Hub Labels, a label manufacturer located in Hagerstown, MD, has acquired a new silicone and hot-melt adhesive coater from ETI Converting Equipment to support the linerless label market segment.

According to Hub Labels, it is the only print facility in the United States to have two silicone and hot-melt adhesive coaters to create linerless labels, which are ideal for skin pack trays. The second coater provides additional security for their linerless customers through machine redundancy and increased flexibility to deliver linerless labels.

“Hub’s original coater was purchased in 2009 when Hub Labels partnered with Ravenwood Packaging to install the first linerless label coater in the United States, introducing the linerless technology from the UK,” states Jesse Hood, Hub’s quality and continuous improvement director. “It has been 10 years since the original coater was purchased. We had specific challenges we wanted to solve with a new coater. The equipment by ETI did just that.”

“After spending time with Hub Labels in their facility and learning more about their linerless label operation, we believed ETI could improve the overall quality and productivity of their coating line,” comments Richard Hoffmann, ETI’s United States sales manager. “ETI adapted its industry-leading Cohesio technology to specifically address coating weight, coating uniformity and finished roll quality.”

ETI incorporated its pattern hot-melt adhesive roll coater technology in line with its direct roll silicone coating station for this linerless label application. The existing coater uses multiple slot dies to apply stripes of adhesive. The ETI adhesive coater can apply stripes of adhesive, as well as any pattern or shape in register with printing for other linerless label applications.

The new coater produces more uniform adhesive stripes and a more controlled coat-weight across an entire job. Hub also found that the slot die system of its original coater can have a tendency to drag and build-up adhesive, which can leave a glob of glue on the web. This new ETI coating technology reduces both jamming and adhesive build-up on customers’ linerless applicators.

To test the new coater, Hub Labels partnered with Shenandoah Valley Organic (SVO).

“You can actually hear the difference as the glue stripes release more easily from the silicone stripes as the labels pull through our Ravenwood label applicator,” explains Rich Baughman, director of technology at SVO. “We’ve worked with other linerless manufacturers in the past, and typically we end up throwing a portion of our labels away because as we got closer to the core, there would be too much adhesive and the labels would not release from the silicone. The adhesive is much more even on the rolls and results in less waste. There is also no build-up of glue on our equipment knives, which equates to an increase in efficiency due to less downtime. It has been a huge success for our production team.”

Hoffmann adds, “When we heard Hub Labels’ customer was very pleased with the quality of the finished rolls coming off our coater and how well they worked with their label applicator, we were thrilled.”

The new equipment features a coat-weight monitoring system that can read both film and paper substrates. The monitoring system also allows for a specific recipe to be created for each customer and job so the precise coat-weight that is demanded for each application can be easily met.

The new coater uses the same silicone and adhesive as the original coater to ensure there are no unforeseen issues due to unknown materials.

“The labels produced by the new ETI coater are incredible,” states Thomas Dahbura, owner of Hub Labels. “The ETI coater uses less silicone, which is now barely seen on top of the artwork compared to the thicker, glossy silicone stripes from the original coater. We’ve also found that the rolls produced are extremely flat, which equates to no more jamming of linerless applicators and no waves in the label rolls. Here at Hub, we are always looking for ways to do better, be better and thrill our customers. We will continue to reinvest in our company, to expand our capabilities and deliver beautiful custom labels.”