Multi-head printer designed for high output plants

With increasing costs hitting their bottom lines, food producers are looking for ways to make efficiency gains by speeding up production. This means the slowest machine on the line determines theoverall output. As a result machine makers have been attempting to make their products faster.

Norwood's ThermalPak TP-4000 comes standard with three to six prints heads depending on the needs of the production plant. Each head prints fixed and variable data on a variety of flexible packaging materials.

Unlike traditional transverse thermal transfer printers, which use one print head to print to several lanes across a web sequentially, Norwood's TP-4000 uses multiple heads to print to numerouslanes simultaneously. The multi-head operating principle means each head can print up to 5.5 inches (250 mm) per second.

This makes the TP-4000 ideal for a wide range of multi-lane packaging applications, including portion packs of condiments, the company claims.

Each print head can be dedicated to one lane or can be configured to handle multiple lanes. For example, a 24-lane VFFS system filling small condiments can be equipped with a six-head TP-4000 whereeach print head traverses only four lanes rather than all 24 lanes, the company stated.

The TP-4000 also improves product security and tracking by producing real-time data such as UPC, lot and production codes, expiration and use-by dates, which are produced in-line as products arepackaged.

The multi-head TP-4000 can be integrated with a variety of intermittent motion, multi-lane equipment including vertical-form-fill-seal, horizontal-form-fill-seal, blister packing, thermoforming, overwrapping, bagging and other types of packaging machines.

The TP-4000's print heads and set up makes it easier and faster for plants to change the settings. Changes to print, including text and graphics, can be achieved quickly by recalling the printimage from memory via a handheld display.

Changes in lane configuration, which could involve changing the positions of the print heads along the carriage as well as adding or removing print heads, can be achieved by one operator in lessthan two minutes, the company claims.

The interface has full clock and calendar functions as well as serialisation, allowing the ThermalPak to print fixed and variable text.

Text and graphics, including a wide array of two-dimensional or RSS barcodes, can be printed with a resolution of up to 300 dpi (12 dots per mm) both horizontally and vertically.

A wide range of font styles and font sizes are available with the machine.

To ease its use at high line speeds, Norwood also provides a 4000-foot (1200m) ribbon roll to reduce the changes. The company also offers an intelligent ribbon handling system, which eliminatesribbon waste by sequencing a number of short and long ribbon feed cycles to loser consumption.

The technique ensures that unused areas of ribbon are kept to a minimum.

The ThermalPak TP-4000 can print up to an area of 4.17 inches (106mm) wide and 7.87 inches (200mm) long, per head. Print heads can be positioned at any point along the head carriage with a minimum print head centre distance of 3.35 inches (85mm).