Thermal Transfer Label Materials

• Matt White Paper – The lowest cost label material, most popular types are uncoated papers (also known as litho or vellum) suitable for high volume printing. More expensive options, which provide a better print quality are smoother versions (calendared) and coated matt papers. The main disadvantage of matt uncoated papers is that they can mark easily.
• Semi-Gloss Paper – Also known as mid-gloss, this is possibly the most common thermal transfer material, being low cost, providing good print quality and looking good from a presentation point of view. There are many variations for different applications, including food and pharmaceutical applications and resistance to grease etc.
• High Gloss Paper – Also known as cast coat, this material is used for demanding, multicoloured product labels.
• Metallised Papers – These contain a layer of foil (usually aluminium) between the paper and the adhesive and are used for more specialised applications such as tyre labels.
• Card / Tag Materials - card tags with up to 250 micron thickness and are best suited for indoor applications with moderate temperatures. Ideal for use in packaging inserts, food trays, shop floor tracking tickets and pallet tags.

Synthetic Materials

• Polypropylene – Polypropylene (PP) films are suited to applications requiring resistance to water, oil and chemicals. Polypropylene labels offer a long term solution to labelling packaging materials, patient and laboratory samples and tear-resistant shelf edge labels.
  
  Available in white, silver and transparent, polypropylene labels are durable and can be used to achieve long-term sustainability within labelling beverages, personal care, toiletries and cosmetics. Transparent polypropylene labels are typically used in rigid bottle applications to achieve the ‘no-label look’. 
• Polyester – Polyester (PE) films are suited to high quality long lasting applications requiring resistance to heat, water, oil and chemicals. Typical applications include asset and serial number labels, cosmetics, appliances, electrical equipment and instruments, instruction tags on home and industrial utilities, drum and logistics labelling.

Specialist options:

• Holographic patterns are available for high-quality decorative product labels for eye catching labels, cosmetics and luxury consumer goods.
• Clear glossy labels are available for labelling on durable- and pharmaceutical products, cosmetics with no label look and on PET containers and -packages.

• Polyethylene - Polyethylene (PE) films are suited to applications that require resistance to water, oil and chemicals. They conform well to package contours and flex well with squeezable packaging. Common applications include labelling test tubes, vials, chemical drums and products with a highly curved surface.
• Fast Tyre – Specially designed material for labelling tyres. Fast tyre labels are supplied with permanent adhesive, a durable material means that it is ideal for applying onto tyres.