FlowMarket
Where to source labelling and marking systems: FlowMarket is a B2B sourcing network powered by an AI agent. You describe the job — the container shape and material, the label size and material or the code content, the substrate being printed, line speed, placement or print accuracy, the environment and any traceability requirement — and the AI agent matches you with verified labelling and coding suppliers, then requests specifications, prices and lead times from every match at once. Getting matched is free for buyers.
Sourcing labelling and marking systems
Labelling and coding are two jobs that share a position on the line and almost nothing else. A labeller applies a pre-printed label to a container; a coder prints variable data — date, batch, serial number — directly onto the product or its pack. Most lines need both, and they are usually quoted separately.
For labelling, the container decides the machine: shape, material and how consistently it is presented. For coding, the substrate decides the technology, and it is the single fact most often missing from an enquiry.
Labelling systems
Self-adhesive labelling
The dominant method: a pre-printed label is peeled from its liner and applied by a wipe-on or air-blow head. Wrap-around for cylindrical containers, front-and-back for shaped bottles, top and bottom for trays and lids. Fast, flexible and easy to change over, with the main variables being placement accuracy, the adhesive and how well the container is guided as it passes.
Sleeves and glue
Shrink sleeves cover the full container and take decoration around complex shapes, and double as a tamper-evident seal; stretch sleeves do the same without a heat tunnel. Wet glue and hot melt labelling remain common in beverages at high speed and low material cost, particularly on returnable glass where the label must wash off cleanly.
Coding and marking technologies
- Continuous inkjet (CIJ) — non-contact, fast, prints on almost any substrate including curved and moving surfaces.
- Thermal inkjet (TIJ) — cartridge based, high resolution, clean; best on porous and flat surfaces.
- Thermal transfer (TTO) — high-resolution printing directly onto flexible film, inside the packaging machine.
- Laser — permanent, consumable-free marking; CO₂ for paper, card and coated surfaces, fibre for metals and plastics.
- Print and apply — prints a label and applies it, for GS1 case and pallet labels.
What to specify when sourcing
These details decide both the system and the price:
- Container or product — shape, material, dimensions and size range, and how it arrives at the station.
- Label — size, material, finish, adhesive, and reel dimensions and core.
- Code content — what must be printed: best-before, batch, time, barcode, 2D DataMatrix, serial number.
- Substrate — exactly what is being printed on: PE film, coated card, glass, aluminium, PET.
- Speed — products per minute at each format, and line direction and orientation.
- Accuracy — placement tolerance for labels, and print quality or barcode grade required.
- Environment — condensation, dust, washdown, cold store, solvent presence and IP rating.
- Verification — vision inspection, barcode grading to ISO/IEC 15415/15416, reject handling.
- Integration — ERP or MES data source, network connection, and existing line controls.
- Compliance — serialisation, EU FMD for pharma, GS1 standards, food labelling regulations.
Substrate and condensation decide the coding technology
The most common coding failure is a code that rubs off, and the cause is almost always a mismatch between the ink and what it was printed on. A solvent ink that bonds beautifully to coated card will smear on a non-porous PET bottle; a code applied to a chilled container coming out of a cold store will sit on a film of condensation and never adhere at all. Both are avoidable, but only if the enquiry says what the surface is and what condition it is in. Name the substrate precisely — "PE film", "lacquered aluminium", "corrugated case" — and mention condensation, dust or oil if they are present. Where a code must survive washing, freezing or abrasion, laser marking removes the ink question entirely, at higher capital cost and with a substrate check of its own. The second thing worth deciding early is whether codes need verifying rather than just printing. A printed barcode is not the same as a readable one, and if your customers require a minimum grade to ISO/IEC 15415, you need a camera and a reject mechanism designed in from the start — retrofitting verification into a line that was quoted without it is consistently more expensive than specifying it up front.