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Monday, February 15, 2021

Unique Party Patch; Common Packaging Requirement

Party Patch is a topical hangover patch containing a proprietary blend of vitamins and nutrients. The makers say when it is applied to the skin during drinking, Party Patch can dramatically help reduce the physical side effects of alcohol and restores your bodys natural defense system.

Party Patch
Party Smarter with Party Patch. 

Portable, painless, and effective, the Party Patch is essential for your next night out. Its a great addition to vacations, weddings, bachelor or bachelorette parties, and your everyday hangover kit! Party Patch is available in packs of 5, 12, 24, and 50.

Party Patch
Patch Life

According to Mike Sandrin of Party Patch, We wanted to produce Party Patch packages in smaller quantities; customize for individual occasions such as bachelorette parties.  However, minimum order quantities from our manufacturing partner prevented us from pursuing this market.  We needed to find a way to print and package in smaller volumes; to customize individual orders.”

For those of you keeping track of my posts, you may remember reading about Mike and his work on Fireball Cannabis:

In order to help Party Patch produce customized packaging, we put together a solution including the printing and filling of inkjet coated packaging film using the FP-230 Flexible Packaging Press from Afinia and the GP-3000 Form, Fill and Seal Packaging Machine from Phoenix Engineering.  Let me tell you more about the hardware portion of this packaging solution.

FP-230
FP-230

The FP-230 Flexible Packaging Press is perfect for small to medium runs or varying print designs. Print small-format flexible packaging on demand with inkjet-printable film.  Ive written about this press in a post covering Label Expo 2019.

According to Mike Atkins, National Sales Manager for Afinia Label, The FP-230 Flex Pack Press is an innovation that many private label manufacturers and brand owners have been waiting for. This printer prints to specially coated films for specific flexible packaging applications such as nuts, coffees, confections and supplements. The most common customers for the FP-230 are in the chocolate, candy, THC edibles, and drink powders/supplements.” Continuing, Mike says, “It can be challenging to put together a flexible packaging solution because the film requires a specific makeup, the artwork will need to be compatible, and the flex packaging fill-form-and-seal machine has to be matched to the particular product. This is where it helps to have a team of knowledgeable advisors to help manufacturers navigate the project. The end result is a very unique, convenient and valuable solution for short run flexible packaging on demand. We worked together with Color Label Solutions to solve this for Party Patch.” 

GP-3000
GP-3000

Brian Dykema of Phoenix Engineering, who makes the GP-3000 says, “the most difficult part of running the GP-3000 is “over- thinking” the machine.  It’s really quite simple to operate; and we’ve built these types of devices for 35 years.  It's perfect for companies in the Medical, Biomedical, Dental and Vitamin markets.”

Here is a short video of Party Patch making customized, flexible packaging for Christmas.


Mike Sandrin of Party Patch learned how to run the hardware quickly.  According to Mike, the most difficult part of the flexible packaging solution has been sourcing the film as it ships from Germany.  As its expensive to ship, weve ordered very large quantities of material.  But the growth of the product is reducing our risk on the material.”

The issue of stock is changing as we gain more customers in North America. The film is now stocked here in the US.

Customized Party Patch Packaging
Customized Party Patch Packaging

Continuing, Mike says, the customer response out of control.  Were not even advertised the product, but we are getting tremendous interest from Wedding Planners, Bachelorette and Bachelor parties, Birthday Parties, Celebrity events and even from Country Music.”  You can find Party Patch on Amazon, Etsy, Pinterest and other websites. Use Discount Code CLS20 to save 20% on your order.”

Customized Party Patch Packaging
Customized Party Patch Packaging

Adding, Mike says, It is especially great that we can now make customize patches down to 5 to 25 units.  Typically, we run batches together once or twice per week to minimize waste of the material.  This approach is working well for us.”

An On-Demand, Color Flexible Packaging System could be a means to increase your business by customizing products for your customers.  For products like Party Patch, its been a very big success.  Contact us if you see customized flexible packaging increasing your sales and profits.

Guy Mikel
855-962-7670

Thursday, February 4, 2021

GHS Refresh

Time To Upgrade Your GHS Label Printing?  Here’s Your Best Options.

Beginning in 2012 when the OHSA announced the final rules, Chemical Manufactures started to implement their plans to comply with the Global Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals; commonly referred to as GHS. 


In July of 2015, chemical manufacturers were required to comply to the GHS labeling requirements codified in these rules.

In addition to complying to the GHS initiative, many chemical companies were required to comply with BS5609, for the marine shipment of chemicals.  British Standard BS 5609 is a specification for printed pressure-sensitive, adhesive coated labels for marine use which includes requirements for the label base material.  BS 5609 testing is a requirement for self-adhesive drum labels needing International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) certification. Testing includes a 3-month exposure of labeled test plates in salt water.

C831 Printer
C831 Label Printer for GHS Drum Labels

After 8 years of complying to both the GHS initiative and to BS5609 requirements, many chemical companies have found it’s time to upgrade their label printers.  At the end of 2012, Epson released the C831 color label printer; perfect for printing drum labels.  See my initial post of this printer release here:

C3500 Label Printer
C3500 Label Printer

Then on September 1st, 2013, Epson launched the C3500; for durable and chemical resistant labels less than 4.25” wide.  The combination of these two printers fit the requirements for many chemical companies.  For example, Engineered Lubricants


C7500 Label Printer
C7500 Label Printer

And before the official GHS rules took effect, Epson launched the C7500; high resolution, fast and durable label printer.  Smark Chemical was our first chemical company customer using the C7500 printer.

Watch Epson’s video on the C7500 deployment at Smark here:

Or NIC using the C7500G printer for gloss and matte finished labels:


But after more than 5 to 8 years, companies who deployed GHS label printers years ago need to consider updating and replacing this equipment for the following three key reasons.

  • Stoppage Prevention: All mechanical devices wear out over time; and label printers are no different.  When printing labels becomes the critical path to shipping product, then companies should update and upgrade this important equipment.
  • Technology Improvement: Technology has advanced in the last several years; including label printers.  New printers will not only reduce the risk of a shipping problem, but may improve the workflow and ease of use for operators.
  • Cost Reduction: New technology offers ways to reduce costs; especially for drum label printers.

To help update and replace this older equipment, Epson has launched the new C6000 label printer series.  These new printers offer the same durable ink/labels as well as new technology that improves print quality and workflow at a very affordable price.  For example, the C6000 printers are plug and play with Zebra print streams.  Learn more here:


In addition, the C6000 offers the first-ever peel and present option for color label printers.

Also, the C6000 printers have a movable gap sensor making circles easier to print.

With the launch of the new C6000 series printers, many of our customers have upgraded from their C831 and C3500 printers to these new models.  For example, Marabu Inkshas moved from C3500 printers to the C6500A, primarily for print quality reasons.  According to Patrick Forney, Product Manager for Digital Inks, “our C3500 printer was well-ridden for years.  We’re getting much better print quality from the C6500A.  Plus, we like the capability to print the larger label sizes.”  And Charles Kaufman, Purchasing from Marabu Inks says, “the C6500A is printing great!”

Another one of our customers, says they’re planning to replace all of the C3500 printers.  According to the operations manager, “The C6000 printers not only produces better print quality, but also are much easier to use than the C3500. Also, the peel and present option should help us prevent potential labeling errors.  We’re planning to convert all of our 15 to 20 C3500 printers to C6000.”

In addition, C831 users have found other interesting benefits.  According to Rick Rawla, IT with Ungerer and Company  says, “I like it a lot.  We’ve found the C6500 is a lot faster as well as providing much better print quality than either the C3500 or C831.”

Besides switching away from Epson printers, we’ve found companies have switch away printers from other label vendors.  For example, our customer NARCO Chemicals is printing many of their drum and pail labels now on the C6500A instead of the Memjet-based Trojan One.  According to Kevin Larimer, Graphics Manager, says “So far, the C6500 has been absolutely stellar.  We’ve placed labels outdoors along with our Trojan-produced labels.  We’ve found the C6500-based labels are very durable; where the ink comes off from the Trojan-produced ones. Overall, the C6500 is really good.”

For those companies producing GHS labels for several years, now is the time to consider upgrading their label printers.  These new printers are easier to use, offer new technology solutions and save money on both ink and labels.

Contact us if your organization is ready to update and upgrade their GHS Label printing systems.

Guy Mikel
855-962-7670