The award-winning Linx CJ400 continuous ink jet printer has been chosen to meet the exacting coding and marking demands of personal care and home fragrance manufacturer Heyland & Whittle Ltd.
Switching from costly and time-consuming printed labels to simple, high-quality direct coding also means the successful family business is ideally placed to expand, due to the flexibility of the Linx CJ400 which delivers unique portability, fast set-up and ease of use.
Heyland & Whittle is now capable of meeting the increased demands of the recently-introduced EU Cosmetics Regulation, which stipulates that products must bear indelible, easily legible and visible information on the container, the outer packaging or sometimes both.
Heyland & Whittle, based in Crawley, produces an extensive range of desirable hand-made soaps, candles, reed diffusers, handwashes and bath products promoted under the Heyland & Whittle brand. These are sold via a selection of retail and online outlets as well as a TV shopping channel; the company also produces own label products for a handful of exclusive outlets.
Coding mainly onto the base of card boxes and glass bottles, the Linx CJ400 is primarily printing simple one-line batch codes using Linx T551 Black high speed ink.
Codes are printed in reverse on the base of glass candle jars then a label applied over the top with additional product information. This way the batch code can be clearly read through the glass. Candle tins, card boxes of reed diffusers as well as card boxes of soaps are also printed with batch codes.
The production line works nine hours a day for five or seven days a week, depending on the season. Heyland & Whittle's diverse product portfolio means the product being coded is switched regularly, highlighting the need for coding and marking equipment capable of meeting rapidly changing requirements, as well as producing a quality code to match the product and packaging.
The requirements of a fast-moving environment of this type make the Linx CJ400 the ideal coding solution. Its easy to use, colour touch screen makes it possible to quickly switch between different messages, or create new ones, without complicated manuals or time-consuming user training. Each retailer for Heyland & Whittle may have different coding requirements, so it is important for the company to be able to quickly change codes.
The unique compact design means it weighs only 13.5kg complete with fluids, making it the lightest CIJ printer on the market and well within health and safety limits for one person to pick up.
The Linx CJ400 features an Easi-Change® Service Module, which can be changed in minutes, meaning scheduled maintenance can be carried out quickly without the need for a trained technician – a major advantage for smaller customers. Other innovations deliver a significant reduction on cleaning costs, ink and solvent consumption.
The machine was named as winner of the 'Most Innovative Processing or Packaging Machine' category at the PPMA (Processing & Packaging Machinery Association) Group Industry Awards 2012.
Dan Shaw, Business Development Manager of Heyland & Whittle says: "Labels took more time to produce and apply, as well as being more costly, and changing requirements due to both legislation and customer demand meant we needed coding equipment which was versatile and easy to use.
"The flexibility of the Linx CJ400 means we can quickly change messages, tailoring the code to the product, and we can now supply to other channels who demand robust coding as well as selling more own label goods."
