Substrate and adhesive supplier Avery Dennison has developed multiple new products to improve packaging throughout a wide array of applications. Communicating brand values effectively means going further. How does a label feel? What sound does it emit when touched? Does it give off a scent? Packaging that stimulates multiple senses has a bigger impact on consumers’ perceptions and helps determine their purchasing decisions.

Avery Dennison has launched several platforms to benefit the labels and packaging segment. Clear Hotmelt is an adhesive used for chilled food packaging; The Sensorial Collection has been developed for wine, spirits and craft beer; the Black Collection is intended for wine, spirits and craft beer; and Label’Glass technology is utilized for wine, spirits, premium food and cosmetics.

Avery Dennison’s patented Clear Hotmelt adhesive offers a new alternative for chilled food applications in the temperature range of 0-8 °C. The Avery Dennison Sensorial Collection gives designers a broad set of tools to create soft, textured or patterned papers that can give a premium, vintage or artisanal feel. These diverse label surfaces can give consumers subtle messages about a bottle’s contents while contributing to an outstanding visual impact. This product portfolio offers various effects, from wood to velvet – allowing brands to create custom label designs that engage multiple consumer senses. New Label’Glass technology allows brands and bottle producers to simulate a glass embossing effect with a label. Decorating the bottle with an embossed label that looks like glass and feels like glass helps to create a distinctive and premium brand image. The Avery Dennison Black Collection offers new ways to create truly distinctive label designs for wine, spirits and craft beer brands. The materials provide excellent shelf appeal with black labels and the absence of white edges, ranging from smooth to textured in different shades.

Anti-counterfeiting
Safeguarding the physical integrity of some products has never been more important, and the need to protect the safety of pharmaceutical products has risen in recent years. Avery Dennison has developed a portfolio of materials designed to reduce packaging falsification and tampering in the pharmaceutical sector.

“Drug counterfeiting is a major global problem. Patient safety is compromised by product manipulation and substitution, and manufacturers can experience damage to their brand image, sales and revenue,” explains Gabriela Gregor, Avery Dennison’s project manager for pharmaceutical labeling. “Our products can change the game in protecting patient safety and safeguarding manufacturer reputation.”

One key product range in the portfolio is the Tamper-evident Seal Range, which, when combined with newly formulated adhesive S799P, makes tampering with cartons more difficult and eases compliance with the EU Medicine Directive 2011/62/EU, which is designed to prevent “falsified medicines” from entering the legal prescription supply chain. It also applies to some over-the-counter products.

Tire labeling
The drive for efficiency and quality in tire manufacturing has sparked demand for a new kind of label that withstands the rigors of the production process. To meet this demand, Avery Dennison has developed a new label solution that meets the tough requirements of the vulcanization process and supports the varying needs of manufacturers for strong bonding with different types of green rubber (like SBR, BR and Nature Rubber) after the vulcanization process.

“The Avery Dennison solution consists of specially designed bar code tracking labels engineered to bond with the tire during the vulcanization process and maintain lifelong adhesion and readability. These pressure sensitive labels offer excellent abrasion and heat resistance, allowing the tire to remain traceable throughout a customer’s supply chain. During the vulcanization process, this special PSA material would be triggered to have a chemical reaction with the tire rubber, enabling it to bond to the tire surface permanently,” says Hans Eichenwald, senior product manager, Avery Dennison Europe.

“There’s an increased need for bar coding on tires,” he adds. “They are fundamental to the tire industry’s transition into the world of Industry 4.0 – allowing for the widespread application of digital technologies to integrate automated manufacturing and supply-chain processes. Bar code tracking specifically improves quality, production and inventory management.” Made of specially-selected materials, Avery Dennison’s tire vulcanization labels enable bar code/thermal transfer printability, optimal adhesion and bonding to the green tire during vulcanization. The materials withstand the pressure and heat of the curing process (up to 200°C) and resist chemical degradation from acids, bases, salts and low-fat solvents, as well as abrasion for long-term durability.

Adhesives for Wet wipes
Wet wipes are one of the most popular cleaning products in the world. But until now, the adhesives on wet wipe packages would often fail, leaving the remaining wipes to dry out and customers to lose the value of their purchases.

“When an adhesive selected for household wipes can’t supply the technical resistance to the solvents (e.g. limonene) used in the wipes, the pack cannot be resealed for the lifetime of the packaging. This means customers cannot properly use the full pack of wipes, leading to disappointment with the purchase, and perhaps encouraging them to change to other brands in the future,” explains Jenny Wassenaar, director of Select Solutions at Avery Dennison Europe.

Avery Dennison creates a step change with its High Solvent Resistance Adhesives, MR980R and UVR155, from the Select Solutions portfolio. These adhesives address the main problem with wet wipe closures: the vulnerability of the adhesive closure to the solvents in the wet wipes themselves. MR980R provides excellent functionality on glossy PET packaging. It is designed to withstand the chemicals used in household wet wipes and provides a high strength level of adhesion on flexible packaging applications. UVR155 is the preferred choice for matte packaging, often used in baby, facial and toilet wipes. Both adhesives have been developed specifically for challenging wipe applications (like household wipes), offering high to medium initial tack and a smooth peel.

Consumers who buy wet wipes are mainly focused on easy-open/easy-close convenience. For manufacturers and brand owners, the priority is finding cost-efficient alternatives to rigid plastic lids and other reclosure solutions.