Coding millions of cans

More than 300 million cans have been coded in each of the past five years by four ultra high-speed ink jet printers on production lines at a Hastings factory.

Installed in 2002 to meet new Food Standards and FDA expectations, the Videojet Excel 170i Ultra printers have run seven days a week, each coding 580 cans/min.

Tim Seed, continuous improvement engineer at Amcor Food Cans Australasia, says the main issue at the time of purchase was ensuring that the printers could cope with the speed of the production lines.

All four printers are interchangeable between the various production lines. Each machine codes the time and date and identifications for the line and the seamer head.

The high-speed printers were supplied and installed by Tronics.

Amcor has achieved a high standard of environmental sustainability and intends to eliminate all waste to landfill. As part of this program, the company is investigating the use of laser coders which run without consumables. I expect we'll choose Tronics laser technology and service backup, says Tim Seed. They know us and we know them.

The Excel 170i Ultra delivers multiple-line codes with a single printhead, at production-line speeds of more than 330 m/min. Advanced software automatically monitors and adjusts ink viscosity and the printhead is automatically cleaned at shutdown for reduced maintenance and increased up time.