Unstable Labels Banded Together

Beer bottleneck labels

#Off-the-Cutter Efficiency – One Label Printer’s Experience

When it’s Hard to Hold it Together

Hard to handle beer bottleneck labels (cut and stack) and a labor intensive process created a need for this narrow web printer to hold printed labels together – for safe transportation. Their old manual process was no longer efficient and stacks of labels collapsed resulting in wasted and scrapped product. Growing demand required a better, faster solution. 

Automatic Banding Machine

Our customer installed an automatic banding system where full lifts of labels just off-the-cutter stay stacked as they are pushed along a table to the bander. Here, the automatic banding machine uses side and top compression while it applies an ultrasonically sealed band to the stack. Bricks of labels easily move without damage. The secret is the automatic banding machine’s ability to apply just the right amount of tension to the band so the brick stays tight and labels do not move or fall from the pack. Scrap and over-runs are in the past.  

Bricks of Labels are Easy

Bottling companies receive the labels as banded bricks. Peel-away bands make it easy to fill the dispensers at the bottling machine. Bottlers like the bricks because they stay together until needed and remain undamaged labels.
Additionally, their workers don’t need sharp objects to open label packs. 

Efficiencies Gained

Label printers and their end-user customers gain efficiencies by using the automatic banding machines to band labels. Our customer experienced these efficiencies: 

  • Stability – Slippery, narrow, unstable stacks become stable.
  • Labor – Machine moves unstable stacks, not an operator. Operator can stage the next lift off the cutter.
  • Less Waste – stacks do not shingle and fall. Less scrap and bending.
  • Faster Production – Through-put at the end-of-line packaging area became faster.
  • Sustainable Story – the new process with the banding machine is part of the company’s sustainability story. Demand is up, and their process still delivers on time without more labor.

The printer’s customer (bottling company) reported efficiencies also. This gave our printer an ‘unfair’ competitive advantage over their peers.

  • Fast Delivery – with faster production,
  • Customer expectations for delivery were exceeded
  • Quality – Banding protected the labels from dog-ears and damage, leaving less scrap
  • Faster Production – The bundled labels quickly open to fill dispensers. 

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