Domino Proves To Be Reliable Partner For Krombacher

Germany's Krombacher Brewery has emerged as an industry leader in product coding for beer, thanks in part to the installation of a variety of Domino equipment, including the DDC 3 and DSL 1 laser ranges as well as A300 high quality continuous ink jet systems. Krombacher is one of Germany's oldest and largest privately-owned breweries; established at the beginning of the nineteenth century and based in North Rhine-Westphalia, the company's current annual output is some 550 million litres. Much of Krombacher's success can be attributed to two factors. First, a commitment to ongoing investment has secured the quality and profitability of its product over the years and second, a sophisticated and well-planned branding strategy dictates that the packaging has to reflect the high quality of the product within. The Krombacher brand has a strong association with purity, nature and the regional environment: local landmark the Kindelsberg Tower, incorporated into the Krombacher logo, and Krombacher Island, in the nearby Wiehltalsperre reservoir, have become synonymous with top-class beer thanks to the company's brand awareness campaigns. With so much emphasis on appearance, it's no surprise that Krombacher demands that coding on its products is also of highest quality. At the beginning of the 1990s, when most bottles on the German market still featured labels on which the best-before date was indicated by a crude system of removing notches from the label edge, Krombacher had already introduced laser coding, in the shape of mask laser systems. 'These produced a higher standard of code than was common on the market then and the systems served us well for some time,' says Olaf Hoffmann, a member of the Krombacher maintenance team with special responsibility for coding equipment. 'As production volumes and operating hours increased, however, it eventually became clear that we needed to look at alternative systems that would offer high reliability combined with low maintenance costs.' Following an initial encounter with Domino at a trade show, Mr Hoffmann organised a trial installation of a Domino dot matrix laser system, the Domino DDC 3. So impressed were he and his team by the system's quality and reliability, that at the end of the trial period, Krombacher opted not only to retain the trial system but to adopt the DDC 3 as standard across all lines. Seven Krones Topmatic lines, each with a throughput of up to 66,000 bottles per hour, operate around the clock to fulfil production requirements. Bottles are labelled front and back, with the back label coded to show the best-before date, along with data to facilitate traceability, including identification of the bulk tank from which the beer has come and the line on which it has been filled. Space was not an issue where the installation of the DDC 3 lasers was concerned, as the systems are modular and very compact. The high line speeds at Krombacher - three metres per second - are easily accommodated by the DDC 3, which support a text height of between 1 and 10mm and can print up to 6600 characters per second on two lines. The system incorporates Domino's exclusive air-cooled sealed CO² laser tubes and requires no wear parts or consumables, so that reliability is maximised and maintenance routines minimised. While the IP65 control cabinet provides protection against the most extreme working environments, the remote laser head is shock-resistant and features new self-aligning optics that eliminate time consuming adjustments. The user-friendly colour interface facilitates easy operation and a password-protected administrator area, integrated into the system's standard software, reduces potential sources of error. Krombacher has also installed a Domino DSL1 L50 vector laser system on one line. This robust, easy to use scribing laser is ideal for high performance, high quality indelible coding on substrates such as paper, carton and glass, and allows a number of different formats and logos to be marked accurately and reliably. Like the DDC 3, its compact, modular design allows the DSL1 to be installed easily and in any orientation. Scribing laser technology employs a laser source combined with a pair of computer controlled oscillating mirrors to produce a completely flexible coding system that can print virtually any type of information, including DataMatrix, and can work on a stationary or moving substrate. Elsewhere in the Krombacher Brewery, Domino's high quality A-Series continuous ink jet systems are used to fulfil other coding requirements. With automatic print head cleaning and a user-friendly, industry-standard system design, the A-Series provides high resolution, precise printing and maximum productivity. Two A300's code five-litre bottles and their sleeves, while a third is used to code six packs. A fourth system delivers quality control by marking the crown cap of any bottle on which quality issues have been detected, so that defective products can be identified and rejected downstream. Krombacher cites numerous benefits of using systems from a single supplier, including uniform operation, simpler consumables scheduling and one contact for technical support. In addition, a single service contract for all Domino equipment ensures that production runs smoothly, while costs are reduced. 'Despite the pressured environment in the Krombacher bottling plant, the atmosphere is friendly and there's definite sense of camaraderie,' says Olaf Hoffmann. 'Good results depend on each and every person playing his part and our experience of the Domino Technical Support Team is that they share this work ethic completely and are always available to assist.'