Specific Applications & How the Equipment Is Used
Craft Brewing, Winery & Distillery
Microbreweries, craft breweries, nano-breweries, wineries, cideries, meaderies, small-batch distilleries
Shrink Sleeve Application on Craft Beer Cans
Instead of buying pre-printed aluminum cans in minimum quantities of 50,000+, small craft breweries purchase blank ‘brite’ cans and apply digitally printed shrink sleeves using Elmark’s low-speed shrink sleeve applicator. The sleeve is dropped over the can and a heat tunnel shrinks it tight, providing 360° full-color branding. This allows a 500-barrel microbrewery to can a seasonal release in short runs of 500–2,000 units, change labels for each seasonal offering, and compete visually with large national brands on store shelves.
Pressure-Sensitive Label Application on Bottles
Wineries, cideries, and small-batch distilleries apply front, back, and neck labels to wine, cider, and spirits bottles using Elmark’s semi-automatic or fully automatic label dispensers. Round product labeling systems apply labels consistently at the correct position on every bottle, eliminating the skewed, misaligned labels common with hand-application that damage brand credibility on retail shelves.
Tamper-Evident Neck Bands on Spirits & Wine
Small distilleries and wineries apply tamper-evident shrink bands or neck seals to bottles using Elmark’s shrink sleeving equipment. The band is placed over the cap area and heat-shrunk, providing visible evidence of tampering and a professional finished appearance. For small craft spirits brands entering retail, tamper evidence is an important consumer trust signal.
Lot Code and Vintage Coding on Bottles and Cases
Wineries and breweries print batch numbers, vintage dates, and production lot codes on bottle bases or case cartons using Elmark’s CIJ or thermal inkjet coders. For compliance and traceability, each bottle produced must carry a unique identifier linking it back to the production batch — critical for any brand entering retail or distribution.
Custom Wine, Beer & Spirits Labels
Elmark’s label printing service produces premium wine labels — textured paper stocks, metallic foils, embossing effects, waterproof BOPP materials for ice bucket resistance. A small winery releasing a new vintage doesn’t need to commit to 100,000-label minimums; Elmark’s printing capabilities accommodate both shorter, economical runs to printing millions of labels.
