Trace every label roll from face stock and liner to die, core and customer reorder.

A label printer buys wide master rolls of paper, film or foil face stock with adhesive and liner, and sells narrow rolls of finished labels. Between the two sit plates or digital files, a die, a core size, an unwind position and a count per roll, and the customer’s applicator is fussy about every one. One wrong choice jams the head.

Label printing software records the master roll used, the die and cylinder fitted, the colours run and the labels wound on each core. It keeps artwork, the signed proof and the repeat specification together, so a reorder gives the same label as before. Same liner, same unwind.

A food brand reorders ten thousand labels with a lot code that changes on each batch. The estimator opens the earlier job, confirms the face stock, adhesive and die, and quotes by the thousand. Prepress makes the flexo plate or digital file and sends a proof. Once the proof is signed, a job bag follows with the stock, the unwind position and the roll count.

On the press, the operator fits the master roll, the anilox or digital head and the magnetic cylinder. Colour is matched to the signed proof against a spectrophotometer reading, and a first-off is approved. Rolls are rewound onto cores, counted and labelled, and the matrix skeleton is weighed. Cartons leave with a delivery note. The die returns to its rack with a fresh impression count.