The new SmartDate® Xtreme Plus printhead application allows manufacturers to print codes with high resin thermal transfer ribbons at up to 600 millimeters per second (2 feet per second), which the company says is nearly double the speed of other comparable options.
Missing codes on products result in costly shipment rejections or fines, while unclear data impacts safety and brand perception. Ensuring codes will not smear or disappear in hot factories, or rub off in transit, can be difficult on flexible film and foils, both of which are common packaging materials. Hot temperatures, oils and solvents interfere with code adhesion. While high resin ribbons achieve the durability required in these challenging production and/or shipping condtitions, until now coding speeds have been limited to 300-400 mm/s (0.98 - 1.31 ft/s), adversely affecting overall throughput. Printheads have also tended to wear out quickly.
The industries most commonly using high resin TTO printing are food and pharmaceuticals, e.g. for nuts, potato chips and antibacterial wipes.
The design of the SmartDate® Xtreme Plus printhead means companies can produce crisp, high resin codes at up to 600 mm/s (2 ft/s), nearly twice the speed of the market’s next fastest coder using high resin ribbons. Production throughput no longer needs to be sacrificed in order to ensure high quality, durable codes.
