Self-adhesive Labels Rolls Basics

Brief Introduction

Choose NanYun Label Applicator, the label rolls outside diameter, core size and neccessary rewind direction are important. This blog is dedicated to label basics and what to know when ordering label rolls for our labeling equipment.

A self-adhesive label is made up of a few basic parts: a facestock and an adhesive on a liner, produced on a roll. 

1. Facestock

The part of the label we print on, also the part of the label your customers will see. The most common material used as a facestock for pressure sensitive labels are paper, film, and foil.

2. Adhesive

This is of course the sticky part of a pressure sensitive label. The adhesive will remove easily from the liner for easy application to your product or container. There are a few types of adhesives: all temperature, cold temperature, permanent, and removable. These types of labels are called self adhesive or pressure sentive because the adhesive is a part of the label– they do require the addition of glue for application to your container, just like a sticker. 

3. Liner / Carrier

Also called the carrier or backing, for pressure sensitive labels it is most commonly a brown kraft color paper, and it has a special coating that allows your labels to be easily removed.

4. Top Coating

The top coating is the final protective layer applied to your labels, if desired. Some top coatings are visible, like glossy or matte coatings, and can be used as another element of your label design. Others are not visible and are purely functional, protecting the facestock from damage.

5. Core

The core is the sturdy cardboard center of a label roll. Just like a roll of paper towels, when you reach the end of your label liner only the core will remain. Depending on the label application equipment you use, the core will be either 1-inch or 3-inches in diameter. All our NanYun Adhesive sticker labeling machine for core size are 3 inches, meaning 76mm inner diameter. 

6. Rolls size matters

The size of each label roll is known to as th Outside Diameter, or "O.D.", often suggests ranging from 280mm to 300mm. 

7. Understanding Rewind

When your labels are printed they go on a roll. There are 8 possible orientations for the labels related to how they go onto the final roll. 

The "rewind direction" refers to which way the label printing is "right side up" as you unroll your labels to apply them to your products.

Why is this important? Rewind direction is critical for semi-automatic and full automatic labeling machine applied labels. The labeling equipment you will use specified a rewind direction between 1 and 8, and thats the number your rolls must be produced with to be compatible with our NanYun brand label applicator.