Introduced and developed in Europe in the early 70’s for decorating injection molded plastic containers, In Mold Labeling later spread to North America and applied to blow molding processes.
Over the years, this distinction in applying this technology in those two areas was maintained to the point that IML injection molding in Europe represents about 94% of production, while 81% of U.S. production is from IML extrusion blow molding.
Only ten years ago this latter figure neared 95%, a sure sign of how IML is evolving. Initially developed as a decoration process for the packaging industry, In Mould Labeling has in recent years being increasingly used for decorating durable products in having the market realized that the so-called eye-catching appeal – which always belonged to IML decorated packaging – could provide higher added value to products such as toys, sporting goods, medical equipment, phones, electronic devices, automobile parts and so on.
In this perspective, we offer our experience gained in over 10 years of IML production either for adapting existing molds for IML applications or for undertaking new projects from the initial product engineering phase to the making of molds and in-mold printing.