About two years ago the firm installed a Macsa laser coder from I.D. Technology, a ProMach company, for glass bottles filled in its distillery operation. And then early this summer a second Macsa coder arrived for a beer bottling line (shown here). In both cases, says Gary Olson, President of Brewery Operations, it was the permanence and legibility of the laser code that drove the upgrade. “Once that code is on, it’s on,” says Olson. He also likes that with laser coding there’s no more inks to buy or cleaner solvent, either.
Installed elsewhere at the plant, though not as recently as the laser coders, was a FoxJet High-Resolution Ink-Jet Printer, also from I.D. Technology, for one-color printing on corrugated cases of beer. What makes this printer so invaluable is that it allowed Minhas to greatly reduce the variety of preprinted corrugated shippers it buys. Why? Because not only can the beer variety and other variable information be printed on the case, but also graphics and logos. This capability, says Olson, saves Minhas about $750,000 annually in corrugated material costs because now the firm can buy more or less generic, unprinted cases and print them on line. It also frees up a lot of warehouse space.
“We do a wide variety of container sizes and we do a fair bit of contract or private label bottling,” says Olson. “That means a lot of changeover, so being able to print cases right on line makes a big difference.”
