PET
Our warhorse, versatile, nice looking and ecologic.
After the era of PET-G and PET-GAG, today Cristina has attained the top of aesthetic performance with A-PET and of environmental safeguard with R-PET.
PET-G was the first to be introduced in the market. It is fairly workable, even if, at the beginning, the inks did not respond as they did with PVC and the gluing solvents were too aggressive. Then we moved on to PET-GAG, a three layer two-component material. Following the development of new glues and of new die-cutting know-how, and at the end of an intense test phase to overcome the printing problems, we began to use A-PET, a highly performing cheaper material that is quickly replacing PVC. Since January 2008, as much as 50% of the material used by Cristina is R-PET, which derives from the recycling of transparent plastic bottles by 85%.
General characteristics of A-PET
It guarantees a better aesthetic look than PVC, because it is more transparent, especially when printed from the inside. Moreover, it is a more ecologic material, since its production requires less energy than PVC.
TECHNICAL DATA SHEET A-PET
Thickness
From 200 to 600 μm.
Types
Crystal: the standard type.
Matt: frosted effect with a smooth surface.
Grained: frosted effect with a rough surface.
Clear tinted: sheets are extruded already tinted.
Fluorescent tinted
Technical Performance
Printability: litho and silk-screen printing, foil blocking.
Die-cutting: high frequency soft creasing and hot creasing.
Gluing: only with hotmelt glue.
Machine Compatibility: suitable for machine erection.
Recycled R-PET
Recycled R-PET consists of a central core of recycled material (R-PET, unprintable, it can represent as much as 85% of the material’s total composition) and two outer layers of virgin material (A-PET is a perfectly hygienic material even suitable for food contact). Its printability and finish are therefore comparable to those of A-PET. The business sector often calls it bluish PET since it slightly looses transparency and maintains the defects which generally do not appear on the virgin material. But this is irrelevant since the choice of this material has been praised by the market stems from an ecologic awareness rather than from aesthetic factors.
Cristina goes beyond the R-PET market
After the mass-market multinational companies, even the food industry, and especially the British, have begun to require this material for most of their ranges. One thing is true though: Cristina grows more than the market. This success is due to the close collaboration with new PET suppliers who guarantee deliveries 7 times faster than the competition at convenient prices. Two unique conditions that we were able to obtain thanks to the high purchase volume and thanks to our philosophy for approaching suppliers: work on them and respect them because in times of hardship and intense competition, they are the ones who make the difference.