Printing and placing

1 September 2009



Some recent developments in label production and application technology


Atopic currently requiring much consideration in the label sector is the question of where digital fits into the whole production equation, both now in the future. A number of businesses known for their flexo label production have both experimented with, and now gone full steam ahead into, digital installations.

Hine Labels is one of these; the company has now installed a Xeikon 3000 to sit alongside its existing flexo presses. Managing director Bill Hine says: “Our customers generally don’t have a preference for the printing process we use. What they want is high quality, colour consistent labels in the shortest possible production time. We have to face the fact that run lengths are decreasing across many of our markets, and this is what tends to determine which process we use for a given job.”

Another digital converter is CS Labels. The company has just announced its third Xeikon machine purchase – a 3000 digital label press. Some two-and-a-half years down the line from its first move into digital production, managing director Simon Smith enthuses: “Our business has changed shape significantly since our initial move into digital labels. We are now producing some 60 per cent of our turnover through the Xeikon machines. Our flexo and screen printing equipment is still important, but digital has certainly taken over as our main production system.”

Xeikon competitor HP recently launched the WS6000 digital label press. A throughput of up to 30 m/min in four-colour mode is claimed, though it can deliver up to seven colours, and the press is expected to be cost effective on jobs of up to 4,000 linear metres. This higher volume product joins the HP WS4500, which is more suited to shorter run work.

Digital label production also takes a number of forms. For pallet labelling, a system involving input from Norprint, Toshiba TEC and Opticon is set to provide a Tesco approved Advanced Shipping Notification/Serial Shipping Container Code (ASN/SSCC) solution. It is designed to help all Tesco suppliers become 100 per cent compliant and meet the strict criteria laid out by the supermarket giant.

By becoming ASN/SSCC compliant, suppliers will be provided with electronic proof of delivery, full pallet traceability, and earlier notification of delivery on time. The system will also help to eliminate order discrepancies. The Norprint system uses robust Toshiba SX industrial printers combined with Opticon hand-held devices. Two labels per pallet are required, both containing the unique SSCC bar code. So when a pallet enters the logistics chain, the retailer knows exactly what its contents are as soon as it is scanned into the distribution centre.

Where high volumes are the order of the day, flexo is still usually first choice for label printing. Medica Packaging, the pharmaceutical packaging business of the Benson Group, emphasised this recently with an announcement regarding its first move into label production. The company, known for its carton and patient information leaflet production, added a seven-colour Gallus EM340S UV flexo press along with a Scantech VisionTrack rewind and inspection machine to create its own label production department.

Also offering a pharma focus, Harwich based labelling machinery manufacturer Premier Labellers recently launched its new vignette labelling system aimed specifically at the pharmaceutical industry. The P105 is designed to apply security, tamper evident and vignette labels to the tops of cartons at up to 300/min. The Siemens PLC and control software allows up to 500 different products to be recalled from the database for quick set-up times and minimum downtime between product change-overs.

A fully integrated inspection and validation system is capable of detecting and verifying the presence of a label and will also read and verify 1D, 2D, Datamatrix, and other standard format bar code information. In the event of an incorrect code or missing label, the machine will reject those cartons. Low label reel, end of label reel, consecutive reject alarms are also standard features and the system has full IQ/OQ validation documentation, required as standard by all pharmaceutical companies.

On the label application front, international consumer products group PZ Cussons has purchased a Pago automatic rotary labeller for labelling its Charles Worthington and Original Source products. The System 630M, installed at the company’s Manchester site, will apply front, back and wraparound pressure sensitive labels to shaped plastics bottles. Maximum speed is 220 bottles/min.

Two parallel assemblies, both arranged for handling the same label, provide for non-stop operation, achieving a considerable reduction of machine downtime caused when replacing the label reel.





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