Kohler, WI-based Viking Packaging Technologies (www.VikingPT.com) manufactures vertical form/fill/seal machines for stickpacks to handle a diverse product range—for example, candies, nuts, sugar, drink mixes, and pharmaceutical powders and liquids. To help its customers meet date coding requirements, Viking wanted to incorporate digital date coding technology directly into its 10-lane stickpack machinery.
Viking wanted the date code printing on the stickpacks to be accomplished when the form/fill/seal procedure slowed down for the stickpack filling stage. Non-digital analog embossed coding or hot-stamping required operators to do the cumbersome manual updates, slowing the lines, and resulting in coding errors. The alternative of positioning 10 individual, electronically programmed printheads on each of the 10 lanes would have required too much plant floor space.
Considering thermal transfer digital coding as a possible solution to this coding challenge, Viking consulted experts from Markem-Imaje (www.markem-imaje.com). Markem-Imaje engineers found a way to add a moving component to the coding system—a customized servo-driven, traversing printhead that can print up to 10 code dates in less than a seconds. The servo drive feature facilitates precision code positioning, velocity control, and automatic error-sensing feedback.
This approach is economical because only one printhead is needed to service 10 lanes. And maintenance requirements are minimal. Viking President Rick Leonhard says, “The Markem-Imaje coding solution is something we plan to include on most of our stickpack applications. It provides our customers with reliable horizontal printing in a cost-effective manner.”
