German DHL facility switches to silicone-free labels from Herma and cab
Key takeaways
- DHL’s Nohra site replaces conventional self-adhesive labels with Herma and cab’s InNo-Liner solution, eliminating silicone liners and reducing waste by around 60%.
- The system is said to be 40% more economical and support DHL’s sustainability goals, while handling high-volume operations of 750,000 labels per year.
- InNo-Liner technology uses water-activated adhesive and enables flexible label sizes, faster setup, and compatibility with existing Hermes Q printers.
DHL has commissioned InNo-Liner shipping labels from cab and Herma to replace conventional self-adhesive labels at its site in Nohta, Germany. The InNo-Liner labels are made without liner material or silicone coating, cutting waste, while being more cost-effective, according to DHL.
“It enables us to reduce waste by roughly 60%, simply because the silicone-coated liner is eliminated and we gain flexibility in label sizes,” says Aiste Slabokaite Heid, business unit director at the North-East DHL Supply Chain Germany and Alps.
“The system also helps us cut costs: It is about 40% more economical than conventional labeling systems.”
DHL’s Nohra facility supplies more than 25,000 domestic customers of Deutsche Post across Germany.
Marco Sawall, head of the Central Post Warehouse at DHL in Nohra, explains: “Our job is to supply each department according to its specific needs — from pens and copy paper to bicycle spare parts, essentially everything required internally to keep the postal service running.”
Labels for large-scale operations
The warehouse space where 4,000 products are serviced each day is 13,000 square meters. DHL identifies that 750,000 labeled shipping cartons leave the Nohra logistics center annually.
“Most of the items ordered are shipped in cartons — and for that we need a very large number of labels; up to now, these were always labels on a silicone-coated liner,” Sawall continues.
Heid adds: “Because we use so many labels in logistics and warehousing, labeling is a major topic for us. We have ambitious sustainability goals and rely on innovative logistics solutions to achieve them.”
Meanwhile, Clément Kleinclauss, managing director of cab France, says that switching from conventional to InNo-Liner labels can be easy. “We only had to create a new module to activate the adhesive and apply the labels. And for our existing customers who already use the Hermes Q and the jscript printer language, it hardly requires any change at all.”
Alexander Bardutzky, CEO of cab, adds: “With the Hermes QL, a single system can handle three types of pressure-sensitive material: InNo-Liner, conventional linerless, and — if required — traditional self-adhesive labels.”
Herma managing director Dr. Guido Spachtholz highlights the decisive key difference between InNo-Liner and conventional labels: “With InNo-Liner, the material does not stick when wound. Because it can be wound onto itself without silicone, it can also be freely printed.”
Stand-out adhesives
Sven Pleier, key account manager at Herma adds that InNo-Liner uses multi-nozzle technology that activates the adhesive during application with a fine water mist.
“This ensures immediate adhesion on absorbent surfaces and allows the label to reach its full bond strength within a very short time. The project in Nohra has demonstrated that the system performs reliably even under high demands for labeling quality and cycle time.”
DHL’s Heid adds: “Companies that have not yet worked with InNo-Liner should give it a try — the results are convincing in two ways: It helps us meet our sustainability goals and reduce costs. Our customers are also pleased with the outcome.”
Marco Sawall sums up the benefits of switch: “For me, there are four measurable benefits: zero grams of silicone liner waste, optimal use of each label down to the last centimeter, setup time below one minute, and no waste at all. Anyone is welcome to come see it. For the future, there is no better system than moving away from silicone liner bands.”
