Koehler Paper Expands Sustainable Blue4est® Thermal Paper Range: In addition to the sustainable Blue4est® POS till receipt, the Blue4est® Pro paper is now available for labels
The new product Blue4est® Pro of the Thermal Paper division is a paper-based label material that is also known as facestock. It is being used for the new generation of environmentally friendly labels because it is produced without chemical developers. This means that it can be disposed of as wastepaper and is also approved for direct contact with food. As with the Blue4est® POS till receipt, the Blue4est® Pro self-adhesive label can be instantly recognized by consumers as environmentally friendly by its blue color.
World’s unique thermal adhesive material without chemical developers
The partnership between Koehler Paper and HERMA has given rise to the world’s first, and as yet only, thermal adhesive material without chemical developers. This is yet another example of outstanding development work by the Koehler Innovation & Technology division of the Koehler Group at the headquarters in Oberkirch, Germany. It is some years ago now that Koehler Paper, the world market leader in the field of thermal paper, first invested in the development of an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional thermal paper: the bluish Blue4est® POS till receipt paper. “We are pleased to now be expanding our environmentally friendly Blue4est® product portfolio with Blue4est® Pro for self-adhesive labels. This brings us one step closer to our vision of a “Blue Market,” a supermarket that only uses environmentally friendly blue till receipts and labels,” says Sebastian Früh, Deputy Director Thermal Paper Division at Koehler Paper. The labels can initially be used for fruit and vegetable scales. Further applications will follow soon.
Blue4est® Pro has additional protective layer
Blue4est® Pro is based on the same Blue4est® principle as the blue till receipt from Koehler Paper. With Blue4est®, the text is not produced through a chemical reaction to heat but instead it uses a purely physical reaction. An opaque functional layer on the paper becomes transparent when subjected to heat, which results in the black layer below becoming visible. Moreover, Blue4est® Pro features an additional layer that protects the paper from mechanical damage for use as a self-adhesive label.
How the Blue4est® Pro works
Compared to current conventional thermal papers, Blue4est® is not only particularly friendly to the environment, but the printed image is also extremely resistant to environmental influences such as sunlight and moisture. Where printouts are stored in normal storage conditions, they remain legible for more than 35 years. HERMA also confirms that despite the colors and the associated lower contrast, there were no barcode reading errors in a large-scale application test under real conditions. Corresponding labels went through without any issues at all.
The Blue4est® Pro flyer gives an overview
Source: Koehler Paper
