HERMA
New role for recycled material

HERMA alone produces more than one million of these so-called EPSMA roll labels per year. "In addition to our overriding environmental goal of achieving climate neutrality in 2021, we always keep an eye on the inconspicuous things – always with the intention of making them even more sustainable," explains Dr Ulli Nägele, head of development at HERMA Haftmaterial.

Smooth logistics

The EPSMA roll labels on the adhesive material rolls play an important role in ensuring smooth logistics. Behind this is an industry-wide standardised identification system for the automatic registration of self-adhesive roll material. The labels, which are quite large in terms of area, usually contain several barcodes for this purpose, for example with information on the length, width, winding direction and number of splices on a roll, as well as customer data such as the order number. All barcodes must be able to be printed pin sharp in order to remain easily machine-readable at every step in the supply chain. When the goods are shipped – sometimes across the world – the labels are also exposed to fluctuating temperatures and must adhere securely even under demanding climatic conditions. HERMA has now proven that these challenges can also be met with labels made from environmentally friendly recycled material – based on its own adhesive material.

Best printing results on environmentally friendly paper

The HERMAcoat Recycling label paper (grade 236), which has been awarded the "Blue Angel" environmental seal, consists of 100 percent post-consumer recycled fibres obtained from household waste. The natural white, slightly glossy coated paper is ideal for demanding labels with multicolour printing and shows a very good print quality in thermal transfer printing. Therefore, it is ideally suited for barcodes containing variable data, but also for high-quality multicolour printing, for example for the pre-printing of company logos or for product decoration. With the new label material, HERMA is replacing the HERMAextracoat label paper (grade 242) that has been used up to now. "For us, this changeover was only a first step, albeit an important one, as the total amount of material used is considerable," says Dr Nägele. "Further internal conversions are in the pipeline. After all, sometimes it's the small things that we have to change in order to achieve remarkable things in total."

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