Switch to Thermal Transfer Labels Reduces Cost and Increases Productivity for Pottery Company
PREVIOUS PROCESS:
A pottery company printed one up UPC A bar code labels on a thermal transfer barcode printer and then manually applied them to the bottom of pots.
They were using Peak Tiger Tough blank synthetic label material.
ID TECHNOLOGY PROPOSAL OR SOLUTION:
For their low volume labels, ID Technology installed a Datamax 6200 6.6" wide printer that was connected to an Apax slitter rewinder. This allowed four-up Label Lite synthetic labels to be printed, then slit and rewound into four separate rolls.
For their high volume labels, IDT produced preprinted UPC A bar code labels utilizing Label Lite material.
Their preprinted and thermal transfer printed labels are then placed on 4 separate Label Printer Applicators to automatically apply the labels onto the pots.
COST SAVINGS:
The low volume thermal transfer printed labels are significantly less expensive than their previous Peak material due to the following:
- Label Lite material is less expensive
- Printing 4-up labels provides better ribbon yield than printing a 1- up label. For example, printing a 1.25" label with a 1.5" ribbon yields ribbon waste of 17% (.25/1.5= .17) whereas printing a 4-up 1.25" label with a 5.5" ribbon yields ribbon waste of 2% (.12/5.5= .02).
- Print head life is four times longer when printing a 4-up label rather than printing a 1-up label.
- Preprinting UPC bar code labels on high volume labels is approximately 50% less than thermal transfer printing labels since ribbon and print heads are not used.
PRODUCTIVITY GAINS:
- Printing 4-up labels on their low volume labels quadruples their throughput yielding faster printing and less labor.
- Preprinting labels on their high volume labels circumvents the entire printing process.
- Preprinted labels use 12" OD rolls, which lessens their label change over time.
- Automatically applying labels improves label placement accuracy.
- Automatically applying labels lessens the labor needed to apply labels.
IDT UNIQUE APPROACH TO APPLICATION:
This account was won by educating the customer on all costs associated with printing high and low volume labels. Furthermore, it was demonstrated how to decrease costs and increase productivity.
