Glossary of Terms
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1/ Adhesive (Permanent) An adhesive which has a high ultimate adhesion, which usually cannot be removed intact. 2/Adhesive(Pressure-Sensitive) An adhesive which in its dry state at room temperature is always tacky and will adhere or stick to a wide range of diverse surfaces by simple contact under light pressure. Used for pressure sensitive labels, tapes, graphic arts, automotive, healthcare and other applications where an instant bonding to a variety of dissimilar surfaces upon contact is required. 3/ Backing paper See Glassine. Also referred to as the release liner, this is the component of the label laminate that protects the pressure sensitive adhesive during manufacture up to the final point of application. 4/ Black-out Backing/Coverall/ Blockout A coloured underside of the material that leaves the substrate opaque. Generally used to cover mis-prints but has also been known for promotional materials to show specific colours in the adhesive or underside of the face stock. 5/ Delamination The splitting of a material into layers in a direction approximately parallel to the surface e.g. the separation of a self adhesive print carrier from its release liner (silicone backing paper) in the printing machine. Or in laymen’s terms, peeling away the printed face material from the silicone coated liner. 6/ Die-Cutting The process of cutting a label shape with a die. A die is a tool or device used to cut a desired shape, form or finish, most commonly used to produce labels. The die is placed within the converting line or press and is used to only cut through the face materials of the laminate, but not the release liner. The finished label is revealed when the waste matrix is stripped away. Most self-adhesive labels and some wet-glue and in-mold labels have to be die-cut to shape as part of their manufacturing and finishing procedure. |
7/ Dry Peel An adhesive that bonds two materials but once applied on a required surface and then removed, leaves both top and bottom sheet completely dry/free of adhesive. 8/ Flexi-dry Adhesive An adhesive that bonds two materials so that once removed leaves a tacky surface on the release liner and not the face material, allowing it to be relaminated after die-cutting or adding a print/insert. 9/ Glassine Refers to a silicone coated carrier sheet or web of material that is used in pressure sensitive lamination that carries the permanently tacky adhesive coated face material. Also referred to as Backing, Backing Paper or Release Liner. 10/ High Grade Peelable An ultra removable peelable that should remove cleanly from difficult surfaces with a low adhesion and without leaving any residue on the labeled product. 11/ Magnetic Strip(e) Magnetic stripes are a well established read/write auto-ID technology that can be applied to labels, tickets, tags and cards for applications such as travel ticket documents, access control, storage, credit cards etc. The stripe contains particles of magnetic material that can be programmed to contain and store data in magnetic form. The magnetic stripe may be applied to the material by adhesive using magnetic tape or by printing a magnetic stripe slurry. 12/ Microsphere An ultra-peelable adhesive that has excellent properties for removable or re-sealable applications. These adhesives have a different Chemical design to standard peelable adhesives in the industry generally allowing them to perform in unusually harsh or intricate environments. 13/ PP Film Polypropylene films derive from petroleum using cost-effective and high-yield polyolefin resins and have properties similar to those of polyethylene, but are stronger, more rigid and have a higher temperature resistance. |
14/ Relaminate To re-introduce a material that has been delaminated(separated) from an original construction. 15/ RFID Or Radio Frequency Identification is a method of electronically identifying and sometimes changing data in unique items at a distance without a line of sight using radio waves. In RFID systems a reader will typically communicate with a tag which holds digital information in a microchip. 16/ Self-Wound A roll of pressure-sensitive material with a single ply that has adhesive on one side and a release coating on the other side. When the roll is wound up the face stock functions as the release surface. This describes most tape products, but also linerless or backingless labels. 17/ Strip(e) Pattern Coating Can also be called intermittent adhesive coating where based on a predetermined pattern, the adhesive can be coated in alternating strips onto the base material. 18/ Thermal Coating A heat sensitive chemical coating, on both paper and film, which enables an image to be formed in areas heated by a thermal print head consisting of many miniature heating elements. These are selectively heated to create points or dots of black (or other colours) in the thermal coating, resulting in the final required pattern. Main uses include barcodes on frozen and fresh food labels in supermarkets, Point of sale receipts, bank statements etc. 19/ Two-Side Printing This is achieved by delaminating a self-adhesive laminate on a suitable label press, printing onto the adhesive and then relaminating the roll before further printing and die-cutting. Useful for use on labels for clear bottles. 20/ UV Resistance The ability of a self-adhesive label or other material to resist UV light (sunlight) without any hardening of the adhesive, strong discolouration or weathering. |