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Did you Know? We used to manufacture Postage Stamp Material
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our "Postmaster" pancake material from the 1970s/80s.
Gummed paper was once a best seller at Smith & McLaurin in its time. However, this type of paper, made by conventional methods, always tended to curl in varying humidity. In an attempt to solve this issue, a new particle gum was invented in the United States where the gummed paper did not curl at all, even under extreme humid conditions and did not need any special processing used for the production of conventional gummed paper to ensure flatness. In 1970, Smith & McLaurin obtained a license from the Brown Bridge Mills, Ohio, a subsidiary of Kimberly Clark, to manufacture this new type of paper and a complete new solvent coating department was installed. The name given to this paper was “Pancake” because it was so flat and never curled. In fact, as earlier mentioned, Pancake went into space on one of the NASA moon missions in the 1970s!
One of the main applications of Pancake was for postage stamps and our “Postmaster” stamp paper became the material of choice for several countries as it had the excellent flatness and non-blocking characteristics necessary to meet the exacting specifications required by Postal Administrations and Security Printers throughout the world.
Countries which we made stamps for included Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Swaziland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and the Isle of Man.
Pancake material sales began to decrease due to the rising popularity of pressure sensitive self-adhesive materials. In 1999 Smith & McLaurin ceased all manufacturing that required solvent processing in a move towards being an more environmentally company and to reduce our emissions. Nowadays, we no longer produce gummed paper or pancake material and are instead sell a wide range of standard, specialist, digital and environmental self-adhesive label and tag materials, some of which are still used within the postal sector.
For further information please contact Aparna Chopde on +44 (0) 1505 707718 or email marketing@smcl.co.uk.
Posted on 16 July, 2010
