Useful Information

PACKAGING TERMINOLOGY:

Thermoforming: Also named Vacuum forming. The process of shaping a plastic sheet by heating the sheet and withdrawing the air between the sheet and mould.
PVC: Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) – Polyvinyl chloride.
PP: Polypropylene (PP)
PE: Polyethylene (PE)
PET: Polyester / Polyethylene Terephtalate (PET)
High frequency sealed blister: Also called ultrasonic sealed blister, high frequency welded blister. The two blister halves are joined by high-frequency (HF) welding. The resulting joint can only be broken with a knife or scissors. Hence, HF welded blisters are perfect for heavy products and items attractive to shoplifters.
Heat sealed blister: The blister is sealed to the blister card by using heat and pressure. The card has a heat-activated coating.
Trapped blister: Also called captured blister. The blister is placed between two pieces of cardboard sealed together. Two single blisters can be used, to make the product visible from both front and back of the packaging. This design has great promotional value as the contents are clearly visible. It is also attractive for environmental reasons, because the packaging components (plastic and cardboard) can be separated completely and it uses much less plastic than similar size HF sealed blister.
Corrugate: Corrugate material is made from paper made of cellulose fibers. The board consists of formed fluting that is faced with a liner on both sides. Corrugated board consists of one or more sheets of fluted paper adhered to one or more liner papers. The manufacturing process requires at least two layers of paper, very high humidity (steam), glue and heating only, that’s why corrugated is treated as environmental friendly product.
Flutes: Arches in the corrugated carton are known as flutes, they resist bending and pressure from all directions, capable of supporting a great deal of weight. When pressure is applied to the side of the board, the space in between the flutes acts as a cushion to protect the container’s contents. At the same time, the vertical liner board provides more strength and protects the flutes from damage. Flutes come in several standard shapes or flute profiles (A, B, C, E, F, etc.). A-flute was the first to be developed and is the largest common flute profile. B-flute was next and is much smaller. C-flute followed and is between A and B in size. E-flute is smaller than B and F-flute is smaller yet.
Single-wall carton: This is a corrugated fiberboard carton made by gluing a sheet of fluted corrugated material between two flat sheets of linerboard.
Double-wall carton: This is a corrugated fiberboard carton made of three sheets of linerboard interleaved with two sheets of fluted corrugated material.
Drop Test: The purpose of this test is not only to test the actual package but also to see how well the intended content is protected by the package. The test simulates actual shocks by dropping the package and its intended content freely against a rigid plane surface from a predetermined height. The package is set up to hit the surface at a particular angle and on a particular attitude, face, edge or corner, of the package.
Vibration Test: Various forms of transportation vibrations can be simulated by means of a vibration test. The test-bench can be made to swing and vibrate in almost any direction with a number of frequencies and amplitudes to emulate the transportation being used.
Primary packaging: Packaging directly in contact with the product (trapped blisters, unit boxes… are primary packaging).
Secondary packaging: The term used to describe larger cases or boxes that are used to group quantities of primary packaged goods for distribution (inner carton, outer carton… are secondary packaging).
Shelf-ready packaging: Packaging that goes straight from the factory to point of sale without being unwrapped.
Shelf appeal: How a pack appears at point of sale against its competitors.
Die Cutting: The process of cutting carton or plastic into a shape
Prototype: A model or mock-up of the proposed solution

PACKAGING PRINTING TERMINOLOGY:

DPI: Dots per inch; a measure of a printer’s resolution. The higher the number, the better the print quality. A minimum of 300 dpi usually is required for professional-looking results. 72 dpi for web results.
CMYK: Stands for the colors Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black. In print design, colors are defined as a percentage of each of these 4 colors. For example, the CMYK abbreviation for the color black would be 0-0-0-100. In contrast, display devices (i.e. computer monitors) typically define colors using RGB.
Offset/Lithographic Printing: Most print shops use offset printing to produce large volumes of high-quality documents. Although the equipment and set-up costs are relatively high, the actual printing process is relatively inexpensive. It’s a printing technique whereby ink is spread on a metal plate with etched images, then transferred to an intermediary surface such as a rubber blanket, and finally applied to paper by pressing the paper against the intermediary surface. The equipment is a multi-station (up to eight) printing machine to print and/or coat up to six colours on to sheets or a fast-moving web.
Reverse Printing: Also called back printing. Printing on a transparent film so that the printing will be on the inside of the package and be observed through the film. Permits a higher gloss package because no printing is on the outside, but usually places the printing in contact with the contents.
Digital Printing: Printing process more expensive and with poorer quality than offset printing, but good for small runs and for saving time. Mechanical Steps Are Eliminated, digital printing eliminates numerous mechanical steps in the conventional printing process, including making films, color proofs, manually stripping the pieces together and making plates.
Digital Proof: A type of hardcopy sample output directly from digital files, provided by the print provider and used by the client to verify the accuracy of their print application prior to the actual production of the project. Digital proofs give clients the assurance that their print applications will be produced accurately.
Screen Printing: Screen-printing is often used to print on assembled boxes. Printing is done directly on the box or sheet, by pressing the ink through a net template onto the plywood.
4-color-process: The process of combining four basic colors to create a printed color picture or colors composed from the basic four colors.
Pantone Matching System (or PMS): The Pantone matching system is used for specifying and blending match colors. It provides designers with swatches of over 700 colors and gives printers the recipes for making those colors. This is a way to spec out an exact universal color, whereas a 4 color process has a margin of error.
Bleed or Bleeding Edge: When a page or a cover design extends to and off the edge of the paper it is called a “bleed”. In print design, the artwork or block of color must extend off the edge of the page. The artwork or block of color is then printed on larger-size paper. Then the printed page is trimmed to the desired size.
Embossing: A pattern pressed into the backside of a surface to create a raised texture.
Crop marks: Printed lines showing where to trim a printed sheet.
Dieline: An electronic file usually supplied by the printer or client to show where the measurements and the cut marks are for a specific print or package.
Matte Finish: Dull paper without gloss or luster.
Score: A crease put on paper to help it fold better.
Spot varnish: Varnish used to highlight a specific part of the printed sheet.
Hologram: A three-dimensional picture that is made on a photo sensitive glass plate using a laser as the light source. From this plate a shim is made and the image is stamped into a metallic foil.
Hot Stamping: Applying foil with the use of heat, pressure and dwell to various substrates, such as paper, plastic, wood and leather.
UV coating: Liquid laminate bonded and cured with ultraviolet light. Environmentally friendly.
Varnish: A clear liquid applied to printed surfaces for looks and protection.

LOGISTICS TERMINOLOGY:

SKU (stock keeping unit): An individual product line and size variant
UPC Bar Code: The number and symbol that identifies the exact product in terms of size, color, configuration and other attributes.
Consolidation: The combination of two or more consignments to create a more economical freight solution.
Pick-and-Pack: The process by which goods are picked against customers’ orders and then packed for onward distribution.
FTP: Stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP allows you to copy or send files (HTML-documents, graphic images, spreadsheets, etc ) from one computer to another via the Internet.