Label Terminology

10

No #s here but you'll find some in our 10 Things You Didn't Know About Associated post.

Abrasion Resistance

The degree to which a facestock will resist deterioration from rubbing, handling or scuffing.

Additional Finishes
  • Debossing: Impressing a wine label printing surface with dies to produce a recessed relief image. 
  • Embossing: Impressing a wine label printing surface with dies to produce a raised relief image. 
  • Foil Stamping: Special paper. Thin-gauge aluminum foil applied with heat and pressure to permanently bond to a paper-based substrate. 
  • Tactile: Varnish printed directly on the label with a gloss UV plate to add texture. 
Adhesive

Adheres firmly and securely to a substrate to bond with the container.

  • Peel Strength: A characteristic of adhesion referring to the force per until width required to break the bond between the label and the container. Often expressed at a specific degree and rate of peel under controlled environmental conditions.
  • Permanent Adhesive: An adhesive designed so that labels cannot be removed without damage to the wine label printing or container.
  • Removable Adhesive: An adhesive property that allows labels to be removed from a surface and re-applied with no damage to the wine label printing or container. 

 

Bottle Coatings

Suitable for use with bottle coatings as noted: PE, AP-5 or Oleic Acid. 

Brightness

A measurement of the light reflectance (brilliance) of a facestock.

Dieline

A template (or blueprint) that provides size, scale, eye marks, and the placement of images, logos, and text. 

Digital Printing

Method of printing where presses deposit toner or "electro inks" onto the material (substrate). Ink does not permeate the substrate, but instead, it forms a thin layer on the surface using a heat process.

Facestock

The top layer or wine label printing surface of a pressure sensitive label stock.

  • Classic Crest: Smooth, luxurious, uniform surface
  • Felt: Random, mottled, raised texture.
  • Handmade: Natural handmade feel with a raised graphic or texture. 
  • Laid: Traditional hand-made feel; horizontal raised lines and vertical watermarked lines. 
  • Linen: Crisp, tightly patterned horizontal and vertical raised lines.
  • Smooth: No noticeable relief pattern or texture.

 

Flexographic Printing

Method of printing that uses flexible printing plates made of rubber or plastic. Each plate is coated with fast-drying ink and rotates on a cylinder, and the material passes between the print plate and impression roller.

Gloss

A measurement of the spectral reflectance of light off the wine label printing surface, usually expressed as: glossy, low gloss or matte. 

H

H is for Honey... which you’ll find on our on-site beehive.

I

I is for IFS: The Details.

J

J is for Just-in-Time Printing, which can be achieved with our HP 20K!

K

K is for King Kong, which is what we call our W&H press!

Label Conditions
  • Cold Labeling Conditions: Suitable for use when bottle temperature at time of labeling (or ambient temperature in bottling room) is between 40°F and 60°F. All adhesives are suitable for labeling at temperatures above 60°F.
  • Flexibility: The ability of a paper to wrap around tight diameters. Papers with excellent flexibility are good choices to test as neck labels and wide body labels.
  • Ice Bucket Test: A performance test in which labeled bottles are immersed in a 50/50 ice/water bath for up to 24 hours. Failure may include edge lifting, sliding, label delamination or ink flaking off the wine label printing.
  • Long-Term Warm Water Removability: Label and adhesive will remove from glass and plastic containers when soaked in 100°F water for 5 minutes. Best results when printed wine labels are used on new glass coated with standard PE, AP-5 or Oleic Acid anti-scratch coatings.
  • Short-Term Repositionability: Low initial tack for up to 20 minutes of repositionability/removability of misapplied labels. 
  • Warm Water Removable: A characteristic of some pressure-sensitive adhesive that allows labels to be removed in warm water, leaving the bottle clean of adhesive residue so it can be reused or recycled. 
  • Wet Labeling Conditions: Labeling wet bottles is difficult. Water acts as a contaminant, compromising the integrity of the wine label printing adhesive. Bottle dryers are recommended for heavy condensation. However, for applications where fogging may occur, be sure to use the appropriate adhesive. 
  • Wet Stick: The ability of an adhesive to stick to wet glass.
  • Wet Strength: Paper that has chemical and/or physical components added to increase internal bond strength when saturated and improve moisture resistance.
Liner

The carrier or backing for a pressure sensitive label. Liners are coated with a release material, allowing them to separate from the label immediately before application. 

Machine Direction Orientation (MDO)

A property of an extruded film, achieved by stretching the film by a given ratio in the direction of a machine flow to enhance its final properties; i.e. conformability.

Mandrel Test

An aggressive test used to determine the suitability of an adhesive/facestock combination for very tight curvatures; i.e. neck label applications.

Metallic Paper

Metalized paper stock which provides a mirror-like reflectivity. Can give a foil stamp appearance.

Metallic Polypropylene

Metalized polypropylene stock which provides a mirror-like reflectivity. Can give a foil stamp appearance.

Neck Labels

High initial tack and good mandrel hold.

Q

Q is for Quote... which you can request for free here or find out more about here!

R

R is for Roll Direction!

S

S is for Shaun's Staff Spotlight – find out more about Associated's President!

Topcoat

Function coating applied to a flexible packaging film to enhance the anchorage of ink. Options include matte UV finish, gloss UV finish, soft touch finish, glow-in-the-dark finish, and many more.

U

U is for Update – check out our latest IFS update here!

W

W is for Warehouse – check out our latest addition here!

X

X is for Extended Content Labels (kind of!)

Z

Z is for Zippers – check out our post on Child-Resistant Zippers!