The Ravenwood Com500 coater is the only machine dedicated to running Ravenwood linerless labels. In this blog update we reveal the workings and processes for producing this type of label.

What is Linerless?

A linerless label is a pre-printed pressure sensitive label that does not feature liner or backing paper. The labels are wound on a roll and feature a silicone strip applied to the top, to prevent the adhesive from the underside sticking to the label below. A coating machine applies the adhesive and silicone, the process which makes a label ‘linerless’.

Com500 Coater Functionality

Standing at 4 metres wide by 2 metres deep and 2.7 metres high, the Com500 coater is suitably imposing. The coater is designed and manufactured in the UK to work in accordance with Ravenwoods’ Linerless system. The primary purpose of the machine is to apply silicone and hot melt adhesive to pre-printed labels, therefore resulting in a ‘linerless’ label. Variable line widths are achieved including the functionality to match up to 12 different glue application heads. Furthermore, the coater can also slit and rewind multiple lanes into finished reels, attainable in just one pass at speeds of 135 metres per minute. Once the silicone and adhesive are applied, the oxygen controlled inert chamber rapidly cures the reel by way of UV. And it’s this process that’s considered the most important aspect for delivering high quality linerless labels, aside from glue and silicone quality. The finished reels are then wound on the ‘three shaft turreting system’ to the customer’s required configuration.

Com500 Operation

The The HMI (Human Machine Interface) makes for easy to navigate screens so operating the Com500 is simple and concise. The dashboard controls the number of glue lines, glue weight, meterage on a completed reel including length and tension.

Linerless Application

The final stage of the linerless process sees the coated labels applied to food packs with our Nobac 500 applicators. The Nobac 500 is our flagship applicator and was the first prototype to go into production when Ravenwood was founded back in 2004. Today’s ‘500’ is still based on the same design but due to shifts in buyer behavior and food packaging trends, we’ve steadily evolved with many machine variants now available. Over the years, the 500 has diversified and is capable of applying a multitude of different linerless label formats. Furthermore, we can adapt or create linerless labels to suit many packaging challenges on a range of materials including paper, film and card from 170 – 300gsm.

Call Brian today for Com500 coater machine quotes and lead times on +44(0)1284 749144. We’re also happy to undertake R&D including contract coating at our Ravenwood HQ in Suffolk.

Visit our dedicated coating page on our new website.

Ravenwood Com500 Coater