One such usage currently being tested is a label that uses specially developed inks to indicate how long a food product has been kept in a fridge since its packaging was opened.
“We all know the situation of buying a packet of food, opening it and putting the remains back in the fridge – and then forgetting how long it has been there. These new labels use special inks that work like a clock – ticking away and showing the hours, days or weeks until that food becomes unsafe to eat,” he says.
The next biggest thing in the industry is likely to be the micro-chipped label (the RFID label) that is promising a revolution in shopping logistics, he says.
“The chip will be interrogated by computers through a radio signal. Depending on its use, it will keep track of consignments, let the shopkeeper know when it has been bought by a customer – even reordering itself from the supplier – and when it arrives at the checkout will add itself to the bill without being removed from the shopping trolley. And in the computerised homes of the future, which are almost with us today, the label with the chip will revolutionise housekeeping with its ’do anything’ possibilities.
“Admittedly this futuristic view might be a few years away from becoming an every-day event but the capability is already here and the only barrier to widespread use is its cost. At the moment such a label would cost about 13-US cents. It needs to be down at 5-US cents to become viable.”
He says that while it may sound far fetched for now, “such is the rapid progress of chip technology and self-adhesive label printing innovation that costs will be slashed and the day cannot be far away when every product could carry such a label – and people will wonder how we ever managed to live without them.
“We have come from the stone age to the space age in a very short time and what would once have been thought pure science fiction is now science fact. We have got to the stage where these labels can do the thinking for you.”
He says progress in self-adhesive labels has been driven by FINAT members in Europe and US printers who have harnessed new printing materials and techniques to produce labels of every shape, size and function – even labels that appear not to be labels.
