Integrated products have been in the market for around fifteen years. Companies wanted to use less sheet label products and merge a sheet of paper with a label built into the form. Initially this was achieved on a web-finishing machine when a roll of sticky tape material was applied to the carrier sheet and die cut to create the first “sesam” label.
This seemingly small technological step lead to a market in the United Kingdom today worth many millions of pounds. With the advent of the internet mail order boom, this has led to these products being used as pick and pack notes with complete data integrity, as all the lasered data is added to the sheet and the label in one printing process.
Many improvements have been made to the laminates which form the self adhesive label, and the stability through all kinds of printing media has been improved using the latest pre-print paper grades combined with low moisture water based adhesives. Other adhesives can be used such as Hot Melt, which is a similar glue to that found in the spine of books or pads. Although this is a less costly option care should be taken when using this method so as not to contaminate fusing rollers in high speed lasers, as it has a lower melt point than the water based product.
Following on from the success of Integrated Labels came new Polyester film products, which allowed the manufacture of high quality integrated cards. The advantage of this document combination is that the card is die cut from the pre-printed form enabling easy release. As they are printed at the same time, they also provide a consistent colour match between card and carrier. Integrated cards and labels have no raised surface so they run smoothly on a wide range of laser and other printers. Companies can laser personalise or barcode these documents through conventional machines by adjusting settings (commonly to a thicker paper setting), therefore raising the fusing temperature within the laser. The laminates can be chosen to suit the application and most are signature compatible after this process.
Laminate ranges are greatly varied these days and although the aforementioned products form the bulk of the United Kingdom market, parking permits, reply envelopes, pay slips and many other promotional pieces are now available.
In short, integrated machines can cope with pretty much any product you can think of from a fairly simple delivery note to a full-blown mailing piece used regularly by blue chip companies. Virtually any configuration and shape you can think of is possible with an integrated card or label, and both cards and labels can be formed on the same business form.
You may not know it but the last time you ordered from the internet, catalogue or received a P.I.N number from your bank, the chances are it was made using an integrated product.
