Keep every label job tied to its face stock, adhesive, die and print proof.

A label printer sells small flat items by the million, wound on cores. The material is a sandwich of face stock, adhesive and a silicone liner, and each combination behaves differently on the press and on the customer’s applicator. Narrow web presses print, varnish, foil and die-cut in one pass, so a fault at any station travels with the web until someone stops the press. A single wrong barcode ruins an entire reel. Reprints cost the printer twice.

Software for label printers keeps the specification, the material lot and the die with the job from proof to roll label. Planners see each press and its inline stations as one queue, and prepress staff see which artwork and which barcode data were approved for the job. Quality staff see which inspection result belongs to which reel, and sales staff see what was quoted for a repeat order, the material used and the die.

A customer sends artwork, a label size, a material and a quantity, such as a food label on a freezer-grade adhesive or a shipping label on thermal stock. Prepress prepares plates or a digital file, proofs the colour and checks barcodes and variable data. The estimator prices by material area, press time, die and finishing. Stores issues reels of face stock by width and adhesive type, and the planner books the flexo or digital press that has the stations for varnish, foil and die-cutting.

The press prints, varnishes or foils, die-cuts and strips the matrix waste in a single pass, while the operator watches the web for drift. Operators inspect the web for colour, register and barcode grade, and an inspection station or camera rejects any fault it finds before the roll is rewound. Then the roll is labelled. Rolls are rewound onto cores with the unwind direction and labels per roll that the customer’s applicator needs. Core sizes differ by customer. Every splice is marked on the roll. Counts are checked before labelling. The packing list carries the job number, the quantity per roll and the roll count. Applicators reject rolls wound the wrong way.