This amazing technology doesn’t fully replace hot stamp printing, and it isn’t perfect for every application, but it solves many problems. This runs at near full press speed (up to 150 feet per minute) and completely avoids the processing on a separate machine. It takes one full step and station out of process which saves time and money.
First, a special UV-curable adhesive is printed onto the label stock using a standard printing plate – no need for an expensive engraved metal plate
Next the foil is laminated to the label stock with the wet adhesive below it. Then, the UV lamp cures the wet adhesive throught the foil.
Finally, the foil is peeled away from the label. You can see where the printed image was left on the label – held down by the cured adhesive.
Perfect for Labels
This inline high speed cold foil printing is perfect for labels. Here is why:
Faster press speeds reduce overall cost
No need for expensive engraved copper plates
Reduced handling for faster delivery
Wide variety of foils available
Thanks for considering this relatively new technology for your next project. We are growing more excited about this with every job we run. Call us today!
As we come out of COVID-19 every consumer product will be looking to grow their impact. Every bottle of beer, wine, spirits and soda will be vying for new customer eyes. Shopping will be a new beginning and old brand loyalties will largely be forgotten. Getting out of the gate strong, making a huge impact on your ‘new’ customers right away, can be a game changer for many brands. Think of this restart after COVID-19 as a blank slate – a true rebirth of physical products in the marketplace. All the old loyalties and prejudices are gone – everyone is shopping in your category for the first time.
Nothing improves your image more than hot stamp foil printing on your label. Foil pops off the shelf. The lighting in a retail shelf or cold case interacts with the label in a way that catches the consumer. You have read many scientific studies about how consumer eyes track around a shelf – you have milliseconds to grab customer attention. Using elegant hot stamp foil on your label gives you that edge – the slight margin you need to capture new eyeballs and new customers. Don’t waste this opportunity to grab your consumer for the first time.
The Machine
Although we have been hot stamp foil printing for years, we upgraded our machine a few years ago to a full servo-driven, state of the art press. See the machine in action on our YouTube channel. Basically, the process is the same as it has always been – you heat a magnesium, copper, or brass plate up to 220 degrees and smash the foil onto the label with tremendous force. The process is the same, but this press is much more precise. These are the key features explained in the video:
Large image area – 9″ x 9″ image area allows us to run very large labels, or run many at a time for better economy.
Stable steel frame to transfer needed force with precision.
Servo driven register for exacting foil placement.
Modern electronics for reliable production into the future.
Backed by a world wide company and a US-based service technician.
For all these reasons, the new machine is a fantastic addition to our lineup. We are thrilled to have this technology in house – staffed by our own people – so we can always meet your needs for hot stamp foil label printing. When you need an edge in the market after COVID-19, we are here to help.
Design Considerations
Because this is a bit of a crude printing technology, the design must be appropriate. Fade screens, photos, and extreme detail is not possible with hot stamp foil printing. The printing plate seen in this image is etched or engraved (depending on the metal) and the fine details are not possible. Besides the plate detail, the physical process of smashing foil into paper is not as elegant as our other printing press options. Typically bold logos, sans serif type, and borders are good candidates for hot stamp foil printing. If you have a design in mind, please send it to us for review. We can make suggestions to help maximize the impact of your foil elements without wasting money on areas that won’t print well. Fine lines – especially parallel lines together – can be very difficult. The result can be a crude, blocky appearance that defeats the effect you are trying to create. Send us your file for review – we can help get the foil in the right places for maximum impact.
Call Us Today – We have 35 YEARS of Hot Stamp Foil Printing!
We are experts in this area. For nearly 35 years we have been industry leaders in elegant hot stamp foil printing. Other label printers send jobs to us! We are respected in this area because of our knowlege, experience, and results. This COVID-19 crisis has been brutal on many of our customers. We are here for you and want to see you rise from this with a better business than ever. Elegant Hot Stamp foil printing can make a difference in your recovery. Call us today. We can help!
Textured label varnish helps your product stand out. The pictures don’t really do it justice, but we can send physical samples – you will be amazed at the tactile feel of this premium textured label varnish. When it is in yoiur hand, it just feels different than most labels – you know you are drinking something special. In this case, the front label on the bottle is a deeply embossed placard that complements this label very well. Together, they make a premium package for your product.
How do we do that?
Some customers are fascinated with the technology behind their labels, and some really just want the results. If you like knowing how we get your labels to pop off the shelf, this is the paragraph for you. One of the key components of high quality label printing is the delivery of ink and coating to the label stock. The ink (or in this case, coating) is dispensed by a very expensive, finely engraved roller with microscopic ‘cups’ that carry and release coating onto the printing plate. These rollers have various line screens – numbers of cavities per linear inch. As the number of cells is increased, the volume of ink dispensed is reduced. In this case, we used a very coarse, high volume roller to deliver a very thick coating of varnish to the label surface. The textured label varnish is also enhanced with a fine grain additive – almost like putting sand into the label coating. Together with the proper volume, pressure, and press speed, this label ends up with a very distinctive tactile feel.
What does it cost?
Now that we have developed this process through trial and error with customrs, all our customers benefit from this knowledge. Because the textured label varnish slows down the press and uses more expensive materials, it is an upcharge from standard varnish, but it is worth it! The cost increase is only 5-10% over a standard flat varnsih. It isn’t for everyone, but if you like the feel in your hand, you will immediately see that it is worth the additional cost.
Call us today!
We have several different special techniques to offer. Hot and Cold foil treatments, embossing, specialty die cutting and this textured label varnish. We love printing, but often it is the other embellisments beyond printing that help your product stand out on the shelf. Call us today for more information. Now more than ever, you need your labels to stand out to the consumer, and we can make that happen for you.
The soil and the climate of a particular region can be critical to successfully growing excellent wine grapes. Winemaking can enhance the end product, but as with any product, starting with the best possible fruit is critical to making an excellent wine. This is why having the right grapes from the right AVA is critical.
The AVA as a source of pride
The Gold Medal wine club says this, AVA stands for American Viticultural Area – “a designated wine grape growing region in the United States that is distinguishable by its geography”. They go on to describe many things about the history of AVAs in America, including the fact that the first one was designated in July 1980 as our American Wines became prominent in the world market. Read their great post about AVAs by clicking here. The AVA where your wine grapes are grown should be a source of pride – rooting for the home team. Hopefully you and other growers in your region are working hard to control what you can and working in harmony with mother nature to make the best possible fruit in each vintage.
TTB Map of AVAs – check it out!
The US Government ultimately decides what will be considered a recognized AVA or sub-AVA. Their is a rigorous process to get your particular area or region recognized – kind of like getting your home on the historic register in a particular city. This cool interactive map lets you see all the AVAs in your region – or any region in the United States.
Not only are the AVA designations very important to the quality of your harvest and value of your land, they are also important for marketing. If your grapes come from a coveted AVA, it would be foolish NOT to include that in your label – and if you include the wrong AVA, you could be in for legal trouble. If you need legal help in this area, we can refer you to great people to help in this area.
We print for nearly 100 wineries each year and that number keeps growing. Our team has the experience and tools to make a great wine label for you, and we back the labels up with a commitment to quality. Call us today!
Many of our wine customers use a mobile bottling service like Signature or Casteel. Mobile bottlers are economical for many reasons, including inline label application. This video shows labels being applied on a Signature bottling line. Because of the speed and cost of these bottling lines, nobody wants down time. One of the things that can kill productivity is having to stop to change a label roll. Therefore, everyone wants rolls as large as possible – often up to 12-14″ in diameter.
Filling the Press Web is Cost Effective
The problem comes with our customers that do many small batches of wine. Some have 3-5 different blocks of grapes that each go into a specific, very special wine. If you only produce 50 cases of something, the label roll will never be very big – but it gets even worse! We try to be as cost effective as possible so we fill the press web (13″ wide paper in the press).
This image of a label in productions shows that we are running the label 3-across the web to save time and money for the customer. The press web is filled, allowing us to print 3 labels at a time. The problem, however, is that this results in even smaller rolls on the bottling line. If you print 900 labels (60 cases of a specialty wine), you will end up with 3 rolls of 300 each and a nightmare on the bottling line.
Wasting Material is Bad for Everyone
Not only does filling the web make the job more cost effective, it also saves the earth by wasting less paper. On our state of the art digital printing press, the machine requires a full 13″ web, regardless of the finished label size. This means if we want to print only one label across the web, we use 3x the paper for the run! And 3x the press time to get the job done. This is wasteful but also more expensive for the customer.
Splices are Bad, too!
Another (bad) option is splicing the three small rolls together. A splice is basically just taping three rolls together. This is bad because these splices frequently break on the bottling line due to high tension on the rolls. And, this also opens the option for a very big problem – accidentally splicing two different items onto the same roll! For these reasons, we don’t recommend splicing these small rolls.
Total Applied Cost
The label job isn’t really done until the label is on the bottle, in the retail store, and sold to a consumer. The cost of packaging is very complicated and much more than just the individual label price. The total applied cost – the final cost of the label on the bottle – is what really matters. For this reason, we have some very specific recommendations for small batch wineries.
You Decide – Our recommendation
Ultimately, the customer decides what is best for their particular situation. But, based on our 92 years of label experience, we strongly suggest you pay a bit more to get full sized rolls, without splices, to maximize your up time on the bottling line. This doesn’t apply to hand applied labels – only machine applied items on a high speed bottling line. Nobody likes to pay extra for labels, or to waste material, but for us, paying a bit more for the label is worth it to keep your total applied cost down.
Questions? Please call us today at 503-777-4711. We look forward to printing for you again very soon!
Powerful wine labels connect. The wine is the ultimate product – and good wine will bring them back. The first sale relies on the label. Labels matter more than ever in the crowded retail market. You only have a brief moment to make a connection, and your label is the primary vehicle to do that.
The recent article by Cyrus Azari – ‘The Power of a Well Crafted Label‘ talks about this in detail. He makes several great points, including this:
You better have a sleek and sexy label design that is visually appealing! Here’s the kicker, it has to be appealing towards who you want to buy that product.
Cyrus Azari, Merchant 23 blog
The key point here is that the label has to be appealing to your target audience. If you don’t know who you are selling to, then any label will work. But if you do (and you better in this competitive category) then you need a label tailored EXACTLY to the consumer you are trying to reach.
Young professionals trying to make a good impression
Experienced wine lovers that belong to 3 wine clubs
Men/Women/African Americans
Converts from beer or spirits
Chefs that want a wine to compliment a meal
All of these are valid and worthy segments to target, and all of them could potentially need a different label. Defining your ideal customer first is the best way to start your label design – if you can bring this to your graphic designer, it will make the process much more productive.
There really is no perfect label for your wine – there is only the perfect label that connects with the consumer you are targeting. A label is a visual representation of your brand – it is the promise to the consumer about how they will feel while enjoying your product. The wine has to fulfil the promise made by the label, but until you know the actual promise you are making, it is very hard to hit the target.
Think about your target audience and your brand promise – once those are well defined, the label will design itself. In the label design process, we would be happy to collaborate with your designer to discuss paper options, foil and embossing, and special die cut shapes to bring your vision to life.
has always been – you heat a magnesium, copper, or brass plate up to 220 degrees and smash the foil onto the label with tremendous force. The process is the same, but this press is much more precise. These are the key features explained in the video:
Because this is a bit of a crude printing technology, the design must be appropriate. Fade screens, photos, and extreme detail is not possible with hot stamp foil printing. The printing plate seen in this image is etched or engraved (depending on the metal) and the fine details are not possible. Besides the plate detail, the physical process of smashing foil into paper is not as elegant as our other printing press options. Typically bold logos, sans serif type, and borders are good candidates for hot stamp foil printing. If you have a design in mind, please send it to us for review. We can make suggestions to help maximize the impact of your foil elements without wasting money on areas that won’t print well. Fine lines – especially parallel lines together – can be very difficult. The result can be a crude, blocky appearance that defeats the effect you are trying to create. Send us your file for review – we can help get the foil in the right places for maximum impact.
just feels different than most labels – you know you are drinking something special. In this case, the front label on the bottle is a deeply embossed placard that complements this label very well. Together, they make a premium package for your product.
Some customers are fascinated with the technology behind their labels, and some really just want the results. If you like knowing how we get your labels to pop off the shelf, this is the paragraph for you. One of the key components of high quality label printing is the delivery of ink and coating to the label stock. The ink (or in this case, coating) is dispensed by a very expensive, finely engraved roller with microscopic ‘cups’ that carry and release coating onto the printing plate. These rollers have various line screens – numbers of cavities per linear inch. As the number of cells is increased, the volume of ink dispensed is reduced. In this case, we used a very coarse, high volume roller to deliver a very thick coating of varnish to the label surface. The textured label varnish is also enhanced with a fine grain additive – almost like putting sand into the label coating. Together with the proper volume, pressure, and press speed, this label ends up with a very distinctive tactile feel.
