Egg-citement after Nortura extends range of Domino Technologies used with 90-Unit order

World-leader in total coding, marking, printing and traceability solutions Domino, has announced a 90-unit order for its M-Series print and apply systems from Norwegian food producer Nortura. The installations are used for labelling egg cartons and encompass all Nortura's egg packaging lines across four sites, signalling the company's commitment to achieving the highest quality of coding and marking. With equipment reliability vital to Nortura's operation, the company decided to trial the M-Series on the basis of its long and successful relationship with Domino, having identified that the unreliability of its existing labelling kit was a significantly impacting productivity. So successful were the initial four installations, that Nortura promptly opted to roll the M100 model out across its entire operation. Logistics manager Bjørn-Tore Hansen explains the significance of the decision to invest further in Domino technology: 'In food labelling, it is vital that the GS1 13 code is clear and precise, but our previous print and apply machines created a lot of waste and rework with sub-standard coding. We were looking to purchase equipment which would deliver both excellent print resolution and lengthy service. Reliability is critical as we aim to be as self-sufficient as possible in engineering terms. Having depended on Domino equipment for other coding and marking requirements for well over a decade, we were confident that we could expect similar performance from the M-Series for this application.' Domino A-Series small character ink jet coders have been used for the past twelve or so years to print high quality variable data directly onto the egg with heated head technology that ensures coding quality remains consistently high. The latest M-Series installations then print and apply labels - incorporating text, bar code and variable data - to the lid of each carton, while existing M-Series systems are used for labelling packaging cases downstream. The combination of Domino's A- and M-Series is therefore catering for Nortura's complete primary and secondary coding requirements. Bjørn-Tore Hansen comments, 'Since installing the M-Series on our packaging lines we have been impressed by the units' high efficiency and ease of operation. The M-Series has surpassed our expectations as a dependable coder delivering a consistently superior print quality. 'The software is so easy to manage that we have been able to train all of our operators on the machines,' says Bjørn-Tore Hansen. 'This has saved a great deal of time as any of our staff can now amend the information being printed on the labels at any time.' Operator independence has been further increased by a simplified label changeover process. As each label is printed at the time of application, the margin for error due to an incorrect pre-printed label reel has been eliminated and a LAN connection facilitates direct download of the information to be printed. Downtime is further minimised by M-Series label reels, which have a much higher capacity - to the tune of 2300 additional labels - than could be accommodated by the systems they replace, meaning that the time between reels changes has increased by 76%. Additional features of the highly successful M-Series include 24 hour functionality and a resolution of 300dpi. The M-Series units integrate seamlessly with Nortura's packaging lines and are already delivering improved uptime and flexibility, making a vital contribution to profitability.