The challenges of coding onto cartons
For starters, there’s the risk of coding errors. It’s no overstatement to say that if the wrong pharmaceutical product ends up in the wrong hands, it’s potentially a matter of life or death. That’s why coding errors can incur substantial fines for manufacturers.
Coding errors carry fines in the food sector too. Not to mention the risk of losing contracts with major buyers.
Across both sectors, without legible codes (or machine-readable in certain applications) it is difficult to achieve legislative compliance and ensure customer safety. Traceability is critical in the pharmaceutical sector. And then there’s the need for durability of the code.
Take use-by dates, for example, it’s crucial that they are readable for the duration – and beyond – of the product lifespan. Otherwise, they are useless. Sounds demanding doesn’t it? Now consider that these codes must be applied in mere fractions of a second to each carton. And sometimes each carton will carry an item-level code that’s unique to that carton only.
Resolving carton-coding challenges
Pharmaceutical cartons come in all shapes and sizes. The number produced on an annual basis is measured in the billions. As for the food sector, cartons are used for everything from confectionary to pizza, from chicken nuggets to potato waffles, from sandwiches to fruit juice. Yet, despite the diversity of carton types that are used across the food and pharmaceutical sectors, there are solutions to the shared coding challenges that are applicable to both industries and the various cartons they use. Here’s a quick introduction to the technologies that can help.
Continuous Inkjet Printing
No hyperbole: Domino’s Ax-Series has revolutionised continuous inkjet printing. It’s incredibly fast and highly flexible, with supreme droplet accuracy that makes it easy to apply high-quality text, graphics, and QR codes onto the majority of commonly used carton materials – with automatic adjustment of ink viscosity for amazing print quality, even at high production speeds. The Ax-Series uses fast-drying and highly durable alcohol-based inks, which reduces the use of solvents on your site for more environmentally-friendly operations. Easy to set up and control, the printer is lightweight, has a higher OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), and runs for longer without stoppages, meaning a lower operational downtime.
The Ax-Series is designed for service-free operation and comes with Domino Cloud, a remote diagnostics service that proactively monitors your technology to ensure maximum uptime on your production lines – helping your machines to run faster, for longer, without stoppages. All products have the option to extend warranties, training courses from fully qualified engineers, and a roving network of technicians who are available to conduct site visits according to our Domino Customer Standard commitments.
Thermal Inkjet Printing
Domino’s Thermal Inkjet (TIJ) range offers an alternative solution to tackle the challenges of coding onto cartons. Their Gx-Series is versatile, easy to integrate, and easy to operate, with only simple ink cartridge replacement required. The fact that TIJ printers have the option of multiple printheads means you can print many lines of code at speeds of up to 300m/min – with dry times of less than half a second. Whether it’s TrueType, alphanumeric text, batch codes, barcodes or 2D data metrics, Domino’s TIJ range provides high-contrast, scratch-resistant codes with a lifespan that exceeds the two-year industry standard.
Promising speed, legibility, and durability, laser coding is a common favourite in the pharmaceutical sector. In addition, Domino’s laser range also delivers lower long-term running costs and environmentally-friendly operation. With no inks or solvents and automatic temperature cooling, it has the potential to make your operations more eco-friendly. Domino’s laser range can also deliver both human-readable and 2D matrix coding at high speeds.
QuickDesign makes it easy to take control of your label creation operations – whether you are on your production line or in the back office – to dramatically reduce the risk of coding errors. Stay fully compliant and in complete control of your package messaging, from product to pallet, right from the factory floor with automated coding operations. You can manage your data from a simple touchscreen PC interface and create accurate labels from a built-in product table. Coding onto cartons: Why trust us! We work with Domino, who’s technologies are used by some of the biggest manufacturers to provide fast and accurate coding operations. If you would like to arrange a demo of these products, get in touch!
