Need help putting down "clear" labels

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Hi All.

We often design and print "clear" labels for bottles, jars, tubes, etc. We print on a sheet-fed press on 2-mil adhesive polyethylene material. When we place the labels on the bottles we still see a light haze on the clear areas no matter how hard we burnish them down. An off-the-shelf product, on the other hand, has an almost completely invisible label. (I'm fairly certain they use some sort of heat process to get those suckers on.) Someone once suggested we use a touch of Windex on the bottle prior to labeling. This actually did give us a clear label, however, it killed the adhesion.

Does anyone have any ideas how to better get these labels on so that we won't see any haze?

Thank You

 

[Dan Roll]

I would remove the adhesive from a label and see if it remains clear when in contact with the bottle. If it is clear, try a substrate with a different adhesive

 

[dkelley]

I wouls try to wipe the bottle down with some IPA Alcohol before appling the label

 

[sceptical munro]

It sounds like your printing the clear labels Litho as you mentione sheet fed . I doubt this is ideal for polyutherane , perhaps a good test would be to get your file printed on large format inkjet printer with eco-solvent inks on appropriate substrate and even test on flexo if the run justifies it.

 

[Alith7]

My hubby and I just had this discussion. Use regular rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle. It won't dissolve the adhesive, but will still give you the same "float" technique that windex does