On show for the first time in the UK at this year's PPMA is the newest version of Sunala's Pharmacarton Coding Station, designed for in-line high resolution printing of lot, expiry and barcode information for pharmaceutical and medical cartons.
The Pharmacarton III has been designed around the animal health requirement for mass-serialisation using Datamatrix codes to ECC 200, and proposed similar changes to European pharmaceutical traceability requirements.
The new model resolves the issue of printing high density bar codes and 2D codes in-line by totally controlling the carton during the print and vision process. Codes are printed using the Wolke m600 Advanced and then verified by an optical character verification (OCV) system.
A major feature of the m600 Advanced is its ability to print in real-time, which is again in accordance with the latest animal health requirements for track & traceability. Data can be input from a remote server through the built-in Ethernet port. The user-friendly printer's advanced HP technology and water-based inks are said to deliver clean and maintenance-free coding onto a wide range of substrates, producing characters and bar codes up to 600 dpi.
The Pharmacarton III also includes a carton conveyor, stabilising belts and a reject unit to remove sub-standard packs immediately and help maintain line speeds. The unit can be easily integrated into existing packaging lines, requiring minimum space, and is fully adjustable to suit a range of carton sizes.
In addition, the company will demonstrate the latest versions of Wolke's m600 thermal transfer ink jet printers, the m600 Advanced (mentioned above) and m600 Basic. The m600 Basic is designed for users who require fast, quality coding without some of the more sophisticated features of the m600 Advanced. It can drive up to two print heads at speeds of up to 300m/min with a maximum resolution of 600dpi.
The printer's compact but robust design enables it to fit easily into any production line environment. It features an easy-to-use keyboard, with keypad functions based on a standard mobile phone, and a 5.7 inch full colour display. The machine's IP-65 construction provides protection in dusty and wet environments.
Sunala will also show a high-speed print traversing unit for coding on pharmaceutical blister lines using newly developed inks suitable for aluminium foil and the Travtec TR-750 Speed-Feeder showing high speed feeding of flat cartons and blister cards for labelling or print.
PPMA show
Stand C16