Automatic Label Printer & Applicator | InkJet, Inc.

While labels display branding and product information to customers, the importance of quality labeling extends far beyond this function. Labels on food items provide barcodes with stock-keeping units (SKUs) to allow retailers to monitor product inventories and dates to ensure products are safe for consumption. These same labels allow distribution centers to maintain records so incidents of contamination and illness can be traced back to the source.

Accurate and appropriate labeling can be life-saving. Plus, new federal regulations expanding the requirements for tracking both food and pharmaceuticals underline this need for improved barcode readability and the need for quick, accurate labeling of products and packaging. However, this is often more easily written in law than put into practice.

The Functions of a Labeler

In most cases, an automatic label printer and applicator is required to manage mass quantities of products to be processed, packaged, and labeled. Without the right system in place, warehouses risk the safety of their customers, compliance with regulations, and the good name of their brand.

The solution is an automatic label printer and applicator that can deal with a wide variety of production environments. Since many production lines have multiple specialities, their automatic labeling system must be able to adjust to changing circumstances. These challenges can be overcome by selecting the correct system.

EvoLabel® Print and Apply Labeler

Evolabel Wipe G2 from InkJet Inc on Vimeo.

The EvoLabel® Print and Apply Labeler provides excellent communicative ability through built-in PC support. This allows the creation of backup and restore points for the system, making software setup for different products and their labeling procedures simpler and reducing downtime when issues arise. EvoLabel’s open and defined application programming interface (API) allows external software programs to fully control the print and apply system with XML, Excel, and Excel-compatible formats fully supported. Databases can be stored externally on personal computers or internally on the printer itself.

The EvoLabel’s mechanical features make setup easy:

• Direct Drive: No clutch or roller adjustments are needed to set tension and feed speed for labels from the printer to the applicator.
• Rewind: The EvoLabel’s rewind function automatically adjusts and maintains tension despite changes in label size or speed. It maintains steady tension across the reel from end to end.
• Simple Pathing: A simple feed path allows ribbons and rolls to be changed in under a minute and helps to prevent ribbon feed errors and label jams.
• Air Nozzle: A specially designed air nozzle that prevents label misalignment, misapplication, and blowaway.

EvoLabel is a simple, compact, and flexible system. It can be fitted with a variety of applicator heads that can handle automatic label printing and application in a wide variety of roles. It’s capable of labeling branded fresh food packaging, applying barcode and lot number labels to cartons, and printing and applying shipping labels to three sides of a shrink-wrapped pallet. It is an automatic label printer and applicator for nearly every role in the supply chain.

The Challenges of Label Application

Automatic label printers and applicators that aren’t set up and maintained correctly are prone to the following mechanical issues:

• Ribbon Breaks: The continuous ribbon that feeds the machines with labels can break and leave the applicator without labels to apply to boxes as they go by instead of labeling them, leading to large amounts of unlabeled inventory.
• Label Jams: Automatic label printers and applicators tend to have very tight tolerances of only a few sheets of paper in width. A loose corner may snag on part of the machine and cause the label feed to jam up. This can damage the machine if it continues unchecked and also results in large amounts of unlabeled inventory.
• Incorrect Placement: A label that is skewed or slightly out of place can be a significant problem. Since many of the operations in the supply chain are automated, misaligned barcodes can cause massive numbers of labels that cannot be properly read.
• Labels Falling Off: A common issue is that labels fail to adhere to the packaging for various reasons. This can lead to unlabeled boxes that need to be labeled manually, and fallen labels that create a slip hazard along the production line.
   

Due to its speed, automated labeling tends to magnify these issues when they occur. The machinery generally isn’t aware that an error is occurring and will continue making the same mistake repeatedly until corrected. Due to the sheer volume of products and packages moving along a production line, these issues can build up into a large-scale crisis rather quickly. Without the right equipment, these problems can reoccur frequently.

Production lines for consumer products rarely produce just one product needing only one type of label. They often produce multiple product types that share a final packaging area where they are labeled, or they produce a product under various brand labels. This leads to situations where an automatic label printer and applicator setup starts out functioning correctly, but malfunctions after being reset for a new product type or label, delaying shipments and creating problems that can be resolved only through laborious and expensive reworking.

Solve These Issues with a Quality Automatic Label Printer and Applicator

It’s a challenge, but one with a solution that’s simple and easy to implement. A simple, more flexible machine can prevent many of these problems in the first place, with the added benefit of being something that most workers can easily stop, diagnose, and correct. In the modern supply chain, customer satisfaction, traceability, and recall management depend on a correctly applied label. 

Evolabel automatic label printers and applicators work best when they use modern technology to make automation simpler, more reliable, and more manageable for the average worker. Selecting the right printer, and working with an expert vendor that prioritizes client advocacy and prompt customer support, are the key to getting the best possible results from your printing system.

You can depend on InkJet, Inc. support as you set up the elegantly simple EvoLabel automatic label printer and applicator. Contact us online or call (800) 280-3245.