FACTORY FOCUS
Track & Trace Pack Program Enlists Coding Station Approach Program is specifically designed for conveyor-based OEM packers up to speeds of 500ppm. From Staff Reports he requirements for coding or printing directly onto cigarette packs has steadily increased over the past two decades. These increasingly complex requirements demand unique pack identification (or serialization) mean manufacturers need a solution that tackles the biggest coding challenge – handling of the packs. The Domino Coding Station is an affordable and compact solution for any cigarette manufacturer wishing to print serialized codes onto cigarette packs. A total of 18 have now been supplied to date, with all the ‘Big Four’ MNC’s being a customer. The Domino Coding Station is specifically designed for conveyor-based OEM packers up to speeds of 500ppm. It can handle either soft or hard pack formats. Soft packs are particularly challenging to code due to the limitations of the OEM packer design (these packers were designed many years ago, well before these coding requirements were identified).
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The Coding Station is a bespoke ‘module’ allowing customers to take complete control of the pack coding process, in particular product handling, which is how the pack is presented for printing. It is the single biggest challenge when one is printing machine-readable codes, which is mandatory for any Track & Trace requirements. Handling the pack is the most critical part of the coding process— poor handling or product presentation will invariably lead to poor print quality. Quality Endangered If a product is not presented correctly for printing, the quality of the critical Machine-Readable Code (MRC) such as DataMatrix or DotCode, will be immediately impacted. MRC’s are particularly sensitive to handling issues due to the high degree of printing accuracy required. If packs are rejected at the point of coding for unacceptable print quality, or worse, if pack codes cannot be successfully read by automated vision
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when they are being aggregated further down the production lines, it will reduce production line efficiency. In summary, poor handling = poor code quality = reduced OEE. The Coding Station removes any risk associated with product handling, it ensures packs are correctly printed to the highest possible quality, it automatically checks codes for quality, it can reject packs, and it is far less intrusive than the traditional approach to ‘bolting’ equipment onto existing production lines. In acceptance testing on customer production lines, Domino has recorded OEE figures of 99.999 percent, proving that a pack coding solution can have almost zero impact on an existing production line efficiency. The key elements of the Domino Coding Station are: • Coding Station handling unit • Twin Domino D-Series i-Tech lasers • Domino Vision Control System (either Cognex or Omron) The Domino Coding Station minimizes the impact of integration on the existing production equipment. The approach Domino has taken with the Coding Station is identical to that seen in the pharmaceutical industry: A dedicated ‘module’ for coding, vision and reject that is literally a ‘drop-in’ to existing conveyor lines is the ultimate solution as it minimizes the impact on the rest of the production line. Tobacco differs as it is much faster (up to three or four times faster) and therefore adoption of laser technology for pack identification is now almost 100 percent. In pharmaceutical, Domino sees much more use of thermal ink-jet technology instead of laser, largely because of the differences in the application. As the maximum operating speed of the Domino Coding Station is 500ppm, the system is ideal for OEM packer model types such as GD X1, X500, X2, X3 or X3W.
