Clear and tidy code effect

Robert Stanley, the workshop director of branded deodorant and antiperspirant producer AP Deauville in New Jersey, said that if Wal-Mart's supplier fails three times, it will be out of the game. He explained: "If a packaged bar code is not scanned out, Wal-Mart will fine us $ 5,000; if it is two, it will be fined $ 50,000; and if three packages are not scanned, then we will It is no longer their supplier, so in order to meet Wal-Mart's requirements, the bar code we print must be very clear, which is very important."

AP Deauville was founded three and a half years ago and its founder Fred Horowitz was one of the first five owners of USA Detergents. AP Deauvill produces the Power Stickê Extreme series of male and female deodorants, antiperspirants and body fragrance sprays. Despite a short history, the new company has achieved a large market share in several of the nation’s largest retail stores including Wal-Mart, Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Fred's.

Although AP Deauville's personal care products are among the best-known brands, the company still seeks to create the most competitive brands and gain more profit. Stanley said: "We must ensure that the best quality products are produced." At first, in order to establish its own packaging line, the company chose a print labeling system to code the packages, but the cost of this solution is too high. Later, they used an inkjet printer, but they needed to clean the print head every day, so the cost remained high.

Since 2002, AP Deauville has established a complete packaging production line.

In April, AP Deauville installed an Adolph Gottscho GOTTJET (R) coder, HP's inkjet printing technology. In an interview recently conducted by the PD, Stanley said: "Since the installation of GOTTJET, this device has proved to be a simple, efficient and cost-effective solution. This kind of printer has never produced anything for us. trouble."

In a 22,000-square-foot production facility, the packaging and coding equipment is located at the end of a semi-automatic packaging line with a variety of different supply equipment. It prints barcodes, product descriptions, and shipping containers for AP Deauville's products. Code (SCC) and other information.

In 2002, AP Deauville installed a print labeling system to do the same job. Stanley said: "Although the print effect is clear and legible, but the cost of each label is almost 4 cents." He added, "This is why we no longer use this system to find a more technologically advanced automation system. We don't want to use printing anymore. We hope to print the ink in the right place on the package.”

However, AP Deauville's first inkjet printing system, a piezoelectric printer, did not achieve the desired effect as a packaging coder. The reason is the printer's own design flaw. Every time the system is shut down, it needs to clean the ink on the print head. Stanley said: "Our job is very flexible. We turn on and off the system almost every day. Because the needles in the print head are very small, if you do not get all the ink out during cleaning, you will burn the print head. It took us five thousand dollars to change a print head, and in eight months I had changed two print heads. Finally I had to say: 'This is not what we want.'"

Through Gottscho's local agent, Bill Coyle of Maximum Packaging, AP Deauville introduced the GOTTJET coder, which uses HP's industrial inkjet technology to provide clean, low-cost, green, personalized printing services. This printer can achieve a resolution of 600 dpi, and its speed can reach 150 to 250 feet per minute depending on the size of the image.

Christopher W. Anderson, Gottscho’s director of sales and marketing, said: “AP Deauville described to us that they need to greatly improve the bar code print quality to meet the stringent requirements of customers. The key to achieving this demand is very high print quality, so as to ensure the eventual Users get clear, readable barcodes."

After equipment commissioning and cost estimation, AP Deauville purchased a 2-inch version of the printer, which measures 16.5 inches long, 5.12 inches wide, and 6.18 inches high. This printer, equipped with three printheads (upgradable to four), can print product descriptions, bar codes, and SCC numbers on a corrugated package at a rate of 112 feet per minute in a 1 x 5 inch printable range. By running software based on the Windows operating system, the system can provide a very intuitive menu on the touch screen to guide the operator in the job. Stanley points out that saved jobs can be executed in seconds and it takes only 10 to 15 seconds to completely change job content.

Anderson explained that the biggest difference between the GOTTJET printer and its competitors is that the HP technology is integrated in different ways to achieve a clean and secure printing solution. He said: “We used a stainless steel fitting around the HP cartridges along the easy-to-input connection port. We also provided a universal connection system so that customers can easily adjust and connect their devices.”

He continued: “Compared with other inkjet printing technologies, customers will find our GOTTJET printers/coders easy to install and use, and they will feel that our software is stable on Windows 98, 2000, NT and XP systems. The friendliness of the software. The latest revision of the software also enabled our customers to use existing scanners to scan the same bar code directly into our printer software, thus reducing the need to individually create complex barcodes."

Increasing productivity is another benefit of this new inkjet printing system. According to Stanley, adding ink to a device is quite simple, just replace a new cartridge. When the printer was first installed, AP Deauville used a standard-size cartridge that was sufficient to print about 4,000 packages. Two weeks after the system was installed, the company received a custom cartridge from Gottscho that could print 80,000 packages without replacing the cartridge.

Anderson said: “Gottscho has been looking for a variety of ways to help our customers reduce the cost of ink. For GOTTJET coders, our engineers find it helpful to use the HP Quick Disconnect Printhead cartridge module and batch ink tanks. The premise is that we need to find a way to get the ink from the ink tank to the print head. Then we designed a regulator and manifold system together with the strategic partner inc.jet. Then we discussed the system with Stanley. He felt that this move would significantly reduce ink consumption (from 0.004 cents to 0.0001 cents per print) and is worth a try.”
“AP Deauville pursues more than just quality, reliability and low maintenance costs, but also cost per print. These are solved using the Gottscho Bulk Ink Supply System.”

Although AP Deauville prints on corrugated paper, HP's water-based industrial inks dry quickly on certain substrates, including some aluminum foil.

This type of printer does not need to clean the print head, just wipe it to complete the maintenance task.

Because AP Deauville's retail customers have strict product requirements, if the bar code on the shipping package cannot be read, then the product cannot reach the consumer. Because of this, Stanley said: “The reliability of the GOTTJET coder Sex and high-definition prints are invaluable."

Reprinted from: 21st Century Fine Chemicals Network