value – Page 6

Cannabis Label Solutions

February 5, 2017 by value

On January 31^st and February 1^st, 2017, we exhibited at the Seed To Sale Show (http://www.seedtosaleshow.com/denver-2017/) in Denver, CO; the national show focused on innovative best practices, science, and cutting edge technology in cultivation, processing, and sales strategies for the cannabis market. Over 2,000 people attended; and many came to our booth.

Beatriz Molina of Color Label Solutions at the Seed to Sale Show

During this event, we demonstrated several technologies, some of which are new, that fit the cannabis market. I’d like to recap the technologies we showed.

During the show, the C7500G received the most interest; especially the great-looking labels we were printing on gloss poly.

Gloss Poly Label Produced By A C7500G

For manufacturers of products, the C7500 produces the great looking labels needed for the cannabis industry. Brands are very important; pushing manufacturers to use premium looking labels. As regulators require the identification of items in the cannabis industry, the C7500 allows the printing of labels with variable data, simplifying the production process. Look at the label with variable data on the left side produced by one of our customers in the Denver area:

C7500G Color Label with Variable Data

This label looks beautiful; in large part by the designer. The C7500 color label printer is quickly becoming the standard label printer for the cannabis industry.

In addition to the C7500, we showed, for the first time, the ClariSafe Dispensing Color Label Printer.

ClariSafe Dispensary Printer

With it’s very small footprint and very affordable price, the ClariSafe label printer is perfect for prescription labels at checkout. This printer produces labels up to 2.25” wide with sufficient print quality, one-at-a-time, with text, barcodes and color images like the THC icon:

At $899.90, the ClariSafe Label printer is affordable; especially given it comes with BarTender Basic for designing and printing labels. Consider adding the ClariSafe Color Label Printer in your dispensary; your budtenders will love it.

In addition to the new ClariSafe printer, we showed the C831 printing pot stakes and plant wraps in color and on demand.

C831 Color Pot Stakes and Plant Wraps

Now you can use color in your growing operations to identify strains or communicate dates, for example.

Color Pot Stakes

Plus, they stakes and wraps are very durable, lasting throughout the life cycle of the plants.

Color Plant Wrap

Color can become a great new tool for your growing operation.

Also, we showed the MPack vial; the first new pharmacy vial since the 50’s.

MPack Child Resistant/Tamper Evident Packaging

This packaging is perfect for edible products, where child-resistant and tamper-evident packaging is required. The clips on the sides of the MPack are relatively easy for adults to open. And with the addition of our label, the MPack becomes tamper evident. If you’re looking for child resistant, tamper-evident packaging, contact us to discuss.

Finally, we started using our new URL just prior to the show: www.cannabislabel.solutions. Check out our new page.

The Seed To Sale Show was a valuable experience for us. If you could not attend this tradeshow but see something of interest, contact us to discuss how these tools will fit into your operation.

Guy Mikel

855-962-7670

info@colorlabelsolutions.com

Product Labeling Samples Process -Advising and Proceeding with Confidence

January 31, 2017 by value

Labeling Machine Inquiry or Order Process The following article going over the assessment of labels and bottles for a given Labeling Machine inquiry or order. With this level of knowledge applied to a client inquiry, you can confidently move forward with both machine and label supply. The consistency of products is entirely out of our […]

Fast, Colorful, RFID

January 26, 2017 by value

FlexStr8, Inc. (www.flexstr8.com) develops, manufactures, and markets integrated smart label systems, smart labels, encoders, and NFC software. Through continued research, new product development, and innovative manufacturing, they provide high quality cost effective technical solutions for our worldwide customers.

In 2015, I wrote about Flexstr8’s NFC encoder working with the C3500: http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2015/07/nfc-in-color.html

Since this last post, FlexStr8 has launched a thermal transfer NFC encoder/label printer with the Zebra GC420T: http://www.flexstr8.us/bwencoder/

And a temperature logger: http://www.flexstr8.us/smarttemp/. This temperature logger is very “cool”!

Now I’m excited to tell you about a new product; that encodes UHF RFID labels at 11” per second. Watch the C7500 encode and print color labels here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhnYbLU649s

According to Ralph Roessler, President of Flexstr8, says “Initially, developing a system to encode and print color labels using the C7500 was not on our development path. But a company approached us to develop a solution for them using UHF RFID tags, which could be printed in color and on-demand. After some thought, we decided to move forward; and quickly. We’re very proud of our solution.”

C7500 Encoding RFID Tags

Ralph continues, “As the printer runs at 11” per second, we needed a system not only to encode and print at that speed; but also identify the bad RFID tags without stopping the printer. By adding a reader antenna near the unwind station and another antenna after the print head, we could read, encode, print and skip a label if required due to a bad tag. Bad tags do happen; probably around 1% of the time. We needed to be able to identify the any tags that should not to use for tracking.”

According to Eric Casavant, FlexStra8 Product Engineer, “we designed this system to be incredibly easy to use. The system snaps onto the 7500 in a few seconds; then upgrades the device into a print on-demand color RFID printer.”

C7500 Pop-In RFID Encoder

With my history with UHF RFID labels, I see an opportunity for the use of these tags/labels in apparel. RFID in apparel has grown significantly in size over the last few years. According to this article, nearly 4 billion RFID tags were used in apparel in 2015: http://www.supplychainbrain.com/content/latest-content/single-article/article/retail-apparel-industry-taps-rfid-for-inventory-accuracy/. A perfect application for the C7500 and RFID tags/labels.

After the initial work with the C7500, Flexstr8 has found two other interesting applications. Ralph says, “GHS labels for time and temperature sensitive chemicals is a natural RFID market; especially with the requirement to print colored pictograms. RFID helps users track and locate time and/or temperature sensitive compounds easily and quickly.”

Ralph continues, “We also see a new market for identifying individual cannabis plants. With our RFID encoded tags, growers can track individual plants; and especially cloned plants. With RFID, you can identify and track individual plants; which is required in certain states. Color coding and potential marketing benefits is important with the capability to print in color on tags and labels.”

If you see a market for this fascinating new technology, please share with me your thoughts. If you have a need to track items quickly and easily using on-demand color labels, contact me to discuss this new solution from FlexStr8.

Guy Mikel

855-962-7670

info@colorlabelsolutions.com

MIL-SPEC Color Labels

January 16, 2017 by value

I am pleased to announce that Color Label Solutions now offers print on-demand color labels that meet MIL-PRF-61002B and MIL-STD-129R.

Inkjet Coated, Color, MIL-SPEC Compliance Letter

Inkjet Coated, Color, MIL-SPEC Compliance Labels

If you don’t know these specifications, MIL-PRF-61002B comes from the Department of Defense and covers the requirements for pressure-sensitive adhesive labels that meet or exceed the end user’s necessary performance criteria for use in the implementation of bar code marking/reading operations. Obtain this MIL-SPEC here: http://metalphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2015/03/MIL-PRF-61002B.pdf

MIL-STD 12S9R comes from the DOD as well; and provides the minimum requirements for uniform military marking for shipment and storage. Obtain this MIL-SPEC here: https://vsc.gsa.gov/administration/files/MIL-STD-129R.pdf

Up until now, most companies were required to use thermal transfer printers to comply with these standards involved with shipping products to the DOD. In fact, you’ll find direct mention of this printing technology in both documents.

However, one of our customers came to us wanting to switch from thermal transfer (specifically the Zebra 170Xi4 6” wide and 220Xi4) to inkjet printed labels. He wanted to make this switch after using the C831 printers to produce GHS labels.

C831 Label Printer

We have a lot of posts on using the C831 printer to produce GHS labels:

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2015/09/apprehension-good-design.html Ranger Distribution

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2015/01/ghs-needs-erin.html Engineered Lubricants

http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2015/01/dyeing-for-ghs.html Pylam Products

According to our customer, four reasons make the C831 printer a better option than wide thermal transfer printers for printing DOD labels. First, printed labels are evaluated by the Department of Defense (DOD) to insure they meet the standards. Ribbon wrinkle, which happens when the thermal transfer printer ribbon does not feed correctly, happens occasionally producing a barcode with streaks. These streaks may make the barcodes not readable. When this occurs, the DOD may reject the shipment, costing suppliers to the DOD a great deal of money. With the higher print resolution (760 x 360 versus 203 or 300 dpi for thermal transfer printers), the C831 printer eliminates the risk of ribbon wrinkle.

Second, changing ribbons can be a pain with thermal transfer printers. According to our customer, their operators hate to change ribbons. Watch the process to change ribbons in a Zebra 170Xi4:

https://www.zebra.com/us/en/support-downloads/printers/industrial/170xi4.html

Comparably, changing ink cartridges takes just seconds.

Third, ink costs less than ribbons; especially resin ribbons. Here is a post from some time ago detailing the cost differences. http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2013/12/trust-me.html

In our customer’s situation, the large inkjet labels are less expensive as well.

Fourth, the labels printed with a C831 just look better than those printed on a standard thermal transfer printer. Although the DOD doesn’t purchase based on label design and quality, our customer believes the color labels from the C831 represent a higher quality image of the product and company; reinforcing positively the DOD’s purchase decision. Adding color logos, images, color coding and text can differentiate your company from other vendors.

If you supply the DOD, consider moving to print on-demand color labels. We’ll support your move to this new, better looking, easier to use, and less expensive option.

Guy Mikel

855-962-7670

info@colorlabelsolutions.com

Fun With Labels

December 11, 2016 by value

After selling, installing and supporting thousands of label printers, I say 95+% of them are utilized in manufacturing/producing a product label. So this post is different; it’s about using label printers to produce a handmade, unique commemorative item – Or what I call, “Fun with Labels!”

Recently, our neighbor, Carrie, asked if I would produce labels for her project. And of course I said yes; but wanted to know more about her plans.

It seems she wanted to produce something special for her book club. According to Carrie, “our book club has been together for more than 8 years. And this year, I just happened to be hosting our December meeting. Given it was the end of the year, I wanted to make something special for our club that commemorated the books we’d read. I checked Pinterest; and found only different bookmark ideas. Given that many of our club members use e-readers, bookmarks seemed out-of-date. So, I decided to make an ornament with book cover images of the books we read January thru December.”

To start the project, Carrie cut a block of wood into cubes using her miter saw. “For about $15, I got a nice 3’ x 2.5” piece of wood that enabled me to cut out 12 cubes. After cutting the wood, she sanded the wood using sandpaper to smooth out the edges.

Once the blocks were finished, Carrie went online to get the images of the books. Initially, she tried to print the images on her desktop printer; but was unhappy with the results. Given she knew I was in the label business, she asked me to print labels for her.

After listening to her requirements, I suggested she create a 4” x 8” PDF containing the highest resolution book cover page images she could find. I suggested 4” x 8” size as I had this size available in a glossy paper label making it easy to print.

4″ x 8″ PDF With Images

It would have been easier if we would have created individual smaller labels printing one at a time; but you would need to have the correct sized images and labels to make this work correctly.

I printed 12 labels, each containing the set of images representing each of the books read during the year.

4″ x 8″ Gloss Paper Label

Carrie then cut the individual image labels and applied them to the blocks including a special message on the bottom.

Then, she coated the block with an acrylic sealer to protect and give it a shine.

Finally, she drilled a small hole in the top, added gorilla glue in the hole, and forced the knot on the string holding the loop/bow into the hole. And Voila, Carrie has produced a beautiful holiday ornament for her club!

Hand Made Commemorative Using Labels

According to Carrie, “I got great feedback from our book club members. In fact, my girlfriend said she wanted one every year! I think the size of the block and book images were just perfect; not too big or small.”

Hand Made Commemorative Using Labels

After completing the project, Carrie says, “Pictures would be a good idea as well; your kids, grandchildren, etc. to commemorate any event. The labels with the images made it easy to do!”

Carrie is crafty and creative; and a great neighbor. And using Carrie’s idea, you can turn the labels printers in your plant or office into your own personal handy-craft tool; a “Fun with Labels” opportunity.

Guy Mikel

855-962-7670

info@colorlabelsolutions.com

Who Services Your Labeling Machine?

September 1, 2016 by value

The straight answer is, you do. We flip the notion of expensive call-out charges where you can expect charges of $150 per hour as a technician drives over to your facility on their timing. The technician in the old-style approach wants to be the only person that can fix your labeling machine. It’s his job; […]

Replacing Heat Shrink Tamper Bands with Induction Seals Or Labels

July 22, 2016 by value

Heat Shrink Tamper Bands

As a manufacturer using shrink tamper bands, you have the pain of actually applying shrink tamper bands. Machinery can be fickle; hand applying can be time consuming. It involves heat and it is, in general, quite a difficult process to implement and can be costly with materials.

On the consumer side of things, removing a shrink tamper band is quite a frustrating task for many who find it very difficult to see where to peel or where a perforation mark is on a clear tamper band. Both younger and older consumers can find it difficult to open a product with a tamper band that has been shrunk on.

The heat shrink tamper band also can lead to a lot of dust being attracted to the product on the tamper band for reasons of static and also because the heat shrink tamper band produces a lot of edges where dust can collect and get under.

User Friendly Tamper Evidence Options

Induction Sealing

There are two relatively easy processes to implement in your production that can put tamper evidence on your product and also might get a much more user-friendly experience to open the product.

Induction sealing allows for you to put a foil across the top of your container, providing both tamper evidence and also a much better barrier property than a shrink tamper band. In most cases, you don’t need to deal with the induction sealing material; it’s already in the cap when you purchase it for your product.

Alternatively, you’ll be buying the induction sealing material in roll form, to apply with a cap less induction sealing machine or in pre-cut in smaller volumes to deal with cap less induction sealing.

Pressure Sensitive Labels

The other method is simply using a pressure-sensitive label with a little finger that might go over the cap or a small round or rectangular label that simply folds from the opening across and down the product. For example, a lot of pharmaceutical boxes will have a small, round and often transparent label that goes over the edge and onto the flap of the box that would open.

tamper evident labels

Jams and spreads often have a label that go either from above on the cap and right down the side of the container or they have a label that has, from the body of the label, on the round part of the product, it has a finger that extends and touches or goes over the top of the cap. In the case of labeling, the label has to be broken, typically, before the product can be opened; and that’s a form of tamper evidence.

Labeling equipment doesn’t require heat and the labels are easy to source and it’s much easier to order to automate or to semi automate than the heat shrink tamper band.

In summary, you’ve got two options to get rid of the heat shrink tamper band which is both a problem in production and a problem for the consumer: Method 1, Induction Sealing and Method two, tamper evident labels. Other options exist but these are by far the two most predominant and widely used options.

For induction options, you can look at the SealerOn website; for labeling options, you can look at the LabelOn website.

Labeling Machines: Versatile or Dedicated?

July 14, 2016 by value

This is about choosing between a dedicated labeling machine and a versatile labeling machine.

The LabelOn™ Labeling Range

In the LabelOn™ labeling range, there are two distinct in line machine ranges: The LabelOn™ Modular which is suited for versatile applications, where it can be expanded after being delivered to the client. The available modules on this machine enable most co-packer and private label projects to be handled, either as additional supply or future modules being supplied. The LabelOn™ Modular comes preconfigured with electronics, plugs and installed points, mounting brackets and positions all worked out.

A more dedicated line of labeling machinery is called the LabelOn™ Basic machinery. There are many shared features between the Basic and Modular including the basic electronics, motor drives and label heads.

LabelOn™ Modular and LabelOn™ Basic Label Applicators Comparison

Modular Labeling Machines

The LabelOn™ Modular has a number of enhanced adjustments and additional electronics. The most common labeling applications are labeling from above, labeling from above and below, labeling from the side onto flat containers or labeling from the side onto oval profile containers, that is, flat container where their sides have gotten an elliptical or oval type profile, a curve in one direction, much like a shampoo bottle. This type of labeling is often done from two sides. And there is round bottle labeling and that’s divided into three tasks:

Single wrap label – which can be up to 100% wrap but typically between 50 and 85% wrap
Two Labels on a round container
Labels that are orientated on a round container with respect to a feature like a handle, bottle grips or even writing on a bottle; or possibly, another label

Any of these specific tasks can be achieved with a LabelOn™ Basic labeling machine. There will be a model suitable.

The LabelOn™ Modular range can cover everything, all, but a label from below. In which case, you would also get a LabelOn™ Basic machine to cover a top and bottom or just bottom labeling application.

LabelOn™ Basic Label Applicators for Dedicated Labeling Tasks

Basic Label Applicators

The LabelOn™ Basic machine, compared to LabelOn™ Modular for a dedicated task, is a more economic feature or more economic way to go. If you envisage, more than just a single, particular labeling task, then that would have to be achieved by one more LabelOn™ Basic machine; and probably can be achieved with just one LabelOn™ Modular machine, which would be lower cost than more than one LabelOn™ Basic machine.

LabelOn™ Basic 500 Left Hand Small Round and Small Rectangular Wrap

For Android phones that cannot play the video, Click Here to play the You Tube Version

LabelOn™ Modular Label Applicators Profile

LabelOn™ Modular machine is a longer machine; typically it is 12 feet or 3 meters long compared to LabelOn™ Basic machine which typically run between 6 and 10 feet or 2 to 2 ½ meters. The LabelOn™ Basic machine, as compared to other brand machines that do a single task, has a number of extra features and much better synchronizing usually of all the processors, all the conveyors, a coloured touch screen control and a machine that is really built for the task rather than bits and pieces put together to make up a machine that will do a single job.

The LabelOn™ Modular machine is truly a versatile and expandable machine and is unparalled in the market. It has a number of extra features on the basic including dual excess tilt on the labeling heads and a number of other under the hoods benefit that you will only find out after a long discussion with your LabelOn™ representative.

LabelOn™ Modular Label Applicator Walk Around

For Android phones that cannot play the video, Click Here to play the You Tube Version

If you are a copacker, a contractor or simply a manufacturer with a large number of SKUs and potential different product shapes, then, the LabelOn™ Modular is the best choice. If you are moving into a higher scale production of a single or range of shapes, then the LabelOn™ Basic represents a very cost-effective feature-packed option.

A common question raised is: when do I apply a heat transfer machine and when do I use an induction sealing machine?

Traditionally, you had no option but to heat seal when your product have no cap or closure that could tighten onto the body of the container. With the advent or development of capless induction sealing, the requirement for a cap is no longer there. This is why there is the questions, when do I use induction sealing and when do I use heat sealing?

Below are two Capless induction sealing videos:

Low Volume Capless Induction Solution

For Android phones that cannot play the video, Click Here to play the You Tube Version

Higher Volume Capless Induction Solution

For Android phones that cannot play the video, Click Here to play the You Tube Version

Heat Sealing Explained

A physical constraint of heat sealing is the landing area where the sealing film will be applied and bond. Put simply, the landing area is the rim of the container and how wide that rim is. Where the rim of the container is less than 1/16th of an inch or about 1.6mm, induction sealing should be the preferred option. Heat sealing struggles with this thinner lip to seal onto.

You will notice on products like yogurt tabs, the sealing area has been turned up and may quiet wide often around a quarter of an inch or 45mm in width. This allows for a good area for the heat seal to apply.

And so we look the three areas: the cost of the material, the cost of the machinery, and the process – how easy it is to implement the machinery into your production.

Below is an example of a Turnkey Solution for Filling and Packing Creamed Honey Using Heat Sealing Technology.

For Android phones that cannot play the video, Click Here to play the You Tube Version

Heat Sealing and Induction Sealing Material

The materials are broken up into foil line and just plastic film. Induction requires foil line, and therefore, is a more expensive material. Even comparing foil line for heat seal, induction is generally a bit higher because it has more thickness to it for the induction process to work properly.

A foil within the sealing material, be it induction or heat seal, will provide much better oxygen and waste barrier properties. Because of the natural, thicker material in induction sealing, it’s also a material more likely to peel off cleanly in one piece compared to a heat seal foil.

Heat Sealing and Induction Sealing Price Comparison

In terms of machinery, both heat sealing and capless induction sealing have some similar properties. In the semi-automated machinery side of things, they both quite low cost and you can get equipment for under $10,000 USD.

For more automated where you need speed to 30 products and beyond, machinery becomes more expensive. The machinery, in this case, requires cutting tools, to cut the material before placing it on the container’s sealing area. This represents a maintenance issue and also a cost issue. In both cases, equipment going for 30 products or more will cost at least $25,000 USD and often will go up to $80,000 USD.

Capless sealing could go beyond that and well into a $100,000 to $ 150,000 USD, when you are looking at 80 to 120 products per minute. Conventional induction sealing where the seal is placed into the cap prior to the cap being placed onto the product is much lower cost equipment. Each top induction equipment can start at around $1,500 USD. In line induction sealing usually ranges between $16,000 and $25,000 USD. Higher speed induction sealing where you might be looking at 150 products plus per minute can get up to about $40,000 to $45,000 USD.

Again, both in heat seal and capless induction sealing, you need to divide the products into a multiple lanes so that you can do the sealing at a reasonable rate of 30 plus to, say, a 120 products per minute. This adds to conveying costs and product movement costs and, indeed, the machinery costs. General advantage of induction sealing over heat seal are that the process can instantly, no time for waiting for the machinery to be ready. But with heat seal, you need to wait for the things to heat up and you need to watch the temperature has gone up to the right temperature before you proceeding into production. The safety side for the induction sealing is no direct heat so there is little chance for heat related injuries. No cutting tools to maintain for traditional induction sealing, while there are four capless induction sealing.

Material Ordering Volume

Regarding custom print on your material, lower volume are often easier to get with induction sealing material. By lower volumes, I am saying less than 500,000 pieces worth of material. For ease of use of equipment, for instant start up purposes, the sourcing of materials, I would put in order: convention sealing where the induction material with a seal placed into a cap prior to the induction sealing, then if that is not possible, capless induction sealing, and then finally, heat sealing.

Where the barrier properties are not that important, and cost is a consideration, it always is, you can save up to 1 to 2 cents if you go to heat seal. Just in the material side of things per product. The bigger the opening of the container, the bigger that saving will be. Typically heat seal for containers of 70mm or 3 inches approximately diameter can present significant material savings.

The SealerOn website shows both heat sealing and induction sealing with an emphasis on induction sealing.