Loxton Foods, producer of award-winning frozen ready-prepared meals, has enlisted the services of Markem, supplier of coding and marking systems, to ensure the smooth-running of the company’s busy production line.

Management at Loxton Foods was looking to increase productivity and efficiency of the production line and identified that this could be achieved by improving the print and application of labels.

The ready-meals manufacturer had previously printed labels on a desktop system and operators then applied each label by hand to outer cases. Operators were also required to manually change the label information for over 150 different batches of products.

MARKEM’s solution was to install a Cimjet 342 print and apply corner wrap labeler. This model holds all label designs in its memory, neatly prints the designs on to the labels by thermal transfer and accurately applies them. This removes the element of human error and increases speed through automation. As a result of the installation, the overall productivity of the line was substantially improved.

The Cimjet 342 uses a very simple method to achieve a perfect corner wrap label. The Cimjet prints each label and then feeds it into the path of the oncoming box and applies part of the label to the front edge of the outer case and using a spring mounted roller wraps the rest of the label around the adjacent side.

Loxton Food’s customers insist on corner wrap labels to give them flexibility when storing their products. Each labeler prints high quality bar codes, graphics and automatically calculates the sell by date. The Cimjet 342 allows the labels to be densely populated with additional information such as ingredients lists and cooking instructions.

Loxton is delighted with the success of Markem’s new coder. It has not only improved the productivity of the line but has also enabled the company to re-deploy staff to other areas of the factory. Costs at the factory have also been considerably reduced by eliminating the problem of wasted labels, with the Cimjet 342 coder printing labels on demand.