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Igloo Products Corp. Enhances Cooler Designs with Trendy Printed Shrink Sleeves from Alcoa Packaging
Igloo Products Corp., known for bringing innovative design to its line of food and beverage coolers, introduced Igloo Pop Art™ 1 quart and ½ gallon beverage coolers in stylish 4 - 6 color reverse printed 60 micron PVC shrink sleeves from Alcoa Packaging.
Reverse printed, full body shrink sleeves, renowned for grabbing customer attention and for form-fitting uniquely shaped containers, are increasingly being utilized for non-beverage consumer goods. Igloo, a company recognized for continuously energizing its best-selling brand of coolers, adopted this same technology for their new line of beverage coolers. The five different label designs, including Igloo's own tropical flower and sports theme designs plus three trendy, "retro" plaid designs, developed specifically for Target Stores, are reverse printed at Alcoa Packaging's Downingtown Printing Plant in Downingtown, PA. The interesting colors and graphics delight the eye and fit with most any outdoor event/picnic theme.
Pop ArtTM is the first personal beverage cooler line to incorporate customized design and graphics using PVC shrink sleeve technology. "An emerging consumer trend involves demand for customization," explained Larry Baab, Senior Vice President of Marketing and New Product Development for Igloo. "Pop Art TM beverage coolers have personality, and we have added new designs for 2004."
The Alcoa Packaging shrink sleeves are applied to the outer core of the cooler on a PDC- Europe sleeve labeling machine, then the inner section of the cooler is inserted. "This particular application process provided interesting challenges to PDC-Europe," stated Alcyr Coelho, PDC-Europe's Vice President, Marketing & Sales for the Americas. "First, never before had full body shrink sleeves been applied on such large containers, and Igloo's semi-automatic manufacturing process required some re-engineering to ensure the shrink sleeve application was efficiently accomplished." In order to apply the shrink sleeves, PDC-Europe converted one of their traditional stretch sleevers to apply shrink sleeves. An on-line perforator was fitted on the equipment and a special extra large hot-air tunnel with a rotating container capability was designed.
To accommodate Igloo's semi-automatic manufacturing process, PDC-Europe set up a loop conveyor with pucks capable of handling the two sizes. Operators place the empty container upside down on the pucks and the product is taken through the sleever and rotating hot-air tunnel. The sleeved container is then removed manually from the pucks and is placed in the queue for the remaining insulation and assembly process.
Alcoa Packaging, based in Richmond, Virginia, manufactures a variety of packaging materials including extrusion and adhesive laminated pouch materials, overwraps and linerstock, blister lidding foil, thermoformed trays, cable wrap, plastic shrink sleeve body labels, shrink film and laminated foil. These packaging materials serve the world's leading consumer products manufacturers within the pharmaceutical, medical, food & beverage, and flexiblepackaging markets.
Alcoa is the world's leading producer of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum and alumina, and is active in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation and flexiblepackaging markets, bringing design, engineering, production and other capabilities of Alcoa's businesses as a single solution to customers. In addition to aluminum products and components, Alcoa also markets consumer brands including Reynolds Wrap® aluminum foil, Alcoa® wheels, and Baco® household wraps. Among its other businesses are vinyl siding, closures, precision castings, and electrical distribution systems for cars and trucks. The company has 120,000 employees in 41 countries.
Houston-based Igloo Products Corp. is the world's leading manufacturer of personal and full size ice chests, beverage coolers, soft sided coolers and thermoelectric coolers. In 2001, Igloo was acquired by Westar Capital, a California-based venture capital firm. For more information on Igloo Products Corp., visit our website at www.igloocoolers.com.
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