Views: 0 Author: Amy Wang Publish Time: 2026-07-06 Origin: YCT Machinery
Some customers take years to become customers. You meet them at a trade show, you follow up, you get no response — and then, years later, the market changes, the conversation reopens, and everything moves quickly. This is one of those relationships. It took from 2019 to 2024 to get to the first order. Since then, the customer has placed four or five orders every year. The wait was worth it.
We met this customer at an exhibition in Russia in 2019. The conversation was good — he was knowledgeable, his questions were precise, and it was clear he understood labeling equipment at a level that comes from years of working with it. We followed up after the show. And then, for the better part of two years, we heard very little back.
This is not unusual, and it is not a reason to stop following up. Some customers are not ready to switch suppliers. Some are locked into existing relationships. Some are simply watching and waiting to see whether a new supplier is worth the risk of a change.
In this case, the reason was straightforward: before 2022, his company primarily sourced equipment from European manufacturers. That was the preference, the established supply chain, and the standard his customers expected. There was no particular reason to look at Chinese equipment when European equipment was available and familiar.
Then 2022 changed the supply landscape significantly for Russian businesses. European equipment became harder to source, more expensive, and in some cases simply unavailable. Customers who had never seriously considered Chinese packaging machinery began looking at it with genuine interest. Our customer was one of them.
He runs a packaging equipment company in Russia with around thirty employees — a mid-sized operation by any measure, but one that punches well above its size in terms of the clients it serves. His customer base includes major international brands operating in the Russian market — the kind of companies, like Coca-Cola and Nestlé, that have rigorous equipment qualification processes and do not accept machines that underperform.
Serving clients at that level for two decades builds a particular kind of reputation. It also builds a particular kind of standard. When this customer evaluates a machine — or a supplier — he is not asking whether it will work for a small manufacturer with modest requirements. He is asking whether it will work reliably, day after day, in a production environment where downtime has real consequences and label quality is measured against brand standards.
His product range reflects the market he serves: labeling machines, case sealers, multi-lane packaging machines, and logistics-related packaging equipment. Labeling is the core of the business, and he knows it deeply.
Before committing to work with us, he visited our factory in Dongguan twice. Two separate visits, two separate rounds of evaluation. That level of diligence is exactly what you would expect from someone whose clients hold him to a high standard. We welcomed it. A customer who evaluates carefully before buying is a customer who trusts what they find — and this customer found enough to commit.
Since 2024, the relationship has been active and consistent: four to five orders per year, primarily custom non-standard labeling machines and the standard YCT-90 labeling head. His engineering team is experienced with labeling machine commissioning and can handle most setup and adjustment independently. When they do need support, a video call resolves it quickly. That is the kind of after-sales dynamic that works well for everyone.
The project that this case study focuses on is a custom labeling machine for face cream — skincare moisturizer products packaged in round jars with separate lids.
The labeling requirement was more complex than a standard single-label application. Each unit required three labels applied in three distinct positions:
Lid top label — applied to the flat circular top surface of the jar lid
Front label — the primary brand label applied to the front face of the jar body
Back label — the ingredients and regulatory information label applied to the reverse face of the jar body
Three labels per unit, three different positions, three different label sizes and orientations — all applied automatically in a single pass through the machine.
This is a requirement that immediately rules out standard labeling machines. A standard round bottle labeler applies one label per pass. A standard flat labeler applies one label to one surface. Neither handles the combination of a lid-top label and dual body labels on a cosmetic jar. The only solution is a custom machine designed specifically for this application.
Before describing the machine, it is worth explaining why this application is genuinely challenging — because it is easy to underestimate until you have tried to solve it at production volume.
The lid top label is applied to a flat circular surface — the top of the jar lid. While the surface itself is flat, the challenge lies in precise centering on a small circular area, and in the surface finish. Premium skincare jars frequently have lid surfaces with matte lacquer, soft-touch coating, UV gloss, or metallic finishes. These surfaces require careful calibration of label application pressure: too light and the label does not adhere fully at the edges; too heavy and the pressing mechanism marks or scuffs the premium surface finish. Getting this right requires testing with the actual product, not just a drawing.
The front body label is the primary brand-facing label — the one the consumer sees first on the shelf. It must land at a precisely defined angular position on the jar body, centered and level, with no skew and no bubbling. On a premium skincare product, this label is part of the brand identity. A label that is even slightly off-center or visibly skewed is a quality failure, regardless of what is inside the jar.
The back body label carries the ingredients list, usage instructions, and regulatory information — mandatory content in most markets. It must be applied at a defined angular offset from the front label, consistently, so that front and back are always correctly oriented relative to each other. A back label that drifts toward the front, or that is rotated relative to the front label, creates a product that looks poorly assembled — which is not acceptable for a brand selling at the premium end of the skincare market.
The combination of all three means the machine must handle three fundamentally different labeling operations in sequence — lid top flat label, front body label with angular positioning, back body label with indexed angular offset from the front — on a container whose premium surface finish cannot be marked or damaged in the process.
Doing any one of these by hand is slow and inconsistent. Doing all three by hand, at production volume, on a premium cosmetic product where every label placement is visible to the end consumer, is a quality control problem that compounds with every unit produced.
The customer's end user was experiencing exactly this: four to five workers per production run, applying small labels by hand, with the wrinkling, misalignment, and pace limitations that manual application on premium jar surfaces inevitably produces. The finished product was inconsistent. The labor cost was high. And the quality standard expected for a premium skincare brand was not being reliably met.
As with every custom labeling project, we began by receiving physical product samples from the customer before any design work was finalized.
Face cream jars — particularly at the premium end of the skincare market — have surface and material characteristics that are not fully captured in a drawing. The physical sample tells us what the specification sheet cannot:
How the jar sits and is held in the conveyor and fixture system
How the lid surface responds to label application pressure — whether the finish is susceptible to marking
How the jar body's curvature affects label tension and adhesion at the edges
Whether the lid and body need to be labeled together as an assembled unit or in separate operations
How the label materials — often specialty films or foils for premium cosmetics — behave during application
These details determine the pressing mechanism configuration, the fixture design, and the label dispensing parameters. Getting them right requires the physical product. This is why we require samples for every custom project, and why the machines we build from samples perform correctly from the first production run.
The specification confirmed with the customer before engineering began:
Parameter | Detail Confirmed |
Product | Face cream / skincare moisturizer jar |
Container shape | Round jar with separate lid |
Container dimensions | Diameter and height confirmed for all SKUs |
Lid surface finish | Confirmed — premium coating type noted |
Label position 1 | Lid top — flat circular surface, centered |
Label position 2 | Front body — defined angular position |
Label position 3 | Back body — defined angular offset from front |
Label sizes | Confirmed for all three positions |
Label material | Confirmed — specialty film / foil type noted |
Labeling accuracy | Precise placement — premium cosmetic standard |
Speed requirement | Target throughput confirmed |
Number of SKUs | Multiple face cream variants — dimensions confirmed |
Operation mode | Fully automatic |
The machine built for this project is a custom configuration of the YCT-60 Automatic Rotary Round Bottle Labeling Machine platform, re-engineered for three-position label application on round cosmetic jars.
Face cream jars are fed into the machine and advanced through three labeling stations in sequence:
Station 1 — Lid Top Labeling: The jar is positioned with the lid facing the labeling head. The label is applied to the flat circular top surface of the lid with precise centering. The pressing mechanism is calibrated to achieve full adhesion across the label surface — including at the edges — without marking or scuffing the premium lid finish.
Station 2 — Front Body Labeling: The jar body is rotated to the defined front-face angular position. The label dispensing head applies the primary brand label to the jar body with consistent placement. The rotary mechanism ensures the label conforms to the cylindrical jar surface without bubbling or skewing, and the angular position is held consistently from jar to jar.
Station 3 — Back Body Labeling: The jar is rotated to the back-face position, precisely indexed relative to the front label applied in Station 2. The ingredients and regulatory label is applied at the defined angular offset, ensuring consistent front-to-back label orientation across every unit in the production run.
The finished jar exits with all three labels applied — lid top, front body, back body — in correct position, cleanly adhered, and ready for the next stage of packaging.
Three-station sequential labeling — each station dedicated to one label position, with precise mechanical indexing between stations to maintain angular consistency
Lid top labeling mechanism — specialized pressing configuration for flat circular lid surfaces, calibrated for premium surface finishes that cannot be marked
Rotary body positioning system — controls the angular orientation of the jar body at each body labeling station, ensuring front and back labels land at defined positions relative to each other
Premium surface-compatible pressing — pressing force and contact material selected to achieve full label adhesion without damaging matte, soft-touch, UV gloss, or metallic lid finishes
Specialty label material handling — dispensing tension calibrated for the foil, film, or specialty paper labels common in premium skincare packaging
Multi-SKU adaptability — machine designed to accommodate the range of face cream jar variants confirmed during the specification phase
Metric | Result |
Labels per unit | 3 (lid top + front body + back body) |
Labeling accuracy | Precise placement — premium cosmetic standard |
Label quality | Clean, flat, no wrinkles — consistent across full run |
Lid surface protection | No marking or scuffing on premium finishes |
Operation | Fully automatic — no manual label application |
Labor saving | 4–5 workers replaced per production run |
Customer feedback | Very satisfied |
The impact of this machine on the end customer's production process was immediate and significant.
Labor reduction is the most direct measure: four to five workers who had previously been applying labels by hand are no longer needed for that task. For a skincare manufacturer running multiple shifts, this is a meaningful reduction in labor cost — and in the management complexity and quality variability that comes with a large manual labeling team.
Quality consistency is the other dimension that matters for a premium skincare product. Hand-applied labels on curved jar surfaces wrinkle at the edges. They misalign. The angular relationship between front and back labels varies from jar to jar. On a face cream that will be displayed on a retail shelf or in a department store display, these variations are visible — and they affect how the brand is perceived before the consumer has even opened the jar.
The machine eliminates this variation entirely. Every jar exits with the same lid top label, centered and flat. Every front label lands at the same angular position. Every back label is correctly oriented relative to the front. The consistency is not approximate — it is mechanical, and it holds across the full production run.
Production efficiency increased correspondingly. The machine's throughput is not limited by how many workers are available or how far into a shift they are. It runs at a consistent rate, producing consistently labeled jars, for as long as it is fed with product.
The customer's response after delivery was clear: very satisfied. His engineering team commissioned the machine, confirmed the labeling quality met the premium standard required by the end customer, and production moved forward.
I want to return to the timeline of this relationship, because it illustrates something about how long-term supplier relationships actually develop.
From 2019 to 2022, we followed up and heard little back. That is three years of maintaining contact without a commercial return. Most sales processes would have written this customer off after six months.
We did not, for a simple reason: the customer was good. His company was reputable, his clients were serious, and the fit between what he sold and what we made was real. The absence of orders was not a signal that the relationship had no future — it was a signal that the timing was not right yet.
When the timing changed — when European supply chains became complicated and Chinese equipment became a serious option for his market — the relationship we had maintained became the foundation for a fast and confident start. He already knew who we were. He had already assessed us enough to know we were worth a factory visit. Two visits, in fact.
The first order came in 2024. Since then: four to five orders per year. Custom non-standard machines and standard labeling heads. A customer whose engineering team can commission our machines independently and whose after-sales interactions are efficient and productive.
That is what patience in a supplier relationship looks like from the inside. And it is why we maintain contact with customers who are not yet ready to buy.
The custom three-position labeling configuration described in this case study is relevant to any skincare or cosmetics manufacturer who needs to apply labels to multiple positions on a round jar in one automated pass. This includes:
Face cream and moisturizer jars — lid top + front brand label + back ingredient label
Eye cream and neck cream jars — small-format round jars with multiple label positions
Foundation and BB cream jars — round cosmetic packaging with front/back labeling requirements
Hair mask and conditioner jars — wide-mouth round containers with lid and body labels
Body butter and scrub jars — larger round jars with the same three-position labeling structure
Any round cosmetic jar where three or more labels are currently applied by hand and quality consistency is a production challenge
Beyond skincare, the same multi-station approach applies to pharmaceutical cream and ointment jars, supplement containers, and any round jar with multiple labeling positions.
View YCT-60 specifications and enquire about custom multi-position configurations
Q: What is a multi-position labeling machine, and how does it differ from a standard labeling machine?
A: A standard labeling machine applies one label to one position per pass — typically a wrap-around label on a round bottle, or a top-surface label on a flat product. A multi-position labeling machine applies labels to two or more distinct positions on the same container in a single automated pass. In this project, the machine applies three labels — lid top, front body, back body — in sequence as each face cream jar passes through three dedicated labeling stations. This eliminates the need for multiple separate machines or multiple manual labeling steps.
Q: Can the machine apply labels to premium lid surfaces without marking or scratching them?
A: Yes, provided the pressing mechanism is correctly configured for the specific surface finish. Premium skincare jar lids with matte lacquer, soft-touch coating, UV gloss, or metallic finishes require careful selection of pressing contact material and force calibration. This is one of the reasons we require physical product samples before finalizing the machine design — the lid surface finish directly determines how the pressing mechanism is configured.
Q: How does the machine ensure the front and back labels are consistently aligned relative to each other?
A: Angular consistency between the front and back labels is controlled by the rotary positioning system between labeling stations. After the front label is applied, the jar is rotated to a precisely defined angular offset before the back label is applied. This indexing is mechanical and consistent — it does not depend on operator judgment or manual alignment. Every jar in the production run has the same front-to-back label orientation.
Q: Our face cream line has multiple SKUs with different jar sizes. Can one machine handle all of them?
A: This depends on how different the dimensions are. The machine is designed to accommodate the range of variants confirmed during the specification phase. If you have multiple SKUs, share all dimensions upfront so the machine is built to handle the full range. Changeover between SKUs typically involves guide rail and fixture adjustments, which an experienced operator can complete in a defined time.
Q: How many workers does the machine replace compared to manual labeling?
A: In this project, the machine replaced four to five workers per production run. The exact number depends on your current manual process, production speed, and number of shifts. The consistent factor is that three labels applied manually — lid top, front, back — on a round cosmetic jar is slow, inconsistent, and labor-intensive at any meaningful production volume. One machine handles all three positions automatically.
Q: Is the YCT-60 platform suitable for glass jars as well as plastic and acrylic?
A: Yes. The YCT-60 handles glass, acrylic, PP, and PE round containers. For glass jars, the fixturing and pressing mechanism are calibrated to avoid surface marking or breakage risk. Share your container material, dimensions, and surface finish details and we will confirm the appropriate configuration.
Q: We are a distributor serving premium brand clients with strict equipment standards. What should we know?
A: The customer in this case study serves clients at the level of Coca-Cola and Nestlé — companies with rigorous equipment qualification standards. He visited our factory twice before committing to work with us, and his engineering team commissions and maintains our machines independently. The YCT-60 uses premium electrical components (Schneider, Mitsubishi, Panasonic) with an MTBF of over 4,000 hours, and every machine is fully tested before shipment. If your clients hold you to a high standard, we understand what that means for the equipment you sell them.
Q: What is the process for ordering a custom multi-position jar labeling machine?
A: Start by sharing your jar dimensions, lid surface finish, label sizes and positions, target speed, and the number of SKUs the machine needs to handle. Physical product and label samples are required before we finalize the design. We will review the application, confirm the specification, and provide a detailed quotation. Once the deposit is received, production begins. Every custom machine is fully tested before shipment, and we provide video commissioning support during installation.
If your production line currently requires workers to apply multiple labels by hand to skincare or cosmetic jars — and the quality, speed, and labor cost of that process are not where they need to be — we would like to understand your specific situation.
Share your jar type and dimensions, label positions and sizes, lid surface finish, target throughput, and number of SKUs. We will review the application and come back with a clear technical proposal.
Contact YCTEC / Request a Custom Multi-Position Jar Labeling Machine Quote
YCTEC (Dongguan Yucheng Machinery Technology Co., Ltd.) designs and manufactures standard and custom automatic labeling machines for cosmetics, skincare, pharmaceutical, food, beverage, and industrial packaging applications. CE certified. Exported to more than 50 countries. All custom machines are designed from physical product samples and fully tested before shipment.
