No other material matches the advantages of TOPAS® COC for shrink film manufacturing. We offer a family of crystal clear TOPAS® COC resins so you can tune your shrink curve to meet your customers’ precise requirements. And while shrinkage can be as high as PETG or cPET, shrink stress is surprisingly low – a real plus for delicate or downgauged applications.
We offer a range of crystal clear TOPAS COC polymers with thermal behavior enabling film makers to customize their shrink behavior. Both shrink temperature range and total shrinkage can be customized using TOPAS COC in combination with polyolefin layers such as PE or PP.
For shrink label packaging, TOPAS resins are the right choice for high-performance sleeves with exceptional design flexibility. The sparkle and clarity enhance the appearance of any item, while providing appearance similar to other shrink and roll-fed labels. The polymer is stiff, which is important for sleeving, and becomes exceptionally tough after orientation for enhanced product security. Solvent seams are consistent and strong, and COC polymer is noted for excellent print treatment retention. The density of polyolefin-based (PE or PP) sleeve labels enhanced with COC is low enough to float even with multiple ink layers, so there is no need to make graphic design compromises. Multiple leading manufacturers offer COC-enhanced olefin shrink solutions that will work for you.
Floating shrink sleeve labels are an excellent choice for any brand looking to provide more eco-friendly packaging to its customers. As consumers are more conscious about sustainable products than ever before, sourcing labels made with eco-friendly TOPAS plastics is a great way to keep customers happy. Some specific benefits of our film include:
PET bottle recycling is a fact of life, and it’s imperative to do a good job of label removal in the recycling process. Unlike previous shrink sleeve plastics, TOPAS COC enables label manufacturers to make low density, flotation-separable labels that meet APR and EPBP/Recyclass guidelines. Be part of the sustainability solution – choose TOPAS resins for your sleeves.
Another growing use of floatable polyolefin sleeve labels is for PE or PP containers such as yogurt cups or dairy bottles. Because the label is of the same resin family, with a similar density, the label can be recycled right along with the container. Unlike the clear PET recycling stream, PE and PP recycle streams comprise many colored containers and tend to be opaque, so color introduced by label inks is not typically an issue and label separation is unnecessary.
Shrink sleeve labels created using TOPAS plastic resins are designed so the package can be easily recycled after use. These eco-friendly labels help your business establish sustainable credibility and reduce producer responsibility fees based on recyclability.
In polyethylene terephthalate (polyester, or PET) bottle recycling, labels are most commonly separated from bottles via flotation. This is true for most traditional PET bottles, which have for decades been labeled with oriented polypropylene (OPP) non-shrink labels. OPP floats, while PET sinks, and standard recycling processes rely on this difference to make a clean and reliable separation of the two plastics. Bottles are shredded, labels and all, then the PET bottle and label flakes are sent to a water bath to allow a simple separation of the two materials.
Until recently, shrink labels were only made with plastics that sink like PET. This resulted in the label plastic, including any ink on the label, contaminating the PET flake after flotation separation. Now, TOPAS® COC-based technology allows the production of all-polyolefin shrink sleeves that float, so shrink-sleeved bottles can be recycled exactly the same way as the majority of PET bottles labeled with non-shrink films. Compatibility with the standard separation process allows your bottle to be fully recyclable, helping your business reach environmental sustainability goals, meet recycling targets, and help brand owners meet economic goals for the company.
COC-based shrink sleeves are also useful to simplify polyethylene and polypropylene (PE and PP, collectively polyolefin) container recycling. Since conventional shrink sleeves are denser than water, but PE and PP are not, flotation separation has been necessary for shrink sleeved polyolefin bottles, whereas PE or PP bottles labeled with oriented PP (e.g. in-mold labels) are recycled more directly since the label can be included in the recyclate with no separation required. With floatable sleeves, the behavior is the same as OPP and the label can generally be included in the container recyclate without separation (please always verify with the label supplier, as they validate the films they supply).
A shrink sleeve is a heat-sensitive tube-shaped plastic film with openings on the top and bottom in order to create a sleeve. The sleeve is placed over a product, typically a bottle, and then heat is applied to it. Once the heat is applied to the shrink sleeve, it will begin to shrink and compress to the product’s shape.
After a shrink sleeve is placed around a bottle, heat is applied to the plastic until the sleeve has decreased diameter to make a snug fit against the bottle.
In order to shrink a shrink sleeve, heat is applied to the sleeve. This is typically done through the use of hot air or steam. Many companies make hardware for this purpose.
Shrink sleeves removed from PET bottles can be sent to many plastic recyclers as long as the shrink sleeve is made of recyclable material, such as our TOPAS COC polymer in combination with polyolefins. More importantly, the use of such sleeves enables contoured PET bottles labeled with these sleeves to be easily recycled in standard PET recycling facilities with no changes to the facility or equipment required, and no risk of water contamination. For polyolefin containers, our customers report that their COC-based labels can be recycled with the container, with no separation needed.
Bottles and containers that are not perfectly cylindrical in shape may need a shrink sleeve so that the labeling hugs the bottle, rather than dangling loosely or presenting a saggy appearance. Meanwhile, the demand for shaped or contoured bottles is growing, as these types of containers tend to attract consumer attention and boost sales. Sleeve labels now account for about 20% of all label film sales worldwide, up from single digits in the not too distant past.
Thank you very much for your interest in TOPAS COC. You may contact us at the locations below, or via the form.