UK-based Allen Coding Systems - a division of ITW - will be highlighting its high performance thermal transfer, hot foil and laser coding and marking technology for the pharmaceutical and chemical industries at the PPMA show, which takes place at the NEC in Birmingham at the end of September.
The company will exhibit the 53LTc entry-level thermal transfer coder for the first time in the UK. Minimal investment, excellent print quality, reliability, product traceability and ease of use combine to make it one of the best value continuous systems available on the market today, the company says.
Other highlights include the ACF-400 offline carton coder and a 55SST thermal transfer printer.
Allen Coding says the 53LTc is priced competitively with most hot foil systems and in comparison offers greater flexibility with reduced maintenance. It has been developed to print fixed and variable text and graphics.
Main features include 300dpi print resolution; cassette ribbon loading; 600-metre ribbon capacity; 53mm (width) x 50mm (length) print area and speeds up to 400mm per second. Its ability to print two-dimensional data matrix codes make it ideal for pharmaceutical applications, the company says.
The 53LTc can be easily integrated with a wide range of packaging, labelling and other equipment where the substrate material or object to be printed is fed continuously.
The ACF-400 offline carton coder is available with either thermal transfer or hot foil printing technology. It is capable of handling cartons, sleeves, blister packs, leaflets and cut labels from 1-6mm thick, as well as complex shapes, odd sizes and thinner materials. It handles both "crash lock" cartons and blister cards.
The stainless steel machine can operate in either intermittent or continuous mode and be quickly switched over using the touch screen. Machine parameters such as speed, index length and batch quantity are also set using the touch pad.
While the majority of thermal transfer printers provide either intermittent or continuous motion printing, Allen Coding's 55SST offers both, as well as an efficient "instant change" facility for switching quickly and easily between the two.
The 55SST provides speeds of up to 400mm per second (intermittent) and 750mm per second (continuous). It can be used in the most arduous of manufacturing conditions, including operating temperatures from 5-40ËšC and reproduce bar codes, sell-by dates, batch numbers, graphics and prices.