(I-M-L) process refers to in mould labeling system, it is an ideal alternative to elaborate secondary operations such as subsequent printing, and the application spectrum for it reaches from technical articles to packaging products for food. I-M-L technical is a pre-decorating technique, a label to be put in plastic product before plastic product being filled forming. With I-M-L technique, the label and plastic product is one piece product, Label cannot be taken away from the plastic product.

I-M-L system required equipments:

a.Injection system:

· plastic injection molding machine

· plastic raw material dryer

· plastic raw material auto loader

· plastic injection mould

· air compressor

· water chiller

b.Robot system:

· label collecting

· Gripper for feed the label into the mould.

· Sucker for picking out the plastic labeled parts.

· Stacking unit for stacking the plastic labeled part.

· conveyor

c.Labels:

Label color: All kinds of coloraccording to customer’s requirement
Label size: According to plastic parts and customer’s requirement
Label material: PP, YUPO, PET and so on

There are different types of I-M-L system:

· Side entry robot from Italy+servo motor and High speed injection machine+air compressor + water chiller+plastic injection mould, the whole I-M-L system running cycle time is 4-5 seconds.

· Side entry robot from Italy + High speed injection machine+air compressor+ water chiller+plastic injection mould, the whole I-M-L system running cycle time is 5-6 seconds.

· Top entry robot from Italy+ High speed injection machine+air compressor+ water chiller+plastic injection mould, the whole I-M-L system running cycle time is 7-8 seconds.

· Side entry robot from China+ High speed injection machine+air compressor+ water chiller+plastic injection mould, the whole I-M-L system running cycle time is 7-8 seconds.

· Top entry robot from Italy+ High speed injection machine+air compressor+ water chiller+plastic injection mould, the whole I-M-L system running cycle time is 10-11 seconds.

How is I-M-L system running?
The gripper pick up the label from label magazine,and put label into mould cavity,then the mould close and injection,then mould open,sucker pick out the plastic labeled part,then stacking unit will stack the plastic labeled parts onto conveyor. finally, the beautiful plastic product is shaped.

The advantages of the In Mould Labelingprocess:

IML, in comparison with the conventional decorating methods,offers a number of benefits:

· IML impresses by the outstanding quality of the decoration with a high brilliance which is achieved by either offset or gravure printing.

· Printing on the container base (e.g. EAN code for convenient scanning) becomes ever more important. The IML process permits to decorate all five outside surfaces of the container in one single operation.

· The IML method can enhance the barrier properties if multilayer labels are applied to the entire outer surface of the container, and even extend the durability of the contents.

· The label inserted by the IML process gives the mould a higher stiffness.

· IML enables the production of decorated and packed containers in a single working step. Internal transport and intermediate storage are thus eliminated.

· IML permits to change the container decoration (label) without interrupting production.