In-Mould

Products

In-Mould labeling is used in a wide range of products: household products, toiletries, automotive, food, personal care products, dairy products and paints.

See here for more examples

There are two major In-Mould labeling technologies in the market:

1. In-Mould blow moulding (IML-B)

2. Injection Mould In-Moulding (IM-IML)

Besides adhesive coated paper, most of the substrates for IML-B are high density polyethylene (HDPE), cast polypropylene (CPP) and other co-polymeres, which all are very heat sensitive. Most of these substrates are not suitable for printing with UV-flexo, and there are no standard chemical formulas for these substrates.

Printers have their own substrate and glue compounds, based on many years of experience, and these substrates are printed either on reel or sheet-fed offset, solvent based flexo and solvent based gravure.

The opposite is true for IM-IML where one basic substrate type is available. It is oriented polypropylene (OPP) and only few manufactures world wide supply the substrate. This substrate has better heat resistance features than IML-B substrate and it is printable with UV ink technology, therefore the focus of this paper is Injection Mould In-Mould labeling.