1. Company
2. Media
3. Press articles
4. Press Releases

04/28/2011

KHS Employs Online Film Printing for Shrink Packs

With a recently developed online film printing system for the coding of shrink packs, KHS is now able to give the beverage, food, and non-food industries even more reliability, ease of operation, machine availability, and targeted cost reductions. The standard practice to date was to code shrink packs using paper or film labels which were applied to the packs downstream of the packer by label dispenser.  The drawback here is that labels affixed to the outside of the shrink pack can be easily damaged, removed, or manipulated.  The position of the label is also limited to a certain area of the shrink pack, making it very inflexible.  In addition, label reels have to be frequently changed which has a detrimental effect on the availability of the production line in general. KHS' new online film printing setup integrates film printing into the packaging prior to the shrink process, with thermotransfer printers making a perfect print.  Optimum contrast is achieved by printing a black barcode on a white or silver background, for example.  The printing system is placed within the film feed segment – with the advantage that the online print is on the inside and not the outside of the film packaging.  Damage or manipulation of the coding is thus ruled out right from the start.  Besides the classic barcoding of shrink packs, the new system also allows other prints to be applied, such as logos, additional information on the product, up-to-the-minute news, or eye-catching images.  The print can also be positioned at will – either on the topside of the packaging or on any other area of the packaging unit.  The options are many and varied.  Various sizes of print can also be realized, from widths of 50 mm to 128 mm and in lengths of up to 50 mm, depending on the printing system.  The new online film printing system also has advantages regarding material costs.  As well as the money saved on printing materials and paper labels, further reductions are generated by an increased availability of the machine – plus the now redundant logistics effort involved in the handling of paper labels.