Before selecting coding equipment for your business, it is important to understand the full capabilities of what your model of choice can do, what type of printing technologies it employs, what materials it can accommodate and other critical factors that are integral to the purchase decision. Of primary importance is understanding the fundamental purpose of coding equipment. Here is a rundown on what this type of machine can do, and the type of target materials it performs with best. Coding Equipment Clarified The primary purpose of such machines is to print characters onto various types of packaging (primary, secondary, and tertiary), labels, and distribution packaging. The characters, or codes, can include:
- letters and numbers,
- images and graphics,
- logos,
- barcodes,
- dates,
- two-dimensional and lot codes, and
- other types of information.
Target materials that work well with coding equipment include:
- plastic,
- glass,
- metal,
- fiber-based cases and boxes,
- film, foil, paper and other flexible materials, and
- labels.
In order to work with these targets and coding information, the equipment uses many types of printing technologies such as:
- thermal transfer,
- laser,
- ink jet,
- embossing,
- hot-stamping,
- wet ink, and
- stencil.
To get the best results for your particular products and productivity objectives, it is important to know that certain coding equipment with specific printing technologies may be more effective than others. Some things to think about include:
- the type of substrate you are using to make sure that the ink bonds well;
- whether you will be doing continuous or intermittent motion production;
- batch size and run length of each printing session;
- whether you have static or variable information;
- size of coding content and whether you need to include barcodes; and
- the environment where the packaging will be placed to ensure coded information integrity.
Other operational factors to consider include:
- how much expense the coder will produce in regards to the operation, such as inks and consumable, labor and training costs, maintenance and repair costs, etc,;
- whether there will be any environmental concerns to consider; and
- the working position of the coder in terms of distance between the printer and the target substrate and whether it will need to be mounted on the conveyor to maximize its use but decrease its vulnerability to contaminating elements.
In Summary In summarizing this blog post, here are the main points:
- Coding equipment prints various types of characters onto a range of target materials.
- Coding equipment can use a wide array of printing technologies.
