Label Industry Innovators Are Winners
- Published: September 27, 2017
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM | The most innovative, creative, and commercially successful work from the label and package printing industry has been rewarded at the Label Industry Global Awards 2017. The people behind the some of the most important innovations from the past 12 months were presented with their trophies in front of more than 500 industry peers at a gala dinner held on 25 September as part of this year’s Labelexpo Europe in Brussels. Professor Tan Junqiao was announced as the winner of the prestigious R. Stanton Avery Lifetime Achievement Award, sponsored by Avery Dennison.
Professor Tan, the founder and honorary chairman of the China Label Sub Assn. of the Printing Equipment Industries Assn. of China (PEIAC). Organizer Tarsus says his passion and dedication over many years in serving and promoting the development of a modern label printing industry in China, have led to him being widely acclaimed as true pioneer and founding father of the Chinese label industry.
The Award for Innovation (for companies with more than 300 employees), sponsored by Flint Group Narrow Web was presented to HERMA for its superTack (63Vst). The judges said that product innovation has enabled HERMA to create the world’s first resin-free adhesive for labels that requires an extremely strong initial tack, making the adhesive an ideal solution for films, as well as moist, fatty, dirty, or dusty surfaces, and extending it beyond the food sector.
The Award for Innovation (for companies with up to 300 employees), also sponsored by Flint Group Narrow Web went to AIM, the trade association for the automatic identification industry. For nearly half a century, AIM reportedly has provided unbiased information, educational resources, and standards to providers and users of these technologies. AIM won for Ultracode, a process innovation that enables the automatic capture of data by any digital color camera or smartphone. The process utilizes the first international standard 2D color barcode—Ultracode—which is printable by any RGB or CMYK process color, inkjet, or toner technology. The code, together with advanced data compaction schemes and URLs, encodes data in less than half the area of a QR code using the same modular size.
ebeam Technologies took the Award for Sustainability for its Compact curing unit. The company beam designs, manufactures, and integrates electron beam (EB) technology solutions. The award was given for the company’s development of a compact EB curing system for narrow web presses that now makes low-energy, photo-initiator-free, curing accessible for label and package printing production. Said to use ½ to 1/10 of the energy required by heat, steam, chemical, microwave or UV processes, the systems are compact, vacuum-sealed, zero maintenance, and have high longevity.
Mike Fairley, chair of the judges, says, “It is through the sheer determination and tenacity of our many colleagues that our industry has continued to push the boundaries of excellence and technology to meet and exceed the challenges that we all face. Our annual awards highlight these companies and individuals and share first-class examples of the success that has been achieved in just the past 12 months. I, on behalf of the judging panel, would like to commend and congratulate our finalists and winners and thank them for giving us an excellent showcase of their spirit and commitment to the world of label printing. Their developments and innovations are helping extend the life of our wider industry, and I hope their success stories help inspire others to push ahead with our industry’s continued development and give us extra drive for improvement in the future.”
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