Domino’s(www.domino-printing.com) A320i, the latest addition to its global best-selling A-Series range of continuous ink jet printers has already proved to be a valuable asset to Belgian soft drinks producer EVIDEL, delivering100% production uptime, maintenance-free push button operation and increased output.
EVIDEL Ginstbronnen was established in 1897 on the site of a natural spring near Gent in Belgium and has been bottling its famous Ginstberg-branded pure mineral water and soft drinks for over 100 years. Sourcing the finest flint-based crystal-clear glass to reflect the purity of its product, the Ginstberg brand has developed an enviable reputation over the years for the healthy properties and quality of its bottled waters and soft drinks.
While the quality and purity of the natural spring water has remained constant over the century, the legislation surrounding the bottling and identification of the soft drinks has undergone considerable change.
“Although the quality of the spring water and how we capture this purity is key to maintaining a successful long term product, legislation has increased considerably in the past few years which demands that we now have to code and identify every bottle we produce for future traceability,” says Niko Claeys, Assistant Managing Director at EVIDEL. Clearly for Niko and his team, the identification and coding requirement could easily have distracted EVIDEL from their core task of producing quality mineral water had it not been for Domino and the capability of its A-Series range of ink jet printers to address all their coding and identification challenges with ease.
So when the company was looking to expand production to include five gallon polycarbonate water bottles, the company began to search for an ink jet printer that would offer them the capability to increase production output and deliver tangible OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) benefits, while being capable of performing in a very challenging, high humidity bottling environment.
“We already had an A300 integrated into our glass bottling line and coding onto the caps of our -Liter and 20-cL bottles, which had proved to be extremely reliable and required little maintenance over the years. But for this latest investment we were really looking for a technology that would allow us greater flexibility to expand our core business without having to worry about meeting the ever-increasing legislative demands for product identification.
Having reviewed a number of products on the market, EVIDEL once again turned to Domino when it opted for Domino’s A320i, the very latest technology in its A-Series range of continuous ink jet printers.
The A320i with its QuickStep simplified operator interface, is capable of printing up to four lines of reliable, readable code, text, automatic serial and batch numbering, and real-time clocks. The printer also delivers tangible productivity benefits by using its i-Tech intelligent Technology, which monitors and managing the A320i for optimum performance. In addition, the new Qube ink system containing the working ink and ink filters which can be changed in less than 10 minutes and results in the printer using 90% less system ink and 50% less ink solvent than its predecessor.
The A320i was installed into the glass bottling line which enabled EVIDEL to increase production speeds, while the A300 transferred to the new polycarbonate line.
“Since introducing the A320i in early June 2011, we have been delighted with its performance and our return on investment. We have achieved a 5% increase in efficiency on our bottling line which has resulted in a much greater production of bottles per hour and during this time, we’ve also benefitted from 100% uptime. In addition, the integral Qube ink system which houses the working ink and monitors performance means we still haven’t had to replace the ink,” says Niko.
“The A320i really does deliver totally stress-free coding and has provided us the ‘switch on/switch off’ solution we were looking for. We can now concentrate on our product without worrying about the necessary coding requirements as the A320i does it all for us,” concludes Niko.
