Intelligent Leading Label Industry to Develop New World (I)

Foreword: For manufacturers using smart label technology, the opportunities will not be met and lingering.

For hundreds of years, labels have been used to carry information, identify products, describe content, list ingredients, transport goods, and promote the sale of goods on the shelves. Many labels are printed in multiple colors and will eventually play a role when the customer selects and uses many different kinds of products.

But the world of traditional label production and use is beginning to change. The future potential and growth of labels will no longer be closely related to the content and appearance of label printing, but will increasingly be influenced by the more intelligent labels.

In fact, it is possible to imagine the vision of the future label in the field in which it is applied: keeping the food fresh longer, absorbing odors, preventing moisture corrosion, providing evidence of process control, providing evidence of compliance, or even Monitor and track temperature changes over a period of time.

Do you think these possible scenarios are a bit out of reach? To detect the toxic gas, monitor the expiration date, show that the food or beverage reaches the best state of consumption, detect and eliminate the bacteria, and identify E. coli and superbug MRSA (also known as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) , C.difficile, bird flu, and other health-imminent pathogens that enhance food, drug, or hospital security labels. Do you think it is castle in the air?

How long do we think it takes to introduce and use these tags? One year or two years? Five years? Ten years or more? The answer is wrong. All of the above labeling solutions already exist, or will soon be accepted by the market along with new products, joint ventures, cooperation or newly started businesses.

Nanotechnology is driving change

Many of the current topics discussed are just the tip of the iceberg. Nanotechnology, nano-coatings, nanosensors, smartdust, microwaves, bio-coding, and DNA coding have begun to be applied to labels. For all members of the industry chain who produce and use labels, these technologies will have more long-term significance and application value. There is indeed a view that nanotechnology will transform 25% of the food packaging industry and label industry in the next decade.

Some of these innovations and R&D come from existing label industry suppliers such as Avery Dennison, UPM Raflatac, Tenza, etc.; others are created and passed on by labels and packaging that are not currently known to most start-ups in the label industry. Fields such as Multisorb Technologies, Paksense, Espin Technologies, KSW Microtec,Ecology Coatings, Nano Ink and Microtrace. More companies are already gearing up to try.

So why are tag buyers and users so actively looking for these smarter tag solutions? There are many reasons for this:

To help automate the distribution, handling, and storage operations.

In order to enable the food to be kept longer during handling, on the store shelves or in the consumer's refrigerator.

To show damage or impact on the packaging during transport.

In order to show the corruption of food or medicine.

To help with asset management and return control.

To provide a way to eliminate counterfeiting and improve brand protection.
In order to speed up the inspection and reading process.

To provide a way to identify products or packaging.

This list is not exhaustive. It does not include some of the more traditional smart labeling solutions, such as barcodes with single and multiple functions, snow or matrix codes, magnetic or optical codes on labels, holograms, special designs. And images, "scratch and display" labels, fragrance labels, invisible print or security print, anti-theft label technology, void and ultra-destruct labels, or single-page, brochure and extended text labels The solution also includes tamper-evident label products - all of which will be leaders for many years.

However, this does not include advances in the field of RFID smart labels over the past three or four years. Today, RFID smart labels are being used to track shipments across the global transportation and distribution chain, airline handling, pharmaceutical and apparel industry supply chains, as well as libraries, other books, and different types of media products.

What we are talking about is a lot of new smart label solutions that have been introduced in the past year or two, or products that have just been introduced to the market; and some of the topics are only new announcements that have been published in the past few months.