Mactac debuts two new products at LOUPE Americas

Mactac is introducing Vivid Edge and Optiscan E at LOUPE Americas. To learn more about these new products, L&NW sits down with Kim Hensley, Senior Marketing Manager, Prime Film Products, Mactac Roll Label, and Donna Lubin, Senior Product Manager, Variable Information Products, Mactac
Roll Label.

L&NW: What market needs, customer challenges, or industry trends helped to identify the opportunity for these products and led to Mactac’s R&D?
KH: Several industry trends converged to create the opportunity for Vivid Edge. Brand owners are increasingly focused on sustainability initiatives such as lightweighting, material reduction, and improving package recyclability, while converters continue to face pressure to maintain productivity and efficiency on high-speed equipment. At the same time, film labels are growing faster than paper labels because they offer superior durability, moisture resistance, shelf appeal, and compatibility with recycling systems. Through conversations with converters and brand owners, Mactac identified a common challenge: many lightweight film constructions can create converting difficulties, including stretching, wrinkling, tearing, tunneling, and dispensing issues. Vivid Edge was developed to address these challenges by combining the material reduction benefits of a thinner film with the strength, stiffness, and dimensional stability needed for reliable high-speed converting and application. The result is a solution that supports both operational efficiency and sustainability goals in a single construction.

DL: Thermal transfer is a mature, proven technology for variable information printing, but market demands continue to evolve. Converters are increasingly focused on managing costs, improving operational efficiency, and supporting sustainability goals – all while maintaining the performance their customers expect. These market dynamics created an opportunity to rethink the traditional thermal transfer construction. With Optiscan E, our objective was to use downgauging strategically – not simply to reduce material cost but to create additional value throughout the label supply chain. A thinner construction can put more labels on a finished roll, reduce the number of rolls required for a given volume, reduce associated cores and packaging, and improve storage and transportation efficiency. However, thinner constructions can also introduce converting challenges, particularly around rigidity, web handling, diecutting, and matrix stripping. Optiscan E was developed to deliver the benefits of downgauging while maintaining the converting performance customers need.

L&NW: What insights gave you confidence that these products would fill a gap, address an unmet need, or improve upon existing solutions?
KH: A key market insight was that customers often had to choose between sustainability and performance. Many organizations wanted to reduce material usage and improve recyclability but were concerned that downgauged film constructions could negatively affect productivity, converting consistency, dispensing performance, or application reliability. Our product development team recognized a clear opportunity to bridge that gap. Vivid Edge delivers approximately 25% greater machine-direction strength than traditional film constructions while utilizing a thinner 2.0 mil polypropylene facestock. This combination provides converters with a broader operating window, improved handling, and greater confidence when running larger labels, without compromising high-speed converting efficiency.  In addition, customers increasingly sought packaging solutions that support circularity. The APR Design for Recyclability Recognition on both natural and colored HDPE containers validated that Vivid Edge could help brands meet sustainability objectives without sacrificing performance or aesthetics.

DL: We saw an opportunity in thermal transfer applications where material cost, operational efficiency, and overall value are increasingly important. The market already includes economy and downgauged thermal transfer constructions, which validated customer interest in this type of value proposition. At the same time, we wanted to provide converters with a solution in Optiscan E that went beyond simply offering a lower-priced thermal transfer product.

Our focus became delivering a more complete value proposition: more labels per roll, greater operational efficiency, reduced material usage, and competitive economics while maintaining the converting performance converters need. This ultimately became the foundation for what we describe as the four E’s of Optiscan E: Efficiency Gains, Economic Benefits, Environmental Impact, and Excellent Convertability.

L&NW: How did feedback from customers, suppliers, or industry experts influence the products’ development and final construction? 
KH: Customer feedback played a significant role throughout the development of Vivid Edge. Converters consistently emphasized the need for a film label that was easier to handle during converting and dispensing while still delivering the premium appearance expected by brand owners. Key requirements included improved web handling, clean matrix stripping, greater dimensional stability, and the ability to run efficiently at higher production speeds. To address these needs, Mactac partnered closely with converters to evaluate performance in real-world operating conditions, including wet and messy environments where labels are exposed to splatter, condensation, water baths, flood-fill moisture, and continuous cold-chain storage. Testing also focused on thermal expansion and contraction, where containers change shape as they move through varying temperatures during production and distribution.

Collaboration with press manufacturers helped validate that Vivid Edge could print with excellent quality, maintain registration integrity, and deliver reliable diecutting and matrix stripping performance at speeds up to 500 fpm. Mactac also worked with die manufacturers to confirm improved liner strike characteristics and cleaner cutting performance compared to legacy products. Additionally, partnerships with ink suppliers helped identify compatible ink systems that support recyclability objectives, creating a more complete sustainable labeling solution for converters and brand owners. Input from recycling industry stakeholders, along with collaboration with organizations such as the APR, helped ensure the final construction would support HDPE recycling streams.

DL: Customer input was an important part of the development process. Because downgauged constructions can present different converting challenges than traditional materials, we wanted to evaluate Optiscan E under real-world converting conditions and understand how it performed across different equipment and processes. We worked with multiple converters to trial both our SCK and glassine liner constructions, evaluating key areas such as web handling, diecutting, matrix stripping, and performance at production speeds. 

L&NW: During or since testing, what evidence have you seen that the products meet the intended market need and deliver value to customers?
KH: Testing demonstrated that Vivid Edge successfully addresses many of the challenges converters experience with traditional film label constructions. The material exhibited improved tensile strength, enhanced dimensional stability, and reliable performance under higher web tensions, helping minimize stretching, tearing, wrinkling, and other converting disruptions. These improvements support more efficient operations and increased productivity on-press. Vivid Edge also performed exceptionally well during dispensing and application, delivering smooth liner release and consistent label placement across a variety of production environments. From a sustainability perspective, Vivid Edge earned APR Design for Recyclability Recognition for compatibility with natural and colored HDPE recycling streams when used with approved adhesive systems. The thinner facestock further enhances sustainability by enabling more labels per roll, reducing material usage, packaging waste, roll changes, and transportation-related impacts throughout the supply chain.

The product’s adhesive systems were designed for demanding applications and quickly develop strong bonds, even on low-surface-energy containers commonly used for beverages, motor oil, detergents, household cleaners, and other packaged goods. 

DL: The most encouraging evidence has come from real-world converter trials. Across multiple converting environments, both Optiscan E constructions demonstrated the ability to run successfully at production speeds, with positive results in key areas such as diecutting, matrix stripping, and overall web handling. These trials have given us confidence that Optiscan E can deliver the benefits of a thinner construction while maintaining the converting performance customers need. That balance is critical to the Optiscan E value proposition. 

L&NW: How do you see these products evolving to meet future demands?
KH: We see Vivid Edge as an important platform for continued innovation in film labeling. As brand owners increasingly prioritize circular packaging strategies, source reduction, and operational efficiency, demand will continue to grow for label solutions that deliver both sustainability and high-performance converting capabilities.

Mactac plans to expand the Vivid Edge portfolio with additional adhesive options tailored to a broader range of applications and end-use environments. We are also exploring further downgauging opportunities through even thinner facestocks, enabling greater material reduction while maintaining the strength, stability, and converting performance customers expect. As packaging and recycling technologies continue to evolve, we anticipate ongoing advancements in recyclability, material optimization, and compatibility with emerging packaging formats. 

DL: We see Optiscan E as an important addition to Mactac’s thermal transfer portfolio and a platform for continuing to respond to the changing needs of the variable information market. As converters and end users place greater emphasis on productivity, material efficiency, sustainability, and total delivered cost, we expect those factors to continue influencing product development. Going forward, customer feedback will remain central to how we evaluate opportunities to build on the Optiscan E platform.