The sleeve, originally launched in 2006, has to accommo-date the iconic triangular bottle, which requires a high shrinkage of up to 70% in the neck area, with minimal shrink in the base. However, in practice many of the previous PVC sleeves featured imperfect shrinkage which meant that the graphics were distorted and there was the “classic smiley face” at the base. As a new supplier, First Impression Labels set to work to solve the problem.
Over 2 months First Impression Labels created a new sleeve in premium 50-micron PET. The in-house repro team worked extensively on the distortions to ensure that the sleeve fitter the bottle perfectly and hugged the shape without compromising graphic or sleeve quality.
This particular four-point bottle required careful revision of the fold lines so that the final application was perfect.
The design is printed flexographically in 10 colours on 10 variants.
The sleeves were printed 2-up to minimise machine time and coordinated plate and colour changes to reduce set-up time.
expertise during the application trials. This involved unique adjustments for correct orientation on the Graham Sleever.
First Impression Labels used premium LED inks for increased colour gamut to represent the spot colours. Textured plates were supplied to ensure a clean crisp print and the CMYK colour separations created a clean look at a high screen ruling while maintaining optimum press speeds.
The new PET sleeves offer high gloss finish, scuff resistance, 360 graphics, and contour-hugging design. The new neck-to-base sleeves have improved filling line speeds at Unilever and reduced scrap rate on the line.