Transcript
www.ilmag.co.uk
April www.ilmag.co.uk
Volume 2 Issue 4
INTRALOGISTICS Magazine
Knowledge and Excellence in Intralogistics
“
We know it can be difficult for a customer to forecast their precise requirement years ahead, so that’s where our personal management style and flexible finance really add value. Customers can’t believe we’re prepared to be so flexible, but we’re doing this all the time. It’s just business as usual for Impact Handling.
”
Terry Kendrew, Managing Director, Impact Handling.
Handling 10FollowImpact us @Intralogs
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The FTA
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Contactless labelling
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n this article from the Automated Material Handling Systems Association (AMHSA), Phil Molloy, Business Development Manager for Industrial Labelling Systems Ltd, explains recent advances in automatic labelling technology.
As consumers, we are gradually adopting contactless payment
of years, however, significant
systems, with an embedded chip in our credit and debit
advances in applicator design
cards and RF antennae enabling secure payment without the
and manufacture have brought
traditional swipe at the point of sale. Contactless technology
a level of flexibility that was
of a different kind is also proving the way forward in automatic
previously unthinkable. Today,
labelling, with 3D printing technology opening up new and
automatic labelling suppliers
exciting possibilities in the manufacture of label applicators.
offer a relatively small range of printers that can be teamed up
High-speed automatic labeling is nothing new – we can all
with a plethora of applicators
picture in our mind’s eye a food packaging line, for example,
to suit a whole host of applications. The range of applicators
with products being labelled with information such as barcode,
includes wipe-on, tamp, twin-face and now contactless devices.
weight, batch number and ‘best before’ date. In the past couple Automatic labelling systems combine a relatively small range of printers with a plethora of applicators to suit various applications 3D printing Using CAD modelling and 3D printing, labelling equipment suppliers can manufacture an applicator pad that sucks and blows (known as ‘blow-vac’) using a vacuum. It is simply not possible to produce such applicators using traditional manufacturing methods due to their complex, waffle-like interior. In the 3D printing process, the three-dimensional pad is produced from a digital file by laying down successive layers of resin until the entire applicator is created. The final applicator pad – equipped with intelligent, integrated vacuum injectors and blow nozzle – can accurately apply a label up to 200mm away from the target. Of course, contactless technology reduces wear and tear, reducing both downtime and maintenance costs. A blow-vac labelling system featuring a 3D-printed applicator pad
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Flexibility
we are supplying today have had most of these engineered
The ability to create and supply new applicators quickly and
have been replaced with electronics, meaning that there is
easily through 3D printing brings the flexibility to serve any facility – from a factory making sandwiches to one producing uranium pellets – as it adjusts its production to meet demand. Retro-fitting a new pad to an existing printer today is not only fast but cost-effective. For example, one of our customers is a pizza manufacturer producing own-label products for leading supermarkets. A process improvement involving new ingredients meant an increase in product life from 14 to 27 days. This allowed the company to switch from making pizzas to meet orders received to making pizzas for stock. The firm therefore needed a smaller label – showing simply line ID, product ID, date and time – for the products entering the cold store, before they would later be picked and relabelled with more information on a larger label. Supplying and fitting a new applicator pad to suit this changed need was performed rapidly and at considerably lower cost than would have been possible just a
out at the design stage. In the latest printers, pneumatics less of a physical burden on the machine and consequently less maintenance required. The printers we supply now are also welded in manufacture, so there is no tension and no opportunity for play, again resulting in less downtime. Improved design has also dramatically cut the time need to change consumable rolls from several minutes to just 30 seconds.
Increased print head life Improved printer design is also impacting on the life – and therefore cost – of print heads. Whereas heads typically lasted for 6-8 weeks in the past, now a life of 12-18 months is possible. Reasons for this include use of a magnetic holder so that the print head is always in the same position and ensuring that all the chassis of the machines are identical – with no twist points, build irregularities or offset tension – so that print is constant
few years ago.
every time. In addition, a central web path ensures that the
Improved printers
as is common on many other machines. Another key factor is
Technological advances have not been limited to the applicators, however. The printing machines themselves have seen dramatic improvements in the last few years. Whereas legacy labelling equipment still in use at many sites suffers from weaknesses due to its clutches, springs and tensioners, the new printers
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print is spread across the print head and not offset to one side, the wide-leading-edge design of the printers we supply, which means that the print head is used less per label than narrowleading-edge set-ups. As in other areas of manufacturing and logistics, technology is helping to reduce lifetime costs by lowering investment cost, reducing maintenance needs and slashing consumable costs.
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