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What Should You Consider Before Heat Shrink Sleeving?

Posted on 6 January 2022 by Thomas Glendinning

Heat shrink sleeving machines apply a heat shrink sleeve to the neck or body of your product and then heat it so it shrinks to provide a tamper-proof tight seal. Heat shrink labels can be applied to all different types of container shapes servicing numerous industries, such as pharmaceutical, beauty, and food. 

How does heat shrink sleeving work?

Flexible heat shrink sleeve labels will be placed over the neck of your product by the sleeving machine. The product will then pass through a heat tunnel which reduces the size of the label. When finished, your product will have a sleek finished label with 360° coverage. 

What do you need to consider?

When applying heat shrink sleeving it is important to pre-distort your design. This step is essential to having easy-to-read labels. You should also avoid complex shapes and realistic imagery as the distortion of shrinking the label can affect the images. Your label will be printed on a flat 2D sleeve which is then converted to a 3D cylinder which means you will have a seam in your label. Considering where the seam is placed, avoiding small text and detailed imagery, will guarantee a cleaner label for your product. 

What are the benefits of heat shrink sleeving?

Heat shrink sleeving is beneficial for tamper-proofing products. As the label has adhered to your product, it must be removed to open, meaning it will be clear if your product has been tampered with. This anti-theft application protects your product leaving you with peace of mind. Heat shrink sleeving does not use adhesive allowing for your product to be recycled and reused. Heat shrink sleeving provides full coverage of your product to enhance brand visibility and to guarantee all important information is printed on your product. 

What does Sovereign Labelling Offer?

Since 1993, Sovereign has been providing quality labelling machines best suited for your company. We also work alongside some fantastic sleeve material manufacturers so we can assist in all areas of label design and manufacture making sure the label is perfectly suited to the product it’s labelling. 

For small batches of products only, we also offer an in-house sleeving service to save you time and money at a very competitive rate. You send us the products and your design, our team will order the sleeves and label the products using our top of the range machinery and send them back to you. 

If you are interested in Heat Shrink Sleeving machines, or our co-packing sleeving services please reach us at https://sovereign-labelling.co.uk/contact/.

Heat Shrink Sleeving Machine

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Written by Thomas Glendinning

Managing Director of a business that is passionate about building top quality machinery for a range of industries- machines that are designed to meet the requirements of each particular business we serve & machines that exceed the expectations of those who purchase & operate them.

As an experienced Project & Mechanical Design Engineer, skilled in AutoCAD Mechanical, Solidworks, Engineering principles, Strategic Planning, and Project Management, with a Mechanical Engineering based qualification from University of South Wales, it is my privilege to lead SOVEREIGN, to align the strategic goals within the group of companies & continue to uphold & maintain a well-respected brand of machines across the UK, Ireland & across the globe.

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