Hansen is also using six-color-process printing on its attractive labels for its line of Intelli-Juice juices which debuted six months ago in 64-oz heat-set PET bottles (see Packaging World, June '99, p. 2 or packworld.com/ go/hansen). Unlike the tea labels, which are printed offset, the juice labels (which consist of 60# paper adhesively laminated to 1-mil polypropylene after printing) are printed on a Comco flexographic press by Fort Dearborn's Flexible Packaging Div. When contemplating the label design, Hansen's marketing manager Steve Clark explains how he came to choose six-color process for this label. "Some tests I did indicated that with the labels printed in four-color process, I wasn't going to achieve the colors and 'pop' that I wanted on the label." Hansen's Intelli-Juice label became Fort Dearborn's first six-color process label printed via flexo. The label also includes three line colors. However, Hansen's six-color-process flexo label isn't a true representation of Fort Dearborn's HiColour(TM) process, according to Richard Adler, Jr., executive vice president. "That's because the flexo process has not been able to print the necessary resolution to make HiColour work," he says. Thus, while the colors on the Intelli-Juice labels are brighter and deeper compared to four-color process, they use conventional line screens, resulting in the familiar dot pattern typically associated with four-color process printing. However, Fort Dearborn expects that will change in the near future. "We believe we're close to making flexo-based HiColour a reality." Why not simply print the labels via offset? "To run a sheet-fed label and laminate it off-line is cost-prohibitive," says Clark. The flexo process allows Fort Dearborn to print, laminate and trim in a single in-line process. The laminating step helps prevent label tears during distribution, which can result in unsaleable bottles.
