Codeway Automated Labelling Systems
Codeway offers 20 automatic identification, categories of automated label system catering for high volume labelling in production, packaging and distribution.
They utilise industrial label printers, print engines and applicators from Avery Dennison, the world leader in labelling and RFID technology.
Codeway adds automatic identification, apply heads, system controls, conveyors, process integration, IT systems integration, and applications software.
1. Industrial label printers
Avery Dennison 64 high-performance thermal transfer printers are ideal for industrial labelling.
4/5/6/8 inch wide models deliver first labels almost instantly, print up to 400 mm/second even for large labels, save ribbon automatically to minimise costs.
Heavy duty options from Avery Dennison are roll rewind, guillotine, and label dispensing. Automated labelling options include LTSI light touch applicator and an industrial interface for process control.
Special purpose options from Codeway includee special purpose automatic and semi-automatic labelling heads, and loop feeds for high speed applicators.
Automated Labelling Industrial Printers
2. Hand fed automatic labellers
When people are already handling a product, it’s sometimes a good move to label it the same time. To do this efficiently you need a dispensing printer with a jig to present the label to the product in a convenient position.
Codeway designed the head on this Avery Dennison 64-05 printer for labelling potted plants as nurserymen pick them up and load them onto trolleys for delivery to garden centres.
The trolley allows this printer to go anywhere in the greenhouse. It has rechargeable batteries to power the printer and the wireless mobile computer running a NiceForm entry screen to get products details and prices from the database.
Automated Labelling Semi-Auto Manual Feed
3. LTSI light touch top and side labeller
Avery Dennison 64-05 dispensing printers fitted with LTSI light touch apply heads are an economical alternative for labelling moderate volumes of product on packaging lines.
The LTSI is ideal for side labelling of cartons and trays. The system will run reliably on 24 x 7 lines thanks its well engineered dispensing mechanism.
This side mounted Avery Dennison 64-05 LTSI is in an unattended area of the plant. It’s labelling large cardboard trays with production codes. Alerts go out to the control room when labels run low and error conditions occur.
Avery Dennison 64 LTSI Light Touch Labeller
4. Kits for standard labelling applications
When you need a quick labelling solution for product identification, promotions, or logistics a ready to use labeller on a stand could be the answer.
Pre-printed labels: high speed top and side label applicator kits are available for lines running up to 40 metres per minute.
Print and apply: Avery Dennison ALX 925 LH/RH kits come with stands and LA-TO touch-on or LA_BO blow-on heads for top and side labelling of cartons and packs. Maximum speed is 120 labels per minute dependent on print speed, label size and blow-distance.
The LA-BO applicator in the photograph blows the label on after the print engine dispenses it. This applicator is suitable for high conveyor speeds, sensitive products, and products of varying height.
Avery Kits for Standard Labelling Applications
5. Direct print and apply
To simplify print apply installations, Avery Dennison ALX 92x print engines can apply labels directly on to the product when the production line is running at up to 20 metres per minute.
A product sensor or tacho triggers the labelling cycle. Printing and dispensing speed locks into the speed of the line.
The ALX’s ribbon saving can be a big advantage when applying long pre-printed labels with a small area for variable data and a bar code.
Codeway installed the ALX 924 in the photograph to label plastic sheeting flowing from an extruder. It applies yellow labels at regular intervals, like the one you can just see. When this label reaches the sheeter at the end of the line, it will trigger a guillotine.
Avery ALX 925 Direct Print and Apply
6. Underside labellers
Underside labelling can be a good solution when products vary in height. The labels come up in the gap in a split conveyor and stick to the underside of the package.
Typical applications: boxes and bags, mail order book packs, and special situations.
In the photograph an ALX 720 batch labeller is printing and dispensing labels onto bags, like the blue one you can see travelling from right to left.
For mail order packs and other products requiring individually printed labels, Codeway installs ALX 92x labellers.
Automated Labelling Underside Labellers
7. Top and Bottom labellers
Some packs, such as bakery products in bags, need separate product and contents labels. One solution is to apply the contents label from below through a gap in the conveyor line, while applying the product label on top.
In this example, the top ALX 924 labeller is on a powered telescopic support that moves up and down between batches to position the apply head for the next product.
Codeway supplies software to drive the two printers simultaneously from a single command so that the two labels always match.
The Top and Bottom of Bap and Bannock Labels
8. Indestructible Front Face labeller
Codeway designed this front face labelling head to be virtually indestructible. It swings out of the way when there is a problem.
In this example, bags of flour in outer wrapping are travelling from left to right immediately after leaving the shrink wrap tunnel. The customer wanted to avoid any hold ups in this tunnel.
Customers have reported that some other types of front face labeller are prone to problems. Products collide with the labelling arm when the line and the label application cycle get out of sync.
Codeway Indestructible Front Face labeller
9. Front and Side labeller
Cartons often need labels on two adjacent sides so that one is always visible when they are stacked.
Codeway developed this simple front and side labelling head to work reliably with Avery Dennison ALX 925 and ALX 720 labelling engines.
In some installations, label data can vary from one pack to the next. In these cases, Codeway can identify the products as they come down the conveyor by scanning their bar codes, 2D codes, or RFID tags.
Codeway Programmable Front and Side Labellers
10. Codeway Loop Feed printer applicator systems
Codeway Loop Feeds enable you to achieve higher peak labelling rates than printer applicators can achieve - particularly useful when products can bunch on a line like London buses.
The Codeway Loop Feed attaches to an Avery Dennison 64 series printer. The printed labels flow into a buffer loop feeding the applicator that applies them to the products.
A further advantage is the applicator’s ability to apply labels to “difficult” products like sacks. In this example the labels will go on to sacks of flour moving at speed along the white belt. Avery Dennison applicators, like the ALS 204 in the picture, go up to line speeds of 50 metres/minute.
Codeway Printer Loop Feed Applicator Systems
11. Production process labellers
Some products, such as plastic mouldings, require special labelling heads. Applying labels to film in a packaging machines is another situation requiring purpose built heads.
Codeway develops special heads both for customers’ products and to operate within the confines of process machinery.
The head in the photograph is applying a long label to three faces of dispenser cartridge. The black vacuum pad applies the label to the top and two rollers fix the label to the sides.
An Avery 64 printer dispenses the labels accurately on to the head. Signals sent to its industrial interface integrate labelling with the filling line process cycle.
Automated Labelling for Production Processes
12. Modular high speed applicators
Avery Dennison is introducing a new generation of modular label applicators with advanced line control features via data and PLC interfaces. They give you maximum flexibility, maximum uptime, and minimum applied cost per label.
ALS 204/206 models target 80% of lines, the ALS 256 runs up to 50 metres per minute, and the ALS 309 applies 230 mm wide labels. Typical applications: food, consumer goods, pet food, chemicals.
There is a choice of swivelling, sprung loaded, and pneumatic dispensing edges to handle the full range of label materials and label sizes you apply to your products.
Avery Dennison Modular ALS Label Applicators
13. RFID labelling systems
Codeway supplies two types of RFID labelling system. One reads HF or UHF tags used for material control and production, and then prints bar coded labels to go on the product packages. The other prints, encodes, and applies RFID labels, such as UHF/EPC Gen 2, to products, outers and pallets. The system record IDs and associated data in a database.
Where RFID tags track items through production, as in the photograph, a Codeway system can read the tags through the packaging then print and apply bar code and 2D code labels. Codeway systems can read single and multiple RFID tags.
Avery Dennison are world leaders in RFID inlays, and their print engines and applicators that we use are RFID ready. Typical industrial tracking applications: fibre optic cables, liquid chemicals, elastomers, bricks, seedlings, containers and totes.
RFID and bar codes to track the same product?
14. Pharma labellers
Ampoules, vials, tubes and small boxes of pharmaceuticals and medical products need precise handling during labelling.
Codeway offers superlative pharma package handling and labelling machine from LSS, the former Avery Dennison machine division.
The photograph shows a detail of the LSS tube labeller with an Avery Dennison ALX 925 dispensing print engine. Tubes flow from the right to the point of labelling at bottom right.
Where there is a good opportunity to add a labeller to an existing line, Codeway will install a system using Avery Dennison labelling equipment.
Automated Labelling Pharma Labellers
15. Paint pot and can labellers
Applying labels to cans, pails (tapered cans), blow moulded plastic containers, and drums demands dedicated handling.
For these applications, Codeway offers an excellent range of labellers, with Avery Dennison print engines and Applicators from LSS, the former Avery Dennison machine division.
The machine shown is the CLU-1. It labels a wide variety of can sizes, filled or empty, metal or plastic. It uses the seam or a printed registration mark to position the labels.
Automated Labelling Paint Pots and Cans
16. Codeway pallet labellers
Codeway builds pallet labellers to survive rough and tumble in industries like beverage bottling and building products manufacture.
The environmental enclosure in the photograph houses an Avery Dennison ALX 926 print engine and label dispenser, a long throw arm to apply the label, and the control system.
Codeway will integrate pallet labelling with your business systems. We can fully automate SSCC serial shipping container coding, ensuring accurate data in ASN shipping notices.
Where necessary simple data entry screens provide automatic database access and wysiwyg label display make the operation as secure as possible.
Automated Labelling Codeway Pallet Labeller
17. Swing and double stack pallet labellers
For two and three sided pallet labelling, Codeway takes PLU-2C and PLU-S units from LSS, the former Avery Dennison machine division. Blue chip companies use them extensively in the UK and Europe.
The basic version of the PLU-S Swing pallet labeller uses the Avery Dennison ALX print engine to control the system including the applicator head. PLU-2C pallet labellers have full PLC control. There is a version for double stacked pallets. Typical applications: food and drinks, personal products, household products.
Codeway will integrate pallet labelling with your business systems. We can fully automate SSCC serial shipping container coding, ensuring accurate data in ASN shipping notices.
Where necessary simple data entry screens provide automatic database access and wysiwyg label display make the operation as secure as possible.
PLU-S Swing Action Pallet Labellers
PLU-2C Double Side Pallet Labelling Unit
18. Integrated point of sale labelling systems
Garden plants are prime examples of products that need labelling immediately before despatch from the distribution centre. Promotional prices and other data for the labels can come in at the last minute with the orders from retailers.
Codeway Green Machines solve the problem of labelling a large number of pots and trays in a short time. Nurserymen load pots or trays on to its conveyor, a scanner reads the bar codes on the plant care tags to identify the varieties. An Avery Dennison ALX 720 engine prints the labels and feeds them over a dispense edge on to the plants.
The system software goes to the order database to look up the variable data and format for each item. It prints and applies labels, checks the printed barcodes, rejects error items, counts the good ones, and returns data to the business system.
Twin Green Machines label plant trays in bulk
19a. Integrated mail order bag labelling systems
High volume mail order operations receive orders, pick the items, bag them, then hand the bags to parcel carriers for delivery. Getting the right label on every bag is absolutely vital. The problem is you don’t know what’s in a bag.
Codeway solves this problem by scanning the product or order code on the infeed conveyor and by applying a label to the bag as it is formed in the bagging machine. The Codeway system tracks the item very precisely from the point of scanning to the point of bagging.
At the same time as the item is moving along the line into the jaws of the bagging machine, Codeway’s application software looks up the order details from the database and sends them to the print engine. This prints and applies the label at the instant the item arrives and the bagging cycle starts.
Codeway can also pace the infeed conveyors to maximise throughput, and operate diverters after bagging to ensure that no rogues go out to customers.
Automated Labelling Mail Order Bagging
19b. Jumbo 1000 metre label unwind
When downtime is expensive, it pays to reduce label roll changes to the minimum.
In this situation a higher capacity unwind is justifiable.
This photograph shows the 1000 metre unit Codeway built to fit into the Beck mail order bagging machine.
It feeds into the Avery DPMinfo print engine underneath
Codeway will supply similar high capacity unwinds to order to feed print engines and applicators on other production and packaging lines.
Automated Labelling Mail Order Bagging
20. Integrated logistics labelling systems
Warehouse operators weigh cartons and pallets to check against the order for unders and overs. Logistics operators weigh and measure them for load capacity and charging purposes.
Codeway designs and builds complete order driven systems for identifying, weighing, measuring, and labelling consignments.
The system shown is for international distribution of consumer products to retailers. The warehouse identifies each carton with a bar code then sends them to the distribution centre. They go on to a conveyor where the Codeway system weighs them, reads the barcodes, calculates volumes, checks the orders database, prints routing labels, and updates consignment tables.
Codeway labeller weighs and measures cartons
PDF Download
Codeway Automated Labelling Systems
Contact
Please call
Kathy Jolly
01206 751300
