This time of the year in "label land" you could be forgiven for feeling like an early Santa, you know how the story goes. "He's making a list, and checking it twice"! That's the reality in preparation for the upcoming kiwifruit season and ensuring everything is on track.
The first items on my list are bin labels. 'Tick', they're all done and delivered. Our printing and production partners SATO NZ have yet again delivered to schedule, and got several hundred thousand bin labels all out to fulfill the initial season orders. Of course, it's not just about kiwifruit either, the blueberry, kiwiberry, passionfruit and stone fruit packaging labels have all been done. Citrus bag tags are in production, preparation for the persimmon season is in the works, and of course ElastiTags for the 365 day crops like spring onion and celery are a revolving and repeating wave.
Jenkins Freshpac has been getting ready for seasons since 1883. That's a lot of time to learn and improve - important qualities when you are a business that is based predominantly in the horticulture sector.
Now, on to other areas.
Do you know the difference between Thermal Transfer or Thermal Direct?
Direct thermal printing occurs when heat is used to activate pigment in the substrate or a material (a label in this instance) and it turns black. This is the technology that’s used to print eftpos receipts. This type of print tends not to last for long, and is susceptible to fading in heat (just think about how a receipt deteriorates in your car during summer). So you can use this for short-term applications such as shipping labels or weigh scale labels.
Thermal transfer printing uses a heated ribbon to transfer an image to a substrate. It’s generally used when a label needs to last for a longer period, such as labels that are used on official records’ labels that might be on products for an extended period of time, or labels that may be exposed to heat in warehouse.