Avery Dennison strengthens its leadership with global research, smart labels and sustainability
The historic self-adhesive materials giant is moving toward the future by betting on deep skills and clear visions, which speak to us more and more about people, supply chains and ecosystems
Self-adhesive materials are part of our daily lives, even more so than we think. Who doesn’t remember their first sticker album with a hint of nostalgia? And who would give up the pleasure of admiring and touching the label of their favorite wine?
By transferring seemingly trivial information to us, labels can make a huge difference. As consumers, we are used to having safe, sometimes even rewarding, interaction with labels. So, converters are constantly being called upon to give effective solutions to brand owners and creatives.
Not everyone knows that self-adhesive labels were invented in 1935 by Ray Stanton Avery. And, it was the small company he started with a $100 loan that became the current Avery Dennison: a $7.1 billion giant, offering everything from apparel labels to radio frequency tags and from anti-counterfeiting solutions to high-performance adhesive tapes.
Eager to discover the company’s products, innovations and future strategies, we visited its European headquarters in Oegstgeest (The Netherlands), which is also home to its main research and development center.
Performance comes from scientific research
Our journey to discover Avery Dennison begins at the Application Lab. “Here we validate new projects, recreating the application conditions specified by clients,” explains Patrick de Vries, Senior Lab Technician. “My specialty is pharmaceutical packaging, an area where no mistakes are allowed. A label applied to a blood bag, for example, must withstand repeated heating and cooling cycles, humidity, and centrifugal force, without peeling off or making wrinkles or bubbles, and always being perfectly legible.” Many of the tests carried out in the Application Lab involve advanced adhesive materials, such as those designed to highlight attempts to tamper with the packaging. The laboratory also thoroughly tests self-adhesive materials for seemingly simpler applications, such as labels for bottles of alcohol or personal care products. Critical issues in this area may arise from the curvature of the substrate, the countless chemical compositions and surface characteristics of the containers, and the product’s storage and usage conditions. To simulate each variable, Avery Dennison’s technicians have an extensive materials library, which includes hundreds of models of all sizes, shapes and materials.
Particular care is taken to verify the sustainability of all self-adhesive materials produced by the company. Avery Dennison has long invested in the development of materials that are easily removable from the container to which they are applied and are recyclable themselves. An example of this is the unique and award-winning CleanFlake technology, developed by Avery Dennison to simplify the recycling of PET containers. As is well-known, the recycling process is often compromised by the labels applied to the containers. CleanFlake is a special water-based adhesive that allows the label to be perfectly separated from the container without leaving a trace and without requiring any special additional operations.
The laboratory also tests adhesives for resealable packs, such as those for wipes and sausages in bags. Here, the greatest challenge is to develop an adhesive that is compatible with both the container and its contents. “After analyzing the components of the product to be packaged, we cross-reference the information collected with that contained in our database of fronts and adhesives,” explains de Vries. “So, we can quickly identify the ideal materials for that specific application.”
In the laboratory, there are tools of all kinds to investigate the behavior of self-adhesive materials in the most varied circumstances. Using tensile testers, technicians determine the tensile and tearing strength of the materials and verify the adhesion strength of the adhesives. Using another special device, they analyze the detachment resistance of labels applied on cylindrical surfaces. This device rotates one or more objects to be analyzed and detects any points (even invisible to the human eye) where the label could detach from the surface on which it is applied. A compact climatic chamber allows the laboratory team to study the behavior of facestocks, adhesives and finished labels in particular climatic conditions. To carry out similar studies while simulating extreme conditions and longer time periods, the company has a special Aging Lab, equipped with seven additional climatic chambers. In this laboratory, the researchers also test products that must guarantee similar behavior under all environmental conditions, such as Band-Aids. “We have laboratories in North America, France, Belgium, but this is the most advanced and the largest. Here we manage most of the European projects and we are structured to allow researchers to carry out several activities at the same time,” concludes de Vries.
Finally, the Application Lab is equipped with a small-scale spreader to test hot melt adhesives, and it works closely with the Printing Lab to test the compatibility of materials with the most popular printing technologies.
Finding “evidence” to refine and innovate
In the Physical & Analytical Lab we meet Nicoline Hermans, Senior Analytical Specialist: “Our work is comparable to the work of CSI. The difference is that we don’t look for evidence of a crime, but what doesn’t work in a product and how to improve it. With our tools, we can analyze every part of a label and the material on which it will be applied. Many people think that attaching a label to a glass vial is simple, but it’s not. The glass of a pharmaceutical vial is different from that of a window or a bottle.” This lab’s activities enable Avery Dennison to offer effective responses to all areas where security and anti-counterfeiting are top priorities.
Sharing knowledge for a global R&D process
Since July 2018, Pascale Wautelet has led Avery Dennison’s global research and development in labels and graphic materials — a division that involves 300 professionals worldwide. “As soon as I joined the company, I realized that, to become a truly international R&D organization, it would be important to stimulate greater collaboration between our laboratories around the world,” explains Wautelet. “So, we created a virtual network that connects our teams of researchers and technicians.” Within the network, each team has a specific area of expertise, within which they try to anticipate market needs. But being in constant connection with the other teams allows researchers to acquire information faster as well as accelerate innovation and the release of new products. “We have changed the way we conceive research and development, including the profile of the personnel involved,” continues Wautelet. “While we used to rely exclusively on pure scientists who spent their entire working life in laboratories, nowadays we also rely on professionals with different profiles who are exposed to operational, marketing or sales functions. We want our research and development staff to be ‘immersed in the ecosystem,’ attentive to megatrends, industry challenges and changes in customer behavior. The world and technology are changing rapidly. We must adapt, using internal resources, collaborating with other companies (start-ups, consortia, partner suppliers, universities), or through acquisitions and joint ventures.”
Between eco-design and bottom-up ideas, sustainability is a priority
As mentioned, Avery Dennison is strongly committed to the environment and is one of the 100 most sustainable companies in the United States. “We develop new products to be greener than their predecessors,” says Jan ‘t Hart, Senior Marketing Director Innovation and Sustainability, “a goal we achieve by following the principles of eco-design: use of clean energy and production practices, as well as countless other measures.” The team of researchers focused on sustainability, based in Europe and led by Hart, has a global responsibility and addresses the issue from all possible angles. Last year, sustainability was also one of the topics of Imagine — Avery Dennison’s program that allows employees to share ideas about possible improvements in corporate life. More than 140 proposals were collected and over 90% of them were adopted in practice.
Toward the smart label
Avery Dennison estimates that the market for RFID products in 2020 will be $13.4 billion, up from $11 billion in 2018. “It’s unparalleled growth in the labeling industry, and it creates tremendous opportunities for us, for converters and for the industry as a whole,” says Tony Fazhev, Product Manager Intelligent Labels.
Avery Dennison is a leading developer and manufacturer of UHF and NFC RFID inlays. UHF RFID technology is already widely used nowadays in logistics and baggage tracking in the air transport industry. For these applications, Avery Dennison also offers the hardware and software needed to implement the entire solution.
“The future lies in cashier-less stores, such as Amazon Go, and interactive NFC labels, capable of delivering marketing campaigns, digital content and augmented reality,” concludes Fazhev. “We are taking important steps forward in reducing the cost of manufacturing RFID inlays so that they can also be used for cheaper products and increase their popularity.”
To demonstrate its RFID-based innovations, Avery Dennison has created a space called I.Lab inside the Oegstgeest Customer Experience Center. It features a detailed reproduction of various environments in which RFID technology is having or will have a significant impact in the coming years. It is here that the company welcomes forward-thinking customers and brand owners, ready to revolutionize their way of managing stores and warehouses (to give just a couple of examples).
