Backing Materials

What factors are involved in choosing a backing material?
Backings can be divided into three types of material, glassine, high-density glassine and kraft.

Glassine backings are uncoated and used whenever transparency is required. UPM Raflatac offers glassine backings for rollstock labels in a variety of colours and weights.

UPM Raflatac also offers high-density glassine backings in a variety of colours for synthetic face materials. Because of their lower deviation in thickness and higher density, high-density backings provide better die cutting on synthetic face materials compared to glassine or kraft backings. 
 
Kraft backings are coated on one side. They are more rigid than either glassine or high-density glassine backings of the same weight. Kraft backings are used in both sheetstock and A4 applications because they provide a suitable lay-flat backing that ensures proper feeding in laser, ink jet and copier printers. UPM Raflatac offers kraft backings in a variety of weights to suit almost any application.

A silicone layer is added to the top of the backing. The chemistry of the silicone defines the force required to release the adhesive from the backing and is an influencing factor when choosing the right product for the right application.