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Consistent Product Movement Through the Label Applicator

Label Applicator

A machine can be a masterpiece of forethought and engineering. One machine can look very similar to another yet it is the thinking of the Engineers who design the machine and the evolution of the machine’s development that determine the “character” of the machine.

In this article we examine one of the more critical and challenging functions of the label applicator where the machine must pre-orientate the products prior to labeling.

In the end, the only thing that begins a label feed is a product sensor. From the point of product sensing to label application there is a programmed delay before a label is fed to meet the surface of the product. Two identical bottles can end up with very different label placements if they enter and move through the machine with different alignment or a slight tilt.

Flat Bottle Labeling

Flat sided bottles are usually the easiest to initially align. Flat guide rails either side will help provide near identical alignment for the flat sided bottle. In the flat sided bottle the self adhesive label will need to be wiped on with a brush. This wiping action can retard or knock a bottle; especially if it is empty or light weight. If two labels, front and back, are being applied to a flat sided bottle, any disruption to the smooth and continuous flow of the bottle past BOTH heads can result in significant label placement variation and possible label creasing. To maintain smooth product flow through a label applicator, the flat sided bottle is usually aligned with guide rails and then clamped to the main conveyor with an overhead conveyor for the duration of the process. While many machines may look like they are doing an identical job with a main conveyor, guide rails and an overhead conveyor, there are some machines like the LabelOn™ that understand how variations in the product height can occur and what needs to be designed into the machine to cater for these variations. Typical label placement accuracy for Flat Sided bottles should fall within +/- 1.0 mm

Oval Bottle labeling

Oval bottles need more than guide rails to align them for a consistent passage past heads. With only one points of contact on the radius of each side of an Oval bottle that bottle is quite free to pivot to one side or the other which results in significant label placement variations and possible label creasing during wipe down. A number of options are available to align such oval cross section bottles and these can include:

Dual Scrolls
Oval Bottle Aligning
Reciprocating Clamps
Aligning Chains
Aligning Wheels
Conveyor Pucks

The method most commonly employed is Aligning Chains as this provides for a module that provides a significant amount of alignment for a range of oval products without the need for change parts.
Typical label placement accuracy for Oval Sided bottles should fall within +/- 2.0 mm

Round Bottle labeling

While it may appear less critical how a round bottle is orientated prior to its , in most cases a round bottle will need to enter into an area where it is spun while a label wraps around its outside. The round bottle needs to commence its spin smoothly and predictably from bottle to bottle.

In this case guide rails are critical but so too is the speed matching of the conveyor speeds involved. The geometry of a round bottle is such that if you spin a round bottle’s surface at twice the speed of the conveyor it sits upon, the base of the bottle will continue to move at the same speed as the conveyor.

When you consider the purchase of a machine a critical area of the machine design to consider is how it is designed for straight forward intuitive adjustments for highly consistent product movement through the label applicator

Keeping Your Old Labeling Equipment – Is it Worth It?

Labeling Equipment

As belts tighten there are plenty of manufacturers holding onto old line equipment and getting the best performance they can out of that equipment.

The penny wise pound foolish operators often think they are smart picking up old equipment from Auctions or simply holding onto equipment well beyond its use by date.

In some instances the packaging equipment that can be picked up cheaply at auctions and fire-sales is remarkable value and in others cases it’s a money pit or bottle neck to operations.

In a packaging line it only takes on piece of equipment in the line to diminish the value and capacity of all the other pieces of packaging equipment.

Where packaging equipment is effectively not electronic in its nature and controls older equipment can be very close in function and performance to newer equipment. In the case of a machine it is electronic in its operating nature and its controls. Good self adhesive equipment has electronic speed control, electronics speed synchronising and an advanced electronic control menu for storing job parameters and making fine performance adjustments. The LabelOn range of labeling machines is a good example of what current machines can incorporate. When a LabelOn label applicator is put alongside a 6 years or older machine operators quickly realise they have been wrestling with a white elephant that has cost them production time and significantly impacted on their final product’s appearance.

Good production managers will realise the worth of having staff that are confident with the equipment they operate. That confidence extends beyond how easy the machine is to operate it also extends on the level of support available for that equipment. It is quite common for inquiries to come in for help on servicing an old machine of some unknown or now unsupported sticker machine. If your production staff or if you find yourself sending out blind and hopeful emails asking for technical support for an old piece of equipment, unless your company is in absolute desperate financial distress it really is time to look at some decent new equipment.

Like old cars, old packaging equipment becomes less reliable and more expensive to maintain. Worse still your old label applicator could be causing a big traffic Jam in your line resulting in your overall production and bottom line being lowered; add to this the messed up face of your product’ appearance and you have a no brainier decision to make – stop being such a spend thrift and invest in your business.

Modern labeling machines like the LabelOn range make use of today’s technology so that your machinery can be set for a large range of different shapes and sizes and still feel as if every job it does is done by a machine tailored to that specific job.

On closing there is also one more big pointer to knowing when it is time for a change in you self-adhesive – if you are being quoted thousands of dollars for a motor driver or over $300 for rubber based components you KNOW it’s time to release the shackles of that old equipment bound to your organisation.

Many countries provide businesses with ways to claim depreciation on capital equipment or even allow capital equipment to be placed on a completely tax deductable rental arrangement. How many countries provide any tax relief for lost production time, production staff confidence or diminished product appearance?

The First Step to In-Line Manufacturing

Label Applicator Machine can often be your first piece of in-line machinery.

You have a new product that has been boutique or produced in small batches and now you have people wanting to order in larger volumes locally and/or overseas.

The most common steps in manufacturing a product ready for retail or market include Filling, Capping, Sealing, Labeling and Packing.

While all these can be done by hand, one of the most fiddly and often frustrating tasks is applying self-adhesive labels by hand. Sometimes the shape of the product and the aggressive nature of the label adhesive can make this task daunting. When by hand it is a good idea to check with your label supplier to see if they can supply more forgiving adhesive that might let you get away with partially peeling of a misplaced label so you can reapply it more accurately.

All the above mentioned manufacturing steps they can usually be semi-automated. As a very rough guide the cost to properly semi-automate (bench-top hand operated equipment) is about one quarter the cost to low-level automate (in-line equipment with conveyors). The possible production throughput will also be about one quarter and will require at least one person per packaging step to obtain the maximum throughput.

Depending on the expected growth of your production, semi-automation may be enough. If growth is more rapid or the numbers of production are high, skipping the semi-automation step can move your product to a more professional level of packaging consistency, production times and lower labour costs per unit.

Advantages of going through the Semi-Automation phase first include:

A slower and easier way to understand the workings and variables of each manufacturing step.
When moving to in-line automation you will be left with equipment that can act as temporary back-up in the case of in-line equipment problems
You have equipment that can usually be set-up for small runs faster and without interrupting larger jobs on your in-line equipment.

Disadvantages of going through the Semi-Automation phase first include:

Extra overall capital required to get to the in-line phase of packaging.
Longer time to implement an in-line automated production

As the Self Adhesive Labeling is the process that most impacts the look of your product – in the growth phase of a product it is perhaps one of the most important areas to focus on and get right. First impressions are everything when competing to present your product. Wrinkled labels, misplaced labels, labels with bubbles and crooked labels are very hard to avoid when not using a Label Applicator.

There are Modular in line Labeling Machines like the LabelOn range specifically built to give new and existing manufacturers versatility to cater for current and future Jobs with minimal change parts and, in most cases, no change parts at all. Further the LabelOn range of Self Adhesive Labelers, when set to a particular job feel as if the machine was designed specifically for that job.

The typical accuracy a Label Applicator will provide is a position that does not shift more than 1.5mm about a mean central position. In other words, take the ideal position of the label and imagine it can shift up to 1.5mm in any direction when looking at finished product passing through that Sticker Labeling Machine. Note the shift of the label about an ideal position will be partially caused by variations in the bottles or product shapes passing through the Sticker Labeling Machine.

If you consider a plastic bottle that is 100 mm tall – the bottle manufacturer is likely to specify a height variation of perhaps 0.5% or more. Labels themselves are unlikely to have significant variation in size though occasionally there can be variation sin label spacing, thickness and even curl caused by the labels being tightly wound into a roll.

Fortunately there is Self Adhesive Labeling equipment out there which is accurate enough to give you a confident reference point so you can focus on resolving accuracy problems systematically without chasing your tail fiddling with machine settings.

Avoiding Bubbles and Creases in Self Adhesive Labeling

Clients of LabelOn™ Modular Self Adhesive Labeling Machines are realising that with the uncertainty of machine set-up removed they can concentrate on other variables that influence machine results.

Self Adhesive Label

One area that is often overlooked is the consistency of bottles. In this article we concentrate on complex contours. This is where the bottle or product has a curved surface in more than one direction. The label applicator can control the movement of the products and its labels to be applied but it cannot control the shape of the products or label.

Complex Contours on Round Products

Testing for Complex Contours

The first step is to identify the area of the product where the label is expected to be placed. Then, using a business card, hold the edge of your business card vertically against the product. Move the edge over the entire area where the label is expected to be applied. If a gap appears between the edge of the business card and the bottle surface then you have at least one curve, in this case in the vertical direction, on the area to be labelled.

Note: A curve in the vertical direction is usually a problem for self-adhesive as it is a curve that is difficult for a label to follow as it is usually dispensed in a direction horizontal to the product; matching the way the bottle product/bottle travels on a product conveyor.

While a flat label can “wrap” in the direction of one curve on a product’s surface, it cannot wrap in more than one direction. Taking the business card used before, and holding it horizontally against the surface you now look for gaps between the card’s edge and the product surface in the same area you found gaps when the card was vertically orientated.

Note: Curves in a Horizontal direction alone are quote common – round bottles being an obvious case but also oval cross section bottles such as shampoo bottles or detergent bottles.

If you do find a business card can show gaps in both a Horizontal and vertical orientation then that area of the bottle cannot be labelled with a self-adhesive label without bubbles or creases.

Learning from the Mistakes of Others

To see some examples of complex contour mistakes in , you can visit a supermarket and look for products labelled with creases or bubbles. Most of the time it will be because of a mistake in the bottle/label design where the label is expected to go over a complex contour.

Another test to convince yourself of the problem of over complex contours is to take a sheet of paper and see what happens when you try to wrap the sheet of paper onto a ball. You will always get creases for the paper to be pressed against the ball.

For Round bottles and products there is a very quick check to see if complex contours exist. Take two round products and put them beside one another with their edged touching. See if you can see any gap between the touching edges.

Complex Contour Labelling Results — CLICK TO EXPAND

Now rotate the bottles while they still touch and see if you see gaps appear and disappear. Gaps suggest complex contours and the likelihood of creasing in these areas if labelled. In this case the complex contours are not designed but more a result of the bottle quality and variations.

Other sources of complex contours for label applicators can be with very thin walled flat sided bottles. Here the thin walls of the bottles can lead to surface irregularities before and after filling. Depending on where the label applicator is placed it can be a good idea to label thin wall bottles while they are empty; especially if they are hot filled.

Hot Foil Coding

Simple, Effective Way to Get a Batch Code

Hot Foil Coding for Batch Numbers and Use By Dates

Hot Foil Coding

Hot Foil Coding is a very simple and effective way to get a batch code or a use by date onto your product via its label. It is a clean, no messy inks or solvents, solution where what you see is what you get.

Put simply the labels on the machine pass through a gap between a heated type set holder and a backing pad. Just in front of the heated type set is an ink ribbon a little bit like what you might see in old printers or typewriters. The heated type set is placed on the end of a short stroke pneumatic cylinder. At the end of a label feed the controls of the LabelOn™ give a signal to the pneumatic cylinder of the hot foil coder to stamp onto the Label.

Placement of the stamp is adjusted mechanically by screwing the stamp to the desired height and horizontal position on the stationary label. Controls on the labeller let you set how long the pneumatic stamp stays out, and a separate temperature controller lets you set the temperature for the heated type. Changing the stamp is a simple matter of changing the brass type letters.

Hot Foil Coding

Consistent Product Movement Through the Label Applicator

Label Applicator

Flat Bottle Labeling

Oval Bottle labeling

Round Bottle labeling

Keeping Your Old Labeling Equipment – Is it Worth It?

Labeling Equipment

The First Step to In-Line Manufacturing

Label Applicator Machine can often be your first piece of in-line machinery.

Advantages of going through the Semi-Automation phase first include:

Disadvantages of going through the Semi-Automation phase first include:

Avoiding Bubbles and Creases in Self Adhesive Labeling

Self Adhesive Label

Testing for Complex Contours

Learning from the Mistakes of Others

Hot Foil Coding

Simple, Effective Way to Get a Batch Code

Hot Foil Coding

SealerOn™ Induction Sealing

Modular Labeling Machine

Basic Labeling Machine