‌StarColor UV Ink for Shrink Sleeve Printing on Plastic Films

Date: Jun 19 2025 From: Star Color Views:

Shrink sleeve packaging has become the preferred form for many brands, thanks to its advantages of 360-degree full coverage design, graphic presentation, and high durability. Printing on shrink films such as polyolefin (POF), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polyethylene (PE) presents technical challenges. In particular, poor ink performance during the shrinkage process is prone to cause ink cracking, fading, or pattern distortion, severely affecting the aesthetics and practicality of the packaging. StarColor's UV shrink sleeve inks are specifically developed to address these challenges.

Specially Designed for Harsh Shrinkage Applications

StarColor's UV inks are formulated to meet the rigorous requirements of shrink sleeve printing. Whether using POF, PVC, PET, or PE films, our inks exhibit excellent flexibility, reliable adhesion, and consistent color vibrancy. Even after high-scale shrinkage, they maintain outstanding printing effects, ensuring packaging quality remains unaffected.
Our UV shrink sleeve ink technology helps printers and brand owners effectively solve the most common tricky issues in production:

Ink cracking during shrinkage: Traditional inks lack sufficient flexibility, making them prone to cracking when the film shrinks, damaging the overall visual effect. StarColor's UV inks, with their special formula, offer excellent stretchability to withstand film deformation during shrinkage, effectively preventing cracking.
Poor adhesion on low surface energy films: Some film materials have low surface energy, leading to weak ink adhesion and easy peeling. StarColor's UV inks are optimized for this characteristic, enabling effective bonding with various films like POF, PVC, PETG, and PE—even hard-to-print substrates—to ensure firm adhesion.
Reduced color clarity after shrinkage: Shrinkage may cause ink color diffusion and blurring, affecting pattern clarity. StarColor's UV inks use advanced pigment formulas and dispersion technology to maintain color accuracy and sharpness during film shrinkage, ensuring clear patterns.
Inconsistent curing or bleeding during high-speed printing: In high-speed production, slow or uneven ink curing can cause bleeding and sticking, reducing efficiency. StarColor's UV inks feature rapid UV curing, instantly solidifying under UV light to ensure consistent curing even at high speeds, boosting productivity.

Core Advantages of StarColor UV Shrink Sleeve Inks

Exceptional anti-shrinkage performance: Using innovative materials and unique formulas, it withstands up to 75% shrinkage, preventing ink cracking and image distortion to maintain complete, beautiful patterns and high-quality visuals.
Excellent adhesion on various films: Optimized for different film surface properties, it bonds well with both conventional and hard-to-treat substrates, providing durable protection for prints.
Vivid color reproduction: High-opacity, high-gloss formulas accurately restore color layers and vibrancy, making prints plump and lifelike to enhance shelf appeal and recognition.
Rapid UV curing: With a unique photoinitiator system and resin formula, it undergoes rapid photocuring under UV light for instant drying. This ensures fast ink drying in high-speed lines, improving efficiency while reducing energy consumption—aligning with green production concepts.
Low migration for safe packaging: Produced in strict compliance with international packaging safety standards, the inks have extremely low migration, suitable for indirect food contact applications, ensuring consumer safety and reassuring brands.

Widely Applicable in Various Scenarios

Beverage bottle packaging: For juices, drinking water, and carbonated drinks, StarColor's UV shrink sleeve inks create colorful, attractive packaging to enhance market competitiveness and attract consumers.
Personal care product packaging: For shampoos, lotions, cosmetics, etc., it achieves exquisite prints and delicate color performance to elevate product luxury and brand image, meeting consumers' pursuit of quality and aesthetics.
Household cleaning product packaging: It displays clear, eye-catching product information and designs on cleaning containers, facilitating consumer identification and use while enhancing shelf visibility to boost sales.
Full-body shrink wrap for promotional packaging: For promotions requiring unique packaging, StarColor's inks enable full-body shrink coverage. Combined with creative designs, they create visually stunning promotional packaging to drive higher attention and sales.

Watch how StarColor UV Shrink Sleeve Inks perform on shrink films.

Trusted by Global Packaging Printers

At StarColor, we are committed to providing customers with the highest quality products and services. We collaborate closely with printers, label printers, and brand owners to understand the specific needs of each complex shrink sleeve project and tailor ink solutions. Our inks are manufactured in ISO-certified modern facilities, adhering to international quality management systems and multi-level quality control processes to ensure stable, reliable batch quality.
Additionally, we offer a range of customer-centric services:

Custom Pantone color matching: Providing precise Pantone color customization based on brand color needs to ensure print colors align with brand images and style.
Rapid global distribution: Leveraging a complete logistics network for fast, efficient worldwide delivery, ensuring customers receive inks promptly without production delays.
Free ink sample testing: Offering free ink samples for customers to conduct printing tests before formal purchase, helping them understand ink performance and effects to reduce procurement risks.
Technical support for printing equipment debugging and optimization: Our professional technical team provides comprehensive support from equipment installation/debugging to production process optimization, solving printing technical issues to ensure smooth operations.

Choosing StarColor's UV shrink sleeve inks means choosing superior quality and professional service. Let's collaborate to inject unlimited creativity and charm into product packaging, standing out in market competition.