Candy maker refines packaging flexibility

With the Parsons-Eagle system, Gimbal’s has been able to decrease film inventory requirements, reduce packaging material costs, and improve production speeds. And the SmartDate printing/coding system, with a user-friendly interface, allows one bagging film to be used for several products. Many of Gimbal’s film packaging materials are oriented polypropylene (OPP) laminates supplied by Bemis/Curwood (www.curwood.com). Gimbal’s president and CEO Lance Gimbal says, “This automated system gives us the flexibility to use the same film on multiple products. At the outset, we knew very little about thermal-transfer printing, but a number of people recommended Markem-Imaje to us. These low-maintenance coders deliver crisp, clear, consistently high-quality printing for both intermittent- and continuous-motion print applications on a variety of substrates. And, by switching to the fully automated approach, we have realized significant savings in labor costs and slashed potential for human-error coding mistakes. Changeover is as easy an inputting a product code. And we can produce customized labels and logos at will. The flexibility of the software allows us to meet varied and complex labeling needs.

“Technicians from both Parsons-Eagle and Markem-Imaje assisted in training our in-house packaging personnel on the new form/fill/seal/print system. These technicians were highly instrumental in our implementation and start-up of the system.”