Laser Coding and Marking Reduces Consumable Costs and Maintenance Downtime for Wine Packer
Wigan, UK (PRWEB) October 13, 2007 -- Wine bottling and packer, Kingsland Wines and Spirits, has installed a laser coding and marking machine from specialist Vespalase, bringing the total to five laser machines at this plant. Kingsland bottle wines for most major UK retailers and they installed the first innovative coding and marking laser in 2004. The success of these machines has prompted the addition of the new system from Vespalase, the laser division of coding and marking specialist Euromark.
Kingsland's engineering manager, Nigel Smith explained, "This is an exceptionally high volume bottling operation and we need to mark product with batch codes for traceability. Previously, we were coding and marking the necks of bottles using continuous ink jet (CIJ) printers. The clarity and legibility of these marks was an issue, especially on bottles of red wine. We now laser mark the base of the bottle and find the mark meets our need for a discrete, but legible, permanent mark. Customers can find the marks easily and tell us they are useful in managing stock rotation. The absence of fumes from inks and solvents is also an environmental benefit."
In addition to marking glass, metal, ceramics and other challenging materials, Vespalase lasers can be programmed to mark films, foils and card. Extending laser marking to bag-in-a-box wine containers is under consideration at Kingsland. The high speed lasers can mark at a rate up to 1600 characters per second.
Nigel Smith continued, "Line continuity is crucial. With the old CIJ machines, there was a high cost of consumables and maintenance. Downtime for maintenance and breakdown was extremely disruptive and costly. By contrast, the Vespalase lasers have performed flawlessly, requiring no consumables or even routine attention."
Vespalase offer nationwide service and are happy to advise clients in food and beverage production on permanent laser coding and marking of products and packaging materials. The machines offer a range of high resolution alpha numeric fonts in addition to conventional and 2D matrix bar codes. The company offers a CO2 (carbon dioxide) laser which has a tube life of 30,000 working hours and a fiber laser which offers an outstanding life of 100,000 hours working life. Full details are available on their web site at www.vespalase.com.
More Information
Ian Luck, Tel. +44 (0)1942 228882 Fax. +44 (0)1942 228802
E-mail: info @ euromark-coding.co.uk Web: www.euromark-coding.co.uk
Euromark Coding & Marking Ltd, Unit 5 Croftwood Square, Martland Mill Industrial Estate, Wigan, WN5 0LG
High/low resolution images are on the web at www.ainsmag.co.uk/eu236/4383eu1a.htm
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