Beyond the Surface: An In-Depth Look at Label Materials and Their Impact

If you ask how much your label might cost without describing your needs, there’s only one answer we can give you: It depends.

Like so many things, the price of your label will depend on what it’s made of.

And for most labels, that’s not just one material. In our recent webinar, “Beyond the Surface: An In-Depth Look at Label Materials and Their Impact,” The Label Printers’ President, Lori Campbell, discusses the layers that make up a self-adhesive label, and how the materials you choose can dramatically affect cost, durability, and performance.

Labels in Layers

Pressure sensitive labels, the kinds that stick to a surface when you press on them, are made of layers of different materials. Together, they make up a sort of “label sandwich,” which includes:

Face Stock: The topmost visible layer of the label, the face stock is the primary surface for printing. It plays a crucial role in the appearance and performance of the label and can be made from paper or plastic film. Each material option affects durability, flexibility, and cost.

Adhesive: The adhesive layer is the glue that holds the label to the surface it's applied to. It sits on the underside of the face stock and ensures the label sticks properly to the intended surface. Adhesives are commonly rubber-based or acrylic-based and available with permanent, removable, or temporary bonding characteristics.

Release Coating: This layer is applied to the release liner and allows the adhesive to easily separate from the liner when you’re ready to use the label. 

Release Liner (Backing Paper): The release liner is the bottom layer of the label structure. It’s the protective backing that keeps the adhesive covered until the label is applied. It prevents the adhesive from being exposed or weakened before use. It’s usually made of a paper or film.

Take a deeper dive and learn more about what was discussed in the webinar.

Webinar Transcript

Lori: Good afternoon and welcome. Thanks for joining us today. So, I'm Lori Campbell here at The Label Printers. I've been here for 42 years and have been active within the industry for about 30 years. I started out as receptionist and moved through the organization primarily through customer-facing roles. My experience in estimating and working with customers on their various label applications over the years is what I bring to the table today. So just a quick note of housekeeping. Attendees are muted, but you will have the opportunity to post any questions using the question mark box in the upper corner of your screen, and we'll take care of all those questions at the end of the presentation. And finally, a link to the recorded webinar will be sent out to all attendees afterwards.

Lori: Now, I know that some of you also attended a previous webinar we did on how to collaborate with your label vendor to make sure you're getting the right price for your labels, and I thank you for coming back. For those of you who haven't seen that webinar, it gave a broad overview of all the label variables that go into that price, and I think it was a good precursor to today's content. So today I want to expand a look into one of the major variables that go into the label price and that is material. I'll talk about the two major components of the label that have the greatest impact on you, how the material is sourced, which is important to understanding how your options come together, how we work together to discover what you need for your application and potential examples of why sometimes labels fail.

Lori: And then we'll finish up with some Q and A. So, let's get started. So, a pressure sensitive label is generally comprised of four main layers that are purchased together as a single raw material. I like to kind of think of it as a sandwich and that it's comprised of various components. Now, if you were able to peel apart these layers, you would find at the top the face stock, which serves as obviously the visible surface of the label. It plays a crucial role in the performance and appearance of labels across many applications from product packaging to shipping to branding. The next layer underneath adhesive, I gave it away underneath the face stock is the adhesive, excuse me, literally the glue that holds it all together. It sits on the underside of the face stock. The next layer is the release coating, which allows the label and the adhesive to separate from the liner.

Lori: And our final layer is the release liner or backing paper where your label resides protecting the adhesive from being exposed until it's ready to use. So, while there are four main layers to a precious sensitive label, today we're just going to focus only on the face stock and adhesive layers. Those are the most important ones for virtually all applications and they're the layers that impact you the most. So, let's take a look. We'll start with face stock right at the top. Face stocks generally fall into two large categories, papers and films, and each of them with some basic characteristics. We'll start with the easy one. First, paper is going to work in a whole host of applications. It's going to give you a great surface for your graphics, and you can select from a variety of different aesthetics. And it's almost always going to be more cost effective than a film choice. But where it's going to be problematic is when you're labeling anything but a flat surface. Paper is rigid and it will wrinkle when you try to wrap it around a bottle, for example, or really any other complex shape. The natural state of paper is it wants to lay flat.

Lori: Now, I'm going to go back to our sandwich. I like the picture of the sandwich here. So again, we've got the face stock, the adhesive, the release coating, and the release liner that comprise our label sandwich. And we're starting with the face stocks. Again, two basic categories, papers and films. Paper we're working on right now. And it's going to work in, again, a whole host of applications. You have a lot of choices here and it's going to be more cost effective for you than a film, but we were talking about how it's going to be problematic when you're labeling anything.

Lori: But really a flat surface paper is rigid. It's going to wrinkle, and the natural state of paper is to lay flat. So, you're going to have trouble with any shapes that aren't flat. Now you can combat that with trying different adhesives, but you might also want to consider a more conformable film label, which we're going to talk about next. And this is just something to work out with the label vendors, perhaps trying a couple of different materials to see which works better for the price. But most importantly, paper is not durable. If it's going to see any exposure to moisture, temperature, extremes or any other harsh conditions, you'll want to avoid paper unless you just don't need it to last very long.

Lori: Now this isn't an exhaustive list, but just a few of the different types of paper that are common out in the market today. Glossy papers will enhance your colors and make your graphics really pop frequently used whenever visual appeal is important. Similarly important for visual appeal. Matte papers are smooth and non-reflective, which is great for readability, and they can also provide kind of an elegant look to your labels. They kind of give that feeling of premium. Thermal papers are a common choice for customers who need to print either some or all of their labels in-house, for example, maybe to print OnDemand manufacturing Batch information and thermal papers are available for thermal transfer printing, which uses ribbons to print onto the label material or direct thermal where the print is actually created by heat activating a pre-coated paper. Textured papers are kind of dull and uncoated, but they have a dimensional tactile finish. You'll often see them used to convey a brand image such as rustic or organic or natural. And some textured papers are also used on high-end consumer products like wine, and we have metallic papers and holographic papers or specialty face docs that really can provide some eye-catching imagery. And finally, we have fluorescent papers with their bright neon colors and those are really great when you really need to grab somebody's attention.

Lori: So, the reasons I told you to avoid paper are exactly the reasons you should look instead to a film. Films are more durable and will hold up to harsher conditions. Now, films are often referred to as plastic. People will say, “I’m going to use plastic material,” and a lot of that is because they have that plasticky feel, if you'll forgive the technical jargon, and many contain some sort of plastic, so it makes sense. They're using a variety of applications for their flexibility, their durability, and their versatility, and many of them are available in white, clear, and silver, which also give you some additional aesthetic options and they don't need to lay flat like paper. So, when you need something to conform around shapes or over texture, films are going to be the way to go.

Lori: Now these four films probably represent about 90% of film labels you'll see used today. First off, we have polyethylene or PE. It's flexible, lightweight, resistant to moisture and chemicals. It's great for outdoor applications, product labels that require durability and conformability and labels that are on products that might be exposed to moisture. Now, polypropylene, or PP, shares some of the same characteristics as PE, but has a higher level of resistance to heat, chemicals and moisture as compared to PE. It’s commonly used for more high-end product packaging and applications requiring a premium appearance. And the clarity of the clear version of polypropylene makes it ideal for labels that require that no-label-look. When you’re labeling a clear container and you put a clear label on it, it looks like there’s no label at all...hence, the no-label-look. Polyester, or PET, is known for its high strength, durability and resistance to all kinds of things, abrasion chemicals, extreme temperatures.

Lori: So polyester is your go-to choice when you need high durability and resistance to harsh conditions such as industrial labeling, equipment labels, or really any kind of product identification that's going to be in extreme environments. Vinyl, sometimes people will call it PVC, but I think it's important to note that although they're similar, they are not the same. So, I just wanted to bring that up in case you hear it called PVC. We use vinyl, so it's conformable and flexible, durable, resistant to water, chemicals, and UV light. Vinyl labels are often used for applications where flexibility and resistance to environmental factors are key, but I will say that it's a very soft flexible material, so it doesn't always provide the best print surface, and that also is generally considered to be the most environmentally unfriendly of all your films. But vinyl's going to be good for both indoor and outdoor applications.

Lori: You'll find these typically in automotive labels and bumper stickers. So, while all these films share some common characteristics to one degree or another, not all films are the same. Some are going to be better in some conditions than others. For example, labeling a squeeze bottle, you want to look at polyethylene, which is going to be more conformable than, say, a polyester. Polyester is going to be your best bet for high temperatures or harsh conditions. Vinyl's going to be conformable and good at adjusting to temperature ranges, but it generally doesn't offer very good print surface. So, I'd avoid vinyl for high-end graphics and heavy color saturation. Try a polypropylene instead. You'll get a lot of the same features you need, but with better print quality and a lower price. So, to summarize, to help guide your selection of the right face stock, consider some of these key points.

Lori: Aesthetics. Obviously, you want to choose a face stock that matches your branding and messaging, and that can be either paper or film. But if durability is a concern, film labels will hold up better to moisture, heat, and chemicals than paper. And, of course, cost. Cost is always going to be a big factor. It is just going to have to be a balance between the features that you need and the cost. Films are almost always going to be more expensive than papers, but not egregiously. So, in many cases, and in my opinion, does it matter how cheap the label is if it fails because it's on the wrong material?

Lori: So, we've gone through the face stock. The next layer, the other key layer in our sandwich, is the adhesive. Adhesive is coated on the backside of the face stock in a very thin controlled and consistent layer. The adhesion levels are formulated for and evaluated for performance based on certain characteristics: the ability of the adhesive to bond to different surfaces, the ability of the adhesive to perform under temperature extremes, both at the high and the low ends, the ability of the adhesive to resist degradation from moisture, UV light or chemicals and the ability to remove or not the surface without leaving residue or damaging the surface. Now you've heard me use the phrase pressure sensitive label a few times, and that's because these labels require pressure to be applied to activate that bond between the label and the surface to which it's applied. It's a really simple concept, but amazingly, a common cause of label failure is the failure to apply the appropriate consistent pressure to create that bond.

Lori: And this all kind of comes down to a conversation about surface energies. Now, surface energy is the degree to which the adhesive and the surface either attract or repel one another. In adhesives, this is known as wet out. High surface energy means there's a high attraction, the adhesive and the surface are just made for one another, the adhesive is going to grab on and stay on. Conversely, low surface energy means there is little to no attraction. The ad adhesive and the surface repel one another. They don't get along and there's only going to be a very marginal connection between them. And I like to kind of think about it like waxing your car. So, before you wax your car, if it rains, rain flows all over the surface much like the image on the top of this screen. Now if this were an adhesive, it would have great wet out because it's really covering the surface entirely. But after you wax the car, notice how the rain beads up, like the image on the bottom. In this case, the car surface and the rain are repelling one another, and if this were an adhesive, it wouldn't be sticking. Now you might prefer how your car looks after it's waxed, but in the case of labeled adhesives, low surface energy is not a good thing. Now that sounds bad, but the good news is that you don't have major cause for concern. There are adhesives designed specifically to stick to these problematic surfaces, so don't panic.

Lori: So, we all know adhesives are built to perform for a variety of applications. I think by understanding the different types of adhesives and their characteristics, we can select the one that adheres well performs reliably and meets your expectations. So, there are a couple of common categories of adhesive compositions and they're here on the right side of the screen, rubber based and acrylic based. Each of them comes with a whole host of subcategories, additives and curing processes with each one designed to meet specific situations. But most of those nuances are never going to come across your radar. So, we're just going to stay at this high level for this conversation. So, rubber-based adhesives bond well to a whole range of surfaces, including paper, a lot of different plastics, metal, glass, so they're popular in a whole host of labeling applications. Some of the key attributes include a strong initial tech, meaning that they grab on quickly to a surface and bond to it almost immediately. And this can be crucial, particularly for automatic labeling, especially at higher speeds. You don't want to run the risk that the label falls off as it's running through your process simply because the label didn't have a chance to grab on. Rubber based adhesives are soft and flexible, which means they're going to flow a little bit more easily into textured surfaces where you're going to want that full contact between the label and the surface to ensure permanence.

Lori: And while they perform well in a range of temperatures, they might lose some effectiveness in extreme heat or extreme cold at high heat temperatures, they might soften a little bit and maybe start moving around and at very low temperatures that can become brittle and all of a sudden, the adhesive doesn't work and it's falling off. They're not going to perform as well in high moisture or high chemical environments and, generally speaking, may have a shorter lifespan. In general, you can also see a yellowing of the adhesive over time. So, if you're labeling a glass container, for example, think about what that might look like if your product has a long shelf life. You turn that glass container around and you see that yellow, excuse me, that yellow adhesive, maybe not a good look, but flipping down to acrylic based adhesives, they've become the more common ones used in labeling today, mostly due to some very reliable properties.

Lori: So even though acrylic adhesives don't have that quick initial grab to a surface, they do have excellent long-term adhesion and are known for their ability durability. Over time, they're going to maintain a strong bond with a variety of surfaces even after a long time. They too perform well across a wide range wide temperature range, excuse me, often handling both high and low temperatures a little bit better than rubber base, so they'll go a little bit higher and a little bit lower. So, this makes them suitable for harsher environments. Acrylic adhesives have good resistance to weathering, so obviously this makes them ideal for outdoor applications. They also have better resistance to chemicals and solvents compared to rubber-based adhesives. Unlike rubber adhesives, acrylic adhesives, dry clear and are less likely to yellow over time. But like rubber adhesives, acrylics bond well to a variety of surfaces.

Lori: Each of these two compositions are used widely in the type of adhesive that you'll need. So, we want to switch over to the left side of the screen here. Permanent adhesives, self-explanatory. They're designed to provide a strong and lasting bond that resists removal. Once applied, these adhesives are going to be difficult to peel off without leaving some kind of residue behind or maybe even damaging the surface. So again, ideal for applications where stuff needs to stay in place for a long time, such as on product packaging, maybe shipping labels, asset tracking, removable adhesives on the other hand, are designed to allow labels to be removed easily without leaving that ooey gooey adhesive mess or damaging the surface. They offer a temporary bond that holds well but can be peeled off cleanly. Now, one note about removable adhesives is that they will build up some permanence over time, and that's always the tricky part.

Lori: How long before it becomes more permanent than removable is based on a few variables. So, we would want to know your expectations. Do you need it to be on there for six months before someone tries to remove that label? Is it two days? And like everything else, they make a lot of different removable adhesives with those different characteristics in mind. So, expectations will be key here to understand where you're going to use removable adhesives. They will be needed for things that need to be updated or changed frequently. For example, promotional labels in a retail environment or products that are moved and have to be updated at various stages like inventory tracking. Now there's another form of removable adhesive, which is called temporary adhesives. These provide a strong bond initially but allow for repositioning of the label before it sets permanently. They can be adjusted during application but eventually set to a more permanent state.

Lori: And of course, this is useful where labels need to be aligned or adjusted during application, particularly hand applications. So, we've all tried to place a label on something, and it doesn’t go on quite straight, so you need to take it off and put it back on straight. If you were using a rubber-based adhesive on a temporary label, that's not going to work because, again, that rubber grabs fast. So, likely, you're going to see an acrylic adhesive on a temporary label because it builds up more slowly. So, it just gives you a little bit more room to correct what you might be doing in a hand labeling operation. But whether you're looking at needing a permanent or a removable adhesive, there are some things you're going to want to consider. We need to consider the surface composition and type, not just what the product surface is made of, but also the type of surface the label will adhere to.

Lori: Smooth, flat surfaces are generally not a problem for most adhesives, but something that's rough or textured—and the texture doesn’t have to be tremendous, it can be a slight texture—may require a higher tack or specialized adhesive. Environmental conditions are going to be key. You want to make sure you understand what it’s going to be exposed to. That’s going to include temperature ranges, humidity levels, and exposure to any cleaning chemicals or things of that nature. What’s the lifespan of the label? How long does a label need to stay in place? Permanent adhesives are best for, obviously, long-term applications, while removable adhesives are better for short-term or changeable labeling. So, we’ve talked about the major components of a label, the face stock and adhesive, but before we get to the discovery phase, I think it’s important to point out how these components get put together for you in the supply chain.

Lori: And the good news for you as the customer—and quite honestly for us as the label vendor—is that we buy these components ready-made. Neither of us has to go out and buy a liner, face stock, adhesive, and release coating and put them together ourselves. Kind of going back to the analogy of a sandwich, instead of having to go to the grocery store and buy your deli meats, lettuce, tomato, and bread, and then bring it all home and make your own sandwich, you can walk into Jimmy John's or Subway and order them to make your sandwich, and you walk out of the store with it ready to eat. In our case, raw material vendors like 3M, Avery, UPM, Rafla Tech, and a host of others are our Subway. And just like Subway, they each have a full menu of sandwiches ready to pick from, and they’ve been at this a really long time.

Lori: Over the years, they have continued to expand their menus, staying on top of changes in the marketplace to always make sure they have a strong offering of products that are going to fit the changing needs of our customers. And this is kind of how it works. So, that top left image is a coating machine that is typically used by the raw material vendors. So, they’re huge, right? They’re taking the adhesive, face stock, coating, and liner, and they’re putting it all together on these large machines. The important takeaway here is the scale of raw material manufacturing versus label manufacturing, like a press that we run, which is more similar to the one you see on the right-hand side of your screen. What they’re running on these large coaters doesn’t fit on our presses, so they will cut their large batches into smaller sizes to fit our equipment.

Lori: While we can usually buy the widths that we need for our equipment, we often still have to order perhaps 5,000 or 10,000 feet as a minimum, and we might only need 1,000 feet for your job, let’s say. So, what this boils down to is that sometimes that puts a minimum purchase requirement onto you as well for your labels. For example, we might be required to buy what equates to 600,000 square inches of material when we might only need 10,000 square inches to run your order. Yikes. But most label manufacturers end up having a roster of standard materials, and by standard, I don’t mean standard for the industry, I simply mean that they are standard for our customer base, who we’re already selling to. These are materials that we always have on the shelf or that we’re buying frequently. So, they’re materials that, even if we have to buy more, we aren’t worried about minimums because we know the material’s going to get used. So, we’re always going to try to lead you into finding solutions within that roster of standard materials. And we’re usually pretty successful because we just have so many, but it is just a cautionary tale that a need for any specialized materials may come with a minimum purchase commitment, just so you’re aware. So now that we know there are plenty of products to pick from, and we know how to buy them, how do we decide what product you need?

Lori: And that’s the discovery phase, and this is where you come in. Going back to that webinar I mentioned on negotiating price for your labels, we talked about our need to learn more about your needs. Now, one of the things I always thought has been funny is that every person who ever comes to work in this industry starts noticing labels everywhere they go. I remember being at McDonald's one of the first weeks I started working here, standing at the counter, and looking down, and seeing a label on the back of the cash register. I was so excited because it was a label that I knew we had done. And over time, we all get very nerdy about labels. We see a particularly nice one on a product, and we’ll analyze all the details, or we’ll notice when a label looks bad or when we see the edges of a label lifting off the product—shame, shame, shame.

Lori: But the point is that unless you’re a label nerd like we are, you’re probably going to go about your days being mostly oblivious to labels because they’re ubiquitous—they’re literally everywhere. And I encourage you to notice that. Open up your refrigerator, and you’ll see labels—not just on your ketchup bottle, but there will be labels with model numbers, watts, and all kinds of technical details. Same thing with your microwave and other appliances. Look at your table lamps. You’re probably going to see several labels on that—maybe on the base, up by the light bulb, on the electrical cord. Go out to your garage and take a look at your ladder. Plenty of labels on there, mostly reminding us not to be stupid humans and do things on them that we’re not supposed to. But bottom line, labels are everywhere. And when you really start to notice where they’re at, it starts to give you kind of an appreciation for the huge number of purposes they serve and the number of different surfaces and settings they’re in.

Lori: And yet some people naively believe that a sticker is just a sticker, and they’re the ones who will be buying from Stickers R Us and then not understand why their labels don’t work. The reality is that if you want a label that works, it really doesn’t take much effort to get one, and it just starts with answering a few questions. So, we’re going to start with, what are you labeling? And despite all of the previous conversation here today, oftentimes just telling us what you’re labeling tells us everything we need to know to make an appropriate recommendation. We understand, for example, the inherent needs of labeling a shipping carton versus labeling a bottle of wine, for example. But sometimes there are nuances in people’s individual product needs that need a little bit more discovery. So, what’s the surface that you’re labeling?

Lori: Is it glass? Is it metal? Is it plastic? If it’s plastic, do you know what kind of plastic it is? And I’m referring now back to our discussion about surface energy. Plastics vary tremendously. Some fall into the high surface energy category, which is easy, but so many of them fall into that low surface energy category, and that’s where we need to be cautious. All of the images on this slide are examples of low surface energy plastics: milk jugs, food storage containers, plumbing supplies, squeeze bottles, gardening products—whose composition makes it challenging for labels to stick. And these are just a small handful of the vast number of products every day that we take for granted. They’re out there, they’re waiting to trick us. So don’t be fooled. Take this question seriously, but also don’t worry if you don’t know the specific plastic that your product is made of.

Lori: A lot of people don’t, and we’ll help you figure it out. Next, the size and shape and even the texture of your container is going to influence what material is going to work best. If your container is oddly shaped, it probably means it’s going to be a challenge getting a label that makes full contact with the entire surface that you’re labeling. And when a label can’t make full contact, it isn’t going to work. So, keep in mind that some label face stocks, again like papers, are going to be more rigid than others. With the wrong choice, you’re just going to have a label that doesn’t fit properly, won’t therefore adhere properly, and it’s just going to be a nightmare for you. Even wrapping around a corner of a box can prove problematic if the right material isn’t selected. The natural state of paper is that it wants to lay flat.

Lori: I don’t know how many times I’m going to say that today—hopefully, this is the last time—but if you force it to wrap around or bend over a surface without the right adhesive, you’re going to start to see the edge of that label lift. At some point, the entire label could fall off. Where is the label being placed on the container? And now this is a particularly important consideration if your container is made up of different components. So just kind of an example, what if you package your product in a glass jar with a plastic lid? If you’re asked about your container, you’re probably only thinking about that main glass jar, right? And might completely forget all about the lid, but what if you want the label to go on the lid? Whoops. Well, we gave you material that’s going to stick to glass, which is easy, but guess what? It’s probably not going to stick to that plastic lid.

Lori: Another consideration when we’re thinking about what’s going to work best for you is, what’s the label’s purpose? Are you selling a high-end beverage like wine that needs to grab attention off the shelf? And let’s get real, consumers do buy things like wine because of the label—they do. It’s a scientific fact. I know I do. If I’m bringing a bottle of wine to your house for dinner, I’m bringing the wine with the coolest label, guaranteed. Of course, you can do a lot of cool things with your graphics, but don’t forget about the label material itself and what it can add. You might want a metallic face stock to help make your label shine, or something textured to give it a little bit of a vintage appeal. Or does your label need to caution users about possible dangers? We talked about the labels on ladders—ones like “Don’t use this as a step.”

Lori: First of all, you’re going to want to make sure that you use a durable label. You don’t want these consumer protection labels to degrade over time, and given that it’s a ladder, it’s likely going to be used a lot outside. So right from the get-go, paper’s out of the question. Does your label need to direct, as with shipping labels? If you’re printing them in-house, and a lot of people do, you’d better make sure that the face stock is compatible with your printing method and that the adhesive had better stick to your boxes without lifting and getting torn off. Otherwise, you’re going to have some ticked-off customers looking for their orders. On a side note, one of the more challenging applications is corrugated shipping boxes, which seems kind of funny because they’re everywhere and they all have labels on them, but it’s because they’re made up of all kinds of recycled content and they’re really subject to a lot of changes in temperature and humidity.

Lori: We were trialing some material for a customer up here in northern Illinois, and the labels were actually going to be used ultimately down in Texas. And of course, they were going through the worst heat wave in a century or something, so the labels worked fine up here, but when they got down there, they started to lift. They had additional challenges with the label being wrapped around the side of the box, but it was those hot, humid conditions and the moisture soaking into that corrugated recycled content—the label adhesive just kind of gave up. So, we did ultimately find a solution for them, but it was just, again, something you’d think would be easy—it’s a shipping carton label. How difficult can that be? They’re one of the tougher ones, and it just goes to show that you really can’t take anything for granted. The simplest thing can come back and bite you.

Lori: The point here is to not lose the forest for the trees. Ultimately, the label is there for a purpose, and we’re going to want you to consider what that purpose is, so we don’t end up giving you a material that runs counter to that purpose. More critically than purpose, though, is a consideration of what the label is going to be exposed to once it’s applied. All the elements listed here are simply not compatible with pressure-sensitive labels. All of them can attack the face stock or the adhesive layer, and sometimes both. With regard to moisture, you might want to step back and think a little bit carefully through this. For example, there’s a huge difference between moisture in the form of being immersed in an ice bucket or sitting outside in the rain versus moisture that might be caused by an accidental or incidental splash of water that might happen randomly from time to time.

Lori: I think it’s important to think about it in terms of intention. An incidental, accidental splash of water is probably not an intended exposure and therefore shouldn’t be a huge consideration for you. What we’re trying to avoid is over-engineering your label. If you try to cover every possible exposure that might ever occur, you’ll end up with a label that costs you more than your product. Keep in mind, customers will often do strange things with your products that you never intended. They put them in the freezer when they’re not meant to. They run them through a dishwasher when they’re not meant to. They’ll reuse containers for other products. Now, maybe your label will hold up just fine to those different uses, but maybe it doesn’t. Just don’t assume your label can survive anything thrown at it. And likewise, don’t make your label hold up to unknown, unintentional uses. It will cost you an arm and a leg if you do, so decide what’s important. Set your expectations accordingly, like “I don’t care if the customer does whatever they want with it; it’s their problem if the label falls off.”

Lori: Of course, temperature extremes occur at both the high and the low ends, but again, context is key. A hundred degrees, while not comfortable for most of us humans, is not generally a problem for a label. Likewise, 10 or 20 degrees is kind of chilly for most of us, but labels are going to hold up just fine, and I’m going to revisit this more when we get into the application versus exposure. Finally, dust, dirt, and oils are all simply inhibitors to adhesive because they’re going to act as a barrier between the surface and the adhesive. And when you compromise that direct contact, you’re going to have label failure. Chemicals, depending on what they are, can be caustic to both the face stock and the adhesive.

Lori: So, we want to think about the conditions that the label is exposed to, but when are those conditions present? There should be a distinction between what the conditions are at the time the label is applied versus the conditions after the label is applied and for its lifetime. Most organizations label their products in optimum conditions like these, and in these conditions, you really aren’t worried about any damaging exposures, right? Let me give you an example though. You make mustard, and your mustard is filled in glass jars with a metal lid. Your mustard is stored on the shelf at room temperature until the consumer buys it and opens it. After it’s opened, it needs to be refrigerated. So, do you buy a durable label that will withstand refrigeration? And the answer is no. If you want a paper label with a standard permanent adhesive, it’s going to be just fine.

Lori: What most people don’t know is that most labels will perform perfectly fine at temperature ranges of maybe minus 50, minus 60 degrees up to 150-plus degrees once they have the proper dwell time to bond sufficiently with the surface to which they’re applied, and that’s typically going to be anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. The distinction with this is, when will the label be exposed to those cold temps, and how cold? So, let’s go back. At the time of labeling, you’re filling the jars at room temperature. The jars are being packaged at room temperature. By the time they get on a truck to take them to the store, the labels have had plenty of dwell time to bond to the jar, and now it’s kind of in-service mode, if you will. It may not be opened and put in the refrigerator for months yet.

Lori: And even then, refrigerators don’t really get all that cold. So let us know what exposures your label could have both at the time of application and longer term. We want to make sure you’re covered but not unnecessarily so. Unless you’ve got some unusual conditions—some conditions are present at the time of application. Some people have to label things in a freezer; some people have to label when it’s hot and humid; factories aren’t air-conditioned, so I don’t want to make it seem like those things never happen, but most of your concern is going to be primarily on what the label is exposed to once it’s out in the field.

Lori: And this is going to revolve around pretty much all the harsh conditions we talked about. And all of these conditions listed here exist in the real world for many, many applications. Not everything goes into a pristine retail environment. So, if any of these exist for you and your product, a paper label is pretty much off the table, with maybe a few minor exceptions. One of the more challenging exposures came to me about 25 years ago working with an out-of-state customer who manufactured industrial equipment, and he called and said he needed a warning label for his equipment. So, it’s going on metal. I think, “That’s easy.” And I thought, okay, well, I’m going to give him a polyester because those pieces of equipment can get warm and so forth, and it’ll be a nice durable product label for him. So, I sent him some samples, and he probably never had those samples more than a day and a half, and he’s calling and saying they don’t stick.

Lori: I compared some other polyesters among different vendors, found some with different performance ratings, and sent him a few more to try again. He hadn’t had them for more than a day or two before calling me again and saying they don’t stick. So now I’m thinking it’s got to be in how he’s applying the label, right? So, I condescendingly explained the application technique and the dwell time needed to properly evaluate the sample, and we hung up. He calls a third time, and now I’m just stumped. Like I said, “Are there any coatings or lubricants on this machinery when you’re putting the label on?” And he goes, “Oh no. It’s just a dirty old machine.” My head explodes. And that’s when I learned he wasn’t labeling his new equipment that he was making, he was labeling his own manufacturing equipment. He’s retrofitting it for a warning label he needed to add.

Lori: And apparently, his machines were dusty, dirty, oily—you name it, it had it. So, I asked him if it would be possible for him to clean at least the area of the surface where the label would go. “Nah, he didn’t really want to do that.” So, I really didn’t think we had much of a solution. But luckily, the raw material vendors had run into this before, and they had an extremely aggressive adhesive that is so gooey you could almost pull the threads of adhesive off when you touch it. But that was the only thing that worked. It cut through all that caked-on grime and—well, actually, I don’t think it cut through the grime. I think it just adhered to the grime. Now, the customer paid a lot of money for that label, but that’s what he wanted, so he got what he wanted. It’s all about balance. What do you need? What do you want? And how much are you willing to spend for it?

Lori: Sometimes, thankfully, not often, labels fail. If we both put our best foot forward and do our due diligence, we avoid the likelihood of that happening. But if a label fails, there’s going to be a reason. Now, the raw material vendors do a great job at providing consistent quality across their large product portfolios. It is rare that there are quality issues, but they can happen. Anyone in a manufacturing environment recognizes that failures can and do occur. So, it is possible that there could be a problem with an adhesive on a failing label—it was destined to fail because it’s a defect. Sometimes the label hasn’t failed per se, but it wasn’t given an opportunity to succeed. And this can be caused by inadequate or inappropriate application. Perhaps sufficient, consistent pressure wasn’t applied to the label onto the surface, and that can happen whether you’re labeling by hand or machine.

Lori: We actually had a situation once where labels were being applied by hand by the customer, but what his operators were doing was they were peeling off a bunch of labels off the roll at one time and sticking them all over their clothes and then pulling them off their clothes to put on the product, and they couldn’t figure out why the labels weren’t sticking. Well, not only did they pick up fibers from their clothes that got on the back of the adhesive, but probably they left some adhesive behind on some of their clothes. So that’s a no-no. Don’t do that. And people will have a tendency to, when they’re peeling a label off of a liner, touch the adhesive a lot. Don’t do that because you’re introducing skin oils, hand lotions, soaps, or other contaminants, and that’s just not going to be suitable. How labels are stored and handled can play a big role.

Lori: We ship a lot of labels to Southeast Asia, where it can be incredibly hot and humid, and a lot of those factories aren’t temperature controlled. Many of them are just dusty and dirty factories. Now, I’ve seen photos from customers who said their labels weren’t working, and the photos are of partially unrolled rolls of labels thrown kind of haphazardly on dusty shelves, and that’s just asking for failure. So, we recommend that, wherever possible, you keep labels wrapped in their protective shrink film and in their original shipping cartons until you’re ready to use them. Ideally, they can be stored around room temperature with some controlled humidity.

Lori: If you can do that, then you obviously extend the life of your label and drastically reduce the opportunity for failure. If a label hasn’t had sufficient dwell time to create that bond to the surface, you could see failure, and that’s going to happen if we don’t address the dwell time between application and when it’s ready to go into service. If you’re taking a labeled product and you’re throwing it in a shipping container and it doesn’t even have a chance to rest, you could have some problems where the label might need a little bit more time to build up that permanent bond. So just be cognizant of that. But really, the failure to test recommended materials under your use conditions is the very first mistake and what could ultimately end up in label failure. We can only make recommendations based on our Q&A with you.

Lori: You may forget to tell us something or think something is not important. We may forget to ask you something, and then all of a sudden something comes up and it’s just the thing to make that label fail. So, we can only make recommendations. You are the best judge of whether that label works for you or not. We want to give you samples, let you try it out, and hopefully it works. If not, there’s more to try. So testing is key, but if a label fails or otherwise doesn’t perform the way you need it to, please tell us. Report what you’re observing, take photos, provide some samples as evidence of the problem. We will also have batch records that we can look at to see if we’re seeing the same things on our own retains or verify if there have been any changes to anything that could impact the label.

Lori: That could include changes to paints that you might be using in your product or the composition of the product itself. Maybe they’ve used some new, different kind of glass, or they’re using a different kind of plastic, or even how the label is applied. And this isn’t about trying to assess blame so we can say, “Oh, it’s not our fault.” It’s about finding a resolution, and we need your help to isolate the problem first so that we can address it and fix it. Bottom line, just communicate and participate in the resolution. One side note before we get to some Q&A: I wanted to mention something that occurred to me when I was talking about people pulling labels off and touching the adhesive with their fingers. One of the things that people will often do, I’ve seen, is they will remove the label off the liner and start touching the adhesive, and they’ll say, “This isn’t very sticky; this isn’t a good adhesive.”

Lori: I’m going to challenge you not to do that. There’s very little you can tell from touching the adhesive. You can’t tell whether it’s permanent. You might be able to tell if it’s removable in comparison, depending on the removable adhesive it is, but you’re not going to be able to tell the difference. You’re not going to be able to tell who the manufacturer of that adhesive is, or if it’s a rubber—well, you might be able to tell if it’s rubber-based, but if it’s an acrylic-based adhesive, you won’t know if it’s one of a hundred different adhesives. It’s just not a good way to determine the effectiveness or the strength of an adhesive. Keeping in mind, again, some adhesives bond slowly but build up to a really strong bond. Others grab quickly but might fail over time. So again, just a cautionary tale. It’s one of my things.

Lori: So, I am done, and I think we are ready to see if we’ve got some questions. And before we take those questions, I wanted to point out that we have a QR code here on this slide that, if you’re so interested, will take you to that other webinar that we talked about. So, let’s see if we have any questions. Oh, we’ve got some questions. Okay, so here’s a question: “Is there a standard dwell time for all labels, or does it strictly depend on the material you’re using?” I would say, well, yes and no, which is always a helpful answer, right? Now, standard dwell time, just speaking in generalities, minimum 24 hours, ideally 72 hours. Now, it does depend on the material that you’re using. It depends, again, if we think about the rubber-based adhesive where it gets that quick grab, it’s stuck. So, I mean, probably within, I don’t know, maybe half an hour, an hour, depending on the surface it’s on, it’s stuck. You can evaluate it then. But some of the acrylic adhesives, you stick it on there, you pull it right off. It doesn’t mean the label doesn’t work. So especially in a testing mode, make sure that you’re allowing it to dwell for, again, at least 24 hours. Now, having said that, though, I think it’s important to note that if your use conditions require that it be bonded faster than that, then that’s the dwell time that we need to test to. So, I hope that helps.

Lori: Okay. “Do you have a list of dos and don’ts for shipping products based on the type of label? For instance, if we have a label on our product that ships to the customer with ice packs that are frozen but also could melt, do you have recommendations?” Well, sure. So, even though you might have applied that label in, again, these pristine, optimum conditions, if it’s going into something with ice packs and the potential for those ice packs to melt, either way, you’re talking about really big temperature extremes and introducing moisture. Absolutely, you’ve got to look for a film label. Yeah, paper is just going to be disintegrated probably by the time it reaches the end destination.

Lori: What else do we have? “If we’re considering changing our product material, are you and your team able to make recommendations on new materials based on our label needs?” Absolutely. That’s what we do all day, every day. So, the more you know about your material, the better we can help. And sometimes it’s, well, we think it’s this, we’re not really sure. And so, we’ll say, well, we think this might work, we’re not really sure, but we’ll give you a couple of different samples and we’ll keep going through that sampling process with you. Sometimes it’s—we’ve been known to do this too—let us take your product in. We’ll do what we think, we’ll test some materials out, and then we’ll try and narrow down the scope of that so you’re not testing 15 different materials. We’ll take care of those initial test needs and then send you what we think works the best.

Lori: Okay. “I have pre-frozen food products, several thousand pounds. I need to label these products before I ship them. So, they’re pre-frozen, so that means they’re frozen.” Yeah, well, so they do make—yeah, there’s not a lot of choice, but they do make freezer-grade adhesives that do work pretty well to get through that kind of, what I would call, crystal layer where the ice has kind of crystallized. You want to get through that layer, but you don’t want to be sitting on top of that. It’s not really sticking to the surface. So, that would be a recommendation. We’d look specifically at that application. We’d start looking at temperature ranges and statements on the data sheets about whether it adheres to ice or adheres to moisture, things like that. You will have very few choices, but it is not a lost cause.

Lori: “I have a lotion in a squeezable container and the material wrinkles and looks awful on the bottle. What would you recommend?” Well, a lot of it—first of all, I would go with a squeezable film. Polyethylene is probably the best option, but you may also have to look at how the label is die-cut to fit the shape to begin with. If you take a rectangle label and put it on a product shape like this, you’re probably going to have some problems regardless of how it’s squeezed. So, it’s going to be a combination of making sure it’s the right shape of label to mimic the shape of the container in a pre-cured shape and then testing out that polyethylene in a squeezable container. But I think you would have pretty good luck with that.

Lori: “Okay, what kind of material should I use for a product that will encounter both temperatures below freezing and also high temperatures? It will be used inside of a vehicle.” Yeah, certainly polyester, that’s going to give you your best range of high and low. And I think beyond that, most of the adhesives that will come with those polyesters will also similarly sustain those freezing and cold temperatures. Because, again, unless you’re talking about cryogenic temperatures, you’re probably talking about at most, what, 50 degrees below zero, maybe 60, I guess if it’s up in Alaska or something, and high temperatures—the inside of a car could probably get to 150 or so. But again, well within a range of a lot of the standard adhesives, as long as we’re using a polyester-based material.

Lori: Alright. “How do you know if you have a low surface energy product?” Google it. If you Google, there’s all kinds of stuff on the internet—it’s awesome. And actually, what also works great is ChatGPT. Ask “Are milk jugs low surface or high surface energy?” or “High density polyethylene or low-density polyethylene?” You can ask ChatGPT just about anything, and you’ll get a reasonable answer. But you can also Google the products. So, let’s say, “What are plumbing products made out of?” Most of them are going to be PVC products. So, it’s a fairly simple Google search, but if you don’t even want to do that, just call us. We’ll do a little bit of that sleuthing if we’re not already aware.

Lori: “Okay, and yes, will this presentation be shared with attendees after the webinar?” Absolutely. There will be a link emailed out to our registered attendees so you can refer back to it. Oh, I think I have one more, which is getting us down to the last minute: “I have products that will need to be labeled in an industrial application. There will be some grime and dust on them. What type of adhesive is best?” Well, depending on how much grime and dust, I’m going to go back to my example with my really grimy, dusty, and dirty customer and use one of those really, really super aggressive adhesives. But I will say you’re going to pay a lot for that. You can’t get a very long shelf life with those kinds of labels, so you’re going to have to buy only what you need for a short period of time.

Lori: It’s going to cost you a ton. It’s going to be inefficient. They’re a pain to work with because they’re so sticky, it’s hard to even work with them. I will say if you can find any opportunity to clean the surface, just avoid all the dirt and grime around it, but where that label’s going to go, clean that. Get some regular cleaning solvents, some rubbing alcohol. Just clean that sucker off, and now you’ve got a clean, pristine surface for that label. Then dirt and grime go away after that. So, hopefully that helps. Okay, we are done. I appreciate everyone’s time and attention today. If we can ever help you, please reach out and we’ll help in whatever way we can. Have a great rest of your day. Bye-bye, everyone.

For more information about choosing the right materials for your custom labels, contact us today. You can also watch the webinar on demand.