UPM Raflatac has announced the launch of a new product portfolio featuring Silvervac WSA, a high-performance, metallic facestock for the Americas market. With its unique wet strength properties, Silvervac WSA answers a long-standing industry problem by maintaining label design integrity in the presence of moisture, humidity and the challenging conditions of an ice bucket – so that branding is never compromised.

Due to previous market limitations, Silvervac WSA was only available as a non-pressure sensitive material for cut-and-stack labeling. But UPM Raflatac has worked closely with market sources to develop it for pressure sensitive labeling, and these product constructions have yielded excellent results during convertibility tests.

When bottles featuring Silvervac WSA products are placed in a wet environment or an icy bath, the labels remain intact for over 24 hours – and even after they are dry – making these label stocks a perfect choice for champagne, sparkling wine, beer and spirits applications. In the same conditions, labels with a non-wet strength metallic face material tend to crack and peel, which adversely affects text and image quality.

Silvervac WSA is offered exclusively from UPM Raflatac and is available with RP51 permanent adhesive for beer bottle labeling, RP48AT all-temperature adhesive for spirits labeling and RS30 repositionable adhesive for champagne and sparkling wine applications.