Why You Should Consider Printed Shrink Film

Have you considered how you can enhance and improve your products through packaging? Well, the answer is simple – you can make your packaging work harder for you and your brand with our range of printed films.

What is printed shrink wrap packaging?

As the name suggests, printed shrink wrap is just like our traditional heat shrink films, with all the same great qualities and properties, but is supplied digitally pre-printed with your custom design or logo for increased branding purposes.

Can print be incorporated onto any type of shrink film?

YPS can supply all specifications of shrink film pre-printed to meet your requirements. Centre-folded or single-wound, polyolefin or polythene, perforated or non-perforated; the addition of ink printing is completely possible for all of these film types. Furthermore, any thickness of film is also compatible for printing, from ultra thin films as low as 9 micron, right up to thicknesses of 200 micron.

However, it’s not just our plastic shrink film types that offer flexibility and versatility for printed packaging! These printed films can be run on any shrink wrapping machine from sleeve wrappers, to side sealers, to L sealers. This means that no matter what the current set-up of your operation is, you can upgrade to printed shrink film for your products.

What options are available when using printed film?

There are two variations available, continuous print or print register. The choice depends on your requirements and our shrink film experts can help you identify which is more suitable for your application:

• Continuous or scatter print describes a pattern on the roll of film that repeats over and over without any break in the design. It is particularly effective for simple prints such as a logo or company name and as such is favoured by those primarily wishing to enhance their corporate branding. When products are wrapped in continuous print shrink films the design could appear across the pack several times. When this film is run on a shrink wrapping machine, the machine seals the film behind each pack regardless of what point in the design the film is at.

• Print register films are designed for more complex requirements where the plastic film acts as a replacement for a label. The design could include several component parts such as a logo, bar codes, areas of text and a ‘window’ of clear film to display a part of the product. Whilst the wrapping machine is running, it is looking for each eye spot, a particular mark on the very edge of the printed film. When detected, each eye spot denotes a break in the design at which the machine will seal the pack to ensure that each is wrapped with the full printed design displayed.

Are YPS shrink films still recyclable once printed onto?

Yes – in line with our promise to only supply fully recyclable plastic wrap products, we can confirm that our printed films are all fully recyclable to LDPE 04 and can still bear the OPRL recycling logo ‘Recycle With Bags At Larger Stores – Check Locally Kerbside’ where the supplier is an OPRL member.

Can printed film be supplied in a range of colours?

Not only can our printed film be supplied using a range of ten primary colours, an impressive array of different shades and shading effects can be achieved in any combination of colours required. The high definition flexographic printing we use allows for very elaborate printing patterns that can include shadowing, grading or fading out as well as block colours. Rest assured that we can match your imagination with our printed film!

Can I use printed shrink wrap if I require perforations?

If you use perforated film, most suppliers print the film after it is perforated. This can cause issues because ink can seep through these perforations during the printing process. At YPS, we are unique in our industry as we can post-perforate the film after printing to prevent any colour bleed or loss of your design.

Why should I consider printed films? What are the benefits?

There are huge advantages to upgrading to printed shrink films from standard clear films:

• Probably the main reason why you would consider printed film would be to elevate the aesthetic qualities of your products. The addition of colour, patterns, images and logos are all very effective in ensuring that your product looks attractive and stands out amongst its competitors on the shelf. The repetition of your logo across your product can also compound your branding efforts.

• Visual appeal aside, adding print to shrink films can also help you meet your technical or legal requirements for the display of information. Ingredients lists, sell by / best before dates and company contact details can all be added without the need for further packaging.

• As alluded to in the point above, printed information directly onto shrink film negates the need for any added inserts or labels displaying information. The huge advantage of this is that additional machinery such as label applicators are no longer required. This in turn increases the running speed of the wrapping line, improves efficiency and can save expenditure on costly equipment, as well as reducing the overall volumes of packaging.

• More than just a pretty design, our inkjet printed films are actually able to contain batch codes, serial numbers and barcode readability for your products.

What are the challenges posed by printed films?

You may be concerned that as the printed film shrinks around your products the design will warp and contort. Worry not! Our shrink film experts take all ink distortion from the shrinkage process into account before an in-depth testing and trialling stage is carried out. YPS will provide you with as many free of charge samples of wrapped products as required, until you are 100% happy with your design and the look of the finished packs.

Any examples of when printed film has improved a customer’s packaging?

• A major UK seafood supplier overhauled their packaging for the better in 2017 with YPS printed shrink wrap for their crabs in trays. The brief was to project the impression of luxury whilst also heightening their branding. This was achieved with printed film in a deep blue hue reminiscent of the sea, scattered with the logo and company strapline in contrasting white text that stood out. The matt finish of the shrink wrap gave the packs a more expensive finish to the touch that emanated the luxurious nature of their product. This is a great example of continuous print used to its full advantage and marketing potential.

• A household name in the pest control industry have benefitted greatly by introducing our printed shrink film to their products. The company is required to display regulatory printed hazard warnings on their packs by law. They achieved compliance through the use of added stickers in the past but have seen their efficiency improve drastically by moving to a printed film solution containing these warning signs instead.

Still unsure if you should upgrade to printed shrink wrap? Contact us today for more information on 01484 715111.