Feast the senses

24 February 2010



Surface effects that excite the senses add a sense of drama and have consumer pulling power. Joanne Hunter reports on latest technologies and design award winners in the luxury sector.


Power for brand packaging lays in multi-sensory systems that go beyond making a pack simply look good. Packaging can inspire customer loyalty by engaging all the senses through apparently moving images, sounds, smells and haptics.

The initial impact comes from a clear visual signal, but haptics - tactile surface treatment - is also important: natural material that gives a pleasant or interesting touch sensations have special appeal, for example.

Multi-sensory packaging can create additional purchase stimuli and is held in the memory for longer.

Modern embossing and stamping technology create surface effects and ensure efficient further processing. In-line printing processes in addition give a perfect registration, speed the chain of supply and can also lower the cost.

Hotfoil technology includes relief embossing to emphasise and highlight selected elements. This can combine visual and haptic effects.

Hotfoil embossing will achieve metallic effects in a variety of designs and ‘industrial perfection’ says the German print technology specialist RLC Packaging, adding that ‘unlimited’ metal effects are possible through cold foiling, which bring a new design dimension.

Metal effects via coldfoil transfer technology require no tooling costs to print any brilliant metallic colour, including filigree applications. RLC’s Liquid Metal system allows in-line finishing through the combination of flexo and offset printing with no expensive set-up costs.

The nano effect

Micro embossing for 3D effects is executed using striking lens (lenticular) and hologram processes. A registered design on a foillaminated board is overprinted through a UV process for perfect registration in the whole finishing process.

RLC’s Laser Gloss technology creates diffractive surfaces to produce high-gloss holographic finishes using UV coatings and a speciality film. The film has a nano-embossed holographic pattern. Once the UV coating is applied, the film that lies over the top of the sheet before the coating is UV dried and the film is drawn off again. As a result a holographic effect is left on the sheet.

Because there is no actual transfer of a foil or material onto the substrate, the film can be reused several times before a new film is needed. Given this, the company markets Laser Gloss as an environmentally friendly decorating process.

It can pull a shopper but also deter the counterfeiter through special techniques and as such has been tagged ‘the future of surface printing’.

A designer can accent individual areas, or use it as an overall application to highlight a package for greater visual impact. Spot, flood and custom applications give customers the flexibility of a design that suits their individual need.

Printers are being expected to meet demand for greener processes. The use of ultra-violet inks and coatings avoids harmful VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and makes packages more recyclable, says RLC, by eliminating the laminated metallised films used in traditional holographic board materials. Also, the film is reusable and fully recyclable, ‘reducing the overall cost and carbon footprint’.

Scent application

Scent is added by microencapsulation using the high-tech process of polycondensation. The process initially involves the fine dispersion in water of liquid, non-water soluble substances. Once the desired droplet size between 0.001 – 0.030mm has been reached, an extremely thin plastic skin is formed around each droplet.

The microcapsules are then collected as a powder by drying the water surrounding them. RLC, a European front-runner in perfume oil encapsulation, says microcapsules have an almost unlimited shelf life, and are resistant to pressure, temperatures up to 180degC, solvents, acids, alkali solutions and micro-organisms. They are processed further in printing inks, paints or adhesives.

The capsule contents are released in a controlled way by a mechanical effect such as rubbing, pressing, cutting and scratching.

Special finishes can be more than decorative. Intelligent use of printed security technology can be effective against brand and product piracy. Digital watermarks, cold foil transfer technology, barcode technology and holograms as well as radio frequency identification offer a galaxy of options.

Machinery maker manroland has made cold foiling speedier and more affordable. Its In-line Foiler Prindor system brings the process inline with regular printing and up to normal production speeds. This can ‘dramatically’ cut costs by removing the need for specialist expertise and niche equipment, and shortens the time to achieve a high-impact effect, says the company.


RLC’s Liquid Metal system allows inline finishing by flexo and offset printing with no expensive set-up costs RLC

RLC RLC


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