment and we see significant potential for expanding their use in the future into a broad range of applications, including personal, household and healthcare products,’ said Thomas Galatik, project manager TS&D, PetroplastVinora AG.

The technology will be unveiled at the AWA International Sleeve Label conference which takes place on 18-19 April at the Park Plaza Hotel in Amsterdam.