The short answer
If the material arrives on a roll, use a reel feeder. If it arrives as die-cut sheets on backing paper — or cannot practically be re-reeled — use a sheet feeder. The two are different mechanisms, not two sizes of the same thing, and the selection tables are organised differently because of it.
How the two families differ
| Reel feeder | Sheet feeder | |
|---|---|---|
| Material supply | Roll on a spindle | Magazine of sheets on backing paper |
| Selection inputs | Label width, label length, column count | Backing paper length, peeling width, magazine depth |
| Feeding cycle | 0.1–2 s | 2–3 s |
| Drive | Servo motor | Electric and pneumatic |
| Operation | Runs with a placement machine | Standalone or linked to a line |
| Model family | LF… |
PLF… |
The cycle figures are not directly comparable as throughput: the reel range’s 0.1–2 s is the feed cycle, while the sheet range’s 2–3 s describes its own feeding cycle. What they tell you is that reel feeding is the faster path when the material can be supplied on roll.
What decides a sheet feeder model
Three numbers, from the PLF selection table:
- Backing paper length — 50–230 mm, 50–300 mm or 50–350 mm across the three models.
- Peeling width — up to 105 mm, 200 mm or 300 mm.
- Magazine depth — 150 mm on all three.
Because the magazine carries the sheets, backing-paper length is the first constraint: if the sheet is longer than the model accepts, no other number helps.
When a reel feeder is still the better answer
Even with sheet material available, a reel may be the better supply route if the volume is steady and the label is available on roll. Reel feeding presents labels continuously, needs one spindle and one take-up for waste backing, and mounts directly on the placement platform when the labeling has to happen in the placement pass.
The practical question is which supply format your label supplier can deliver reliably. If the answer is rolls, the reel range covers 2 mm to 248 mm label width. If it is sheets, the sheet label feeder takes it from a magazine.
Ask us
Send the backing paper length, the peeling width and whether the unit will run standalone or linked,
and we will name a PLF model. For reel material, send the placement machine and the label width and
the reply names an LF model.