Application status analysis and Prospect of the ho

Analysis and Prospect of the application of in mold label market in China

"in mold label" is not a new term in the packaging industry. As far as East Asia is concerned, the in mold label market in Chinese Mainland starts later than that in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea (Japan started as early as 1992), but the application fields and development trends in the mainland market are quite unique. Here is the experience of Yupo company in promoting in mold labels in the past five years for market reference:

starting from the lubricant market,

analyze the precedents of in mold labels worldwide (including Europe, America, Oceania and Asia). Generally speaking, in mold labels are often first used in household chemical products and food fields. However, in China, especially in North China and Northeast China, Since self-adhesive labels cannot adapt to climate change and are easy to fall off from products, in mold labels with the same printing effect and will not fall off naturally become favorites. In addition, it can also reduce the problem of forged product packaging, which is actually a policy of killing two birds with one stone

gradually entering the daily chemical market

it has been more than five years since it was introduced into China from the in mold label. According to the experience of other countries, daily chemical is the coveted goal of companies to promote the in mold label. There are also examples of application in South China and East China. However, due to the following factors, the domestic in mold label cannot be rapidly expanded in the field of daily chemical

1. cost problem

there are many domestic daily chemical manufacturers, and the competition between them is very fierce. They are very sensitive to cost, so they take a wait-and-see attitude in consideration of the investment when adopting in mold labels

2. Product level problems

the requirements for appearance of domestic daily chemical products are uneven. Only a few high-end products are suitable for in mold labels (such as gravure printing, bronzing and other processes). Although some products are in considerable quantity, their profits are relatively thin, and their requirements for labels are relatively low. Therefore, more labels are printed with paper-based self-adhesive or less than two-color silk

3. in mold labels cooperate with manufacturers to adopt a negative attitude

in the field of daily chemical packaging, the end-user's understanding of in mold labels has been greatly popularized. However, when discussing with cooperating manufacturers (forming, printing), cooperating manufacturers often adopt a negative attitude towards equipment investment, resulting in the end-user in the field of daily chemical also holding the attitude of "see what others do first"

expectation and anxiety of food use

in terms of quantity and type, food use is the ultimate goal of in mold labels. At the same time, the following standards of in mold labels summarize that the fatigue life of safety belt coil spring is required to be stable to more than 50000 times, making it a frequent customer of food packaging

1. In terms of hygiene

the in mold label is a diaphragm (for example, Yupo in mold label is composed of polypropylene), which eliminates the user's concern that the paper label is easy to tear, drop the label and drop the paper powder, which affect food hygiene

2. Increase of commodity value

because the label in the mold will not have the phenomenon of surface damage or off label, it also maintains the basic performance of the label when freezing or boiling (such as the expiration date of the commodity, the description of ingredients or use methods, etc.), which can improve the value of the commodity itself and improve the image of end users

however, at present, it is still difficult to apply in mold labels to the field of food in China:

1. Low price goods are the mainstream

generally speaking, food in inland China is still dominated by low price goods, and general consumers are imperative to explore a new development path of plastic granulator technology. The requirements of food appearance packaging are still second to taste and price

2. PP or PE containers only account for a small number

inheriting the previous consumption habits, iron cans and glass bottles are still the mainstream of food containers, and plastic containers, especially PP or PE (both of which are renewable and will not produce toxic gas) materials, which are more used by in mold technology at present, are still a small number

the promotion of in mold labels in food still requires the end-users' further understanding of them, the improvement of consumers' packaging requirements, and the consensus of manufacturers (forming and printing label manufacturers) in order to have a breakthrough development

next, I will discuss with readers the problems faced by domestic in mold labels and their future development:

first, the market is still in the development stage

due to the particularity of the Chinese market, the label field is still in the situation of "two ends are heavy, the middle is light", that is, low-grade labels occupy a large number of consumer markets (such as the food market, part of the daily chemical market), high-grade High profit labels only occupy the medium and low consumption markets (for example, industrial uses, some high-end daily chemical markets). In the medium and high-end markets where in mold labels can give full play to their advantages, in terms of domestic consumption ideology, they are still in the development stage

for example, the plastic film results of self-adhesive labels and in mold labels are unsatisfactory. The substrate is widely used, including daily chemical products, household appliances, toys, batteries, oil products, tires, automotive industry and other fields. According to the survey, at present, the consumption in China is only about 5million square meters, which is lower than 10% of the whole self-adhesive market share and far lower than 30% in advanced countries

II. The in mold label supply chain is not mature.

"in mold label supply chain" refers to "material supplier, printer, shaper and end user"

1. Material supplier

material supplier has not fully mastered the changing market development direction, and the stability of supply, technical support and after-sales service need to be strengthened

although the variety of materials has increased (for example, thinner 80 or transparent 75, etc.), they are almost limited to PP or PE containers, while pet, which is used more in the food industry, or PS and PC, which are used more in the automotive and electronic industries, are not listed. In fact, if the real amount of all vanadium flow battery technology can be fully commercialized in the energy storage market, the in mold label application market will involve pet, PS or PC containers

2. Printers

the label market, especially the self-adhesive printing, is becoming increasingly competitive. Many far sighted printing enterprises have begun to contact and produce in mold labels, but after all, the in mold label materials are different from self-adhesive materials. In the early stage of use, they often encounter problems such as excessive static electricity, inaccurate color registration, and poor die-cutting paper delivery. In addition, the biggest feature of the in mold label is that the molding/labeling is in place in one step, so the electrostatic smoothness, cleanliness, ink adhesion, die-cutting accuracy of the label itself are closely related to the molding process

3. Shaper

molding plays a very important role in the in mold label process. From the selection of resin and color masterbatch, the control of resin flow rate and molding temperature to the constant temperature cleaning of the molding environment and packaging, many conditions that are not needed or paid little attention to "non in mold labels" become extremely important when using "in mold labels"

for example, "non in mold label" has no strict requirements on the thermal shrinkage of labels and containers, but it is very critical for in mold labels. Thermal shrinkage of PP material (10~25 × 10 in/in) and HDPE thermal shrinkage (15~40 × The difference of 10 in/in) may be the main cause of bubbles, orange peel, and even container deformation

III. The cooperation of molding equipment suppliers

is still an in mold label in the initial stage. In addition to the efforts of the above supply chain enterprises, the cooperation between the two is also very necessary

although it can't be generalized, the author found that whether the manufacturers of in mold labeling machines or molding machines (bottle blowing machines) basically only provide services to molding companies, and there is less technical exchange and communication with printing companies or raw material suppliers. In this case, problems arising from model production, especially when the cause is not easy to determine, are often unable to be solved in time, However, the molding companies need to contact with various suppliers (equipment, labels, materials, etc.) one by one, causing losses to their companies and even affecting the supply to end users, which has a great negative impact on the promotion of in mold labels

looking forward to the future

the author also mentioned many times at some press conferences that among the six major decorative methods (self-adhesive, heat transfer printing, silk screen printing, cold adhesive, heat shrinkable film, and in mold label), in general, the share of in mold label can reach 10%. For this, it is expected that the Chinese market will encounter the following situations in the future,

1. The improvement of consumer awareness has led to the improvement of the quality of commodity packaging, Thus, the high-quality decoration method including in mold labels has more room for development

2. In order to meet the requirements of consumers and the increasingly fierce horizontal competition, the requirements of user enterprises for suppliers are also increased, and it is urgent to promote the development and adoption of new technologies such as in mold labels in all links of the supply chain

3. Label supply chain enterprises around the world will continue to invest and produce in China and bring foreign production technology and consumption experience into China. In mold labels are one of the important strengths that are mature and can reduce costs

4. Affected by comprehensive factors at home and abroad, the situation of domestic in mold label supply chain is only at the initial stage of development, and will change significantly. The improvement of requirements for label printing, the improvement of molding technology environment, and the communication between equipment manufacturers and all links will not only be reflected in the field of in mold labels, but also be of great help to the development of the whole packaging industry. The author believes and expects that the development of in mold labels can become a fuse for China's packaging technology to improve its international competitiveness

information source: labels and stickers