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Inkjet Systems Case Studies
Chipper Over Ink Jet Coding
Family-owned Good's Potato Chips bags its old marking system for an ink-jet printer that cleanly and clearly codes cases of its potato chips, simplifying distribution and shelf rotation.
Although small, Good's Potato Chips of Adamstown, PA, is making its mark with cases of homestyle potato chips distributed throughout Pennsylvania. And, facilitating that mark is a new case coder installed in August '00 that enables the family-owned business to ensure the freshness of its crispy, bagged chips in the retail and foodservice environments in which they're found.
Says Greg Good, plant manager for the 60-year-old enterprise, "Eighty percent of the chips we produce are distributed through our own company routes. The codes on the cases aid in product rotation in the stores, allowing us to remove the product when it's past its useful life."
An operator programs the main parameters for the case-coding job, including font size, print direction, print width, line speed and message contents, into the ink-jet case coder¼s controller.
A crisp, clean 7-dot-font (1/2-in.), seven-digit code printed in black ink against a white corrugated case decorated with Good's trademark red logo and black type facilitates distribution on the company's 16 routes. But, servicing the local grocery stores, sandwich shops, restaurants and clubstores used to be a bit more challenging, as the company's previous coding equipment left cases barely readable to completely illegible.
A messy job
With a 12,000-sq-ft facility employing 12 operators on its one processing and packaging line, Good's began case coding around 14 years ago, when it automated its case- taping operations. While the company offers its regular- and barbecue-flavor chips in a range of sizes, including 11/8-, 6-, 12-, 20- and 30-oz film bags, case coding is reserved for the 2- and 4-lb-capacity corrugated shippers that hold 1-lb bags of chips. The 2-lb size is sold by the case in clubstores, while the 4-lb is sold to foodservice concerns.
"Basically the code is used just to aid in rotation in the stores," notes Good. A "hidden code," incorporating superfluous numbers at each end and in the middle, prevents consumers from rifling through store racks for the most recently dated cases. "If it [the date code] is not there for them to see, they don't root around as much," he explains.
Until recently, however, the codes thwarted even Good's attempts to keep track of product freshness, due to the poor print quality of the company's coding equipment. "We went through two ink-jet printers," says Good, "and we still weren't happy with them."
In addition to their unacceptable output quality, the machines also demanded nearly constant maintenance. Employing a plastic container with a pressure pump for the ink, the printers required extensive ink purging to maintain a good ink flow. Not only did this result in a costly waste of consumables, but it also resulted in a delayed machine startup. "Then," recalls Good, "there would come a point after two or three months where you pretty much had to take the whole printer apart and run a cleaner through the system. It took about an hour, and it was a messy job."
And, despite the endless cycles of purging and cleaning, the equipment's print quality was still found lacking, says Good, with codes "barely legible or illegible."
A clean, clear solution
Breaking the cycle, Good's installed Diagraph Corp.'s I.V./700 ink-jet case coder in August '00. In the space of an hour, according to Good, the compact printer was mounted over the packaging line via a bracket–an augur of the equipment's future simplicity in operation. An easy-to-use Motorola 68332 microprocessor with an LCD display and a QWERTY keypad with number keys then allowed Good's to program the job's main parameters–font size, print direction, print width, line speed and message contents–within another hour. "It is pretty straightforward once you become familiar with it," says Good.
Best of all, he notes, is that the printer's pressurized ink canister has almost completely eliminated the need for ink purging. If, for example, he says, operators forget to purge the ink after the equipment has lain dormant for a weekend, "the first box might be only half-printed, but after that, it's fine."
An easy-to-use microprocessor with an LCD display and a QWERTY keypad with number keys, left, facilitate programming of coding of Good's potato chip cases with a seven-digit 'hidden code,' above.
According to Diagraph, the printer's high-quality output is the result of its patented Integrated Valve (I.V.) technology. This entails a unique rubber membrane that precisely controls ink flow at the valve opening in the printhead face, along with cylindrical valve channels that deliver spherical ink drops without tailing. The printheads deliver a well-defined mark with a maximum print resolution of 18 dots per vertical inch, while the valve design isolates ink from all of the machine's internal mechanisms to prevent ink-related failures.
Good's uses a black, water-based ink specially formulated for porous surfaces, supplied in 13.5-fl-oz canisters that are quickly and easily replaced. With ink changeover and purging no longer an issue, Good says that in the 11 months since the company purchased the equipment, it has not had to dismantle the system once for cleaning.
The final analysis
The packaging process begins when the homestyle chips are filled in 1-lb bags using a Woodman Polaris vertical form/fill/seal machine. A takeaway conveyor carries the filled, sealed bags to an area where workers erect 2- and 4-lb cases from York Container and Southern Container, respectively, and fill them with the bagged chips. The cases are then pushed through a Little David case taper from Loveshaw, after which they are immediately date-coded at 7 cases/min (a cinch for the 250-fpm machine) and sent to an accumulation conveyor. When 10 cases have accumulated, they are manually palletized. Production amounts to approximately 3,000 cases over the course of three to four days per week, over one three- or four-hour shift per day.
While Good says he may not have dollar figures and other statistics to concretize the benefits the new ink-jet printer has brought to the company, the results speak spreadsheets-worth. "It has simplified our job a lot," he says. "The printer is problem-free."
More information is available:
Printer: Diagraph Corp., 800/722-1125. Write No. 205.
Processor: Motorola Semiconductor Products,800/521-6274. Write No. 206.
Vf/f/s machine: The Woodman Co., Div. of Kliklok Corp., 770/981-5200. Write No. 207.
Cases: York Container, 717/757-7611. Write No. 208.
Cases: Southern Container Corp., 717/393-0436. Write No. 209.
Case taper: Loveshaw, an ITW co., 800/572-3434. Write No. 210.
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Cleaning Up The Codes
Small Character Ink Jet Cleans Up at Angeles Chemical Company
Contract packager Angeles Chemical Co. was experiencing too much downtime with the coder it was using to code retail packages of the solvents and chemicals it packs. The ink-jet machine required excessive cleaning to clear the printhead and still needed regular service to remove clogs. So the Santa Fe Springs, CA-based chemical company installed a Linx 4200 small-character continuous ink-jet printer from diagraph (St. Louis, MO) to replace the clog-prone machine.
The Linx unit automatically flushes and cleans itself out, says plant manager Cesar Hernandez. “You don’t have to purge it like we did with the other machine. If we left any ink in the old printhead, it would be hard and dry the next day.”
Products packed by Angeles include charcoal lighter fluid, nail polish remover, paint strippers, and other aggressive solvents and thinners. The products are typically packed in cans and bottles in a variety of shapes and sizes, all of which the diagraph unit imprints with batch identification, Julian date and shift. Such information is especially important on the kind of product that Angeles packs.
“Since we’re in the business of hazardous materials, we need to track our product [in case of] any contamination or anything like that,” says Hernandez. “[The coding] acts like a license plate.
“Before this machine went in,“ Hernandez continues,“we already had a large-character ink-jet printer from diagraph. When we found out that diagraph also has a small-character system, we asked for literature describing it, and later went to a plant in Los Angeles to see it in action.”
Seeing was indeed believing and an order was placed a short time later. The Linx system now runs two shifts, five days a week.
“It’s a very good printer and it does the job for us,” Hernandez says. “We turn it on, it works all day, and we turn it off and go home.”
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Going With the Flow
UPC-A and product identification on corrugated boxes, fruit drinks, and fruit juices.
New centralized ink system keeps ink flowing for hassle-free ink-jet printing at Arcadia Farms. Ink supply can be changed on the fly.
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Marking Mister Cookie Face
This ice cream sandwich manufacturer settled on seven new ink-jet coding systems after old units performed poorly in wet plant conditions.
Reliability is a key factor behind many of the packaging machinery decisions made at Mister Cookie Face, an ice cream sandwich manufacturer headquartered in Lakewood, NJ. If an ink-jet coder on any one of its seven lines goes down, that entire line shuts down. So engineers at the frozen treat manufacturer decided to switch from labeling systems equipped with air-blow tamp-pad applicators to Linx ink-jet systems from diagraph. Not only were the old gravity-fed ink-jet systems less reliable and maintenance-intensive, the new systems are saving money in labor, parts, and ink usage.
“Our plant is a very busy place with no tolerance for problems,” says Mahesh Khemraj, production manager at Mister Cookie Face. “On our seven lines, we’re constantly changing over from one product to another. We have some difficult environmental conditions, such as water and refrigeration. We’re always under pressure to maintain tight production schedules, and we run the plant equipment 20 hours a day. So we can’t afford a marking system that’s prone to breakdowns. The truth is, we can’t even accept a system that requires any babying.”
The company chose the Linx systems because they’re easy to use, they’re fast, and they’re reliable, Khemraj says. He adds that operators “just turn them on in the morning, shut them off at the end of the day, and clean the heads maybe once a month.”
The first Linx unit was installed on a test basis in May, 2002. The additional six were purchased after the yearlong pilot period ended.
“The unsatisfactory experience we had with the gravity-fed ink-jet systems made us cautious, so we tested the first Linx 4800 over time,” says Khemraj. “But after a full year of constant use, we knew for sure that Linx systems would be reliable in our tough, high-volume conditions, so making the decision to equip all of our production lines with Linx systems was pretty easy at that point,” he says.
Marking made easy
Five Linx 4800 small-character ink-jet printers are employed on the company’s dry production lines to put date codes on the lids of ice cream cups, packaging for ice cream sandwiches, as well as the paperboard boxes in which they’re packed. Mister Cookie Face also installed two Linx 6800 small character ink-jet systems with stainless-steel IP-65 enclosures on its two wet manufacturing lines. A diagraph IV/700 large-character ink-jet system marks date and time codes on all corrugated shipping containers.
The seven small-character ink-jet printers are used to mark Julian dates, production line numbers, and time codes on all primary packages.
“In case of a recall, we know when it was made and when it was boxed, which might only be three minutes apart,” Khemraj says.
All of the Linx printers are installed with the printheads positioned above the production lines for a downward printing action. According to Khemraj, “it makes for a very efficient operation because there’s only a minimum amount of cables and brackets required, and the printheads are up and out of the way.”
On the dry production lines, the Linx 4800 systems mark up to 140 products/min. The packaging lines begin as the six-count clamshell packages filled with frozen product are conveyed from the freezer to the labeling station. Brand labels are applied to the top and bottom of the package via a diagraph LA 1000 wipe-on labeler. After the labels are applied, the Linx system prints the ink-jet code on the top label. The packages are conveyed to a Kalfass Servo Jet shrink wrapper. Packages are conveyed through an Eastey heat tunnel and then through a Lock metal detector. Completed packs are placed by hand into corrugated boxes for warehousing and shipment.
On the wet production lines, which are utilized for the ice cream cups, pints, and half gallons of ice cream, the containers are dispensed and filled with ice cream on a Norse Dairy filler. The containers are conveyed under the printing system that marks up to 190 containers/min. Packs are then conveyed under another Lock metal detector, followed by a freeze tunnel. The frozen containers are placed by hand into shipping cases that are also marked by a diagraph printer.
Think ink
According to Khemraj, the drying time of the ink is also quite important to Mister Cookie Face. He says they require a drying time of no more than two seconds, “and the ink from the Linx systems dries even faster than that.”
“We like the water tightness of the Linx 6800 stainless-steel enclosure,” he continues. “They stand up to the frequent washdowns that occur on our wet production lines. And because of the cool environment, the heat sensors in the printheads are very helpful because they constantly check and adjust ink viscosity.”
By the end of this year, Mister Cookie Face plans on moving into a new 90,000 sq’ plant, as well as adding many additional production lines. Khemraj says the company will certainly add more Linx ink-jet printers to those lines.
“The equipment runs great and we’re very happy with the reliability,” he says. “The first Linx 4800 printer we bought, which is actually used on one of our slower production lines, has given us more than 50 million maintenance-free printing cycles. And it’s still going strong!”
Suppliers:
Diagraph, An ITW Company
www.diagraph.com
Phone: 636-300-2026
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Kallfass / CPS & S
www.kallfass.com
Phone: 770-751-7400
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Eastey
www.eastey.com
Phone: 800/835-9344
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Lock Inspection Systems
www.lockinspection.com
Phone: 800-227-5539
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Norse Dairy
www.norse.com
Phone: 800/637-2663
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Produce Processor Favors Ink Jet Coding
Leach Farms, Inc., a Berlin, WI, grower/processor of fresh celery and sweet Spanish onions, is through with its salad days of case coding by simplifying its case- and product-identification processes, thanks to an upgrade to its packing operation from Diagraph, An ITW Company.
Click on download .pdf to read more...
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Going with the flow
UPC-A and product identification on corrugated boxes, fruit drinks, and fruit juices.
New centralized ink system keeps ink flowing for hassle-free ink-jet printing at Arcadia Farms. Ink supply can be changed on the fly.
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Wireless Ink Jet Coding
A switch from hand-applied, preprinted labels on corrugated shippers to large-character ink-jet printing is reducing labor costs and improving security measures at the Great Northern Wholeaves operation of produce grower/marketer Mills Inc.
Even more important, because the printers operate wirelessly, they’ve greatly simplified an operation that has to relocate according to harvest conditions.
Based in Salinas, CA, Mills runs its Great Northern Wholeaves operation in Salinas from April through October because that’s where the lettuce is. But from November through March, harvest conditions require the company to physically relocate the entire packaging operation to Brawley, CA. Customers are primarily foodservice institutions. The operation runs nine processing lines and three packing lines, with 400 employees working two shifts daily.
Fresh lettuces are packed into unwaxed corrugated cases that are taped shut and automatically coded with diagraph PEL high-resolution ink-jet printers.
Security improved
“In the past,” says Mark Tolhurst, director of manufacturing information systems, “we printed labels off-line and applied them to cases by hand. In late 2002, we switched to the automated diagraph printers to save about 10 man-hours per day. It also improved the security of our product identification messages. A label can be tampered with and we might not catch it, but ink-jet printing becomes a part of the box, so it’s very obvious if tampering occurs.”
Each case is marked with a ¾”-tall bar code as well as an alphanumeric equivalent. The need for reliable, scannable bar codes dictated the choice of print heads, says Tolhurst. The high-resolution printers can also print product description, logo, production date, or use-by date. In all, there are about 40 different product identification messages used to mark Great Northern Wholeaves’ cases, all of which are stored for easy retrieval in the PC that controls the ink-jet print heads.
Wireless simplicity
Tolhurst and computer networking consultant Superior Tech Systems organized the installation so that communication between the plant PC and the ink-jet equipment is wireless (see story, p. 55). Few things could make chief of operations Jeff Hougham happier.
“When we move from Salinas to Brawley, it’s a major undertaking,” says Hougham. “It means packing up all our equipment on 50 trucks and making a 500-mile weekend drive. We’re always looking for new ways to make the move, and the reinstallation of our production lines, easier. Wireless communications is one of those ways. There aren’t any cables to worry about. When we move the plant, all we have to do is remove the print heads, lift the conveyors, and bolt them onto trucks.” Tolhurst agrees. “We’ll definitely use the same system for the new plants we have planned,” he says.
Suppliers:
Diagraph, An ITW Company
www.diagraph.com
Phone: 636-300-2026
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Brushing Up on Coding Paints
Dupli-Color, a subsidiary of Sherwin-Williams, sees more than auto touch-up paint flowing smoothly on its new packaging line. The line codes and labels small tubes and jars of the paint and their shippers with small- and large-character systems to achieve a 'factory match'.
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A Piece of Cake
Marking an expiration date on chipboard boxes of cheesecake, and product ID on shipper.
Small and large character ink jet printers from Diagraph have given Culinary Arts a reliable and flexible means of marking its products.
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Cheese Wrapping on the Double
Linx small character inkjet printers mark on packages and jars for shredded, and squeeze cheese.
State-of-the-art dual-lane ‘hot pack’ technology produces cheese slices hermetically sealed in film at 1,600/min with one operator. Integrated ink-jet printers code each slice for consumer convenience and quality control.
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Marking for the Millennium
Marking a date code on the shoulder of green glass bottles with a removable ink
Y2K compliance, reduced costs and improved print quality top the list of reasons why a Kentucky soft drink bottler changed to a new coding system for its glass bottles.
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Meadow Gold Milks Coding Machinery
Marking the shoulder of gallon milk containers
The ink-jet code applied in-line to the shoulder of milk jugs makes it easy for retail store employees and consumers to see and read ‘use-by’ date codes.
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