A common question we are asked is, “hat is the difference between thermal transfer and direct thermal transfer label printing?” Well, it’s all in the name to start, but there are a lot of considerations a company should review before making the decision on which system to go with. What’s in a name? Thermal transfer printing uses a heated ribbon to produce durable, long-lasting images on a wide variety of materials. But, when it comes to direct thermal printing no ribbon is used. Instead, the image is printed directly onto…
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What’s in the Bag: Poly Bag Materials, Differences, Types, and More
We believe in the importance of empowering customers to feel more comfortable in conversations about the products being used in production lines. Pricing and recommendations are heavily based on meeting the spec of the job, but if everything about the product is confusing that can make it hard to understand why certain materials are being recommended over others. Not to mention understanding why one material might not work over another even if they seem similar. We offer stock and custom bags and can have most stock to you within 2-3…
Read MoreIndustrial Branding: Is it the right move for you?
In our business we find a lot of customers shipping to stores or working off margins that seem to not allow for that “premium” thrill that is so common with the very trendy #unboxing experiences seen across social media the last few years. While celebrating the holidays this year you may have taken notice to some pretty cool packaging that sparked your interest and got you thinking, “Can we do this too?” 2018 is in full force and blogs everywhere are outlining the trendiest retail packaging predictions. We couldn’t help…
Read MoreThe Season of Oktoberfests: Marking and Coding More Than Beer Bottles
Event coordinators around the world have it made for the month of October. Between Oktoberfest events (cheers to you, Reading Leiderkranz – the best in all the US lands), Fall Festivals, our own local Yorktoberfest and all the pumpkin spice someone can take it is a busy time of year for everyone, including breweries. Central PA’s local micro-breweries have been popping up left and right to add to the already hoppy landscape with big-time brewers like Yuengling, Tröegs, and Victory. It’s exciting to witness and gives us the opportunity to…
Read MoreAll About Strapping
Using strapping in your packaging line can help reinforce packages in different ways. In today’s post we are going to outline the most common uses, benefits, and drawbacks of different strapping materials to help you determine if your packaging configuration could benefit. There are four different strapping mediums: steel, polyester (PET), polypropylene (polypro), and cording. Steel Strapping Steel strapping is the strongest of all the strapping materials. It is recommended where high strength is necessary, low elongation (stretch) is important, and where the product may be sharp or hot. Steel…
Read MoreFeeling Green Yet? How Thinking Sustainably Can Up Your Packaging Game
Amazon.com has already revolutionized the way companies and customers think about e-commerce sales. Now, similar to Walmart, they are making waves in regards to how companies and customers are thinking about packaging and bringing that conversation out of the warehouse and to the forefront of a customer’s mind. Recently an article was published on how Amazon is suggesting packaging tips to its resellers to reduce packaging while still maintaining the integrity of the package while in transit. If suppliers follow their tips they are promised better promotion across the site…
Read MoreOne Size Doesn’t Fit All: Save Money by Right-Sizing your Packages
A couple years ago UPS made the announcement they would be switching over to using DIM weight while considering the billable weight for shipping rates and other shipping carriers followed suit. This change had a delayed impact on a lot of companies as they had or were in the process of negotiating shipping terms for set periods of time. But, many of those contracts are now expiring and more and more companies are asking us: How do we get our shipping rates down? [pullquote]“Billable Rate: Billable weight is the weight…
Read More4 Differences Between Stretch Film and Shrink Film
One of the biggest “verbiage” misuses we see in the industry has to be shrink film vs stretch film and everything in between like plastic wrap, cling wrap, or the like. If you get these terms confused also you are not alone. Let’s unpack it! It’s true that both shrink and stretch films are designed to unitize products onto pallets and both are generally made from polyethylene resins. Another truth, shrink films are produced on blown film lines and stretch films can be produced on either blown or cast film lines.…
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