Mei as technological leader in the production of labels machinery, started with the introduction of the loom equipped with thermical slit at ITMA 1975, the worldwide textile show. Before 1975 labels were made using the shuttle method, and their role was straight forward, to indicate the maker of the fabric and its materials.

They were called "Regular Labels", always inserted inside on finished garments. With MEI new product machine, the labels production process entered in a new era, a new "turn-on" to the world of woven and printed labels.

In 1975, the year of the turnaround, the new MEI's thermal cut and its first official show, appearances in the ITMA of Milan, with a jacquard rapier labels machine. That was the year when the label industry, in which the shuttle loom was the unchallenged ruler, realized that the technological evolution was changing that business.

With the arrival of the thermal cut the "Regular Labels" turned into "Image Labels": that was possible due to the colors, a more softly cutting edge and an overall increased definition, all allowed by the technology adopted in the MEI new jacquard weaving rapier machine.