Industrial Printing, Marking and Coding Insights

Inkjet Printhead Durability Drives Ease of Use

Not all inkjet printheads are created equal. Some printheads are designed to offer superior uptime performance, making them easier to operate and use when coding product. Look for the following features when choosing an inkjet coder, whether it is a small character inkjet coder for printing on primary product packaging or a high resolution large character inkjet coder for printing on cases:

Tagged With:

Top Recommended Inks for Inkjet Coding in the Dairy Industry

No one wants to risk their health or the health of their family by bringing home dairy products with indistinguishable expiration dates. Regardless if your dairy plant produces fluid milk, cheese, yogurt or ice cream, if your product does not have a legible expiration date on it chances are your product will remain on grocer’s shelves.

How to Reduce Marking Mistakes and Ensure Proper Code Adhesion

What does your company do when products are marked with the wrong product identification codes? Scrap? Rework? Mismarked and mislabeled products can create big hits to the bottom line. When encountering marking mistakes with regularity, companies can find it difficult to keep profit margins under control. What’s worse is if mismarked or mislabeled products make it out to market, manufacturers can face penalties from retailers and the risk of product recalls.

Tagged With:

Is a Product Identification Site Audit Right for Your Facility?

If you haven’t had a top-to-bottom review of your coding and labeling operations within the past 5 to 10 years, you are probably overdue for a comprehensive product identification site audit. Technological advancements have allowed for manufacturers to achieve greater efficiencies and accuracy with their product coding efforts for all levels of packaging

Tagged With:

Marking 125 Years in Business with Special Customer Savings at PACK EXPO International

2018 marks Diagraph’s 125th anniversary in business and we’re inviting the industry to celebrate this momentous occasion with us at PACK EXPO International in Chicago. Diagraph is exhibiting at booth N-5721 with our full line-up of product solutions including small character inkjet, high-resolution inkjet case coders, all-electric labelers and thermal transfer overprinters. Come visit us and discover our new initiatives designed to make product identification easy for our customers

Why Diagraph Believes in Predictable Service Support

Our customers that realize the most value over the life of their coding and labeling equipment utilize some level of support from our factory-trained field service engineers. We fundamentally believe that service interventions should always be planned, never a surprise. With our flexible service and support options, we put customers in the driver’s seat of deciding when service will be done around their own production schedules.

Tagged With: Business News

Diagraph's Commitment To On-Time Delivery

Not having what you need for your coding and labeling equipment when you need it can put a halt to production. This is why we recommend taking a proactive approach to the supplies you need to keep your equipment up and running in tip-top condition. The result? Your coding and labeling operations run like a well-oiled machine, with the right amount of consumables at the ready based on your production and the right parts on hand leading up to preventive maintenance actions.

Tagged With: Business News

What is the Diagraph Uptime Advantage?

As a key component in our Diagraph Solution Center model, the Diagraph Uptime Advantage focuses on delivering more uptime through our products with minimal intervention requirements. We believe that our coding and labeling solutions should be the least of your worries. This is why our equipment solutions are built to withstand the toughest of manufacturing environments and consistently produce high quality marks – print after print after print.

Inside Diagraph’s Solution Matching Services

To help our customers combat this growing issue, we are introducing what we call Diagraph Solution Matching Services. We will partner with you to conduct a complete site audit at your facility or, for larger customers, your family of facilities to pinpoint opportunities where slight changes in coding operations can provide valuable benefits.

Introducing the Diagraph Solution Center

In the process of celebrating our past, we couldn’t help but look to the future. How are we going to write the next chapter in our 125-year-old story? This is a question that we asked ourselves leading up to this important anniversary. One thing we know for sure is that this chapter is not being written without the direct involvement of our customers as we have turned to them to help us chart a new course.

Tagged With: Business News, Innovation

Delivering Innovation at Diagraph for 125 Years – and Counting

Let’s set the scene: The year is 1893. Pepsi is introduced to the world for the first time as “Brad’s Drink” in New Bern, North Carolina. The zipper – referred to as a “clasp locker” – makes its debut at the Chicago World’s Fair. Inspired by views from Pikes Peak in Colorado, Katharine Lee Bates writes “America the Beautiful”. And on the banks of the Mississippi River along the St. Louis Levee, cargo piles up as it’s awaiting hand addressing…

Keep Up With Snack Packaging Trends With Smarter CIJ Technology

No longer is it the case that snacks are packaged specifically for children’s lunch boxes. Today, the snack market is heavily geared towards adults with 94% of adults snacking at least once a day and 50% snacking 2 to 3 times a day.* Snack producers are tasked with changing traditional packaging to address a different kind of consumer.

Are You Ready to Automate Date Coding on Your Ready-to-Eat Products?

Fast-paced lifestyles of the working class and a growing number of Millennials demanding on-the-go options are two contributing factors to the rise in the ready-to-eat (RTE) prepared foods market with a projected CAGR of 7.2% between 2016-2026 With the versatility of the packaging substrates and forms for RTE products, we are outlining some key considerations to keep in mind for date coding to still achieve demanding throughput goals.

How to create durable ISPM 15 compliance marks on wooden pallets

Shipping products using wood packaging and dunnage between countries is a process regulated by the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC). Wooden materials like pallets and crates can potentially carry diseases or insects from one country into another where an infestation would negatively impact the ecosystem. Composed of 175 member countries, the IPPC has established requirements around the treatment of wood packaging leaving and entering their countries to prevent infestations that could be harmful to their local plant life.

Color Contrasting Inkjet Coder Runs Cleaner for Longer

Diagraph is pleased to announce the launch of the Linx 8900 Plus Series – an advanced range of color contrasting inkjet technology that provides the highest levels of printer reliability and ease of use. Enhancements in printhead design and pigment particle dispersion in the Linx 8900 Series prevent common clogging issues associated with inkjet systems when using color soft pigment-based inks.

Benefits of automated coding in the meat, poultry and seafood packing industries

According to a recent PMMI Business Intelligence Report, the meat, seafood, and poultry packing industries are experiencing “a global boom” due to several factors including import and export opportunities expanding into new markets, growth in foodservice, and growth in ready meals. Food producers are rapidly moving to automate processing and packaging to be prepared to meet increased demand and be flexible enough to adapt to changing product coding requirements.

Understanding High Resolution Inks for Your Industrial Inkjet Printer

Selecting ink for your inkjet technology – impulse jet, valve jet or thermal jet – requires an understanding of your application and some basic qualities of the inks available. We asked our inkjet experts for key information to help shine some light on understanding the ink options available in the market.

The Top Choice for Date, Lot and Batch Coding

Diagraph’s customers have spoken and they prefer the Linx 8900 continuous inkjet printer for their date, lot and batch doing needs! Customer feedback cited several reasons that the Linx 8900 model is their top choice.

Using Product Coding and Labeling to Manage a Growing Number of SKUs

A number of factors contribute to the drastic rise in SKUs, like company acquisitions and portfolio merging, flavor variety, count variety and retailer-specific case sizes, to name a few. Managing an increasing number of SKUs is costly for snack food manufacturers, especially when a bulk of them only contribute a small portion to their bottom-line profit.

What is Retail Ready Packaging?

Retail-ready packaging, warehouse with cases and pallets, product identification

Retail ready packaging (RRP) is increasing in popularity among big box retailers. A retail-ready package refers to secondary packaging that is branded appropriately to be able to move to retail shelves in a quick, “one touch” movement.

What Makes a Good Spare Industrial Inkjet Printer?

Downtime in your production simply isn’t an option. But at any moment, an unpredictable event can arise like low ink levels, maintenance and clogging, putting your operations on hold anywhere from an hour to an entire shift. So how do you prepare for the unexpected? One option that we see put into practice by many customers is the investment in a spare inkjet printer – a reliable, on-hand system that can quickly be fired up on a production line when your regular systems suddenly quit.

Enhance the Food Safety Process with Functional Inks

Continuous inkjet (CIJ) is the technology of choice for food packaging coding as the solvent based inks adhere to a variety of materials like cartons, plastics, films, foils, metal and glass. CIJ is ideal for food packaging in that it offers high speed, non-contact small character printing and enables food processors to incorporate inkjet codes into their functional safety and traceability processes.

Questions to Ask When Evaluating CIJ Versus Laser Coding for Your Food Production Line

Two common automated marking and coding solutions for food packaging are continuous inkjet and laser coding. Which solution best fits your application is dependent on a number of factors.

Achieve Less Downtime in Food and Bottling Lines When You Choose These Durable CIJ Features

All food and beverage manufacturers have a commitment to efficient operations and strive to increase output with maximum uptime. Many of these manufacturers require variable information such as lot or batch codes, expiration dates, or barcodes on their product and make use of Continuous Inkjet (CIJ) to achieve these required codes.

How Traversing CIJ and TTO Technology Solutions are Impacting Your Bottom Line

If you’re a manufacturer integrating traversing CIJ and thermal transfer overprinters in your form, fill and seal machines, consumables contribute to your total cost of ownership in a major way.

NEW MODELS EXTEND LASER CODING CAPABILITIES

Linx Printing Technologies is launching two laser coders that will open up the benefits of laser technology to more companies and applications. Key benefits of the new Linx CSL range are even faster printing speeds and greater versatility, making the coders ideal for a wider variety of products. Quicker and easier installation and set-up help to make laser coding simpler and more accessible.

Tagged With:

Small Character Inkjet Features That Shine in the Meat Packing Industry

The meat packaging industry has coding and traceability requirements similar to other food industries, yet the cold and humid environments indicative of the industry can pose additional challenges for packaging equipment not experienced in more temperate facilities.

Tagged With:

Look for these 4 CIJ Features When Facing Skilled Labor Challenges

Ease of serviceability was a common pain point expressed by customers at this year’s PMMI Annual Conference “The Customer Speaks — OpX Leadership Network Panel”. Manufacturers are experiencing frequent turnover, making it difficult to keep a staff knowledgeable, up-to-date and skilled on their equipment.

Tagged With:

Choosing Stick Pack or Sachet Equipment to Integrate with Your Multi-Lane Printer

Once your packet is coded, sachet or stick pack packaging requires a specialized system to form the packaging receptacle, fill the product into the packet, and seal the ends to secure the product for transport. These systems are known as FFS - form, fill, and seal machines - and they come in two different varieties: (1) Vertical (VFFS) and (2) Horizontal (HFFS).

Tagged With:

Improved Linx Printhead Offers Advantages Over Competition

The latest Continuous Inkjet Printer from Linx Printing Technologies, the 8900 Series, reflects the fundamental Linx design philosophies of Ease of Use and Reliability and is supported by the MK11 hermetically sealed printhead that protects all critical components during operation and cleaning.

Tagged With:

GMO labeling crisis? Here's what you should know and what you should do

Did you know there were 80 GMO labeling bills introduced in 20 states in 2015? On July 1, 2016 the first GMO labeling law will go into effect in Vermont. The Vermont law requires raw agricultural commodity and processed food producers who sell food products in or into the state of Vermont to mark the lowest saleable unit of food packaging with a disclaimer that clearly and conspicuously reads “produced with genetic engineering.”

Tagged With:

The Container You Choose for Your Brew Determines Which Coding Technology You Should Choose

Different types of technology are needed for printing on your primary (bottle or can) package and on your secondary (outer box) package. Continuous ink jet (CIJ) and laser are the most common options for printing date clodes, batch codes, other text, graphics, barcodes, QR codes and other codes onto primary beverage packages.

Tagged With:

What would you do with 3 months?

The new printer reflects the fundamental Linx design philosophies of Ease of Use and Reliability, supported by a hermetically sealed printhead with no moving parts, self-service Easi Change module and new features such as one-touch cartridge refills and a 10” capacitive touch screen with customizable menu.

How do you Print on a Sachet or Stickpack?

Sachets are packets or sealed pouches that contain liquids, gels, or powders and typically sealed on four (4) sides. Stickpacks are tube-like packaging that is sealed on two ends with a continuous seam side. These convenient packaging methods are highly utilized in the food and beverage additive markets, but can be seen in pharmaceutical as well as cosmetic industries. This packaging type requires a specialized system to form the packaging receptacle, fill the product into the packet, and seal the ends to secure the product for transport.

Tagged With:

Selecting the Right Ribbon

Diagraph offers many different formulations of Norwood ribbon to allow us to offer solutions for most films. The coating and chemical make-up of the film is what drives the ribbon formulation. We offer wax, wax/resin, and resin ribbons and within each of these 3 categories we offer a number of formulas and colors.

Diagraph's Blog

Diagraphs Blog covers the latest in coding and labeling products

Search

Categories

Featured Posts