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Improving egg carton printing efficiencies

Non-contact inkjet printers enhance print quality and consistency, while saving time and money.

HIGH-VOLUME PRECISION. Touch-panel control makes it easy for operators to view and edit print messages.
HIGH-VOLUME PRECISION. Touch-panel control makes it easy for operators to view and edit print messages.

Giroux’s Poultry Farm, Inc., Chazy, NY, operates a fully integrated chicken egg production, packaging, and distribution facility. This high-volume (approximately 100,000 dozens of eggs per day) producer supplies both retail and foodservice customers, including some U.S. military contracts.

Giroux’s uses 12- and 18-count plastic foam and pulp fiber egg cartons. The molded pulp fiber cartons are supplied by Hartman of Toronto and Pactiv. The foam cartons are supplied by Dolco Packaging.

The eggs are washed, weighed, dried, and automatically deposited into the cartons using equipment from Moba. The filled egg cartons then are manually loaded into corrugated shipping cases (sourced from multiple suppliers), and shipping labels are manually applied to the cases.

Traditional mechanical stampers were used to date-code the individual cartons. But the stampers were causing maintenance problems. Packaging room operators were averaging two hours per day to clean and align the print stampers and still were experiencing less than optimum print quality. The downtime required to clean and align the stampers limited production capacity and resulted in significant carton waste. And the system also was incapable of detecting when egg cartons were not properly closed, resulting in even more rejection rates, carton waste, and repackaging time.

Check out new technology from 2,500+ packaging & processing suppliers
PACK EXPO International is where you can discuss real-world problems with experts and land on innovative ideas. Discover every new packaging and processing trend, see machinery in action and learn sustainable solutions from experts.
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Check out new technology from 2,500+ packaging & processing suppliers
New e-book on Multipacking and Case Packing
Read how to extend the life of your case packing equipment and best practices for efficient shrink bundling operation. Plus, learn the differences between wraparound & regular slotted containers.
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New e-book on Multipacking and Case Packing