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Ink-jet coding system demonstrates reliability & longevity

Cott Beverages avoids costly downtime with easy-maintenance, workhorse coding equipment.

VERSATILE INFO. Bar codes, date codes, and customized product identifications can be printed on the cases and trays.
VERSATILE INFO. Bar codes, date codes, and customized product identifications can be printed on the cases and trays.

With nine bottling plants in the U.S., six in Canada, three in the UK, and two in Mexico, Cott Beverages supplies more than 200 retailer and licensed brands of beverages and ships approximately 25 million cases per year from the St. Louis plant alone.

Cott Beverages had been experiencing difficulties with its ink jet coding system for cases and tray packs at its St. Louis, MO plant. The inks were causing messes, and the print heads constantly were being sent back to the supplier for repairs. Cott Beverages found itself having to keep several spare print heads in inventory to avoid downtime on its large bottle (1-, 2-, and 3-L) production line which produces approximately 12,000 cases per eight-hour shift. The plant runs 24/7.

The company needed a reliable high-resolution ink-jet system for marking required information such as bar codes, date codes, and product identifications on the cases and tray packs.

Cott Beverages maintenance manager Mike Roach recalls, “We were looking at replacing our coders because they were making messes and causing a lot of downtime. The old coders we had were outdated, and we were looking for a system with flexibility and good print quality. The system we had before relied on shop air for the pressure and moving the ink. It was limited as far as print resolution and was accurate only 60 to 70 percent of the time. The rest of the time, we were either working on it or trying to clean up the ink mess. It was pretty cumbersome.

“I had five print heads sitting on the shelf just so I had enough for replacements, and I was only running two to three lines with them. So I had twice as many heads in spare as I was printing with, just to keep up with the problems. And we were paying anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 to get the print heads rebuilt. Towards the end, every few weeks we were sending one or two heads back.

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