PRINTER ELIMINATES REWORK WITH AUTOMATED SYSTEM
A growing narrow web printer, this customer had contracted with a bottling company to print their beer bottleneck labels. Initially, the printer implemented a manual process of stacking and bundling the labels prior to transportation.
The process worked fairly well, with the occasional hiccup when slippery stacks collapsed or labels arrived to the bottling company with dog-ears and other damage, resulting in scrapped product. But with growing demand, the printer was in need of a faster, less labor-intensive solution.
AN AUTOMATED SOLUTION
When analyzing their options, the printer knew they should invest in a solution that would prevent labels from getting damaged in transit without adding too much time to their packaging process.
After consulting with Felins’ packaging specialists, the customer installed an automated banding system for the bottleneck labels.
OUTCOME
Specifically for stacks of labels, the banding system pushes full lifts of labels off the cutter along a table to the bander. Using top and side compression, the system applies the appropriate amount of tension to each stack prior to applying a band. This ensures each brick can withstand transport without damage or loose labels. And, without manual operation required, workers can focus on staging each lift off the cutter rather than keeping each brick intact.
With faster delivery and higher quality product arriving to their facility, the bottling company was extraordinarily happy. Not only that, the peel-away bands don’t require sharp objects to open the label packs and make it easy to fill the label dispensers at the bottling machine.
The new system provided so many efficiencies that the printer is now considered to have an “unfair” competitive advantage over its peers.
