Steve Katz, Editor08.31.15
The ability to produce shrink sleeve prototypes and short run jobs has long been an area of frustration and high cost for printers and converters. Using production equipment or manual “do-it-yourself ” methods for these types of jobs often leads to unnecessary downtime in production or inferior final results. Of course, these are issues a printer wants to avoid, however, they are sometimes necessary in order to please customers.
“Requests from customers for these types of jobs and the need to produce them in-house are constant,” explains Molly Ryback, sales and marketing manager at Ryback & Ryback, a Monroe, NC, USA-based consultancy and equipment supplier specializing in the shrink sleeve industry. “Whether trying to attract a new customer with a prototype of their sleeve or having an existing customer that has a small quantity job need, short runs are part of business today."
Ryback believes solutions for providing short run shrink sleeve proofing have been less than stellar, as they are too high in overall cost when using production equipment to print, seam, and shrink and low in quality when manually trying to produce sleeves. “Printers have accepted the fact that they have to print either on-press or on an expensive digital printer and absorb the cost and downtime associated with this method,” says Ryback. “Once they have the printed piece, to save on further cost, they have resorted to manually trying to seam and shrink. To seam the sample, everything from double-sided tape, super glue, clear tape or adhesive is being used to try to keep the sleeve together. For shrinking, a hair dryer, heat gun, or boiling water is used to shrink the sleeve and try keep a good seam.”
These methods almost never end with a good sample that looks like a production job. “They almost always result in popped seams or seams that look like they’ve been chewed on and steamed samples that are wrinkled or aren’t properly shrunk on the containers,” Ryback says, adding, “This manual process often takes hours of work to get a good sample and never becomes an entire short run job completed."
According to Ryback, for production-like prototypes and short runs, printers have been absorbing the huge cost of using in-house production equipment, a high cost service provider or they work for days to get the best bad sample they can to show their customers. “Then they hope their customer understands production jobs won’t look like these bad samples or short runs. None of these are an ideal solution,” she says.
Teaming up for a solution
Ideally, shrink sleeve providers should be able to offer a solution for shrink sleeve short runs and prototypes that is cost effective, time efficient, and can be done in-house. Of course, printers want it to have a small footprint and a low cost of entry. And most of all, it should be able to print a one-off or short run job that looks exactly like a shrink sleeve job that was produced on production equipment.
Ryback says that today there is indeed an equipment combination that fits this description – the Roland VersaUV LEC printer along with the Ryback & Ryback Sleeve Maker and S3 Steam Machine.
For shrink sleeves and printing, to address the need for a low entry-cost machine Roland has developed the LEC series VersaUV printers and its line of ECO-UV S shrink inks. There are two printer models in the LEC series: The LEC-330 that has a 30” width for high speed printing and superior image quality and the LEC-540 that has a 54” width for fast print speeds on larger substrates. Both printers use the ECO-UV S ink that comes in 220ml carts of CMYK + white and stretches up to 220% to allow for the proper shrinking of film and ink for sleeves.
According to the Roland Production Team, each printer comes with the Versaworks RIP software and has drivers available from leading providers of color management/proofing software: CGS, GMG and EFI. Printing resolution for both printers range from 360x720 up to 1440x1440 dpi, while the Roland Intelligent Pass Control ensures consistent print quality. Print speeds on the LEC-300 are up to 101 square feet per hour and for the LEC-540 are up to 126 square feet per hour.
Seamless seaming
Traditionally, single or one-up samples can be made by printing a small amount of material and then running it through the seaming production process to create a solvent-seamed sample. This is a costly process due to the fact that production equipment must be used for a one-up sample.
“Today, more and more converters are choosing to use a Sleeve Maker to create solvent-based one-up samples,” Ryback says. “This tool is a simple desktop unit that allows the converter to print a sample label and then cut the label to make a one-up solvent-seamed sample without having to run the label through the entire process of slitting, seaming, inspection and cutting.”
The Ryback & Ryback Sleeve Maker was developed to mimic a seaming machine without the cost of a full production run. The compact, desktop unit has adjustable arms that are set to the correct layflat size for the label. Once the correct size is achieved, forming arms hold the sleeve in place while an applicator pen is used to apply the solvent. Next, the sleeve is removed from the forming arms and placed into a sidebar that holds it into place while it is cut with a hand tool.
“The final sample is as strong as a machine-based solvent sample and can be run through any heat tunnel or shrinking process,” Ryback says. “The cost of purchase for the Sleeve Maker is $3,500 and includes everything that you need to operate the machine except for the solvent.”
Ryback notes that the solvent can be purchased from Flexcraft Industries. The formulations verified to work with the Sleeve Maker are: 12-103, 1518 and 595HP.
Steam Machine
The S3 Seam Machine from Ryback & Ryback is designed to be a simple and effective way to shrink short run jobs and prototype sleeves. “Final shrink sleeves look like they have come from a heat/steam tunnel but only take a matter of seconds to produce and never interrupt a production run,” Ryback says.
The S3 Steam Machine consists of an enclosed stainless steel boiler, an aluminum steam chamber, and a steam pot for holding the sleeved container while shrinking. According to Ryback, the design for the machine was kept simple to reduce the probability of mechanical issues and to make it easy for anyone to use.
The stainless steel boiler has two settings for operation – heat and steam. Heat brings the water up to temperature and steam allows for shrinking. To get from off to heat to steam is about 15-20 minutes, and it will run for approximately two straight hours with a full boiler.
Explains Ryback, “To shrink a sleeve, put on steam and heat resistant gloves to prevent burning and get a container with a seamed sleeve. Slide the steam chamber open and pull out the steam pot. Place the container in the center of the steam pot and slowly slide it down into the steam chamber. This slow motion entry allows for the steaming of the sleeve as its being lowered into the steam chamber. Close the lid and leave the container for anywhere between 5-20 seconds – the average time being around 10 seconds – depending on the container and the level of shrink necessary for the sleeve. Once the time is up, open the steam chamber and pull out the steam pot. Remove the container and wipe off any excess condensation.
“If multiple containers need to be shrunk, the containers should be lined up with the seamed sleeves already on each. If this is done, the operator can easily move from container to container, shrinking with ease, and quickly finishing a job without interrupting a production job. The final sample will have a straight seam and an even shrink – something you can’t get with a manual process,” Ryback says.
Cost for purchase of the S3 Steam Machine is $6,500 and it is available in 110 volts or 220 volts. The only requirement of the machine is that it is plugged into a dedicated outlet to allow for maximum heating and steaming.
Shrink samples in 20 minutes
Founded in 1947, Anchor Printing is a family-owned label and Packaging company in Novi, MI, USA. The company uses in tandem a Roland LEC -330 printer, the Ryback & Ryback Sleeve Maker and the S3 Steam Machine, and attests to the results it provides.
Andrew Weitz, COO at Anchor Printing, says, “Mock ups have always been a huge aspect of satisfying the customer in today’s climate. Anchor has always been able to produce digital samples for customers, we utilized a large-scale digital printing machine. And it was another whole process to create the seams and shrinking the label on to the bottle.”
Weitz maintains that with Roland LEC-330 printer, the Ryback & Ryback Sleeve Maker and S3 Steam Machine equipment, the process can be done in a 20-minute period. “This is the perfect solution to that quick, one mock up that is needed so much in today’s packaging climate. Our old method cut into our production schedules and created so much waste that it really wasn’t efficient. It was also more complicated so that only an expert in the shrink sleeve department could pull it off. The solution now has become so easy that people in our front office can complete the whole process within 20 minutes,” Weitz says.
Recently, Anchor Printing held a meeting in its conference room with a new customer to discuss new packaging ideas for their line of iced tea. “From our conference room, we were able to print out the mock up, seam it, and shrink it on the bottle before the meeting was over – within the hour. This solution that we created for this potential customer was eventually the selling aspect for them to use Anchor. The service it created couldn’t be beat.
Continues Weitz, “All the equipment sits in a small room within our office, so it doesn’t disrupt production aspects of our operation. The Roland Printer and Ryback equipment has made the sales cycle decrease tremendously from time of artwork to finished product. We can now essentially manufacture a mocked up sleeve in our office and not interrupt our manufacturing process.”
“Requests from customers for these types of jobs and the need to produce them in-house are constant,” explains Molly Ryback, sales and marketing manager at Ryback & Ryback, a Monroe, NC, USA-based consultancy and equipment supplier specializing in the shrink sleeve industry. “Whether trying to attract a new customer with a prototype of their sleeve or having an existing customer that has a small quantity job need, short runs are part of business today."
Ryback believes solutions for providing short run shrink sleeve proofing have been less than stellar, as they are too high in overall cost when using production equipment to print, seam, and shrink and low in quality when manually trying to produce sleeves. “Printers have accepted the fact that they have to print either on-press or on an expensive digital printer and absorb the cost and downtime associated with this method,” says Ryback. “Once they have the printed piece, to save on further cost, they have resorted to manually trying to seam and shrink. To seam the sample, everything from double-sided tape, super glue, clear tape or adhesive is being used to try to keep the sleeve together. For shrinking, a hair dryer, heat gun, or boiling water is used to shrink the sleeve and try keep a good seam.”
These methods almost never end with a good sample that looks like a production job. “They almost always result in popped seams or seams that look like they’ve been chewed on and steamed samples that are wrinkled or aren’t properly shrunk on the containers,” Ryback says, adding, “This manual process often takes hours of work to get a good sample and never becomes an entire short run job completed."
According to Ryback, for production-like prototypes and short runs, printers have been absorbing the huge cost of using in-house production equipment, a high cost service provider or they work for days to get the best bad sample they can to show their customers. “Then they hope their customer understands production jobs won’t look like these bad samples or short runs. None of these are an ideal solution,” she says.
Teaming up for a solution
Ideally, shrink sleeve providers should be able to offer a solution for shrink sleeve short runs and prototypes that is cost effective, time efficient, and can be done in-house. Of course, printers want it to have a small footprint and a low cost of entry. And most of all, it should be able to print a one-off or short run job that looks exactly like a shrink sleeve job that was produced on production equipment.
Ryback says that today there is indeed an equipment combination that fits this description – the Roland VersaUV LEC printer along with the Ryback & Ryback Sleeve Maker and S3 Steam Machine.
For shrink sleeves and printing, to address the need for a low entry-cost machine Roland has developed the LEC series VersaUV printers and its line of ECO-UV S shrink inks. There are two printer models in the LEC series: The LEC-330 that has a 30” width for high speed printing and superior image quality and the LEC-540 that has a 54” width for fast print speeds on larger substrates. Both printers use the ECO-UV S ink that comes in 220ml carts of CMYK + white and stretches up to 220% to allow for the proper shrinking of film and ink for sleeves.
According to the Roland Production Team, each printer comes with the Versaworks RIP software and has drivers available from leading providers of color management/proofing software: CGS, GMG and EFI. Printing resolution for both printers range from 360x720 up to 1440x1440 dpi, while the Roland Intelligent Pass Control ensures consistent print quality. Print speeds on the LEC-300 are up to 101 square feet per hour and for the LEC-540 are up to 126 square feet per hour.
Seamless seaming
Traditionally, single or one-up samples can be made by printing a small amount of material and then running it through the seaming production process to create a solvent-seamed sample. This is a costly process due to the fact that production equipment must be used for a one-up sample.
“Today, more and more converters are choosing to use a Sleeve Maker to create solvent-based one-up samples,” Ryback says. “This tool is a simple desktop unit that allows the converter to print a sample label and then cut the label to make a one-up solvent-seamed sample without having to run the label through the entire process of slitting, seaming, inspection and cutting.”
The Ryback & Ryback Sleeve Maker was developed to mimic a seaming machine without the cost of a full production run. The compact, desktop unit has adjustable arms that are set to the correct layflat size for the label. Once the correct size is achieved, forming arms hold the sleeve in place while an applicator pen is used to apply the solvent. Next, the sleeve is removed from the forming arms and placed into a sidebar that holds it into place while it is cut with a hand tool.
“The final sample is as strong as a machine-based solvent sample and can be run through any heat tunnel or shrinking process,” Ryback says. “The cost of purchase for the Sleeve Maker is $3,500 and includes everything that you need to operate the machine except for the solvent.”
Ryback notes that the solvent can be purchased from Flexcraft Industries. The formulations verified to work with the Sleeve Maker are: 12-103, 1518 and 595HP.
Steam Machine
The S3 Seam Machine from Ryback & Ryback is designed to be a simple and effective way to shrink short run jobs and prototype sleeves. “Final shrink sleeves look like they have come from a heat/steam tunnel but only take a matter of seconds to produce and never interrupt a production run,” Ryback says.
The S3 Steam Machine consists of an enclosed stainless steel boiler, an aluminum steam chamber, and a steam pot for holding the sleeved container while shrinking. According to Ryback, the design for the machine was kept simple to reduce the probability of mechanical issues and to make it easy for anyone to use.
The stainless steel boiler has two settings for operation – heat and steam. Heat brings the water up to temperature and steam allows for shrinking. To get from off to heat to steam is about 15-20 minutes, and it will run for approximately two straight hours with a full boiler.
Explains Ryback, “To shrink a sleeve, put on steam and heat resistant gloves to prevent burning and get a container with a seamed sleeve. Slide the steam chamber open and pull out the steam pot. Place the container in the center of the steam pot and slowly slide it down into the steam chamber. This slow motion entry allows for the steaming of the sleeve as its being lowered into the steam chamber. Close the lid and leave the container for anywhere between 5-20 seconds – the average time being around 10 seconds – depending on the container and the level of shrink necessary for the sleeve. Once the time is up, open the steam chamber and pull out the steam pot. Remove the container and wipe off any excess condensation.
“If multiple containers need to be shrunk, the containers should be lined up with the seamed sleeves already on each. If this is done, the operator can easily move from container to container, shrinking with ease, and quickly finishing a job without interrupting a production job. The final sample will have a straight seam and an even shrink – something you can’t get with a manual process,” Ryback says.
Cost for purchase of the S3 Steam Machine is $6,500 and it is available in 110 volts or 220 volts. The only requirement of the machine is that it is plugged into a dedicated outlet to allow for maximum heating and steaming.
Shrink samples in 20 minutes
Founded in 1947, Anchor Printing is a family-owned label and Packaging company in Novi, MI, USA. The company uses in tandem a Roland LEC -330 printer, the Ryback & Ryback Sleeve Maker and the S3 Steam Machine, and attests to the results it provides.
Andrew Weitz, COO at Anchor Printing, says, “Mock ups have always been a huge aspect of satisfying the customer in today’s climate. Anchor has always been able to produce digital samples for customers, we utilized a large-scale digital printing machine. And it was another whole process to create the seams and shrinking the label on to the bottle.”
Weitz maintains that with Roland LEC-330 printer, the Ryback & Ryback Sleeve Maker and S3 Steam Machine equipment, the process can be done in a 20-minute period. “This is the perfect solution to that quick, one mock up that is needed so much in today’s packaging climate. Our old method cut into our production schedules and created so much waste that it really wasn’t efficient. It was also more complicated so that only an expert in the shrink sleeve department could pull it off. The solution now has become so easy that people in our front office can complete the whole process within 20 minutes,” Weitz says.
Recently, Anchor Printing held a meeting in its conference room with a new customer to discuss new packaging ideas for their line of iced tea. “From our conference room, we were able to print out the mock up, seam it, and shrink it on the bottle before the meeting was over – within the hour. This solution that we created for this potential customer was eventually the selling aspect for them to use Anchor. The service it created couldn’t be beat.
Continues Weitz, “All the equipment sits in a small room within our office, so it doesn’t disrupt production aspects of our operation. The Roland Printer and Ryback equipment has made the sales cycle decrease tremendously from time of artwork to finished product. We can now essentially manufacture a mocked up sleeve in our office and not interrupt our manufacturing process.”