New RX-S ink jet printer improves production process and makes cost saving.
Allen Coding Systems’ coding & marking equipment is in use all around the world, but perhaps nowhere more breathtaking than on the wildly beautiful Isle of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland. Arran Aromatics, which has recently purchased a Hitachi RX-S Small Character Continuous Ink Jet Printer from the Stevenage-based company, is already making savings due to less downtime on its production line and more prints from its ink package.
Arran Aromatics, which has been hand-making bath, body and home fragrance collections from the island’s finest ingredients since 1988, initially required an ink jet printer following an improvement in its quality control procedures which meant a more permanent coding system was needed on the candle production line.
According to Gordon Robertson, Operations Manager at Arran Aromatics, the company also decided to make the bulk of its products and fill all of its own eau de toilettes at the Arran site rather than out-sourcing, which led to the need for a more manoeuvrable, flexible machine.
He says: “One of the main reasons for choosing the RX-S printer was its very favourable price point. Plus, the machine is also light enough for us to move between lines and give the flexibility that we need.”
The RX-S continuous ink jet printer is specially designed for accurate reproduction of a wide range of fonts in multiple languages, as well as bar codes and 2D DataMatrix codes, logos and graphics directly onto uneven or flexible substrates, including glass, plastics, metal and rubber.
Developed for today’s exceptionally fast and challenging production environments, it is currently operating at Arran Aromatics’ production site at speeds of up to 25 units per minute, although they have also had it running at 40 units per minute.
Gordon comments: “Since installing the RX-S printer we have benefited from a reduction in downtime due to machine set up and failure on our production line. We can now switch the printer on without cleaning the head and expect it to work every time, whereas other systems we have require the head to be cleaned every time there is any downtime. We are also finding that we get more from our ink package, so it is also helping to make cost savings.”
Allen Coding’s RX-S is specially designed to be exceptionally user friendly, reliable, easy to use and to install. Arran Aromatics’ new printer was up and running after a day with an Allen engineer who installed the machine on the island and provided training on how to operate and maintain it properly.
A 10.4-inch touch-screen control panel with full colour display makes set up and reprogramming simple and intuitive. This user-friendly feature enables the production team at the luxury toiletries producer to select the correct size for the seven-digit numbers it is currently required to apply to all of its glass candle holders and plastic bottles ranging from 30ml to 300ml in size.
The controls on the RX-S are housed in an ergonomically designed stainless steel cabinet, which is sealed to IP55 standards and capable of handling harsh industrial environments and deep cleaning regimes.
Gordon Robertson concludes: “Allen Coding were very helpful and patient along the way, and created a solution to meet our needs and our budget. I would definitely recommend them and the RX-S to anyone looking to upgrade from an older machine.”
Allen Coding is part of the ITW Coding & Marking Division, which also comprises Allen Spain, Norwood, Diagraph, Trident and Allen Germany.
Allen Coding Systems
Steve Ryan
Tel: 01438 347 770
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