What You Need To Know About Shrink Sleeves

Gina Lisella • Mar 02, 2021
BBC Wild Ale Can

Shrink sleeves are an excellent packaging option for many brands. Shrink sleeves are 360-degree printed pieces of film that shrink with heat or steam to fit around various shaped containers. They eliminate blank space, making your brand’s art and name not only take center stage but take the whole stage. They also allow the shape of your packaging to shine, hugging the contours in a way that a traditional label may not be able to. As an added bonus, shrink sleeves can make your package fully recyclable, reducing your carbon footprint.


Whether you’re a craft beer brewer, in the OTC pharmaceutical industry, or anything in between, shrink sleeves are an increasingly popular packaging option. There are a few things you should know before you make the leap from traditional pressure sensitive labels to shrink sleeves. Find out what you need to know about shrink sleeves here!


Your Container & Shrink Material


Shrink sleeves can be applied onto containers of all shapes and sizes. The sleeve can be applied for partial or full coverage of a container and can extend over the cover or cap for a tamper resistant application. Shrink sleeves are a great packaging solution to an unusually shaped container. A bottle with ridges will hold a shrink sleeve without an adhesive much more effectively than an un-contoured bottle.


Dion offers a 45 micron PET or 50 micron PVC shrink film for all applications. PET shrink film can shrink up to 76% to fit a variety of containers and bottle shapes. The material provides an even and durable application ideal for a variety of markets. The material used for shrink sleeves is clear. A quality container or product will be enhanced by a shrink sleeve. Oppositely, a shrink sleeve may highlight imperfections of a lower quality product.

NETA drops
Artwork & Design Options

Shrink sleeve artwork may be created just as if you would design a label that is the height and diameter of the area you want to cover. Many containers will have both high shrink areas where the artwork will be distorted prior to shrinking such as on a curve or any area where the container is not flat. For example, if there is a circle graphic on the sleeve it may appear egg shaped prior to shrinking. Low shrink areas will have little to no distortion prior to or after shrinking. All distortions will be added by Dion Label Printing so that the artwork shrinks proportionally. Dion Label will measure and provide a template to assist you with your design.; we will ask you for samples of your container and your container blueprint in order to assist you best.


Metallic inks in various colors can be printed on shrink sleeves in small or large areas. Prismatic effects and foil options are also available in a variety of patterns and colors.


Processing/Shrinking


Shrink sleeves can be hand or machine applied onto containers. For hand applications, sleeves are generally sheeted and shrunk onto containers using one or two handheld heat guns. For machine application sleeves are generally requested on rolls. It is standard for the application equipment to cut and shrink the sleeve onto the container during filling. The process of hand shrinking sleeves can be labor intensive. It’s important to consider the costs of this versus having the sleeves shrunk by your filler.


Quantities


If you require a low volume of labels or packaging, shrink sleeves may not be the best option. Shrink sleeves are generally more cost-effective with higher print runs of at least a few thousand. Minimum order quantities for shrink sleeves will vary depending on the size of the container but on average minimums start at 5,000 sleeves per item.


Contact us today to find out if shrink sleeves are right for you!

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