Why Hot Foil Stamping Helps Packaging To Shine

Differentiation. It’s what every brand owner wants for their product, but in increasingly crowded markets, it is becoming harder and harder to achieve.

Brand owners know that packaging is the key differentiator on the shelf, and special finishing techniques – such hot foil stamping and thermal embossing – can elevate their product compared to others, and provide consumers with a visual shortcut to the quality of what’s inside.There is no doubt about the value of embellishments like cold stamping foil. According to a study by the Foil & Specialty Effects Association (FSEA), hot foil stamping and other similar enhancements on product packaging can help attract consumer attention faster and keep attention longer than ordinary packaging. In another study of disposable single-serve coffee packaging, the packaging with gold foil attracted the study participants’ attention 2.5 times faster than the control packaging.

“These machines have seen some remarkable advances in recent years,” said Jacques Reymond. “For example, normally, hot stamping foil for paper requires several passes through the machine – the printing, then the enhancement, then the cutting. That’s a lot of movement on the sheet registration. But BOBST integrated a power register in MASTERFOIL 106 PR that overcame that. We are always looking to evolve.”BOBST: The hot foil stamping pioneers With more than fifty years of experience in the design and manufacture of foil stamping machines, BOBST has constantly been at the forefront of advances in this technology. From the BOBST SP 1260 BM of the 1960s, through to today’s highly sophisticated equipment, flat bed BOBST presses have pushed forward the boundaries of the hot stamping foil for plastic process. “With over fifty years’ experience in the hot foil stamping market, and several thousand installations worldwide, BOBST is a pioneer in the area,” said Jacques Reymond. “We are well known for providing equipment that is long lasting, and made for high productivity, precision and quality. And we never get complacent; we are always moving forward, always looking to the future to find new ways to improve productivity for our customers.”Foil stamping on plastic sheeting continues to be a popular application. What are some of the precautions that should be taken when hot stamping foil for label plastic on a plastic surface?