Millstone Medical Outsourcing, a Massachusetts-based provider of medical packaging outsourcing, selected an Epson ColorWorks® C7500G ink-jet label printer to create color and black-and-white packaging labels for its growing roster of orthopedic and spine customers.
Millstone Medical provides customized solutions to the medical device industry, with three environmentally controlled facilities offering advanced inspection, cleanroom packaging, medical device-specific warehousing, distribution, loaner kit management and aftermarket services.
“Our customers demand durable, high-quality label and packaging solutions with sometimes very specific details such as barcodes, graphics and meticulous logos—expectations that laser printers, and even legacy two-step inkjet color printing solutions just couldn’t meet,” explains Michael Morrissette, Program Manager, Millstone Medical Outsourcing. “Using the Epson ColorWorks to print on-demand, full-color labels has allowed us to better manage our expenses and keep up with the ever-changing medical packaging market. The Epson printer is a product that we can rely on to get the job done for our clients.”
Careful management and a flexible production environment is a requirement of Millstone Medical Outsourcing because the company offers such a varied service portfolio. Its more than 50 customers in the orthopedic sector alone have different preferences when it comes to label production.
With Epson’s ColorWorks C7500G printer, Millstone Medical Outsourcing has been able to achieve exceptional customer satisfaction, producing bright, vibrant color labels that are almost photo-like in quality on a wide range of label media, including glossy stock. The C7500G helps their customers meet their key goal of conveying the high quality of their products by providing a luxurious look and feel that complements the packaging.
The C7500G also helps Millstone Medical Outsourcing to meet the requirements of the U.S. FDA’s unique device identifier (UDI) system by allowing the easy identification of medical devices and corresponding packages.
To provide the most thorough set of recommendations to its customers, Millstone Medical Outsourcing enlisted the help of Peak-Ryzex, its partner for supply chain services, for additional insight. “We recommended the Epson ColorWorks for a few reasons,” explains Barry Alves, Peak-Ryzex’s Label Systems Consultant. Peak-Ryzex is a provider of supply chain, retail, and mobile workforce solutions for business-critical applications including enterprise printing. “Epson label printers can produce labels that are strong enough to endure the harsh atmosphere that orthopedic products may encounter during the sterilization process, including radiation, ethylene oxide and gamma rays. Plus, while not a mandatory characteristic for medical device labels, color coding or color images help users easily distinguish products.”
Following the purchase of the Epson ColorWorks C7500G, Millstone Medical Outsourcing worked with enLabel Global Services, a technology firm that develops software for highly regulated industries, including medical devices, to make sure the printer passed FDA validation tests.
Ken Legault, VP of Sales and Business Development for enLabel, says, “From our perspective, integrating the ColorWorks C7500G into Millstone’s workflow just made sense, not only with regard to the ease of use and scalability of the printer itself, but the seamless execution when paired with our software. Epson and enLabel have allowed Millstone to take their labeling to the next level.”
Suitable for high mix label requirements, ColorWorks deliver dependable, commercial ink-jet printing with fast-drying, durable color inks to meet stringent quality and efficiency demands of Millstone Medical Outsourcing customers. In addition, given the on-demand nature of the printers, Millstone Medical Outsourcing can quickly customize label size and information, eliminating the need to inventory high numbers of preprinted labels, resulting in lower overall label costs.
