In the competitive wine, spirit and craft beverage industries, it’s all about the brand and how it is portrayed on the bottle. Producers from global brands to small independent companies compete for space on crowded retail shelves, so eye-catching wine and spirits labels provide a powerful edge.

No matter how fine the label face, its design and print work, correct adhesive selection provides a vital technical foundation for accomplishing immaculate visual appeal. While glass is a relatively straightforward substrate for achieving good adhesion, factors such as bottle surface treatments create huge variation in surface energy, which must be 38 dynes/cm or above.

Bottle contours and especially the lifecycle conditions of the product also present a challenge. Bottles may be cold and moist during label application. Temperature and humidity will certainly fluctuate during transport and long durations in storage. Extended refrigeration and ice bucket conditions may also be considerations. The various risks include label slide resulting in poor alignment during label application, edge-lift, bubbling and creasing.

Wine, spirit, and craft beverage adhesives from UPM Raflatac perform to the most demanding technical requirements, so that brands perform to the highest expectations.

ADHESIVES

RP30

Compelling presentation for the lifecycle of the label

Maintaining compelling presentation throughout the lifecycle challenges of wines and spirits takes a dedicated adhesive like RP30. This adhesive provides all the required properties for labelling champagnes and sparkling wines, whites, reds, roses and all spirits and liqueurs.

High initial tack provides excellent adhesion on the dispensing line and prevents label slide, even on moist and cold surfaces.

Good accommodation of fluctuations in temperature and humidity keeps labels looking their best without bubbling or creasing, from the bottling line, to transport and storage, to serving. RP30 also retains good hold in ice bucket conditions and provides good resistance to edge-lifting for reliable presentation on bottle necks when combined with recommended face materials.

RP30W

Efficient wash-off for returnable bottles

In the wash-off process for returnable bottles, the RP30W adhesive separates from bottles and stays anchored to the label face. This leaves the wash water uncontaminated and yields residue-free bottles for optimal presentation when recirculated. In particular, RP30W retains good wash-off performance following a variety of storage conditions for used bottles – including storage outdoors. This is where many wash-off adhesives fail, and where RP30W makes the difference. RP30W also performs reliably on label dispensing lines even in cold conditions.

WITH FILMIC FACE STOCKS

RC7W is specially designed for wash-off film labels on PET beverage bottles destined for recycling. During the wash-off process in hot caustic, gravity separates label materials with RC7W from ground-up PET bottles. This separation produces pure, food-grade polyester suitable for re-use as bottles.

RP37

Clear, strong and resilient adhesion

RP37 is a multipurpose adhesive for label films in combination with paper liners, with properties well-suited to wine and spirits labelling. Strong adhesion combines with good resistance to water and UV, for resilience in a variety of conditions.

RP74

High transparency ‘no-label look’

RP74 is designed for a quality no-label look on transparent containers such as PET and glass. It is combined with clear label faces on PET film liners to encourage a smooth and clear adhesive wet-out. Long-lasting clarity is assured by excellent resistance to water-whitening once labelled.

RP76E

Enduring clarity, exuding quality

RP76E is specifically designed for ultra-clear bottle labelling. It is combined with clear film faces and filmic liners to produce a smooth adhesive layer for an optimally clear adhesive wet-out.

With excellent UV-stability and resistance to whitening when exposed to water and ice-bucket conditions, the enduring clarity of RP76E reinforces perceptions of quality.

RC7B

Wet bottle labelling clarity plus pasteurization

This UV-acrylic adhesive for film label faces has excellent resistance to moisture and water. In particular, RC7B provides good adhesion and retains its clarity even when applied to wet bottles.

RC7B’s excellent temperature and water-whitening resistance also make it a good match for applications where bottles are labelled prior to pasteurization.

RC7W

Clean wash-off for recovering food-grade PET

RC7W is specially designed for wash-off film labels on PET beverage bottles destined for recycling. During the wash-off process in hot caustic, gravity separates label materials with RC7W from ground-up PET bottles. This separation produces pure, food-grade polyester suitable for re-use as bottles.

Retail labels are applied to goods in stores, from books and home d cor items to shoes and mattresses. They serve a range of purposes: promotional and decorative use, in-store pricing, weigh-scale labelling, size-marking and other informational needs.

Typically, general purpose adhesives are used. In cases, adhesives are dedicated to substrates such as textiles, or they have finely tuned properties for a particular application. Food labelling has a specific range of needs and regulatory requirements and is covered in its own chapter in this book.

For logistics and transport end-uses, self-adhesive labels are typically variable information printing (VIP) products which route, track and trace objects throughout the supply chain, support inventory management, and streamline operations. They often experience significant wear-and tear during their relatively short lifespans, and may require good low-temperature performance on various plastic and cardboard substrates.

ADHESIVES

RP51

Multipurpose performance

This multipurpose, strong permanent adhesive is suited to a wide range of retail and logistics applications. RP51 adheres well to packaging films, card and corrugated boards, and after labelling retains good adhesion even in chilled temperatures of 0 to 5 C.

RHR5

Convenient weigh-pricing on PE bags

The specially adapted RHR5 hot-melt adhesive has balanced performance for convenient tack at room-temperature on PE weigh-price bags, plus good resistance to bleeding for clean, low-maintenance label dispensing. RHR5 is well-matched for weigh-price applications in grocery departments and has the necessary approvals for indirect food contact.

RH6

Shipping and logistics

The RH6 adhesive covers an extremely wide range of shipping and logistics labelling applications. RH6 performs well in chilled and room temperature conditions, on substrates including cardboard and stretch film. Compared to RP51, it also has slightly better cold tack on cardboard.

RR23

Long-lasting removability

RR23 provides exceptional long-term removabilitywith paper labels on a wide variety of substrates in logistics and retail uses. It also performs well on curved surfaces. For food labelling applications, RR23 meets the requirements of EU frame regulation EC 1935/2004, and complies with EU 10/2011 regarding components of food packaging containing plastic in its layers.

RS29

Resealable and repositionable

RS29 is a long-lasting resealable adhesive for filmic open-closure labels on substrates including HDPE, PP and glass. Retail and product labelling with RS29 covers dry goods which are resealed for freshness and convenience. RS29 also provides short-term repositionability with paper labels on a wide range of substrates, making it possible to correct any mislabelling.

RP38 TXL

Residue-free removal from textiles

For textile labelling on retail goods, RP38 TXL balances good tack to keep the label secured with residue-free removal to protect the value of goods.

RP36

Stable performance for luggage tagging

RP36 has increased cohesion to withstand the heat of thermal printing applications while also adhering well to itself when tags are looped back onto themselves. These are ideal properties for luggage-tagging applications.

RP45 & RP45 LW

Wash-off and recirculation for multi-use containers

RP45 and RP45 LW cover numerous rotational applications for plastic and metal crates, boxes, pallets, kegs and other multi-use containers. These adhesives last reliably for the lifecycle of the label and wash off quickly and cleanly for trouble-free container rotation

RP45 is intended for retail as well as standard logistics applications such as plastic transport boxes with smooth surfaces and metal kegs used by breweries. RP45 LW provides greater endurance on challenging rough and patterned surfaces and also in chilled warehouses and deep freeze conditions.

Optimal wash-off is achieved with hot alkaline water, though RP45 is also washable with pure hot water.

ULTRA-REMOVABLE ADHESIVES

RR522U, RR523U & RR524U

UPM Raflatac’s ultra-removable adhesives offer decisive removability where cleanliness really shows and where damage-free surfaces are essential to an item’s value. Clean removal also assists fast and cost-efficient handling.

These adhesives consist of minute adhesive spheres in an adhesive emulsion. This produces uniform, noncontinuous adhesive contact with the labelled surface, resulting in low-tack adhesion and a smooth peel-away.

The RR522U, RR523U and RR524U adhesives offer varying levels of tack for labelling in a wide range of logistics, general branding and retail promotion end uses, on surfaces from glass and white goods to books and newspapers.