Frequently asked questions

It depends on the structure, not on the shape. Printed rollstock and pouches usually start around 300 to 500 kg of finished film per design, shrink sleeves and labels start at a few thousand impressions, and stock cups or unprinted film can be bought by the case. Tell us the annual volume and we will quote the smallest run that still makes commercial sense for you.

Rotogravure cylinders are a one-time cost per colour per design and are engraved for your artwork alone; flexo plates cost considerably less but are replaced more often. Pouch and sleeve dies are also one-time. The tooling is yours, we store it at no charge, and it is released to you or to another converter on request.

For a new design with new tooling, plan on four to six weeks from approved artwork: about a week for prepress and proofing, a week for engraving, and the balance for printing, lamination, converting and release testing. A repeat order on existing tooling normally ships in two to three weeks.

Yes, and we would rather match a physical sample than a Pantone number. Send us the current pouch, bottle label or carton; we measure it, build a draw-down on your actual substrate and issue a signed colour target that every future run is measured against.

Both. We sell printed and laminated rollstock for your own form-fill-seal line, and we sell converted formats — stand-up pouches, retort pouches, bag-in-box bladders, sleeves, labels, cups and lids — ready to fill.

The films, inks, adhesives and sealants we specify for food work are chosen from food-contact compliant grades, and we provide the corresponding declarations and technical data sheets with the quote. For retort, hot fill and frozen applications we also state the tested temperature range in writing.

Yes. Mono-material PE and PP laminates now cover a large share of dry, frozen and ambient applications, and recycle-ready shrink sleeves exist for PET bottles. What they do not yet replace is a high-barrier retort or a very long ambient shelf life; we will tell you which of your SKUs can convert today and which cannot.

We ship from Vernon, California to Southern California docks and, for customers filling in Baja California, we deliver to your customs broker or freight forwarder at the border. Quotes, artwork and technical documentation are handled in Spanish when you prefer.

On a blanket order with a forecast, yes. We produce the annual quantity in economic runs and release against your schedule, which lowers your unit cost and keeps the film out of your warehouse.

Ask through the quote form or by phone. For standard structures we send physical samples of the film and format; for a new design we can produce a mock-up with your artwork so the sales meeting has something to hold before the tooling is committed.

Yes, when it is retort ink printed on the reverse side of the outer PET so the image sits inside the laminate rather than on the surface. Surface-printed film and standard ink systems blush, lift or scuff in a retort cycle, which is why we reverse-print every retort job as standard.

With a foil structure and a properly validated seal, eighteen to twenty-four months ambient is normal for most sterilized foods. A transparent structure typically gives nine to twelve months. The final number belongs to your shelf life study, not to us — but the barrier we supply is what makes that study possible.

A transparent or metal-free structure can, and we can add a self-venting seal so the consumer does not have to cut a corner. A foil structure cannot go in a microwave. If microwave reheating is part of your promise, tell us at the quoting stage, because it eliminates aluminium foil from the options.

Typically 300 to 500 kg of finished laminate per design, which is a large number of pouches for a single-serve size. Tooling — cylinders and pouch die — is a separate one-time cost. We will tell you the exact break point for your size on the quote.

Yes. If you run a horizontal or vertical form-fill-seal machine, we supply the printed and laminated film on rolls slit to your web width and core, with the eye mark and repeat set for your machine. Many customers buy both: rollstock for the high-volume SKU and made pouches for the small ones.

It is recycle-ready, which is the accurate word. An all-PE laminate is accepted in store drop-off polyethylene film streams in the United States; it is not accepted in most kerbside bins, because kerbside systems generally do not sort flexible film at all. We will give you the structure and let your claims team decide what can be printed on the pack.

For a printed doypack, the practical floor is normally 10,000 to 20,000 pouches per design depending on size, plus one-time tooling. Below that, digitally printed short runs are sometimes the better route and we will say so rather than quote you an uneconomic gravure job.

That depends on the bottom gusset geometry and the film stiffness, and it is exactly the kind of thing that gets discovered too late. We build sample pouches in the proposed structure and fill them with your product at your target weight before the production die is committed.

Four to six weeks is the working answer for a well-made three-litre box kept cool, because the bladder collapses and no air enters. Unopened, shelf life depends on the bladder: a metallized structure is generally sold within six to nine months, an EVOH structure carries twelve months or more.

We manufacture and supply the bladders, fit the taps and print the cases. Filling happens on your line or at a co-packer, and we regularly ship directly to co-packers in Southern California and Baja California against a single purchase order from you.

That is the point of buying both from one supplier. We measure your existing label, build a draw-down on the corrugated stock, and run the case against the same signed colour target. Matching across two substrates is never a coincidence — it has to be engineered.

It is arguably the best available format for oil, because it excludes both oxygen and light, which are the two things that turn oil rancid. Use an EVOH bladder rather than a simple metallized one, and specify a fitment rated for the viscosity and the fill temperature.

We ask you to send your actual containers. We seal them on a lab head at your machine's temperature, dwell and pressure, then measure peel force and report the number with the samples. Guessing from a resin name is how the industry produces lids that weld shut.

Yes, up to ten colours reverse-printed so the image sits under the film and cannot scuff in distribution. Small round lids need a rotational tolerance in the design; we will show you the safe area so the logo is never cut by the seal ring.

Yes, with a sealant tuned for PLA. Be aware that a PET-based lid on a PLA cup is no longer a compostable pack overall; if that is the claim you need, we will quote a paper or PLA-based lidding instead and tell you what it costs in barrier.

Reel lidding usually starts around 300 kg of printed film per design; die-cut lids are quoted per thousand and the minimum depends on diameter. Tooling for a die-cut shape is one time. We quote both routes so you can compare.

The container — ideally six to twelve physical units — plus the artwork and whether you have an applicator and tunnel. From the container we measure the largest and smallest circumferences and calculate shrink percentage and lay-flat width; everything else follows from those numbers.

A standard PETG or PVC full-body sleeve is a contaminant in the PET stream. A floatable or fully perforated recycle-compatible sleeve separates in the wash step and is designed for exactly this problem. It costs more and we will show you the difference so it is a business decision rather than an accident.

Yes — a combination sleeve carries the body decoration and a perforated band over the closure in one piece, applied in one operation. It is cheaper and faster than applying a separate neck band, and it is one less component to buy.

No. POF is polyolefin shrink film used to wrap and bundle — multipacks, trays, boxes, promotional pairs. It is generally clear or lightly printed. A shrink sleeve is a printed, seamed tube used to decorate a single container. We supply both and they are quoted differently.

It will if it is specified for it: a wet-strength face paper and an adhesive rated for wet application and cold immersion. A standard uncoated paper with a general-purpose adhesive turns to pulp at the edges within twenty minutes, which is a very expensive way to learn the difference.

Yes, and it is the reason cross-border brands work with us. We keep both versions as one job with a shared front panel so the two markets never drift apart in colour, and we handle the mandatory content in the language each market requires.

Cold foil is laid down inline before the colours, so you can print over it and create shifted metallics from a single silver foil — economical and flexible. Hot stamping is applied afterwards with heat and a metal die: brighter, sharper, and it can be combined with embossing in one sculpted pass. Wine crests are almost always hot stamped.

Yes. Digital printing covers launch quantities and seasonal variants economically, with no plate cost, and we move a design to flexo once the volume justifies it. We will tell you where that crossover sits for your artwork rather than defaulting to whichever suits us.

Yes. Plain stock cups are available by the case, and many customers buy plain cups plus printed lidding or a sleeve, which is often the cheapest route to a branded pack at moderate volume.

That is the main reason to buy them together. We seal your cup with the proposed lidding on a lab head, measure the peel force and give you both components as a tested pair rather than two hopeful purchases.

Polypropylene. PET distorts at hot-fill temperatures and PS is worse. If the product is filled hot or reheated in a microwave, the cup, the lid and the sealant all need to be rated for it, and we specify the three together.

Only at volume. A mould is a five-figure one-time cost with a long lead time. Below several million units a year, a stock cup with a distinctive sleeve almost always wins on total cost and on speed to market, and we will show you the numbers both ways.

No. Aluminium in a microwave arcs. If the product is reheated in the pack, you need a metal-free high-barrier film, and we will quote an EVOH or metallized alternative and tell you honestly what shelf life you give up.

A heat-seal lid is applied by a sealing head that presses and heats the lid onto the container rim. An induction liner sits inside a screw cap and is welded to the rim by an electromagnetic field after the cap is applied. Different equipment, different applications, both tamper evident.

Yes, up to ten colours, plus matte or gloss varnish. Foil takes ink beautifully and lets you reverse out to bright metal for a very high-contrast design, which is difficult to achieve on any other lidding substrate.

Yes — a sculpted combination die stamps and raises in one pass, which is how a wine crest or a monogram gets both the metal and the relief. It costs one die rather than two operations and the registration is perfect by definition.

A mono-material all-PP structure is recycle-ready in polypropylene film streams, and BOPP is the natural base for a mono-PP laminate. A BOPP film laminated to PET or foil is not. If recyclability is a goal, tell us early — it changes the whole structure, not just the outer web.

We supply metallized BOPP and metallized PET as part of the structures we sell. For customers who buy film only, we quote metallized rollstock printed or plain and slit to your specification.

It depends on the machine and the pack weight more than on the product. Snack flow-wrap commonly sits between 18 and 30 µm; a heavier pack or a slower machine can take a thinner film than people assume. Send us the machine and the pack weight and we will recommend a gauge and, where it is safe, a down-gauge that saves you material.

Yes. Plain BOPP, metallized BOPP and POF are available as stock rollstock slit to your width, which is often what a co-packer or a seasonal line needs without committing to printed tooling.

Yes, because we print both. The crest is one piece of artwork, run against one signed colour target, hot stamped on the capsule and printed or foiled on the label. When two suppliers do it, you get two interpretations of gold.

A micro-agglomerated technical cork is usually the rational choice: consistent oxygen transmission, very low taint risk and a lower cost than graded natural cork. Natural cork earns its premium on wines built to age for many years.

Yes, with a choice of liner, which is the part that actually determines oxygen ingress. We will discuss the liner against the style of wine rather than treating a screw cap as a single product.

We ask for physical bottles. Bore, neck diameter, finish profile and skirt length are measured on the real glass, because nominal drawings and actual glass differ by enough to make a capsule sit crooked or refuse to spin down.