Gravure shrink sleeves reproduce frosted glass effect

Five years ago, White Rock Distilleries, headquartered in Maine, United States, released Three Olives Vodka in a very cool frosted glass bottle. The front of the glass bottle shows a clear outline of the martini glass. Through the transparent martini glass window on the bottle, you can see the olive pattern on the back of the bottle. This unique wine bottle is designed to strengthen the brand effect of high-end products, and also make the vodka brand distinctive in the glass of wine lounges.

Frosted glass bottles are produced in Europe and imported into White Rock Distilleries for packaging and sold to the domestic market. Three Olives products are available in 50, 375 and 750ml sizes, and in 1L and 1.75L sizes. The first display in the United States once included five sizes of decorative scrub bottles from Europe.

alternative plan

However, last year, White Rock released six flavored vodka brands under the brand name Three Olives. The 50ml format uses an alternative. "Reducing costs is a major factor in using shrunk sleeve labels instead of frosted glass bottles," said Scott Coulombe, plant manager at White Rock Distilleries.

White Rock found the answer at label maker SleeveCo. SleeveCo used Whitestone's single-layer material to print and produce 2 mil PVC shrink sleeve films.

Coulombe added: "In addition to the cost, it is difficult to buy acid-etched glass bottles from Europe, and shrink sleeve labels have a lot of flexibility in inventory. We can easily adjust our production projects to vanilla-style vodka. Instead of waiting for frosted glass bottles from Europe.” White Rock uses shrink sleeve labels on all of its 50ml vodka production lines, but larger sizes still use frosted glass bottles.

Frosted feeling

White Rock released three types of vodka - raspberry, vanilla and chocolate for the 2003 fragrant vodka show with frosted glass bottles from Europe. Shortly after the fragrance vodka was released, SleeveCo began the development process of using a shrink sleeve label to achieve a larger size matte appearance.

“The problem that surface extinction often encounters is that it looks turbid. We hope the label will have a full, lively and clear feeling,” said Martin Wilson, marketing and marketing director at SleeveCo. “We work closely with our ink suppliers and have been improving inks. formula."

And once the film is printed, the curing agent and the solvent change the matte surface to produce the appearance we need. The manufacturer claims that for the first time running label printing, SleeveCo produced three different samples, and White Rock chose one that best represents the feeling of sanding.

All flavored vodka and all of the original product lines use 8-color gravure printing, which includes varnish. SleeveCo claims that due to the use of solvent-based inks, gravure printing has proven to be the best way to shape the appearance of frosted or etched glass.

Manufacturers use 8-color 16-inch Chesnut 150 presses from WR Chesnut Engineering. The gravure printing press includes a management-information system that shortens the time for repetitive work preparations, which has greatly assisted the Three Olives flavored vodka label. The Chesnut 150 can reach a speed of 750 fpm and the printed vodka tag has an average speed of 500 fpm.

Shrink sleeve labels, in addition to embodying a matte appearance, also reproduce the visual appearance of all original glass bottles. For the original glass bottle, the name of Three Olives was overprinted in the acid etching section. On a 50ml bottle, the matt surface behind the text is hollowed out to create contrast and create more plump and lively effect, making the bottle look larger.

“The issue of registering these labels is very important,” said Wilson. “Strictly missing areas require that the entire process be accurate and detailed.” The other major problem is the focus of the Three Olives bottle – a transparent martini glass window. This window brings a perspective effect through which you can see the olive and fruit motifs printed on the back of the label. It is important not only to be able to open martini glass windows, but also to allow olive and fruit patterns to emerge from the plane. We have created this effect by adding an extra layer of varnish to the highly transparent film and label. ”

The development of Three Olives label printing began with SleeveCo's previous practice. The manufacturer and the cosmetics customer collaborated on the development of an extinction label with a 'target=_blank' transparent film. The Three Olives project is a continuation of this application.

“We have been working on this cosmetic application for 3 to 6 months,” said Wilson. “In the development of Three Olives' label products, we took full advantage of the experience gained in the previous project and paid another 3 Month of R&D time."■
(PD China Author: Contributing Editor: Grant Gerke)