Ink jet coding for labelsReel Appeal is a small business involved in the manufacture and conversion of labels. For stock control purposes, their largest customer requested that a consecutive number be printed onto the back of each label. Reel Appeal turned to The Needham Group for assistance. The Customer Requirements Reel Appeal required information to be applied at the label rewind stage at a rate of 150/minute on a continuous web. Despite being an extremely shiny, non-porous surface, every label had to be coded and dry in less than 0.5 sec. Solution Having only a relatively small budget, the customer was concerned that their printing requirements may not be fulfilled, however the low-cost Citronix ci500 proved to be the ideal solution. Using the consecutive number programme, a standard feature on all ci500 systems, the 7 numeric digits of information required could be easily programmed by the operator. With the ability to count from 0 up to 9,999,999, reset at any point, suppress leading zeros, count in multiples or count in reverse, the ci500 fulfilled and surpassed the customer requirements. To guarantee each label was coded, a label detecting sensor was fitted which detects the gap between the labels and the Citronix fast drying MEK ink was used to ensure that the code dried immediately. Outcome Every label produced by Reel Appeal is now being coded quickly and inexpensively with a high quality smudge free code. For more information please contact us on 01948 662629 or by Email |
