A new liner-less labelling system is Le Mac’s latest initiative to develop sustainable labelling options for the Australian packaging industry, supporting packaging minimisation initiatives and contributing towards delivering NPC targets for landfill reduction.
Each year in Australia, hundreds of millions of square metres of siliconised glassine paper used as a liner with pressure sensitive labels, is stripped away and discarded as waste in landfill. There it sits forever and doesn’t degrade. The self adhesive label industry is trying to address this problem by changing to PET liners which, if successfully collected from the users, may be recycled.
The Le Mac solution is to avoid the use of the liners altogether. To do this Le Mac has invested in specialised equipment to produce a liner-less label using technology licensed from Europe. The Le Mac approach includes both the label manufacturing knowhow and the application systems to apply the liner-less substrate in the fillers’ and packers’ plants.
The first commercial applications of the liner-less label in Australia are for the labelling of trays commonly used in the case ready meat and convenience meal industry. Le Mac is offering these markets a total solution consisting of the application equipment, liner-less label and system engineering support, delivering the fastest labelling speeds in the industry for tray packed products.
This liner-less, adhesive backed labelling system is also unique in its innovative formatting of the label which is printed and applied with the wide edge leading, as opposed to the standard narrow edge leading format for conventional liner backed self adhesive labels.
The Le Mac Tray Sleever model Nobac 500 is a compact, straight through, in-line machine which is extremely flexible and versatile, without any change parts or tools required, and has the ability to apply five different label formats. It is equipped with an on-board thermal printer which can print fixed data onto the label or can be linked to any model weigh-price scale to print variable data such as product weight and price.
The range of label formats leaves maximum space for branding, and the possibility of multi-packing also opens array of promotional opportunities.
With ten installations already under way, it is expected that this innovative, environmentally-friendly and highly versatile system will become the benchmark for tray labelling in the home meal replacement and case-ready meat, seafood and salad industries. The next market on Le Mac’s radar for introduction of this labelling technology is bottle labelling, with trials underway in the UK’s juice industry. Le Mac is optimistic of similar interest within the beverage industry in Australia.