Improve coding and marking while reducing your impact on the environment

Climate change and the need to reduce carbon emissions have become global priorities today. With the declaration of climate emergencies by governments at all levels, companies are striving to find ways to contribute, either by reducing their emissions or supplying goods and services to enable others to do so. TracePack’s coding and marking lasers are designed to have minimal impact on the environment and to be energy efficient.

The use of laser technology positively impacts the environment because no waste is produced, therefore eliminating the need to recycle potentially harmful residual products.

To apply codes, TracePack recommends solutions based on laser technology due to its ability to mark a wide range of materials such as plastics, cardboard, glass etc., cleanly and safely, with great legibility, permanence and low maintenance costs.

The most appropriate technology for marking and coding on each container depends on the characteristics of the container, whether it is a jar of cream, deodorant, aluminium aerosol can, makeup and perfumes or colognes. The iCON-3 meets the high quality standards of the pharmaceutical industry for the coding of labels, tubes and boxes and ensures perfect coding for personal care products. Whatever the material used, TracePack’s laser coding solutions will guarantee clear, permanent and secure marking of batch numbers as well as QR codes.

Complete packaging inspection for tubes

A recent development in manufacturing, vision systems are used to check whether the actual product packaging is clean and safe before tubes are filled. Previously, filling systems that were not equipped with a machine-vision system could not completely guarantee that particles of dirt from the preliminary tube production stage would not be inside the tube after the filling and sealing process.

During the filling process, In-Sight vision systems check that the tubes are round, clean and firmly sealed. Even though materials of high quality are used, contamination by small dirt particles can still occur, tubes may become deformed when the outer packaging is applied, or there may be faulty seals at the base of the tube. With vision systems, the manufacturer can ensure that production processes are fault-free. The cameras detect foreign bodies based on the contrast to their surroundings. A red, ring-shaped LED light illuminates the inside of the tube from above. Any undesired particles cast a shadow detected by the TracePack cameras, making it possible to see objects of the same colour as the tube itself.

Seamless checking procedure

The high-performance technology from TracePack ensures that the nozzles enter the tubes accurately to within a tolerance of 3mm.

The checking procedure takes place without an additional operation step during the process. The individual cameras receive a trigger for every tube and record pictures of the packages as they move past. If a tube is out-of-round or outside of the tolerance range, it is identified as faulty and is not filled.

The cameras also check the seal itself. If the seal is not complete or the printing is not properly aligned with the specified parameters, the faulty tube is ejected from the process. The In-Sight vision systems are networked to a central panel PC , which records images of all the defective pieces. This makes it possible to detect faults quickly without having to recheck the actual packaging item that has already been ejected from the process. •

Inspection of tubes on a production line

Laser markings on tube packaging

Coding on mascara packaging