A Japanese company Gunze is a leading manufacturer of heat shrink film for packaging with more than 30 % share of its domestic market. The production facilities and offices are located in Japan, the United States, China, and Vietnam. Their prime product “Fancywrap” hybrid film is the industry’s only shrink film and is widely used all over the country.
The hybrid styrene heat shrink film is a multi-layered film of OPS (oriented polystyrene) and PET (polyethylene terephthalate). By utilizing their original technology, the film has both advantages of OPS and PET. Ms. Chihiro Yoshioka, a sales and marketing representative of Gunze says, “Hybrid film is the best film suitable for full-shrinking food, cosmetics, and toiletry products.”
1. Full-body and 360-degree design
Hybrid film enables the full-shrinking appearance of various types of bottles.
HDPE (high-density polyethylene), PET, PP (polypropylene), and glass are mainly used for bottles. The bottles can easily deform using hot air tunnels if the temperature is too high, and it will cause the film to shrink more than the preferred degree. Hybrid film can be finished beautifully at a lower temperature than other film material types.
Chihiro claims, “The gradual and gentle shrinkage curve at 60 degrees Celsius at the beginning to the middle shrinking process can reduce wrinkles, strains, and color distortion on the labels.” She also points out that it will also contribute to consuming less time and energy, and a lower rate of defective products.
Furthermore, because of its lower shrink stress, hybrid film can reduce “smiling” or “frowning” on the edge of labels. If these effects are found, the appearance of products might get worse and require a little more dimension of labels to solve the issue.
2. Perforation
Have you ever felt stressed when you peel off labels from bottles? In fact, the resin and the method of stretching film determine which direction is easier or harder to cut.
There are two main types of film widely used in food and toiletries: PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and PET. While PVC is easy to cut vertically, it has the disadvantage of cutting horizontally even with perforation. PET is difficult to cut vertically, but suitable for cutting horizontally. Hybrid film combines the properties of two different materials, PET and OPS, which makes it easier to cut perforations in both vertical and horizontal directions. It is the only film with such features in the world.
What is the advantage of perforations?
(1.) Tamper-evident(proof):
The cap-sealing plays an important role to ensure tamper-evident. In addition, shrink film is more suitable and efficient to contain a lot of information about products. Integrated full-shrink sleeves enable you to cover from the lid to the body with a single label, and tear off from the perforation easily both vertically and horizontally.
(2.) Easy to sort sleeves from bottles:
The brand users will be more interested in sustainable approaches, such as environmental-friendly materials and notes on packaging to encourage sorting and recycling. Adding perforation in both directions allows you to easily sort sleeves and labels from the bottles, which can contribute to improving consumer convenience.
If you would like to see the difference in perforation of each film material, please visit Gunze’s official YouTube channel.
(3.)Non-PVC
PVC film is highly used for food and toiletry products. However, these days many global brand users have excluded PVC in packaging due to concerns about the harmful effects of PVC. They can use hybrid film as a non-PVC-containing film with confidence.
Chihiro mentions that Gunze offers free shrinking tests with actual bottles as one of the solution proposals. Based on a number of our past case studies, they will find the root cause for the present issues and advise customers on the suitable conditions for shrinking and converting through complimentary tests. The type of bottle does not matter. It has become easier to experience the shrink performance of hybrid film by applying the actual label, and the response from customers has been excellent.
