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7 Reason To Prototype Your Shrink Sleeve Project

Source from: https://www.flexpackmag.com/articles/89943-reason-to-prototype-your-shrink-sleeve-project

4. Testing Under Production Conditions

Having beautiful graphics on a product means little if you can’t meet market demands and keep production costs low. Conducting test runs of your product through real production tunnels at production speeds will prove that your dream package can actually be produced on line in a practical way.
 

5. Ensuring Proper Material Selection

With shrink sleeve labels, each film substrate has specific properties, capabilities, tolerances, and limitations. These must all be taken into consideration when choosing your shrink labeling film, and when establishing dimensions. Testing and proving out the correct material is critical to the successful launch of your product. By prototyping, you can ensure the correct label specifications, dimensions and film substrate selection for your package.
 

6. Label Dimensions

Creating the correct specifications for label height and size will determine final appearance of your product. It’s very important to take into account both the container and sleeve tolerances to get the final product the way it is intended to appear. Making these calculations by testing through shrink tunnels is the best way to do this. Finally, having correct sizes insures the sleeve labels can be applied on automatic application machinery, and produce the intended results.
 

7. Product Testing

PDC offers product  testing in its Shrink Lab , where they can help  determine correct film and label specifications and coordinate with your label vendor to acquire sample sleeves. They provide photos, videos, and samples of your product running through actual tunnels, not a fake “mock up”. This is an important step in making sure the end product turns out just as it was envisioned, and can be produced effectively and seamlessly.

Producing beautiful packaging is as much a science as it is an art. When embarking on a shrink sleeve labeling project, testing your product at the start under real-world conditions can be invaluable to the success of your project. At PDC, we have mastered both the science and the art of creating an exceptional package.